I think you mixed up the video and game download links ;)

Also, after watching that video, I have to say FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DISABLE MIDI!! In windows just double click the speaker in the bottom left and mute the "SW Synth" channel.

I just leave mine off permanently.. this increases freeware appreciation by roughly 785%

haha... good advice. thanks! will do that when I record Ikiki's stuff next time. :)

I'm still quite new at this recording thing apparently..

Ah, was wondering why that video was suddenly seeing so many more views than the others :D

Don't listen to him about the midi control! Removing music, even sometimes annoying Midi music from any game reduces potential appreciation by 786%. Based on that, I think the right thing to do is obvious.

music in games is so lame -- imagine if everytime you opened a book it started playing whatever mood music the author thought would work with the book. it's just a crutch.

also, "sometimes annoying MIDI" is a paradox -- any MIDI music is, by default, annoying ;p

(the only exception is the ragtime music that went along with.. uh.. forget the name: the game that was like a bunch of different 1-room platformers where you were climbing a tower, had to collect all the gold.. uh. damn it!)

Treasure Tower?

Saying "imagine if you opened a book {etc}" isn't a proper argument ... games are a different media, and a lot of things that work in games wouldn't work in books.

And of course we can just as easily find another, similarly dissimilar media which *does* have music, like ... movies, for example.

You can have for free SnagIt, and until now you(12-2007) can use Jing for free too.. ;)

http://www.g4g.it/2007/11/28/jing-camtasia-returnil-and-snag-it/

Yes, Treasure Tower, thanks!

also:
"Saying 'imagine if you opened a book {etc}' isn't a proper argument ... games are a different media" is just as improper an argument!

For instance, by your logic I could posit something like "ramming spikes into a reader's eyes works for games, but doesn't work in books." You bring up a good point which is that the fact of the medium being different can't in itself be used to justify anything in itself, that difference has to be shown to have some effect.

Still, I think my analogy is perfectly fair. I'll present it in a less problematic way: Imagine you're engaged in activity X. Now, would you rather be listening to whatever music (or lack thereof) you prefer to listen to while engaged in activity X, or would you instead prefer being forced to listen to horrible MIDIs?

Just because movies have forever relied on cheap musical cues to add to the audience's emotional response doesn't mean it's good to do so.

Sound effects in a game are much more justifiable in that, like the graphics they're meaningful output used by the player to infer the state of the game world.

There are of course some games which require music since the music itself is part of the game, but there are many more where it's just a weird external "non-diagetic" attachment bolted on for no reason other than the assumption apparently games MUST have music.