quake part II: sounds like...music?
paul antico (paa@shore.net):
Since I was silly enough to order Quake the day before they uploaded the original shareware, the full registered CD arrived today!...
The package contained one jewel case with the CD inside and a small liner-notes manual that mirrored word for word what is in MANUAL.TXT. No box, no full-sized manual, not even an envelope. The CD and liner notes have the Quake "Q," nothing more for graphics. No special opening graphics or title screens were added to the registered version over the shareware.
The CD itself has 55+ minutes of redbook CD-AUDIO NIN music. Now, the music really is meant for playing with the game...it is so well done that while playing Quake, it seems like the music was designed for the level you happen to be in at that time. But die-hard NIN fans (of which I am one) should note: It really isn't a new NIN album. Trent doesn't sing and there's not much rhythm or "beat"...it's simply mood music.
...One final note: I've seen the beta "full version" that many of you have. Those levels were INCOMPLETE...the real full version's levels are more polished and in some areas totally different from the beta. Go buy the real thing now that you can.
obsidianzero (subzero@outworld.com):
I just got Quake today from Id. Well, the game is nothing less than SPECTACULAR! The only complaint I have is the music. When the game kicked on, I was like "YES!" The intro song rocks and makes you think that good ol' Trent Reznor has something even more awesome hiding somewhere else in the CD.
WRONG!
Not much more than a somewhat musical organization of mysterious sounds. I guess it fits the game play okay. I still pop in a great instrumental CD instead of the real thing. Especially when I'm mutilating other people. Good music makes me aim better.
paul lazar (cripl@texas.net):
The music for this game was even better than I had hoped. When I heard the music during the demo, I was in love. Long live Trent Reznor!
What do you think?
todd bradley (todd@rainbow.rmii.com):
I think it's NIN's first real industrial music ever, except for some of the remixes on Further Down The Spiral.
jonathan m. wade (bs268@freenet.carleton.ca):
Is the CD worth buying ($10) for listening to the music by itself? Hmmm...a five-minute resample of a guy screaming in pain....
blackrose (blackrse@iglou.com):
Well...I'd say yes. I listened to it by myself alone, while working on my car. I got scared. I love anything that can affect my mood like that.
ben schaffer (bschaff@ns.net):
The NIN music is fuckin' awesome. It is the best soundtrack I've ever heard. It is not that intrusive, though. It just gives the game an intensely eerie feeling. I'd say the music makes Quake a much more immersive environment.
troy tomasky (ttomasky@genesee.freenet.org):
I don't really like the music! It's just ambiance. You can hear voices whispering in the background sometimes, but that's it. And half the time the music is too soft to hear. I was expecting something more. So when I fire up Quake, I pop in a Metallica CD....
tHe hApPy sLaVe (macaroni@interlog.com):
If I buy the shareware Quake CD-ROM, can I play the music from it in my stereo audio CD player?
skarekroe (skarekroe@aol.com):
All but track one (which your CD player will either refuse to play or will spout as speaker-blowing noise).
colonel panic (absinthe@teleport.com):
I kept my old CD player because it plays data tracks as nice crunchy whitish noise. Listen with pain. =;>
bludlust (janitah@adam.com.au):
Well, you can, but most of the music on the registered CD just seems to be atmospheric. Mind you, the Quake theme (played during demos and cutscenes, and I think in DM 6) is pretty cool. What I want to know is, does anyone know if the tracks have proper titles?
robert m. lowrey (uraki@southwind.net):
Don't know, but I made my own up:
scorpio (psychoz@cosmos.net.au):
Actually, the shareware version of Quake doesn't have the music. Id only put this (along with other fine tunings) on the final, commercial, this-is-really-it-this-time-and-stop-bugging-us-about- the-faults-in-the-beta-version Quake.
