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Yeah, I know that cue and love it. I just hear much more of a Conan kinship.
Yavar
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"Star Trek: New Worlds" (2000)
Composed by: Julian Soule and Inon Zur.
The score is a mixed bag. It sounds well done and has points of interest, but it just kind of never reaches any level of goodness.
Some cues just don't work and don't even fit a Trek music sound, especially the kind of modern cue with wailing electric guitar you might expect from a late 1980's/early 1990's film, as heard in this cue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATzoBI5k7aM
An especially noticable misfire is the Klingon music. Considering this takes place in the TOS film timeline (somewhere late, I'd say, by the use of a TNG era Romulan warbird), there's not even a little bit of homage or style or anything that could remind you of either Goldsmith or Horner's memorable Klingon music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-sHJ-VDgj8
Watching a couple clips, the dialogue is clunky, badly delivered, kind of cringe worthy. I wouldn't recommend either the game or the music.
"Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force" (2000)
Composed by: Kevin Schilder
Additional music and theme music by: Danny Pelfrey
According to his website, this is the only Trek game Schilder has worked on. He also did sound design on it (and other games).
The game opens opens with the opening credits from the series, but for some reason not only is Goldsmith's theme not used but it's not even re-performed. Pelfrey opts instead to do an entirely new theme (with some loose hints at Jerry's), which while a nice theme (though lacking in the cheap samples) to hear, just odesn't belong to a Trek game; it would be better served in some other game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej_DZpKEJAs
BuySoundtrax re-performed the theme for their Trek games score release, but unfortunately it's not much better sounding.
I samples half a dozen or mroe cues from the game and they're all rather annonymous. Apart from the theme music, I honestly couldnt' recommend any of it.
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Dominion Wars" (2001)
Composed by: Gary Wagner and Scott Roewe.
Even though we've been nicely, for a good part, been going forward with the music and especially the sample quality, for some reason the game makers decided to take a giant quantum leap backwards. The music sounds like it came from an early 1990's Trek game, with ridicuously cheap samples, simplicity, and writing. It even has terrible electronic effects added into cues.
Thankfully this was the only Trek game either composer did.
Don't waste your time on this. Terrible. I still agitated from listening to cues.
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The above post is also new, but when I made it yesterday, the board had a brain fart and the thread wasn't brought up to the top.
"Star Trek: Armada II" (2001)
Composed by: Danny Pelfrey.
The score plods along uneventfully and really doesn't offer anything.
The Borg music, is slow with synth pads, some synthy strings and sound effects. Even the action parts are nothing more than some synth strings crescendos and this metal 1980's sound hitting a pattern out. A far, far cry from Jones work, who not only nailed the Borg in ST:TNG, but will probably never be equaled by another composer.
The Romulan music is a strange combo os bell tree, quick pizzicato strings, and staccato woodwinds, giving it a more quirky snoping music sound. There's a three-note motif on solo french horn, with some brass(?) on counter point, but it's weak at best.
The Federation music is militaristic and interchangable with other video games.
The Cardassian music is os inappropriate, especiall considering what was happening iwht them musically on D.S.9. at the time, it's not even worth going into further detail over.
I didn't find any Klingon music.
There's nothing here that needs to be heard outside the game.
"Star Trek: Away Team" (2001)
Composed by: Danny Pelfrey.
I starting to dread the name Pelfrey in regards to Trek game scores, but score is an improvement.
The Start-up menu music isn't actually too bad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHZTO419mtA
It's essentially interchangable with the Klingon music.
The mission breifing music is also militaristic with the odd inclusion of a solo vocal.
The Romulan music has synth pads, some percussion, this weird woodwind used associate with something more from the Middle East.
A compilation of the Klingon music might be good apart from it.
"Star Trek: Borg Assimilator" (2001)
Hired: Danny Pelfrey
The game was cancelled, so I have no idea if he completed any music for it. According to information online, the game makers stopped when they realized it didn't look like anything in the current Trek universe at the time. Hasn't stopped them musically before...
Anyway, there are no samples of the game on yotuube and Pelfrey has no samples of any of his Trek game scores on his website.
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Chad Seiter worked with Giacchino Season 1 Fringe?
Yes. Chris Tilton was Giacchino's assistant for a while, and I believe at some point Chad Seiter was Chris Tilton's assistant. They all worked on the first season of Fringe in some capacity.
Chad Seiter, like Chris, is a wonderful composer and he really got to show off with his Trek game score. Sadly it appears unlikely it will ever be released...
