Funny Characteristics of Sega Genesis Music and Sound

TOTAL FUNNY CHARACTERISTICS: 120
...and growing!!!

Last Updated: July 17, 2001

WHAT's NEW (07/17/01):
1 new funny characteristic added to the "SOUND EFFECTS" section
2 new funny characteristics added to the "MUSIC" section

WHAT's NEW (06/21/01):
4 new funny characteristics added to the "SOUND EFFECTS" section
11 new funny characteristics added to the "MUSIC" section  


Email all of your criticisms and complaints about this page to fsound1330@yahoo.com

 

        

Introduction:

        Here's a list of the funny characteristics of Genesis sound and music that I compiled myself. Many of these funny characteristics are NOT my opinions, and many of them come from various reviews from various sites like http://www.gamefaqs.com/, etc. I myself actually like Genesis music a lot. Now, onto it:

        The sound is by far the Sega Genesis' weakest aspect and is nowhere near as good as Super NES' sound (Rick); it is only sub par to the SNES (DTurner). First of all, the Sega Genesis has a "crappy 8-bit audio processor" that, though considerably better than 8-bit systems like NES, pales in comparison to other 16-bit systems like the Super Nintendo (Faididi). It probably has the worst sound capabilities of all 16-bit machines. The Genesis' sound capabilities aren't nearly as bad as the PC Engine/Turbo Grafx 16's sound capabilities, though. Early in the Genesis' lifespan, a lot of old games took the easy way out by hardly having ANY sound effects like Valis, Super Hang-On, etc. The music on the Sega Genesis didn't fare too much better either. Much of the music was very low, beats were missing, various elements were missing, and at times it just didn't go right with the rest of the game (DTurner). When games were released for both Super NES and Sega Genesis, the music and sound took a major hit on the Genesis versions most of the time (remember Sunset Riders, Primal Rage, Rock 'N Roll Racing, etc.?) (EdTheMoogle). However, many Sega Genesis musicians and composers (e.g. Yuzo Koshiro, Jesper Kyd, a lot of other composers, etc.) made many really wonderful tunes for a lot of Sega Genesis games. Unfortunately, a lot of other games have music and sound effects that don't sound so good. It doesn't help that most Genesis games suffer from a lack of sound quality to begin with thanks to the Z80 sound processor and the low Signal-to-noise ratio (bruplex)!

Technical Specifications of the Sega Genesis Sound Hardware (Taken from Sega Base at Eidolon's Inn):

**Sound CPU: 8-bit ZiLOG Z80 @ 4 MHz (Faster than SNES' Main CPU, but an inferior processor)
-8 Kilobytes of sound RAM

 

*Yamaha YM2612 Stereo FM synthesis
-6 channels, 4 operator FM synthesis -1 Stereo DAC sound channel (for digitized sounds), which replaces FM channel 6 if turned on

 

*Texas Instruments SN76489 PSG (Programmable Sound Generator)
-3 square wave (tone) channels
-1 white noise channel

(10 sound channels total)

*Signal/Noise Ratio: 14 dB (probably one reason why Genesis music often sounds kinda distorted when playing on a real Genesis)

Overview of Sega Genesis Sound Generation:        

        The Sega Genesis uses either combination of FM-PSG-DAC for music/sound depending on the game: FM, PSG, and DAC; FM only; FM and DAC; or FM and PSG. Some games use the FM only for the music and the PSG only for sound effects [Wonderboy 6 (Monsterworld IV), etc.]. Some use the FM and PSG for music and the DAC for only sound effects (Dragon Ball Z, etc.). Most games, though, use the FM, PSG, and DAC for sound effects and music. The PSG and/or DAC aren't used at all in some games. The FM synthesis tries to match (synthesize) actual instruments by using a variety of waveforms, but it isn't successful at times (due to bad programming). So, what do you get? Crappy and tinny music in many games. Next, the PSG is used at times for extra parts of the music (dgen.txt), but it occasionally makes the music sound worse for various reasons. And last, the DAC channel is used for percussion, voices, and/or some actual instrument samples in the music in many games.

