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Comment by tosti | Hacker News Reader

The Dune2 soundtrack is forever engraved in my brain. I found a GPLv2 program to play the original files:

The music is in the .adl files and the normal/peaceful music are all on subsong 6 (e.g. adplay -s 6)

It was composed by very ingenious composer Stephane Picq and while digging you the original files I figured he did a remaster with the original music advisor, art director and producer for the album: Philippe Ulrich

https://stphanepicq.bandcamp.com/album/dune-spice-opera-2024...

it seems many people were super-touched by this soundtrack, and is indeed a masterpiece on its own. adding much to the atmosphere of the game.

this Sign of the Worm track most definitely still easily gives chills, and Im amazed it was not extensively remixed through the years.

https://stphanepicq.bandcamp.com/track/sign-of-the-worm-2024...

I'm also amazed they didnt take it for any of the movies, as this is super cinematic-like composition, and very distinctive. https://stphanepicq.bandcamp.com/track/spice-op-ra-2024-rema...

Wasn't it Frank Klepacki that composed the music for Dune 2.

Stephane Picq worked with Cryo interactive for the first Dune game.

The confusion between the two Dune games that came out at nearly the same time will forever continue! Fun fact, those two games exist because the publisher wanted to cancel the Cryo game, asked Westwood to make a game, and changed their mind later about the Cryo game because they basically forgot to tell Cryo!

Dune II, the one demaked here, had its music composed by the inimitable Frank Klepacki: https://www.frankklepacki.com/ost/vg/dune-2

Tunes as captivating and evocative as the day I first heard them.

To be honest, the other, Dune I, soundtrack is much more a break-through in both electronic and game music. I'm stating this as s.o. with 25 years of deejay experience in various electronic genres, 20 years of various dev experience, and lots of performances. Also as s.o. who witnessed the evolution of pattern-based music since its very start with ModTracker, ScreamTracker II, FastTracker and Impulse Tracker. I've used them all, and what Stephane Picq did with the original soundtrack is just incredible.

Stephane's work is a combination of masterful composition (complex melodies, progressions, not the typical three-notes of the time), engineering (as the tracks are limited in number in the MOD files) and also synthesis (as most of the sounds he produced himself on various hardware). Of course we could expect more from the mastering perspective, but I doubt this OST ever reached mastering level, and besides - most if not all of the eurotrance that got released in the 90s is subpar to these compositions if you play them side-by-side.

The only times people got close to such engineering feat with early PCs and SoundBlaster/Adlib is within the demoscene, where people like John Valtonen (of Future Crew) could pull. We were all watching and listening in total amaze.

It would help to maintain his legacy if the soundtrack was available somewhere. As it stands, the original Amiga release is not available on my usual sources. And I have multiple sources.

Its kind of incredible the Dune series is known for incredible composers.

Not only is Frank's work on Dune 2 and 2000 considered iconic soundtracks, but so is the original Dune, with its more eclectic style by Stephane who sadly recently passed away.

I'd also add that the new Awakenings game has excellent sound design.

On film, the 1984 Dune movie has an excellent soundtrack as well, with Toto's iconic songs and with Brian Eno's theme. The new movies have a good Hans Zimmer soundtrack, but I would argue a bit less innovative and more safe than the above scores.

Wrong composer, but I very recently managed to reverse engineer the music driver for Dune (or two out of four, at least).

Here's the AdLib/SoundBlaster Pro version of the track Morning played by a reverse engineered driver, rendered by nukeykt's Nuked-OPL3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0l_CYH4njw

Well open the Pico8 game, start it and you’ll see it mixes patterns (and imagery perhaps) of original Dune and this Dune II. So partially right, but start a game on the pico8, listen, and you’ll figure it is a version of the same Dune theme.

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