Questions about Thunder Force III

J-Manic · Post by **J-Manic** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 11:20 pm

I want the music for this game. Was there ever an official OST release? Could the OST be played if you put the TF Gold Pack 1 (Saturn) in a CD player? Or does someone here have the music files ripped from the game, and can possible burn them onto a CD-R for me? If so, please PM me.

Thanks.

Edge · Post by **Edge** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 11:42 pm

You might want to check out

http://www.zophar.net/

That's an emulation site.
They don't feature any roms, but interesting tools to work with roms. And also "Game Music Archives" which are the chiptunes of old games in their original format (spc, gym ...etc)
To playback these files you can simply download plugins for Winamp also found on this site. Then you can open the original sound files of the games and listen to their music.

EDIT:
And I guess there was also an OST:
"Technosoft Game Music Collection Vol. 3 - Thunder Force III"

it's listed on Wikipedia: Wiki entry

Post by **Icarus** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 11:52 pm

* Was there ever an official OST release?

Yes there was. Technosoft Game Music Collection 03 - Thunder Force 3.
Don't even attempt to look for it. Not only is it stupidly rare, it's also stupidly expensive too.

* Could the OST be played if you put the TF Gold Pack 1 (Saturn) in a CD player?

I think TF Gold 1 has music in redbook audio. It's been a while since I last tried it, however. The only problem being that the music is extremely low quality, and sounds crap compared to the MegaDrive version.

* Or does someone here have the music files ripped from the game, and can possible burn them onto a CD-R for me?

See Edge's reply above. You can load MegaDrive sounddata into a dedicated MD soundplayer, or into Winamp with the use of a plugin. You could probably output the sound into a wave file for compression to MP3, too.

Edge · Post by **Edge** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 11:54 pm

Icarus beat me to my post edit about the OST.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 11:56 pm

There's a pretty well known game ost mp3 site that has it.

(... 128 kbps. That's unfortunate.)

Post by **Icarus** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 12:00 am

Rob wrote:There's a pretty well known game ost mp3 site that has it.

Yep, and it's < MOD EDIT!! LOL J/K - Icarus >

Seriously, there are a few ways to play back the music from the game. Winamp + .gym files will give you close to original sound quality, while the official OST is usually of a higher quality.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 12:16 am

google vgm archive

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 12:55 am

http://project2612.org/

If you want to listen to the Thunder Force III soundtrack, grab the VGM version there, and the WinAmp plug-in for it. The GYM version, frankly, sounds like shit. Drums and instruments drop out constantly, and it's impossible to enjoy... just like every other Technosoft GYM soundtrack. The VGM version sounds considerably better, and while it may not be quite spot on perfect, it's leaps ahead of the GYM one.

sideshow · Post by **sideshow** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 1:18 am

I agree that the GYM version sounds terrible. The drums do constantly cut out. Thanks for the VGM link.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 1:50 am

No prob. There's just something about the GYM format that Konami and Technosoft games absolutely hate. They're either out of tune, have instruments missing, or both. Never have read why though.

Post by **Icarus** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 1:51 am

Didn't know about VGM playback. Thanks for the heads up.
In the mood to play some TFIV now.

Post by **nZero** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 3:10 am

The Coop wrote:No prob. There's just something about the GYM format that Konami and Technosoft games absolutely hate. They're either out of tune, have instruments missing, or both. Never have read why though.

GYM updates sound register writes once per frame (at vblank), while VGM updates at the sample rate of the emulated sound chip. This means more timing sensitive games respond poorly to being played back in GYM format.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 4:48 am

nZero wrote:
The Coop wrote:No prob. There's just something about the GYM format that Konami and Technosoft games absolutely hate. They're either out of tune, have instruments missing, or both. Never have read why though.
GYM updates sound register writes once per frame (at vblank), while VGM updates at the sample rate of the emulated sound chip. This means more timing sensitive games respond poorly to being played back in GYM format.

Thanks. Now we know.

And knowing is half the battle!

J-Manic · Post by **J-Manic** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 7:19 am

Thanks guys. The reason I asked is because I was playing TFIII on my Sega Nomad earlier, and the BGM sounds so good and super clear! I went into the sound test option and listened to each track over and over again. It's really that good. I was hoping that someone was going to tell me that Technosoft made an arranged OST for the game, but I guess you can't have everything. I'll go ahead and try out my other options that were mentioned above.

Thanks again. I appreciate it.