        The Sega Genesis uses a lowly 6-channel FM music synthesizer by Yamaha, a motorcycle company and a producer of professional audio equipment, for music and most of its sound effects! Woopty doo! The Yamaha FM (Frequency Modulation) music synthesizer [similar to Creative Sound Blaster 16, ADLIB, and other older sound cards, but vastly superior] in the Sega Genesis console is more suitable for MUSIC than SOUND EFFECTS (Thank God Koshiro knew about this!). Because the FM synthesis is used to generate most SOUND EFFECTS, many Genesis sound effects have many funny characteristics. The FM chip has the most uncanny ability to screw up the simplest of sounds; laser gun fire (Thunder Force series, etc.), slashing (Golden Axe, etc.) { and even most explosions (Many games), etc. Musicwise, the FM synthesis often screws up various parts/types of the music; crash cymbals (Galaxy Force 2, etc.), techno (Cyborg Justice, etc.), percussion (Daze Before Christmas, etc.), etc. Due to the Yamaha FM synthesis chip, the music usually comes off as consisting of tinny pseudo-instruments in most games such as Nadia no Fushugi no Umi (The Secret of Blue Water), Ghouls N' Ghosts, Golden Axe, etc. Overall, Genesis music was crap, especially the remakes of Mega Man 1-3 (Mega Man Wily Wars).

        Even though the Texas Instruments (producer of graphing calculators used in Calculus) PSG (Programmable Sound Generator - same sound chip as Sega Master System) is more suitable for sound effects, it also generates some of the sound effects with funny characteristics. The PSG, just like the FM chip, has a nasty tendency to mess up sound effects; cheering (most sports games), running engine (Lotus 2, etc.), jumping (Sonic series, etc.), etc. Musicwise, the PSG tends to screw up parts of the music; cymbals (Mortal Kombat III, etc.), woodwind instruments (Shining Force series, etc.), drums (Super Hydlide, etc.), etc.

        The Sega Genesis can also do low quality digital sound! Woohoo! Anyway, the DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) sound channel is best suited for sound effects and certain parts of the music, but the sample rates of most digitized noises are pretty low (due to space limitations and perhaps a smaller memory buffer for the digitized sounds - leading to game developers having to really down-sample the sounds), thus the sound quality isn't that great. The biggest thing you notice is that most of the Genesis voices are VERY scratchy. Sometimes it's rather annoying to listen to how badly the voices got screwed up on the Genesis version of Street Fighter 2, Altered Beast, etc. Though, I must admit that they can be so bad sometimes that they're funny! However, if the Genesis voice was done right (which was extremely rare), then it sounded fine. Strider Returns, an otherwise horrid game, has the best and clearest voices on the system!

Other Opinions:        

        Steve Greenwell states that "[t]he ceiling of Genesis sound is lower than SNES, but most of it depended on the programmer" (Bobo The Clown). The Genesis still has some of the most memorable music around. Shady says that the audio is definitely not the best aspect of the Genesis because the voices often sound funny, and sound effects are pretty awkward; However, music is usually not too bad, DEPENDING ON THE GAME (Shady). Styles of the music vary. According to Dyson Turner, "Some of the later games proved and disproved the theory of the Sega's sound hardware. Look at Mortal Kombat 3; well the sound on both Genesis and SNES wasn't too good. Most people got a foreshadowing of the rest of Genesis years when they heard how Altered Beast sounded with the music and effects" (DTurner). One thing we will never understand about the Sega Genesis is the following: "Cheesy FM explosions - Nintendo really had foresight with the SOUND portion of their SNES hardware . . SEGA was reduced to making an FM synth chip create explosions, which sounded more like Cat wretch than pyrotechnics, usually . . . " (from Overclocked.org).

My Opinion:        

        In my opinion, the Sega Genesis has some of the best music I ever heard in my life. I have made over 20 Sega Genesis music CDs, and I listen to them a lot. Actually, Sega Genesis music is my most-listened-to-music right now. Personally, I like the music texture of Genesis way more than cold samples from SNES. Good composers can get way better results with FM thanks to the almost infinite modulations you can do with FM and PSG sound. Also, IMO, the FM and PSG sound make Sega Genesis music VERY UNIQUE. However, I think that the sound effects on the Sega Genesis aren't very good for the most part mainly due to the FM chip and partly the PSG chip. Actually, I think that the grainy voices and below mediocre sound effects are really funny. In my opinion overall, the "sound quality" on this system could have been better; The signal-to-noise ratio isn't the greatest and might be one reason why Genesis music often has some distortion (the little 'buzz' you hear). Anyway, the Genesis still did a really good job!