And yes, the music is simply atmospheric stuff (well, it IS for a game, after all). I was bored with it after the second listen. I wouldn't recommend buying it unless you are actually interested in the game; otherwise, it is quite possibly the most expensive NIN CD yet. If you do invest, it will play on your stereo just like any other CD.
steef the mighty (stevep@ncn.com):
Uninformed fools...he was talking about the shareware CD, which is only $10. You can play it on a stereo.
mark cox (mark@mcox.demon.co.uk):
Incidentally, if your CD player doesn't recognise that track one isn't an audio track and actually plays it, it sounds a bit like track six off Fixed.
christopher schulte (schulte@winternet.com):
I and many others have been waiting to see the Quake CD arrive at the computer stores. People who have the registered CD have commented that the music is pure genius, even if it's all instrumental. Too bad no NIN web pages have small clips of the music.
michael thacker (scumm@nethosting.com):
Having purchased the registered CD, I totally agree. WITH ONE EXCEPTION! One of the tracks is just "bang, thoom, whirr" over and over for like 10 minutes. This is the track that is played on the final mission of Episode 1.
yoko (elt@usweb.com):
I think Trent and NIN did an AWESOME job on the music in Quake. It definitely makes the game. The soundtrack is only rivaled by one other game, which is Myst. I was hoping that a game would come along with a soundtrack as good as Myst's. It really helps set the mood, especially in Deathmatch.
steve krisjanovs (krisjan@fox.nstn.ca):
I just got my Quake full version today. There are no vocals, and you shouldn't call it music. It's more like ambiance. This is not bad, though, 'cause I'll use one word to describe it:
C R E E P Y
There are a couple of tracks that literally give me goosebumps. (Example -- a man's horrified scream is sampled, then put into a five-minute loop.) Trent did a great job with the "music." All other CDs pale in comparison. Period.
peter ordal (pordal@hotmail.com):
I think it sorta fits the game okay, but would be better with some vocals. Anyone out there agree?
the lord leto II (t951@academic.nemostate.edu):
You're stupid and clueless. I sure don't agree. It's BACKGROUND MUSIC. If you're still having trouble, e-mail me.
keith cantrell (keith@c3185kc.ssr.hp.com):
I agree totally. I was completely disappointed. I was hoping for cool jazzy music. Instead, what you get is something that could have easily been put in a small .WAV file and played without a CD player. Oh well, I guess it is just par for the course.
steven thurgood (steven@thurgood.demon.co.uk):
Nope. I disagree completely. Vocals would feck up the atmosphere. The music fits the atmosphere perfectly. It doesn't need anything else. Best background music I've heard in a game, probably. The screams in the background are pretty disturbing.
chris clarke (crclarke@ccgate.hac.com):
Actually, the kind of vocals Trent used in parts of Further Down The Spiral ("Hurt," et al.) fit perfectly as background music. The new shareware CD is going to have to kick some serious ass or I think I'm going to keep using that; I've already declared FDtS the perfect Quake CD.
the lord leto II (t951@academic.nemostate.edu):
Vocals are okay as long as they're not intelligible words. I don't see how you see "Hurt" as good background for Quake. And Trent's vocals in "Hurt" aren't that great anyway. But FDtS is generally good background music. "At The Heart Of It All" is my favorite ambient piece of all time.
simon juncal (sjuncal@pop.erols.com):
Let me get this straight...you were hoping for something "cool" and "jazzy"...from NIN? A band with a song whose chorus goes, "I want to fuck you like an animal"? In a game that has a horror theme based loosely on Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos?
If you were being sarcastic, it's too thick for me!
keith cantrell (keith@c3185kc.ssr.hp.com):
I didn't say there had to be vocals -- I agree that would not be appropriate. But I expected more than just some weird sounds and the occasional scream. All this could have been put on a VERY small .WAV file and not require the use of a CD-ROM to play them. My point is that I play a lot of Quake on my laptop, where connecting it to a CD-ROM is a pain in the ass -- so if they're going to require that I hook up my CD-ROM just to play the background music, I expect more than what could be simply put innto a file and played without it.
Besides, at least it could have been "jazzier" during the intro or between levels (in my opinion).
You say it's loosely based on Lovecraft...I'd say they took the names, basically. You wouldn't want to meet any of the Cthulhu buggers, much less fight them. ;-)
mr. maker (owen_mackwood@eee.org):
By "jazzier," do you mean harder, upbeat music? Anyway, I'd like to see the day they could put that music in a "small" .WAV file. The music for the game is brilliant, and is the most amazing and perfect soundtrack for anything I've ever seen, including movies. The music is about subtlety, not getting a heavy beat going like in Doom or something like that.
marcus hast (marcus.hast@mailbox.swipnet.se):
In my opinion NIN's lyrics are actually good. (Some of 'em, at least.) The problem is that you usually have to read the text before you can hear it. ;-) And since Trent Reznor is pretty damned good with athmospheric stuff I think he has the potential of doing a great job. Personally, I haven't ordered the CD yet, but from what I've heard the music's cool.