Yavar
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"Star Trek: Starfleet Command II: Empires at War" (2001)
Composed by: Inon Zur.
Zur returns for another Trek game score, this time providing what sounds like a real orchestra, although small, for the most part.
His theme for the Federation reminds me a bit of the Picard Theme that popped up in early seasons (As well as the rejected theme) by McCarthy for ST: TNG.
The Klingon music is action-oriented with some fake chorus and has an identifiable theme.
The Gorn have a theme, too, with low brass and strings. It's a little slow and a little menacing.
The Romulans feature pounding tom-tom's, brass and a sense of urgency. It's no Ron Jones, but the orchestral craftsmanship on this game score is way higher than before.
The Mirak music (a species created for the game) is aggressive with percussion and brass staccato. The music for the Lyrans (another race created for the game) is in a similar vein.
There's too much music to go threw.
The score is colorful, musically stretches instead of droning on the background, and at times has a little but of an action/swashbuckling feel.
Zur took this work quite seriously and the result is music that often you think you might hear in a Trek TV series. I'd go as far to say he's certainly got the potential to score an episode.
"Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates" (2001)
Composed by: Inon Zur.
I couldn't really find anything for it on youtube, but I assume Zur brought a similar level of quality. The IMDb page has him listed as a conductor, too, so I would venture this has a mostly or completely real orchestral score.
"Star Trek: Starfleet Command III" (2002)
Composed by: Danny Pelfrey.
Back to interchangable synth music. There's nothing about this that makes you think "Star Trek", from the action Federation music, to the electronic sounds with the thin synth orchestra for the Borg, to the annonymous filler action music of the Romulans.
Considering what Zur was doing just less than a year before, it's kind of a let down.
"Star Trek: Bridge Commander" (2002)
Composed by: Danny Pelfrey.
This is an improvement from Pelfrey, considering the above game score review.
The cue, which I am nick-naming by a youtube video's title, "Confidence", features aggressive snare rolls, toms, brass and cello base, sounding like a military film montage scene as the good guys set up to beat the heck out of the bad guys. Worth a release and worth a hear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OmAtVD0Gtk
Other un-named cues feature more real-sounding synth orchestra (As opposed to his efforts so far). Take this cue for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI8RQuwYM5U
Though a little repetitive, the action material, especially anything like the "Confidence" material, could rather easily be edited into polished suits (since many cues simply have no proper ending or real beginning) for a good listening experience. Some of them fit like jigsaw pieces and wouldn't require really that much effort to combine.
I found it interesting one youtube video, after a battle in the game, tracked some of the main title from Shirley Walker's score to "Final Destination" into the game, 'cause it worked very well.
"Star Trek: Elite Force II" (2003)
Composed by: Zak Belica (and sound design for the game).
Additional music and theme by: Danny Pelfrey.
Pelfrey uses his theme from the first game again, even though it has hints of Goldsmith's Voyager theme and this time is set against the Enterprise E and Patrick Stewart with the opening lines. This time however it has a cheesy although breif interlude. Unfortunately it's not spruced up with better samples.
Unfortunately we take a step backwards musically speaking.
Belica's music is seemingly aimless, sometimes ambient, often just inappropriate sounding for a Trek game. At one point we have what sounds like some weird Predator light action rip off with a Latin rhythm that goes nowhere for 2:38. Listening to it is an exercise in patience.
I'm reminded of a line from the "Sgt. Bilko" film:
"Make the bad man stop!"
Belica did one Trek game score according to IMDb. In 2006 he also scored a fan film "Borg War", which was computer animated.
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Apparently Trek games scores took some years off, since in 2005 none came out and only one in 2006 and 2004.
I've started to mix some consule games into the mini reviews.
"Star Trek: Legacy" (2006)
Composed by: [Rod Abernethy and Jason Graves.
According to their IMDb pages, they did four Trek game scores together.
The score is a totally annonymous large synth-sounding orchestra with no stand out themes, just an onslaught of orchestral. I can't even recall a theme. And the music for the Borg, is another example of how to not score the Borg, with electronica sounds knocking about over annonymous orchestra sounds. The Klingon music is epsecially bad, not only because of how unfitting it is, but I knew which non-Trek film score part of one cue, ripped off.
Special note, however, to a number of homages to Horner's Khan music from STII: TWoK in a cue where you battle Khan in the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEurIvCWsxo
The BSX re-recorded cues compilation from Trek games, included the cue "Kirk's Theme":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6dXDu96_iE
"Star Trek: D.A.C." (2009)
Composed by: Chad Seiter?