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Now, onto the list of funny characteristics of Sega Genesis Sound and Music:

SOUND EFFECTS-

  1. The usual corny sound effect fare that falls into the trap of so many games so many times! (mainly action games, beat-them-ups, shooters, etc.!) (KBroccoli)
  2. Cheezy FM explosions that sound like mere popguns, crackling sparks, or trickling water rather than big bangs! (Major part of the corny sound effect fare that falls into the trap of so many games so many times!) (KBroccoli, Faididi)
  3. Crowd noise that sounds like a running fawcett! (99% of sports games) (Dave M)
  4. Unintelligible grainy digitized voices and raspy speech that sound like they have laryngitis or someone who's just been gargling with a mouthful of broken glass! (Street Fighter 2 CE Plus, TMNT 4: Hyperstone Heist, and many other games) (Salamander)
  5. Some of the worst basketball sounds ever heard in your life! (Pat Riley's Basketball, some other basketball games, etc.)
    *Ridiculous sounding whirling sounds, which real annoying real quick, accompanied with basketball dunks!
    *Dribbling that sounds like a typing typewriter!
    *The ball going thru the net sounds like somebody threw a balled-up piece of paper into a trash basket!
    *Squeaking sneakers that really just sound like little mice running around!
    *The ball bouncing off the rim sounds like someone tapped a tin can!
    (DTurner)
  6. Cheering that sounds statiky often resembling a running water faucet or spickett, a roaring fountain, a snowy television channel, a low quality grainy digitized sample, or even a flamethrower! (most sports titles) (Dave M, RCoker {1})
  7. Whistle sounds that sound like a smoke detector! (World Championship Soccer, etc.) (LTyler)
  8. VRRRROOOoooommm and whirring sounds of an engine that don't sound anything like an engine! (Top Gear 2, Hard Drivin', Lotus, Lotus 2 RECS, etc.) (Emptyeye)
  9. Sound FX that sometimes sound worse than someone having gas! (TAZ-Mania, etc.) (RWAD64)
  10. Punching that sounds like a typewriter! (WWF Super Wrestlemania, etc.) (DTurner)
  11. Ongoing annoying B.S. that makes you wish you had the "Mute" button in front of you! (Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure, etc.) (Cat Bomb)
  12. Punches, throws and other fighting sound effects that sound like little more than bleeps and bloops from a mid-80's Atari console! (Double Dragon, etc.) (MaxBiaggi2)
  13. Voices, SFX, and BGM that sometimes sound like they were translated from the Arcade to a blender! (Double Dragon 2, etc.) (Godai-Kun)
  14. Sound effects that sound like they were ripped straight from an old Atari 2600 game! (Shadowrun, etc.)
  15. Digitized speech that make the characters sound like they have a sore throat, cold, and bumps on their vocal chords! (Most Sega Genesis games)
  16. Sound effects so tinny that they make you wonder how the Sega Genesis survived with such weak sounds! (NBA Jam, World Championship Soccer, a lot of other games, etc.) (LTyler)
  17. Basketball games that sound mostly like an L.A. Clippers game everytime you play the game despite every arena being full of fans! (NBA Jam, NBA Showdown, etc.) (Bobo The Clown)
  18. Sound effects that make you think you're listening to metal on metal with terrible grinding noises! (many games, etc.) (J-dog)
  19. Sounds that seem as if they were designed to come out of a PC speaker! (Phantasy Star 3, etc.) (NTrucks)
  20. Same sound effects, dated by 1992, that are recycled for use in later Genesis games! (Sonic 3, Sonic 3D Blast, etc.) (Brak)
  21. SFX that could cause brain tumors with long-term exposure! (Shadowrun, etc.)
  22. Sounds that could cause your ears to easily start bleeding! (Phantasy Star 3, etc.) (???)
  23. Garbled effects that crash out of your TV like a garbage can tumbling down the stairs! (Mortal Kombat, etc.) (KasketDarkfyre)
  24. Characters who ramble on like sick blithering idiots! (Barney's Hide and Seek, etc.) (Shady)
  25. Announcers who keep repeating themselves! (Most sports games) (Dave M)
  26. Games that you enjoy a lot more with the sound OFF! (Street Fighter Championship Edition Plus, etc.) (????)
  27. Whiny, irritating little noises that have a nasty habit of grating a person's nerves! (Krusty's Funhouse, etc.) (KBroccoli)
  28. Gunshots that sound like whispering! (Shadow Blasters, most early-Genesis games, etc.) (fekkot)
  29. Awful background sound effects that barely put the Genesis' sound hardware to the max! (X-Perts, etc.) (LTyler)
  30. "SSSRRRRGHHHHHHHH" "SRRRRRGHHHHHH" sound effects that get annoying as hell really quickly! (Home Alone, many other games, etc.) (Scotsman)
  31. Simple sounds that are just dull thuds and silly whoooshy sounds! (Kid Chameleon, etc.) (KBroccoli)
  32. Speech that will drive you nuts! (Time Killers, etc.) (Hiryuu)
  33. Nightmarish, muffled, squished, and repetitive sounds that make the Genesis' awful sound engine come into play! (Zero Wing, etc.) (The Ragnarok)
  34. Annoying typing noises that accompany onscreen dialogue! (Zero Wing, Exile, etc.) (poidon)
  35. Tinny "clink, clink, swish, swish" sounds! (Golden Axe II, etc.) (dandy)
  36. Crap, annoying claps and/or "Awwwwwwww!" noises that sound when you win or lose! (Klax, etc.) (WEBGIRL)
  37. Tedious and extremely irritating, horrible ''wrrooup'' sounds that accompany jumps! (High Seas Havoc, Sonic the Hedgehog Series, etc.) (fekkot)
  38. ''shing'' slicing sounds you hear about 1,500 times per game accompanied with attacks! (Strider 2, etc.) (fekkot)
  39. Gun-firing sounds which sound more like walking up stairs than shooting! (ESWAT, etc.) (fekkot)
  40. Some guns that sound like nails on a chalkboard when you shoot! (Thunder Force II, etc.) (RXavier)
  41. Voices that make you wonder what in mighty Sam Hell the people are SAYING, which could possibly resemble ''BLIDDLE DOO BAR BWODDLE GOOD LUCK.'' (Thunder Force II, etc.) (RXavier
  42. Shots that sound like zippers moving! (Arrow Flash, etc.) (fekkot)
  43. Characters who sound like a whiny 5-year-old many times! (Awesome Possum, etc.) (fekkot)
  44. NEW: Enemies that "pop" when they die! {X-Men (this game received a grade of "D"), etc.} (Dave M)