It's nice to see that we have made some of the posters grasp the concept of "sarcasm."
simon juncal (sjuncal@pop.erols.com):
I didn't say anything about NIN being good or bad -- just that "cool and jazzy" isn't what NIN is all about, and that "cool and jazzy" wouldn't fit Quake's "horrific 'n' deathly" atmosphere.
Didn't say the atmosphere in Quake wasn't good -- in fact I think the sounds are great in most cases (the jump sound has to go). I also heard the music is cool and "scary" -- good, that's the way it should be.
I think they have been getting inspiration from Lovecraft even back to Wolfenstein 3-D -- Quake more so than Doom, and Doom more so than Wolf. (Note: "inspiration" -- in Wolf it was the whole Nazi mad-scientist deal; in Doom, Hell invades from another dimension.)
However, in Quake, we have monsters that are named from the Cthulhu mythos: Chthon, Shambler, Shub Niggurath. And many places, too: The Vaults of Zin, The Nameless City. As well as a story line (what there is of it) almost too Lovecraftian to mistake for anything but a Lovecraft-inspired story.
Check out one of Clan Cthulhu's web pages if you want to read more (it's a pretty cool couple of pages): http://www.netwrx.net/users/jfuture/chapters/quake.html and http://www.netwrx.net/users/jfuture/chapters/love2.html.
[Soapbox mode ON] I personally think sarcasm has to be done artfully enough to keep it from sounding like just another dumbass posting false or misleading information. For every sarcastic poster on the Usenet, there is an equally stupid poster; telling one from the other is often quite impossible, and I hate the idea of qualifying every flame I post with "unless you are being..." or "are you being...?"
Plus, "I was being sarcastic!" and "I was just trolling!" have become the biggest cop-outs Usenet posters use to make excuses for "being full of shit." [/OFF]
But what the fuck do I know? ;-)
sky golightly (skyg@nafohq.hp.com):
The "music" is very appropriate to Quake. I'd call it Ambient Industrial. The first 15 seconds or so of the very first track bear the closest resemblance to NIN's previous work. The rest of it is very disturbing whirring, clicking, whooshing sounds and rhythms. No real melodies here, folks. But then trying to follow a melody with a rocket in your face is not what we're after, now is it?
Of course, being the weird person I am, I actually listen to the audio tracks outside of Quake. This bothers my wife to no end. Heehee.
dutch king (dutchking@aol.com):
I was playing the shareware version of Quake, and I heard music! The music never worked before -- but the music wasn't from Quake, it was from the Mechwarrior 2 CD I had in the CD drive. Is this supposed to happen? I have an older version, but I'm not sure which one exactly.
dave f (davef@rrnet.com):
Quake reads music off the CD drive, so whatever you want to listen to, just slap it in the CD player and go. I heard Mech 2 was cool; I like the Hexen soundtrack, myself...but nothing beats the Trent Reznor soundtrack, in my humble (yet correct) opinion.
adam henry (sah1452@alpha.cc.oberlin.edu):
Heh, yeah. I plan to play it on my radio show when I get the CD. Live in Lorain County, Ohio? Tune in to WOBC 91.5 in Oberlin.
the lord leto II (t951@academic.nemostate.edu):
The Quake sound FX are pathetic. Compared to Descent 2's sound FX, well...there's just no comparison. Quake FX are lame. The "pick-up-ammo" sound sounds like two pieces of metal rubbing together. The "pick-up-medkit" sound sounds like a bass playing three E's -- what is this, reminiscing back into the days of Ad Lib FM synthesis FX? The gun sounds utterly suck. They're much worse than the ones in Doom, even. The screams are poorly done and unconvincing. The lifts sound really bad.
On the plus side, the ambiance is cool, the "falling and hitting the ground" sound is neat, and a few of the FX aren't too bad.
I haven't heard the music so I won't comment.
adam williamson (adam@scss.demon.co.uk):
Well, we've got the "what music do you play for Quake?" thread(s), so why not the "what do you do with the Quake music?" thread? I find it's absolutely perfect to design Doom and Quake levels with...any other suggestions?
greg morrison (gregm@earthlink.net):
Listen to it during sex with your goth girlfriend?
benedikt laube (laube@hrz-serv7.hrz.uni-kassel.de):
C'mon, Quake isn't that great anyway. It has ugly graphics (look at your opponent in Deathmatch, for instance), the choice of colours is shit (no atmosphere at all), and the light-source shading may be a nice effect, but it's highly overused. It has very high hardware needs, just because of sloppy coding.
