I’ve just came across perhaps one of the coolest things I’ve seen on the internet this week. I had always wondered how feasible it would be to rip the soundtrack out of a Nintendo 64 game. There are a few games with some very interesting soundtracks (I’ll get to that later) which would certainly be better than having to listen to the latest trashy music that plagues our media. Not that retro game soundtracks should be a replacement for real music or anything.

There are people on the internet who have conveniently ripped the music out of N64 Roms and exported it to USF format, which is like a MOD file, as in it has a set of sound samples which are played at different pitches and times to create the music. The best thing is, since ROMs are (not quite legally) free, most of the music is freely available as well. Here’s how to get started:

1. Download the Foobar2000 media player

Why Foobar2000? Mainly because the USF plugin to read USF files only works with Foobar2000 and Winamp. Winamp used to be excellent, but since the takeover from AOL, and the whole Winamp 3 and Winamp 5 thing, well, it went downhill. Download and install Foobar2000 to somewhere where you can get to it later.

2. Get the USF plugin for Foobar2000

Download this RAR file, and extract its contents to the Components folder inside your Foobar2000 folder. If you just clicked next->next->next when installing Foobar2000, then this folder will most likely be in c:\program files\Foobar2000\Components. If you’ve opened up Foobar2000, then you will need to close it and reopen it to allow the plugin to register.

3. Download the music and play it!

This is a big archive of USF music files ripped from many of the classic games from the N64 era. Download one of the archives, unzip it somewhere, and open the files with Foobar2000. Within seconds you’ll be partying like it’s 1997 as you relieve the memories of the old sixty-four!

What are the best sound tracks?

While we all have personal favourites, here’s what I’m listening to, courtesy of the USF archive I just linked to:

Yoshi’s Story: The music for this game is safer than a hit of LSD, but gives roughly the same experience. While all of the pieces of music are based around the same basic tune, they are all very interesting takes on it. The music really does sound somewhat trippy. The proof: listen to the “Song of Happiness” file. WTF. It’s crazy. Nonetheless, Yoshi’s Story is fun to play, and is easily the best 2.5D scroller game on the 64…. oh wait, i’m forgetting something:

Mischief Makers: Now THIS is the best 2.5D scroller game on the 64. The music in this game isn’t really all that exciting, but it does add a very good dimension to the side-scrolling “Shake Shake” action. By “Shake Shake” of course I’m referring to Marina’s special ability to pick up anything and shake it. It’s brilliant gameplay. Actually, the gameplay is better than the music.

Mario Kart 64: If ever there was music for senselessly driving around in a cartoon environment, venting your road-rage by throwing … Koopa shells at other drivers…. well this is it. The Mario Kart 64 music is definitely fun, upbeat, and fun.

What are you waiting for?

Listening to retro gaming music is a lot of fun! It’s not just the music that’s good, it’s the nostalgia! So, get back into the 90’s, and start pumping those classic retro tunes!

–Ben

Explore posts in the same categories: Computing

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 20th, 2007 at 1:00 am and is filed under Computing. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.