MUSIC-

  1. Pretty horrific, painful tunes that is akin to putting a thousand cats through a combine, which makes you want to mute the TV! (Shadowrun, etc.)
  2.  Music that sometimes seems to sound like it came from an NES! (Fighting Masters, Frogger, etc.) (The Genesis Fighting Games Section of Plasticman's Emulation Zone)
  3. Games, based on hit movies or tv shows, that have unforgettable crap little tunes and NO MUSIC from the movie and/or tv show! (Batman Returns, Sailor Moon, Adventures of Batman and Robin, Power Rangers, etc.) (DTurner, MegaSilver)
  4. Tunes so uninspiring and monotonous as hell that they get you to turn off the speaker! (Blaster Master 2, etc.) (Faididi)
  5. Very cheap techno! (ESWAT, Vectorman, Vectorman 2, Urban Strike, etc.) (fekkot)
  6. Music that sounds like a message in Morse Code! (Subterranea, etc.) (Nash)
  7. Worn out, tinny soundtracks exploiting just how bad Sega Genesis music can be! (Shaq Fu, Tommy Lasorda Baseball, Primal Rage, etc.) (bruplex)
  8. Games with painful music that starts over after you pause it and unpause it! (Blaster Master 2, etc.) (Faididi)
  9. Keyboards that often twang too much as if the music was being played on a country singer's guitar rather than keyboards, resulting in a very stupid sound! (ESWAT, etc.) (fekkot)
  10. Music that is unpleasant to those that hear it, rarely slightly resembles a melody, comes off as a little half-assed, does not inspire a player to greatness, leaves a little impact on the listener, and/or does nothing to heat up the onscreen action! (X Men 2, etc.) (KBroccoli)
  11. Drums which sound like carefully timed bursts of static! (Eternal Champions, Kid Chameleon, Ninja Gaiden, Punisher, many other games, etc.)
  12. Hickish music that occasionally sounds like a 10 year old did it for a Sega Genesis! (Crusader of Centy, etc.) (C_A)
  13. Shoddy, rather shallow PCM scores that don't really add to the game! (Alien 3, etc.) 
  14. Music so horrible that it makes you want to turn down the volume, switch the sound off, or invest in a high quality pair of ear-muffs! (Krusty's Fun House, etc.) (KBroccoli)
  15. Drab songs that keep on repeating over and over again! (King of Monsters, lot of other games, etc.) (EdTheMoogle)
  16. BGM that makes a game even worse! (Ghost Busters, etc.) (CChan)
  17. Background music that sometimes sounds like a broken record! (Home Alone, etc.) (KRaffa)
  18. Instruments that sound like they were produced by an old $20 Casio keyboard! (Dick Tracy, etc.) (fekkot)
  19. Music, with 100% Indecipherable keys, so bad that you don't even wanna know what was used to create the "music"! (Dinosaurs for Hire, etc.) (fekkot)
  20. Cymbals that sound like bursts of static, someone playing in a pile of plastic grocery sacks, or someone spraying from an aerosol spray bottle! (Shining Force 2, Streets of Rage, most other games, etc.)
  21. Boring music that be like bad outdated mid-80's action game music! (High Seas Havoc, Dinosaurs for Hire, etc.) (fekkot)
  22. Annoying soundtracks with no catchy tunes and songs that contain mind-piercing, jumbled, synthesized, headache-inducing noises! (Rolo to the Rescue, etc.) (Nash)
  23. Extremely crappy songs that make Phantasy Star 3's battle theme sound like a MASTERPIECE! (Barney's: Hide and Seek, Shaq Fu, Double Dragon 5, Sailor Moon, etc.) (Nash)
  24. Music which sounds like the musicians were just picking out random notes and thumping them together! (X Men 2, Captain America, etc.) (KBroccoli)