His website says he arranged and orchestrated it. Seemingly upon Giacchino's score to the first film.
Giacchino's Trek film scores don't do anything for me.
Here's the menu music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRzMljKAcPw
The music is done with a real orchestra.
"Star Trek Online" (2010)
Composed by: Kevin Manthei.
This is his only Trek game score.
Manthei opens the credits with the Courage fanfare, then goes into his theme for the game, with synth orchestra. The second half of his theme has a catchy sound but the easy out some composers lately have been using, shoving chorus on tracks to make it sound bigger and more dramatic. The good part of his theme is especially highlighted in two cues not on his website. Starting somewhere from 7:30 to the end:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnQ-LV--cw0
Manthei offers 16 cues to listen to on his website:
http://kevinmanthei.com/mu_sto.html
There are a number of good moments but unfortunately those are offset with a number of just wrong and even inappropriatly scored moments in cues, which is a shame. And once again another Trek game composer has obviously shows us we need a class on How to Not Score the Borg 101; once again elextronica elements and even a baffling interlude with male chorus.
Oddly enough I'm reminded of something from the book Star Trek: The Next Generation: Sketch Book, where one of the ship design artists (sorry, my copy is buried and I can't pull it out for exact details) says designs would be vetoed and one time the complaint was it looked like a chicken and that they were right. He said sometimes you just need to be told it looks like a chicken. Well, Manthei has a lot of promise here and a lot of good moments, but a good deal of it is the musical equivilant of a chicken. He needs somebody over him to veto the chicken stuff 'cause I feel we could get a heck of a Trek game score out of him if that occured.
With some clever editing, there is score from this that deserves to be released.
"Star Trek: Infinite Space" (2011; cancelled)
Composed by: Chris Hülsbeck
Based upon this cue, there's nothing of note here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBAzvPsvPb0
Preview of non in-game scenes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwKjBP2c3l0
"Star Trek: Encounters" (2006)
Composed by: Rod Abernethy and Jason Graves.
I only found one cue, but it sounds the same. Plus the opening credits just plain as day rips off a John Willians piece ending.
"Star Trek: Conquest" (2007)
Composed by: [Rod Abernethy, Jason Graves, and Michael Gordon Shapiro.
This is Shapiro's only Trek game score, according to his IMDb credits.
I couldn't find any samples of the music on youtube and any gameplay had too much talking over the music to hear it properly.
"Star Trek" (2013)
Composed by: Chad Seiter.
Based upon the JJTrekverse.
Seiter has samples on his site, but they aren't working for me, so I can't go by those.
Here's a video of him talking about making the music with his music playing under it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=362cZBJBdxs
"Star Trek: Timelines" (2016)
Composed by: ?????
Just released on January 14.
And that concludes the initial game list, from the next post onward I'll be doing the console games, so we'll be going back some years. It's a shorter list, so I'll finish it more quickly.
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And now I get closer to concluding my journey with consule games. For the sake of my sanity I'll be jumping ahead to 1993 and I'll also be skipping mobile games (let's face it, if there are good scores to be heard there, it would be a miracle involving George and Gracie inventing a temporal alteration device that erases Uhura's naked fan dance from history).
"Star Trek: The Next Generation: Future's Past" (1993)
Composed by: Andrew Edlen and Joseph White
Oh, man, you haven't lived until you've heard Goldsmith's ST: TMP theme in 16-bit. And it does this for about three minutes, then suddenly the score drops all pretenses of being music for a Trek game and becomes Nintendo NES Mario music on crack.
Let's face it, probably only you-know-who here would like this. This isn't just a waste of your lfie to hear, it's a step backwards in forwarded humanity.
"Star Trek: The Next Generation: Echoes from the Past" (1994)
Composed by: Andrew Edlen. And Dennis McCarthy?
Online sources list McCarthy for this. Unfortunately his website went caput years ago and I can't check that for a resume listing.
Yes, another 16-bit rendition of Goldsmith's ST: TMP theme.
Well, it's better crap, but still my brain is sucking itself in for nutirents. Soon it shall create a blackhole where nothing can escape, if I keep listening to this.
"Star Trek Generations: Beyond the Nexus" (1994)
Composed by: Who cares, it's interchangable and not Trek sounding.
Blah, blah, blah, my fucking brain hurts.
For the sake of my brain and the poor zombines who would go starving if they burst in now, I am forced to skip ahead years. I'm choosing the arbitrary year of 2000.