The sounds are much too soft (e.g., shooting the single-barreled shotgun). Boy, did the NIN guy do these sounds with girls playing Quake in mind? The sounds in Doom were way cooler. I hope there will be an add-on with better sounds soon....< P> Maybe Id released an early beta of Quake because they knew the fanatics will buy it anyway. It does look like some beta version. The shittiest thing about it are all the AOLers and Netcom'ers who keep touting it as the greatest game of all time and flame anyone who doesn't.
Have you read the Id article in Wired? That says it all. Id have become a capitalist bunch who've got their minds on making money more than on producing good games. Man, I could go on and on, but I am bored by wasting my time with this shit game.
sean (spmc@tiac.net):
Even if you don't own a computer, go out and get Quake.... I listen to the CD in my car more than I play the game. Quake should be enough to hold me over till the new album comes out in 1997.
I only paid $8.99 for the shareware disc at Electronic Boutique, cheaper than a regular CD. I think Trent did an excellent job, and if the new album will sound anything like the Quake music, it should be very good.
michael wong (ai232@torfree.net):
Okay...I ran out and got the shareware CD thinking it's got all the music tracks found on the full version of Quake. To my surprise, it only had 10 tracks of music.
Is there more NIN music besides the 10 tracks found on the shareware CD? If not, does each episode "recycle" the music tracks found? If there is more music found on the registered full version of quake, is it on separate CDs? (I mean, is there different music for each episode? Or is it all the same?)
william wesley gray (smiths@cats.ucsc.edu):
Does the shareware version let you hear all the songs or just the ones for the shareware levels?
crank (crank@cyberhighway.com):
It's got the whole thing. In my opinion it kinda sounds like Pinion, The Album. But it's still pretty cool, definitely worth the ten bucks.
joe culbert (neckro@visi.com):
Actually, I heard that it'll only be about $5. Which will be a major bargain for NIN fans (which I'm not). I am looking forward to hearing the soundtrack, though. (Even just the sound effects are awesome...especially the ambient ones.)
todd bradley (todd@rmii.com):
It is awesome. Something that's likely to satisify real industrial fans. It isn't his usual trendy industrial-rock stuff, but is all instrumental.
OBUk (obuk1@community.net):
Most people have found it for under ten bucks, so it is worth it. The full version of the game plus a bunch of old Id games are also encrypted on the CD and can be released by paying Id a horrific 45 bucks.
blackrose (blackrse@iglou.com):
I just bought it yesterday at Best Buy, and if it's in Kentucky...it's everywhere. Nine bux. Trippin' as hell, too. I love it...I have the full hacked version and they've made quite a few improvements, not the least of which is Trent's music (and I use the phrase loosely).
hellraiser (hraiser@cloud9.net):
Got the Quake CD today, $6.99 at CompUSA. A must for any die-hard NIN fan. Casual listeners may want to pass it over, being that there is nothing much in the way of vocals, rhythm, or melody on the CD. Pretty much ambient stuff. The first minute and a half of track two does have a raw NIN flavor to it. Other than that, it is kinda just ambient noise. Worth $7, methinks.
andy franczvai (avf7307@tam2000.tamu.edu):
Definitely worth it -- the best work I've heard Reznor put out.
steef the mighty (stevep@ncn.com):
This is probably the first game people will buy just for the music. In my opinion, the game is just as good, if not better.
scaredkr0w (scaredkr0w@aol.com):
Okay, I just bought the Quake CD, not because I give a damn about the game (I am still running a 486 here), but because I heard the music was really cool. Of course you can listen to it in a CD player, and of course you do have to skip over the first track and that can be annoying if your CD player takes two minutes to get past the data part, which mine does (on any data/music CD...but with Brap and these damn Future Music CDs I should be used to it). But the music, in my opinion, is worth it.
I don't really like NIN. They used to tickle my fancy, but now I just can't really get into any of their stuff besides the remixes. I do wear my NIN shirt occasionally, but I dunno if I'd go see them in concert right now. But I like this CD.