  25. Harsh, repetitive sounds mashed together along with really, really bad sound waves the game developers call music, which is catchy ONLY because you'll never hear anything so crappy in your life! (Bio-Hazard, lot of games, etc.) (Faididi)
  26. Variations of keyboard music that get your foot thumpin' but just gets plain annoying after awhile! (Quackshot, etc.) (HisDudeness)
  27. Tunes that don't contain much more than arrhythmic pounding noises and grainy steel drums! (Subterranea, etc.) (Nash)
  28. Games, where their prequels had great music, that contain terrible music making you wonder if the company had fired their original composer! (Blaster Master 2, Streets of Rage 3, etc.) (Faididi)
  29. Music that doesn't fit the environment(s) and setting(s) of the game! (Adventures of Batman and Robin, many games, etc.)
    -For example, Adventures of Batman and RRobin contains hardcore space techno music, which has NO PLACE WHATSOEVER in the game!
    (Lucas)
  30. Music which sounds like the developers just threw something quick together! (Flintstones, lot of games, etc.) (Shady)
  31. Pathetic, torturous music that is an insult to the Sega Genesis! (Barney's Hide and Seek, Pat Riley's Basketball, Curse, etc.) (Mot and Andrei)
  32. Sega Genesis music so bad in a game in a series known for excellent music that it makes you wonder if the composer was drunk the day he did the music! (Streets of Rage 3, etc.) (Various Press Reviews)
  33. Games with obnoxious, bland, repetitive music that seems to have taken a major wreck from its prequel and makes you want to hit the valuable embedded mute button on your remote control! (Phantasy Star 3, etc.) (EdTheMoogle)
  34. Titles that incorporate the same scores over and over again! (Sword of Vermillion, etc.) 
  35. Music that makes you imagine everything wrong with the Genesis' sound quality! (Subterranea, Adventures of Batman and Robin, Red Zone, etc.) (Nash)
  36. Cymbals that sound like scraping rotors (metal on metal) due to worn brake pads in a car! (Streets of Rage, Streets of Rage 2, Streets of Rage 3, Cyborg Justice, Dyna Brothers, Dyna Brothers 2, etc.)
  37. Nonsensical industrial crap that doesn’t fit the game at all! (Phantasy Star 3, etc.) 
  38. God Awful "FM Remixes," made to well-known artists'/bands' great classic songs, that turn their GREAT SONGS into BAD SONGS making them a huge embarassment to the artist/band (e.g. Aerosmith, Mary Crue, AC/DC, etc.)! (Revolution X, CrueBall, Rock N' Roll Racing, etc.)
  39. Craptacular midi music that could make you die if you had to listen to it for more than 3 seconds! (Barney's Hide and Seek, etc.) (DTurner)
  40. Bad music which makes you think the following: ...As Beavis and Butthead would say when watching a bad music video, ''Heh heh, this music sucks, heh heh,'' the people in charge of the music department must have been high on something REALLY strange...! (Barney's Hide and Seek, Rock N' Roll Racing, etc.) (OmniMirror)
  41. Music that is really BAD, so much that you yourself could make better music than the composers did! (Shinobi III: Return of Ninja Master, Shaq Fu, etc.) (Billslates)
  42. Corny, boring rock-style soundtracks that leave a lot to be desired! (Comix Zone, etc.) (Rick)
  43. Poor quality MIDI music that you are FORCED to love for the Nostalgia! (Streets of Rage, etc.) (Various Reviews)
  44. Boring and repetitive 10-second songs that loop over and over! (Primal Rage, Battletoads, etc.) (EdTheMoogle, General Eric)
