Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2161
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
If you mean F-zero for for SNES, you can download the .spc-file, which include all music for the game, and which you can play in Winamp. You can find this at www.snesmusic.org. I think there is a music file format for N64 too, but I'm not sure, perhaps someone else knows more about this?
Joined: 4/30/2006
Posts: 480
Location: the secret cow level
I've found that several of the ROM music plugins for Winamp don't work properly with the newest versions... I just put Winamp v2.95 on a machine today and the SPC, PSF and USF plugins work fine with it.
The SPCs, PSFs, U64s, et al of the world are of perfectly acceptable quality. In some cases, they're better than what you'll find available as an MP3, given the maddeningly large number of people who believed 128kbps was CD quality. I prefer the small MIDI files that loop exactly as long as you want them to with faithful audio recreation to often-too-short and more-often-low-quality MP3s, personally.
Of course, soundtracks like Katamari Damacy are occasionally bigger in this format than MP3, but they're also more faithful to what you hear from the game, given that the data comes from the game itself.
1) Console music formats usually contain samples and processing impossible for MIDI.
2) Some CD soundtracks are made directly out of console music.
3) CD soundtrack arrangements or original master recordings are usually better than anything contained within console music formats.
SPCs and the like aren't truly MIDI. They're basically files made by taking the game's code and stripping it of everything that isn't used to play one song specifically. As such, what you're listening to is an emulator playing a ROM of a game whose only purpose is to output music.
And in those cases, listening to an SPC will give you the exact same experience, albeit with an exponentially smaller filesize, as well as the ability to loop the song seamlessly to your heart's content.
That's more of a case of comparing apples to oranges, since it's impossible to find that music in anything but a CD rip. Arrangements are nice, though.
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2161
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
I have all SNES Final Fantasy OST:s in both .mp3 and .spc format, and I think that the .spc-files actually sound better. It's hard to explain, but the sound is clearer and sounds better in general. The smaller filesize is a big bonus too. :)
The same goes for the playstation sound format, .psf. I think Finaly Fantasy 7 OST sounds slightly better in .psf than it does in mp3.
Just my two cents. ;)
Let's all get down to the funky sounds of Steven Seagal is the Final Option!
Sadly, this is my experience as well. I've been looking for awhile, but can't find a workable replacement for Winamp. I can't even hack the plugins/VLC to work together, because I'm using Windows and therefore nothing compiles.
...Maybe this is what is meant by "get a real operating system."
Eh? I've been using Winamp 5 to listen to game music for ages, and I've never had any problems, except with a certain GYM plugin. Replacing that, no crashes for about 2 years.
GYM is a pretty dodgy format, anyway. I'd heard talk of a group attempting to come up with a better alternative, but I never saw anything come to fruition. Shame, because Genesis had some catchy music that's not always easy to come by.
Joined: 11/27/2004
Posts: 688
Location: WA State, USA
I've been using XMPlay ever since Winamp suddenly stopped working on my old hunk o' junk that was running Win98. It supports Winamp input plugins, so you can keep all of your old music.