It's popular to flame it, I think, just because it's a NIN project.... If Download had done this, everyone would have had a big O and rushed down to CompUSA and we would have seen more "cEvin is GOD!!!" posts before it was even released. Some tracks do run into each other -- but that's okay, a lot of good albums do. The first track is very "Pinion"-sounding and I think it's the sixth (can't remember) that sounds like a Downward Spiral reject, but beyond these it's all kinda new. I would have much preferred this music for Doom, but you can't have everything.
Maybe next year I'll get to play Quake. Everyone who picks out new stuff to listen to while you play, more power to you, but you should try it once with this music -- it does fit the image very closely.
And it's only $9. That's not a lot of money to pay for anything these days, especially a NIN product.
shawn holmes (shawnh@csn.net):
A decent price for Trent's music, but I wonder how much better the soundtrack would have come out if Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber had been asked instead. I guarantee it would have wailed.
guillermo gonzalez (gonzalez@bridge.net):
Okay, so it's not great as "music" so to speak, but I've been listening to the Quake soundtrack in my car for a few days, and I like it! Anybody else this twisted?
I actually like the first minute of the first track, puts me in the mood. The rest of the tracks do something for me as well. Hey, Trent ain't half bad!
stratacst (stratacst@aol.com):
The game is pretty damn good, too. Just remember to play it with headphones so you really get freaked out.
daanon decock (jade@primenet.com):
Let us also not forget the added NIN references in the game. There is the Nail Gun with boxes of ammo with the NIN logo on the box. Pick up an ammo box and you get a "You got the nails" message.
taylor mclaren (tmclaren@uoguelph.ca):
The music is...well...bland. The third track isn't half-bad, but most of it could really stand to be replaced by just about anything in a similar vein.
logre2'3 (ogre@netaxs.com):
Yay, someone else who agrees with me! There are so many bands that could've done wondeful "music" for the game...WHY did they have to get Trent?
roger mimulvex (105044.220@compuserve.com):
HI! EVERY TIME I TYPE SOUNDINFO AT THE QUAKE CONSOLE IT SAYS "ID CANNOT WRITE FUCKING DECENT SOUND FUCKING CODE TO WORK IN STEREO." FUCK YOU ID.
richard van fossan (richv@nwlink.com):
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I've never seen that error code. Probably a loose nut holding your joystick.
jonas henriksson (jonas.henriksson@lu.erisoft.se):
Anyone noticed that if you put a standard music CD in the drive while playing the shareware version of the game, it will actually pick out and play one track per level?
shawn holmes (shawnh@csn.net):
Yeah, found it out the hard way, when I loaded up Quake one morning and my wife's The Official Album of Disneyland and Walt Disney World was already in the drive. Nothing like blowing away a Shambler to "It's a Small World."
d.b. kiliman (kiliman@students.uiuc.edu):
...I feel it is The Downward Spiral simplified. By that, I mean the same instruments of TDS rear their head often. Personally, I had hoped that the next NIN release was going to be a large departure from TDS, and maybe lyrically different then all Trent's previous releases. He seems content with the same noises, even if he is mixing them up a little and changing style somewhat. Let's just leave it at this: I am not as confident as I used to be that his next release will be innovative (for Trent, that is).
vinny barbarino (lou13@ix.netcom.com):
Only thing is, the audio on the registered version isn't quite what you'd expect from a typical Reznor album. The music has some recognizable NIN sounds, but I'd call the tracks "audio wallpaper." The music is meant mainly to create ambiance. Without the game to play, the songs are kinda hard to dig by themselves. I don't recommend buying the CD-ROM just for the songs because it's not really worth it, unless you're a hardcore Reznor fan and you absolutely must have it.
scorpio (psychoz@cosmos.net.au):
Ditto. The music is okay while playing the game, but it doesn't hold up as an "album" -- which it was never designed to be anyway. One annoying aspect is the skipping/pause you get when the repeating track resets to the beginning while you're playing a level. Very glitchy; I don't like it. Like prerecorded video segments in games (yuck/yawn). Totally synthesised music is best, I think.
dan proietti (dannyp@wpi.edu):
I'd say the sound FX aren't all that spectacular. I recently loaded up the Deathmatch test of Quake and realized the sounds in there were for the most part better. The ambiance is pretty cool, although I turn the level to zero when I deathmatch to get as much speed as I can from my system.
The music on the CD is killer, though. It pretty much rocks my world. I'm not a huge Reznor fan, but I have heard a lot of NIN and I like it. The first song (if you can really call it a song) is amazing...really intense. The rest are all pretty background-ish (which is what they were written for, apparently).