  45. Dull, lifeless tunes that replace awesome tunes from the previous episode(s)! (Sonic the Hedgehog 3, etc.) (Brak)
  46. Scratch, simple techno tunes that beat in your ears! (Cyborg Justice, Vectorman games, etc.) (Faididi)
  47. Tinny pseudo-instruments! [Nadia Fushugi no Umi (Secret of Blue Water), many other games, etc.]
  48. 4-second themes, which have great potential to rise to amidst the best of videogame music, that constantly repeat themselves until the listener is ready to pull a Van Gogh on his or her ear! (Phantasy Star 3, etc.) (Sephirstein)
  49. Music that sounds like someone "trying to break a piano"! (Phantasy Star 3, etc.) (Dark Fact)
  50. Music that is of high (or low) enough quality to be on the Genesis! (Barney's Hide And Seek, etc.) (Sephirstein)
  51. Muffled, fuzzy, undefined music that sounds like listening to a radio with the knob stuck half way between two stations! (Zero Wing, etc.) (The Ragnarok)
  52. Genesis music which sounds worse than the OPL3/FM synth chip on something like a CT2770 (SB16) sound card! (lot of games, etc.) (Audigy)
  53. Tunes that have too much of a "bzzt" sound to them and sound really metallic or electric! (Many games, etc.) (Palom)
  54. Music and sound that makes you think your toilet is being flushed! (Revenge of Shinobi, etc.) (MagnaMewtwo)
  55. Music that is so quiet! (Streets of Rage, etc.) (MagnaMewtwo)
  56. Genesis emulators that make the music and SFX sound worse than they should due to poor sound emulation! (KGen98, etc.) (From my experience)
  57. Genesis emulators that make Genesis voices sound better than the real Genesis! (All Gens versions except .88 and .95 or greater, etc.) (Download Gens .88 or later here and read the Gens.txt file to see why)
  58. Pretty bad music which tries to be all moody and tense and Asian! (Revenge of Shinobi, etc.) (RXavier)
  59. REPETITIVE DORKY MUSIC! (Golden Axe, etc.) (RXavier)
  60. Songs that keep changing until you get so sick of it that you go and eat a turkey sandwich, and you are chewing in rhythm with the stupid music in your head! (Sonic the Hedgehog, etc.) (RXavier)
  61. Games that you prefer to play without its sound/music and with the radio on, your favorite CD playing, or even Tony Hawk's cool music playing from your Dreamcast! (Streets of Rage, etc.) (RXavier
  62. Repetitive oriental crap that is too hard to describe! (Revenge of Shinobi, etc.) (RXavier)
  63. Music that makes you think about bread and imagine how it sounds! (Columns, etc.) (RXavier)
  64. Dark, dreary music that has scary sound quality! (Altered Beast, etc.) (RXavier)
  65. Real dumb and boring music that sounds like it's for kids and plays over and over again until it gets on one's nerves! (Sonic the Hedgehog, etc.) (RXavier)
  66. Static made by the Sega Genesis sound system (aka SEGA SOUND) that makes it way too hard to hear whether the music is good or not! (Thunder Force II, etc.) (RXavier)
  67. Synthesized music that sounds like a screaming ghost! (Arrow Flash, etc.) (fekkot)
  68. Music which simply consists of birds chirping in a few different notes, even when bloody action is taking place! (Sword of Sodan, etc.) (fekkot)
  69. NEW: "Sound: Oh my goodness. The music is HORRIBLE. DO NOT LISTEN TO IT. UGGGGGHHHH IT STINKS!!!!....Sound: 3/10!" (Terminator 2: The Arcade Game, etc.) (Phange)
  70. NEW: Music which is just a mess of tunes that really don't get you going and at times can just drive you a little nuts! (Deadly Moves, etc.) (Doctrine Dark)