"Star Trek: Invasion" (in the year 2000... in the year two thouSSSAAAAANNNNND!)
Composed by: Ian Livingstone.
His only Trek game according to his IMDb page.
Ah, much better. The music is of course, since technology has improved in the years skipped, more film like. Some of it even sounds like sprinkles of real orchestra.
While nothing here sounds like Trek, it's tailored music with a theme and even some effort with orchestral colors. Whiel a game from 2000, this sounds like something that could have come out of the mid 1990's music-wise with regular non-consule Trek game scores.
And special super karate monkey death points for being the first composer, that I can recall, that didn't score the Borg with electronica or sound effects.
While there are some interesting bits here and there, I'm not sure there is anything I'd want to hear apart from the game.
"Star Trek: Shattered Universe" (2003)
Composed by: Barry Fasman and John O'Kennedy.
We've gone three years into the future but musically speaking we've taken a step backward by three or four years.
The music is cheaper and inferior to what Livingstone did just three years prior. Again, more non Trek sounding music, but this time with repetitive percussion lead pieces with electronic sound design behind them. There's nothing here that needs to be heard apart from the game.
Well, I'be only got two or three left, including one I think I missed from the regular games list. I'll review those next time as well as give my summation on everything.
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Posted: |
Feb 13, 2016 - 5:38 AM
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By: |
CrazyQuark
(Member)
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Chris Hülsbeck's score for Infinite Space is available in digital form on bandcamp:
http://chrishuelsbeck.bandcamp.com/album/infinite-space-resurrection-original-soundtrack
For what it's worth, I don't think this is anywhere near Hülsbeck's best works, but it's fairly decent I'd say. This is the kind of music that should have been in "Birth of the Federation" at the very least. I can't see see this working to well in a kind of actionoriented game, though - at least the trailer suggested to me that this was a game with... well action in it? Could be the wrong impression, perhaps. Don't know much about this game at all.
-
Reading through the thread I almost get the impression that hardly anyone here ever touched a Star Trek game (certainly not Justin it seems) so I thought I'd give some comments about the music for some of these games, coming from someone who actually played them back in the days.
The first I remember (that actually had music) was "Star Trek 25th Anniversary" for the Game Boy, a game I liked quite a lot back then for a variety of reasons - the music, while being simple and not present all the time, does a very good job here adding to the atmosphere. With the exception of the Title music (by Courage) it consists mostly of arrangements of several different themes originally composed by Gerald Fried, like the "Amok Time"-theme but there are some others as well.
I also tried for a while getting into the SNES-TNG-game that Justin recently reviewed. I fully agree with him here, even for SNES-music-standarts this is absolutely forgettable, unmemorable stuff. Don't know what the composer(s) used as inspiration???
"Star Trek The Next Generation A Final Unity" (PC-DOS) was a lot of fun - the game doesn't feature much music, only in cutscenes if I remember correctly - overall I'd say the music does it's job here but I think the only bit that kind of stood out for me was in the ending sequence.
"Star Trek Starfleet Academy" (PC) was also a hell of a game and a unique experience, in which the music helped a lot, right from the very first cutscene you felt "right at home" in the Star Trek-universe. Outstanding work by Ron Jones here - Brian Luzietti had the more unthankfull job scoring mostly dialogue-driven cutscenes and the like, sadly not with an orchestra but cheap-sounding synth. All things considered I'd say he did the best with it, also using the Courage-fanfare and even the themes provided by Jones for the game.
"Star Trek Generations" (PC) also was a fun game overall, although it had quite a lot of flaws, most of them probably thanks to the fact that the producers wanted the game out when the movie was out so I guess it was sort of rushed. As for the music, I liked the title theme, it certainly sets you into the right mood for the game - other than that the game also uses music only during cutscenes and during the stages itself you get to hear lot of short event-jingles. While it's nothing to be listened outside of the game, these event-jingles actually do their job pretty well, enhancing the experience.