All in all, it's total mood music. A really twisted sort of mood, though. Very dark, ultra-sinister, creepily eerie noise. Quite rhythmic, really. I really don't play many other games, but from my limited experience, Quake stacks up well in regard to the sheer number of sounds one hears while playing. Some screechingly obvious, but others are fairly subtle hints of sound. The quality of the FX really isn't the selling point of this game, but at least the guns go bang and the guts go splatter, so that's cool. The music is far better than any game I've seen of late. Or at all, for that matter.
Most games aren't packaged with what is effectively an album. Very cool. Mad props to Trent.
zena little (zenalittle@aol.com):
Dude or Dudette,
Fear not, the wait is well worth it. I played last night from 12:00-2:00 with a headset, and this is the first game that gave me the repeated shivers -- it is Trent Reznor's music, and the subtleties of the AI are unbelievable. This is without a doubt the best mature 3-D game I have experienced.
Hey you, ya YOU reading this in the newsgroup -- don't even think it, I know you're thinking it.... "Man, this dude doesn't know $#%^@, Duke is so much better, blah, blah." Look, I have played, laughed with, and loved Duke also, but after last night this "full" version of Quake is at a different level. God, for the first time it made me feel like I was part of a horror flick. Creepy.
robert fairlie-cuninghame (rfairlie@extro.ucc.su.oz.au):
[IMHO mode on]
Hey Id and Trent: MAKE THE LIGHTNING GUN SOUND CHUNKIER FOR THE CD VERSION!
The Lightning Gun sound should strike fear into the hearts of all fellow players -- like the BFG. When you hear that sound, you start running. Right now it sounds like it runs D-cells, not like it's putting out a few gigavolts of electricity! It sounds like it might give you razor rash -- not slice you in half!
Give us a chunkier sound, please.
[IMHO mode off]
P.S. If you haven't played with the LG, type "impulse 9" at the console.
david silberman (davesilb@hooked.net):
I don't know. I kind of like the serene hum of the Lightning Gun as it fries everything in its path. There's something terrifying in that calm buzz of destruction. It's a nice contrast to the racket that Super Nail Gun kicks out.
carl t. donath (ctdonath@mailbox.syr.edu):
Good job, Trent! The music's great! I'm listening to the Quake tracks right now. Really good stuff -- even when not playing the game. The brooding tension is really, well, intense. Dark, ambient, and has that great NIN edge we've grown to love. Did I mention tense? I can hardly type with it playing -- something's sure to jump out and grab me. Did I mention tense?
Play this out your windows on Halloween, really loud -- no kid will come to the door!
christopher schulte (schulte@winternet.com):
I know that the new music that Trent produced will only be available on CD. I was thinking: Could this be a strategy that Id thought up to get more deadbeats to BUY the game? I myself, a NIN fan, want to hear this new music. I'd be much more inclined to buy the game knowing it's the only place I'm gonna hear it.
Just a thought!
glenn a. thibert (gathib@muppet.monsanto.com):
Almost all CD games these days have music on the CD. Id just chose a good, famous group to create it for them. You don't have to pay extra for the music -- it's the extra weapons, levels, editor, deathmatch levels, and monsters that you buy the full game for.
scislac busorez (richie@primenet.com):
Supposedly, Trent chose them. He invited them backstage and offered to do the sound stuff for free. He said he was a fan of Doom, they said they were fans of his...it just fit into place.
adam hupp (ahupp@winternet.com):
Since you apparently don't know what you're talking about, I'll fill you in. Trent invited the Id guys backstage at a concert, and because he liked Doom so much he OFFERED to do the SFX/music for free.
tom wheeley (tomw@tsys.demon.co.uk):
Don't forget the enormous amount of publicity Trent is getting, though: Financially, it's well worth his while. It also works well for Quake -- many people are going to get the shareware just for the music. Not that I'm complaining, of course.
stupendous yappi (medman@wizvax.net):
...A "nail gun"? Excuse me? The NIN logo on the boxes seems to be the only rational, logical reason why something as childishly commercial as this BLATANT attempt to gain the respect of the nihilistic chainsmoking 15-year-old crowd was put in. Get Trent to do the music, throw the logo in there -- hell, that'll guarantee sales near the high school. Sheesh.
andreas andersson (andreas.andersson@mailbox.swipnet.se):
The reason I like the idea of NIN making the soundtrack to Quake is one reason and one reason only: Trent Reznor does, in my opinion, make excellent music.