 


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P.S. Phantasy Star 3's Battle Theme is pure crap and annoying (especially when you get ambushed every few feet or so!).
(bruplex)

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BONUS: SEGA 32X

  1. 32X games (particularly early, lower-end ones) that use really bad Genesis sounds for the music! (Star Wars, etc.) (Taken from a message by Scott X on alt.sega.genesis)
  2. Downright pitiful graphics that look like a DOS game! (Doom, Star Wars, many games, etc.) (Rick)
  3. 32X titles with massive slowdown! (Doom, Cosmic Carnage, etc.) (Taken from a message by ewm7254 on alt.sega.genesis)
  4. Video games on 32X that have poor, pretty plain graphics despite the 32X's much higher color palette! (Star Wars, Cosmic Carnage, etc.) (Taken from a message by ewm7254 on alt.sega.genesis)
  5. Games that are chock full o'slowness, clippiness, blockiness, and other crappy-looking graphics! (Doom, Cosmic Carnage, etc.) (Rick)
  6. Music that sounds like your little cousin pounding on the Bass Clef of your piano! (Doom, etc.) (Rick)

More is coming soon...

These aspects show that the 32X wasn't very good, and......Sega calls that shit 32-bit!?!? (Taken from a message by ewm7254 on alt.sega.genesis)

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PLEASE NOTE: NOT ALL OF THE CHARACTERISTICS ON THIS LIST ARE MY OPINIONS. MOST OF THESE CHARACTERISTICS CAME FROM VARIOUS REVIEWS. DO NOT TAKE ANY OF THESE INSULTS TO THE SEGA GENESIS SOUND PERSONAL. MANY OF THESE INSULTS CAME FROM VARIOUS SOURCES, REVIEWS, AND OTHER MESSAGES, NOT ME.

Also NOTE: IMO, Sega Genesis music/sound is ONLY terrible if the developer CANNOT program the FM sound well. And Sega Genesis music is excellent and even better than SNES music at times if the developer can program the FM well. The funny characteristics of these sounds are not necessarily because of the Sega Genesis' sound chip ITSELF but because some programmers don't know how to handle and program the Sega Genesis' sound hardware well.

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References:

Gamefaqs.com
DTurner (Dyson Turner)
Rick (Rick Nuzback)
EdTheMoogle (Ed The Moogle)
bruplex (James Dziezynski)
Faididi 
fekkot 
Nash (Rob Larson) 
HisDudeness
The Ragnarok
Bobo The Clown (Steve Greenwell)
Hiryuu
KBroccoli (King Broccoli)
Shady
C_A (Celestial Avenger)
Dark Fact
EdTheMoogle
RCoker (Robby Coker)
LTyler (Larcen Tyler)
KRaffa (Kevin T. Raffa)
General Eric (Eric Burkemper)
RWAD64
Billslates
OmniMirror (Matt Hendrick)
Sephirstein (Josh Frappier)
Brak
MegaSilver
Emptyeye (Marc D.)
CChan (Clement Chan Zhi Li)
poidon
CatBomb 
MaxBiaggi2
J-Dog
Godai-Kun
NTrucks (Nissan Trucks)
KasketDarkfyre (Drew "Kasket" Guirey)
Scotsman (Graeme J McGaw)
Mot and Andrei
MagnaMewtwo
RXavier
Phange
Doctrine Dark

Zophar's Message Domain
Audigy (Amber Ritchie)
Palom  

Electric Playground
Victor Lucas

Game Zero
????
Salamander

Author of dgen.txt
Dave

Gens Official Home Page
Stef (Stéphane Dallongeville)

Eidolon's Inn
Eidolon (Christian Schiller)

Overclocked.org
Unknown

Usenet
alt.sega.genesis

The Video Game Critic
Dave M

The Dandy2000 Sega Genesis Games Review and Fan Page
dandy
WEBGIRL

Any others I forgot to mention...

NOTE: The characteristics without citations are either ones that I came up with myself or ones where the source website got shutdown.

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Sega Genesis music is only terrible if you cannot program the FM well...

--Robby Coker

*This page was created on April 2001 using Microsoft FrontPage.