"Star Trek The Next Generation Klingon Honor Guard" (PC) - I remember the game did get a whole lot of bad criticism mostly for it's game engine when it came out. And yeah it sure wasn't perfect and the visuals weren't up to standarts of the time. But I think what most people sort of ignored in their quest for the "perfect graphics" was the level-design. In any case I enjoyed the hell out of these complex levels here. It also didn't took too long for me to fall in love with the music. The music tracks are stored as CD-audio on the disc and every once in a while the game "decides" to pick a track and play it. The downside to this appraoch is of course, that you don't get individual music tracks for individual levels so everything has to fit everywhere - I assume this is what Justin referred to as calling the music repetitive because they appear all fairly samey. But guess what, I love them all nonetheless. And yes, there are references to Star Trek-music. In the Liner notes to the BSX-release Roland Rizzo tells us he got inspired by "The Wrath of Khan" and there's at least one track in the score where this influence is really very obvious. Other than that, there's also something that seems to be inspired by Goldsmith's Klingon-music in there too.
"Star Trek Voyager Elite Force" (PC) - after all the criticism for KHG this seems to do things right, judging from the reviews back when it came out. And yeah, it was kind of fun. Certainly it was fun with the Voyager crew all around and what not. But the level design this time around... if you ask me: boring. Compared to KHG it was very simpistic and plain linear, almost like 2D-level design in disguise, you never really could get lost anywhere because there's only one route to take pretty much. And yes, the music. Well, I assume Pelfrey composed the theme and some of the cutscenes at least? At least there are some tracks were the main theme reappears so I assume they are also done by Pelfrey. Well, that theme-tune is really nicely done, imho, I certainly didn't miss Goldsmith's theme here. Good alternate, if you will. As for the ingame-music, I don't know what were they thinking here. Couldn't be more bland and boring, totally unfitting for a first-person-shooter. More something like "sleep-description-music". So yeah, what was the idea behind this? I don't get it.
"Star Trek The Next Generation Birth of the Federation" (PC) - overall I think the game was enjoyable but it could have been enjoyable more, imho - similar to Elite Force, it kind of uses fairly unengaging music all the way through. Even worse, the composer had to compose some 20-seconds (or so) long pieces of music, and they would be played in random order for variety I suppose, so everything had to fit with everything. I'd say this restriction alone makes it like impossible hard to compose something worthwile. :/ But seriously man, if you have a game like this where pretty much all you get to see is space maps and some option menus you need some good music to make up for the (lack of intersting) visuals to keep you interested. Again, I just don't get the idea behind this approach. I guess they tried to match the subtle approach of Star Trek's TV-scoring, but if that's the case they tried too hard...
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"Star Trek: Armada III" (2014)
No score.
An unofficial sequel game that only works if you have Sins of a Solar Empire.
"Star Trek: Tactical Assault" (2006)
Composed by: Jason Graves and Rod Abernethy.
A synth score.
The intro, which is lucky enough to have an older William Shatner to redo his classic intro lines, has a soft and placid backing with some harp. It's okay, nothing you really have to hear.
But then the score veers off the slipstream corridor and crashes into an ice planet with this annoying and overtly synthy action anthem with a militaristic sound.
The rest of the score I heard was this annoying overtly synthy sounding score with misplaced militaristic sound. This was 2006, not 1996 -- this was a terrible step backwards.
"Star Trek: ?????" (2003?)
Composed by: ?????
Cancelled Trek game. In the linked video it looks really nice most of the time (while others it looks like some bad "Babylon 5" CGI):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq_xt0cYW78
Information online says it was cancelled due to some kind of legal trouble. I have no idea if the music in the video is from the game; even tough he's speaking in another language, I was able to make out "orchestra", making me think perhaps the game is tracked with the score. I wasn't able to find out who the composer hired was.
And so concludes the journey, utilizing what youtube videos and composer websites I could find.
In conclusion, I have found -- and this was remarked by others -- that most Trek games suck. One reviewer goes as far as to say there's never been a good one.
And while most of the scores sucked, were none existant, orcheap wastes of time, there were, however, some saving graces. First of all, though, I have to acknowledge the bad scores. In this I will be discounting old 16/8-bit, etc., games made before it was really possible to have a real score due to limitations of the technology.
The Worst of the Worst of the Worst, Without Honors. Sir!
"Star Trek: The Next Generation: Interactive VCR Board Game - A Klingon Challenge"
Composed by: Peter Pope.
Just ... no.
"Star Trek: The Next Generation: Klingon Honor Guard"
Composed by: Mark Cromer, Mark G. Reis, and Roland Rizzo.
You know the old joke, "How many ______ (blondes, Pollocks, Congressmen) does it take to change a light bulb?"
Well, how many composers does it take to create a complete mess? You'd think one, but apparently not.
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Dominion Wars"
Composed by: Gary Wagner and Scott Roewe.
Gary Wagner and Scott Roewe stepped in the Quantum Musically Leap Backwards machine and the chance for a good score vanished.