If they just wanted a selling name they should have gotten Green Day or some shit like that to do the soundtrack. They got an excellent artist; now you're pissing on them, because he is what? Too good? Too famous? Did Id make a "sellout"? Trent is a bit too famous, they should have dumped him and got Bon Jovi instead. Much better. (Yeah right.)
Trent approached THEM asking to make the sound effects for Quake. Id said from day one that there would be no music in Quake; this later changed. (Dunno why.)
carl t. donath (ctd@cci.com):
(Noticing lack of smiley) Hmmm...you're writing a game, and your favorite musician comes to you and says, "I want to create music for your game for free." Even if you didn't want music in the game, the correct answer is YES!
lev lvovsky (levl289@smartlink.net):
Umm...why is it that just after I bought my Wavetable card, the biggest game of the year comes out, and it doesn't support any sort of WaveTablery?... I've always been able to play a CD while playing Doom, and I must admit that it's somewhat of a good idea (okay, very good) to have NIN playing on the CD of the registered version -- but if you had a good MIDI file in there (Wavetables are so rarely taken advantage of to their full potential nowadays), you could have something that rivals actual CD-quality stuff. What the hell did the Id guys spend their time on while making Quake? The engine (and not the game)?
detlev d. ansinn jr. (ansinn@ix.comcat.com):
Id most likely went with CD-AUDIO for the following reasons:
david viens (viensd@jsp.umontreal.ca):
Some thoughts on Quake effects:
I would like to say one word about all those complaints about how "This sound is soooo wimpy!" or stuff like "Put more blood," or "I want to hear how tough the gunshots should sound"....
One word...
subtlety.
No deep and dark evil atmosphere can be kept by suddenly hearing a too-harsh and jazzy BFG sample. Or maybe all you guys lack testosterone? I like tension and release, but being there is not about getting out.
(should I be sorry for my bad english? -- no I'm a proud french.)
adam mallory (s1128247@aix2.uottawa.ca):
I just bought the Quake CD -- I've got a 386, so I only bought it for the music. (My friend has a Pentium, so I CAN play the game...nah....) The CD does have 10 tracks of ambient stuff. I think it was worth it -- it's got a different flavor, but I think it's pretty much Trent! The first few tracks are actually music -- it's kinda cool. So if you're a NIN fan 'cause ya like "Closer," don't buy it. But if you're a NIN lover (i.e. you got bootlegs, all the albums, etc.) then go get it...it's worth it.
mike raistlin (momoney@alaska.net):
I personally would rather have a new NIN album than tracks meant to be background noise.
shadow (shadow@sihope.com):
I can listen to Quake and think, "Hey, this has an element of progression to it." No more piggies or wanting to kill myself -- it's like "I want to find the red armor!" The Upward Spiral?...
chris weider (chrisw@ptd.net):
I never even heard of NIN until I bought the CD of Quake and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! I just play the audio tracks when I'm not engrossed in the game. It is unbelievable how well this adds to the overall eerieness of the game. Definitely worth the cost of the CD!
twiggy101 (amhz96d@prodigy.com):
I'm feeling disappointed in Trent's holdup on the new NIN album. It's like, now I have to shell out maybe $50 on a game I'll probably never play just so I can hear a few sound tracks Trent added to the game. Now more than ever I wish I hadn't missed the NIN/Bowie concert -- I don't know if Trent will ever tour again. All I've been hearing lately is "Trent's producing this, Trent's producing that"...right now I'm starting to envision Trent more as a record producer than Trent being in NIN. I WANT THE OLD TRENT BACK!
stevo31 (stevo31@aol.com):
Definitely a cool game -- the sounds contribute to one scary experience. The first track is one you can headbang to (though it is sans lyrics), but after that the tracks are more ambient sounds and noise that contribute to the mood of the game rather than structured musical score. Cool for the game -- without a doubt -- but I don't suggest that you buy the CD just for NIN music. There's only about a minute and a half of actual music on the CD.
jarkko heilio (godzilla@pacific.net.sg):
Most of the "songs" on Quake are just atmospheric noise. It's not a "soundtrack" or anything. They're cool, though, only if you're playing the game. The music adds more spookiness to the game. The sound FX are awesome, as well. [But] don't buy the game because you want more NIN music.
