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Comment by PhasmaFelis | Hacker News Reader

The C64's SID sound chip was ages ahead of anything else on the market when it was released, and it was nearly a decade before the IBM PC produced anything comparable with decent software support. As far as I know, the C64 was the first platform ever to produce dedicated game-music composers.

Here's a sample of what it could do, by the legendary Martin Galway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf29ShkoAiA

And here's a netradio station that exclusively plays remixes of C64 game music (!): https://www.slayradio.org/ (listening links on the left)

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I loved the P.A.S.S. synthesizer demo. http://csdb.dk/release/?id=128704 It's amazing how programmers squeezed so much performance out of that 1980s hardware.

I think the Wizball theme is an even better example of Martin Galway's work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFYzjU-C3mA

Takes a while to get going, but it's sublime.

True classic. Also other tunes in Wizball are great.

Here's a great tune from another game. Rob Hubbard - Nemesis the Warlock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdzfOXkZrY0

Wizball was such a fantastic game. I haven't thought about that one for years...

The original chips are a highly sought-after commodity now. A Swedish company called Elektron launched a synthesizer based on the SID, and quite a lot of synth people have bought C64s for the sole purpose of cannibalizing them.

Interesting interview:

http://www.ausretrogamer.com/interview-with-bob-yannes-sid-c...

Another thing I just recalled, if anyone's still reading this: the SID only had three voices, which for the most part meant that you could have either sound effects or complex music, but not both at once. Many games actually let you toggle between the two! Generally the music was better.

The Cybernoid II theme[1] by Jeroen Tel is one of my personal favourites. Captures the spirit of those times just perfectly...

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC4gaaDFjE4

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