Post by **Icarus** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 7:58 am

There are no official ASTs available for TFIII. There might be one or two fanmade ones on YAJ. There are also a handful of arranged tracks for the game on the Technosoft Game Sound Collection official OSTs, scattered between all the shmup-centric volumes.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 8:11 am

I've heard a few of the official arranged songs (I think they throw a few tracks together) and they're pretty good. One good fan version I've found is called "Dual Storm" by BrainCells and CarboHydroM.

http://carbohydrom.free.fr/music.html

J-Manic · Post by **J-Manic** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:12 pm

It's not what I'm looking for, but holy shit! Would you look at that price!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Technosoft-GAME-MUS ... dZViewItem

Post by **Icarus** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:22 pm

J-Manic wrote:It's not what I'm looking for, but holy shit! Would you look at that price!

BIG LINK

Same thing, only cheaper.

J-Manic · Post by **J-Manic** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:35 pm

What is the "Lost Technology"?

J-Manic · Post by **J-Manic** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:38 pm

J-Manic wrote:What is the "Lost Technology"?

Woops. Nevermind. That's the unreleased TFVI OST. I just bought the Broken Thunder/TFVI Project not too long ago.

Post by **Icarus** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:38 pm

J-Manic wrote:What is the "Lost Technology"?

Re-release of the official TFV OST, with new tracks. This release is direct from the original composer.
"Lost Technology" probably refers to the Rynex ship in TFV.

J-Manic · Post by **J-Manic** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:39 pm

OH! Ok. Thanks Icarus, for your help.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:49 am

Icarus wrote:
J-Manic wrote:What is the "Lost Technology"?
Re-release of the official TFV OST, with new tracks. This release is direct from the original composer.
"Lost Technology" probably refers to the Rynex ship in TFV.

Well, since the tenth volume of the Technosoft music collection is called "Technology", calling the re-release "Lost Technology" makes some sense with the extra tunes and remastering that was done to the original tracks.

J-Manic- The unofficial TFVI soundtrack is called "Broken Thunder: Noise Image Soundtrack Volume 3". It was re-released with a bunch of new tunes and remixes on an album called "Broken Thunder: Project Thunder Force VI". There's a third one out called "Absolute Area: Project Thunder Force VI", but it has nothing to do with TF VI (it's actually the remastered soundtrack of Hyper Duel).

J-Manic · Post by **J-Manic** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 2:16 am

The Coop wrote:There's a third one out called "Absolute Area: Project Thunder Force VI", but it has nothing to do with TF VI (it's actually the remastered soundtrack of Hyper Duel).

Yes, I remember it being brought up in a topic a while back. I'd like to get my hands on that one as well. Thanks.

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 2:16 pm

The Coop wrote:http://project2612.org/

If you want to listen to the Thunder Force III soundtrack, grab the VGM version there, and the WinAmp plug-in for it. The GYM version, frankly, sounds like shit. Drums and instruments drop out constantly, and it's impossible to enjoy... just like every other Technosoft GYM soundtrack. The VGM version sounds considerably better, and while it may not be quite spot on perfect, it's leaps ahead of the GYM one.

Beat me to the punch. I was going to suggest this, then use the DiskWriter plugin in WinAMP to dump the tracks to .WAV format & burn them to CD. That's what I've done w/ TFIV or other soundtracks I wanted to have on CD. The VGM rips are so accurate, you can hardly tell they're not recorded versions straight from the source.

Post by **Icarus** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 9:17 pm

Cool semi-related fact: Hyakutaro Tsukumo (that guy that did some of the Technosoft OSTs) remixed the stage6 music "Rose Garden" for The Lunatic: Ibara Remix Tracks. No wonder I get Technosoft vibes when it starts playing on my iPod. ^_^

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 9:35 pm

Icarus wrote:There are no official ASTs available for TFIII. There might be one or two fanmade ones on YAJ. There are also a handful of arranged tracks for the game on the Technosoft Game Sound Collection official OSTs, scattered between all the shmup-centric volumes.

IIRC there are a handful of TF3 (and other TFs) arranged tracks on the CD that comes with the TFV "special pack."

J-Manic · Post by **J-Manic** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 4:41 am

BulletMagnet wrote:IIRC there are a handful of TF3 (and other TFs) arranged tracks on the CD that comes with the TFV "special pack."

No shit?! Damn. I could've had that game for $23 a few months ago.

Now I see the game going for double that.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 5:14 am

Even 40-50 isn't that bad of a deal on it...most copies I see on eBay are closer to 70-75.

Post by **Icarus** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 7:48 pm

BulletMagnet wrote:IIRC there are a handful of TF3 (and other TFs) arranged tracks on the CD that comes with the TFV "special pack."

That would be the OST listed as "Technosoft Game Music Collection 15: Best Of Thunder Force". Which is unusual, as there is no TGMC 13 or 14. Also, the "Best Of Thunder Force" features tracks found on the other TGMC OSTs.

For those interested, there's a Technosoft OST out which features select remasterings and remixes of TFIII, TFIV and Elemental Master tracks. It's called "Wanderings Vol. 1", and is available at VGMWorld.