gary w. bonebrake (bonebrak@otsego.net):
The first time I saw Quake was when a friend came to visit me at work and brought it with him. I screamed in ecstasy. I had been waiting months for the fucking computer game, because I knew Trent had done the sounds and stuff. I'm so desperate for new Reznor paraphernalia, I think I'll simply fall into the abyss of a lost soul if halo 11 doesn't get out sometime soon. Please, somebody keep me posted. Thanks.
eraser (boujean@oricom.ca):
I'm a Quake Player + a NIN Fan [= Serial Killer :)] The music is very cool. The sound FX are really good (I'm sure he hurt a real dog to get a dog howl that's so cool). The music is mostly ambient -- only track two is worth listening to again, but the rest is good relaxation music. :-)
jay (mirage@eden.com):
The game was impressive, but I felt the Nails tracks left me hanging. They sound dry and unfinished. I'm bored with the tracks already. When did you say the new album is due to be released?
henry minden (hack007@planeteer.com):
I got the test version the day it came out, the shareware when it came out. And was it worth it. As soon as I can scrounge 50 bucks, I'm getting the full version. The sound effects are worth the price of admission!
cthulhu999 (cthulhu999@aol.com):
I have listened to the Quake music and it's not your ordinary NIN -- it's more eerie, gloomy, spooky shit. Some background Reznor screams. It's cool, though -- definitely worth a listen. But I'd like to say the sound effects he did for the game were SUPERB!
kaos (steinhar@mailserv1.ferris.edu):
I received my Quake CD two days ago, and well, it fuckin' RAWKS. You have to keep in mind that it is a soundtrack and not a so-to-speak music CD. It is meant to be listened to while playing the game, but also has great potential as a mood-setting CD. I find myself listening to it while I am on the NINternet, reading. As a longtime NIN fan I was getting tired of the negative aspect of Trent's work, but this is a step in the right direction. I find it a pleasant alternative to Trent's previous recordings, which I have played to death. So if you like NIN, go buy the CD and you will find a great surprise on it -- there is a game included.
brian hard (sentient1@msn.com):
I have been playing my newly bought registered version of Quake non-stop...both on the computer AND on my stereo! Reznor has a new calling. This is by far the best game I've ever played, if you can call it a game. It's more like some whacked-out experience. Just add Reznor's work, and it gains some very intense depth. The music is very much on the ambient end of his form. But that's what we all appreciate him for, isn't it?
Some tracks are very driven and intense, while others are just plain Reznor-creepy. He's got one on there just laden with whispers and backtracking, giving a very eerie presence. It is definitely worth the buy, especially if you love 3-D games. I was just so fortunate to also be a huge NIN fan. Now if they can just get Trent to do the movie soundtrack....
rob trousdale (robt@saul.washington.edu):
AMEN! Creepy is the right word. Adds just a little more urgency to the game. I still like Mech-Warrior better, but the Quake music is really good for Quake. It adds so much depth to the ambiance. I'll put it this way: When I had only the shareware, I didn't like Quake as much as Duke Nukem 3-D, because to me, the strength of Duke is its campy atmosphere. Now that I have the full version, I much prefer Quake -- it is just awesome!
(The above was NOT meant to be the start of another Duke vs. Quake thread, please.)
steven thurgood (steven@thurgood.demon.co.uk):
One thing I would have liked to see was a "theme" song. Full Throttle had a theme song at the start and the end, and it was great. I think it would have been cool if after killing Shub-Niggurath the credits started scrolling up and a theme tune kicked in. And I think it would have been cool to have animated end sequences. Even Doom had that (sorta). It would not have taken very long, and would have been much better than the somewhat cheesy ending we get now.
carl t. donath (ctd@cci.com):
I'm wondering when someone will sit bolt upright out of a sound sleep thinking/screaming, "Where's that !@#$%^& Zombie?" because his spouse started snoring. Good choice for a sound effect, Trent....
sean zehtab (blanka@inetnebr.com):
I have the shareware version of Quake...the sound effects are awesome. The effects add a lot of atmosphere when playing. From the the gurgling of a body being blown to pieces to gasping for air underwater, the effects rock. It is a fitting tribute to his skills that Reznor would work on the best video game right now doing what he does best: music and sound.
josie (josie@aol.com):
My brother bought this, and I immediately recorded it. I played it at work, and everyone thought I had gone ballistic over NIN. Well, I have....