"Star Trek: Elite Force II"
Composed by: Zak Belica
Just go over to youtube and find No, No, No cat. He'll do the speaking for me.
"Star Trek: Shattered Universe"
Composed by: Barry Fasman and John O'Kennedy.
To paraphrase "Ghostbusters":
"Next time somebody asks you if you want Barry Fasman and John O'Kennedy to score your Star Trek video game, you say NO!"
All this music to various degrees, is simply unforgivable.
One of my biggest personal complaints along the journey, is the lack of familiar and popular themes. Yes, we got the Courage and Goldsmith themes and some rare homages of other material elsewhere, but that's it. I don't know what the legalities are, but every time I saw Klingon music, I kept hoping, hoping, and hoping some more we'd get some of the Goldsmith music, or at the very least Horner's, but it never happened.
Every time we got something set in a certain show universe, like D.S.9., I kept hoping we'd hear more of the theme in new variations, but alas...
And perhaps my biggest complaint: every single composer's music for the Borg. To quote Gordon Ramsay, "Wow, wow, wow, what a shame". And that's putting it nicely.
Another common complaint for me was the style of the music. Trek has a varied and rich musical history, however, when you hear something that isn't right, you know it isn't right for Star Trek, and almost everything I heard was not Trek-worthy material. some of it was done right inappropriate, and others generic and interchangable. And there's a special Hell reserved for child molestors and people who use electronica in Trek music.
Sometimes the music was simple; others time it was deceptively simply, opting for details in the orchestration design; and then there was one composer who simply brought it to a higher level than everybody else. Eh, but what do I know? After all: "And you are bad taste" (I am? LOL)
Unfortunately, I don't like saying it, but there was one disappointment for me: Ron Jones. For a man who shun so brightly with his ST: TNG scores, there was just nothing remakrable here; it was borign and uninspired, kind of auto-pilot like. Does that mean he shouldn't be scoring Trek games? No. He just needs more to work with, I think, and a real and large orchestra.
If I had to name three composers who's work was exemplory to one degree or another, I'd have to narrow it down to:
3: Kevin Manthei
Even though his one Trek score needs some editing, there is good material here, especially the action theme.
2: Danny Pelfrey
Though his scores were a hit and miss with me, he did hit a number of strong notes, particularly the nick-named "Confidence" theme.
1: And for number one, we have the composer who simply brought more to his music, on a higher level, than the others, Inon Zur.
The music is crafted well, featured interesting orchestration colors and he simply gave more effort, it sounds, into doing his scores (over all). If you were developing a Trek game and you wanted to not experiment and use a composer who's already done one or more, you can't go wrong by hiring Zur. As I said previously, I think it would be nice to hear an episode of a Trek series scored by him.
And now I get closer to drawing to a close by mentioning the good scores again. I would like to preface by saying I did note a few times in my thread that I couldn't find samples of some scores, or the videos on youtube had too much SFX to make the music out properly, so this misses some scores.
"Star Trek: Klingon"
Composed by: Gregory Smith
There are some peices here that are good for a Trek compilation. And I should make note he was the first Trek game composer to do anything worth a damn.
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Fallen"
Composer by: Steven von Kampen
It's mostly a low-key score, but there are cues to take away from it.
"Star Trek: Klingon Academy"
Composed by: Inon Zur.
As I said in my review, there are some cues that should be heard apart from the game, especially the Klingon music.
"Star Trek: Away Team"
Composed by: Danny Pelfrey.
Some of the Klingon music would be good apart from it, but I can't say anything else would.
"Star Trek: Starfleet Command II: Empires at War"
Composed by: Inon Zur.
I think there's music to take away from this effort.
"Star Trek: Bridge Commander"
Composed by: Danny Pelfrey.
This is the game that had the nick-named "Confidence" cue. That certainly deserves to be heard apart fro mthe game, but it's in short peices, so some editing will be required (plus it lends itself, mostly, to combining).
"Star Trek: Elite Force II"
Pelfrey's theme music. Though as I noted, it was re-done for the BSX release.
"Star Trek Online"
Composed by: Kevin Manthei.
I think I've said just about all I need to say. By the way, he's worked with Beltrami in the past, and you can hear a little brush-off there. Probably the nearest you'll get to a Beltrami Trek score.
And so endith my journey, which thankfully took a shorter amount of time than I originally estimated.
I have to say I'm kind of dissapointed, because nobody really knocked it out of the park or did anything on par with the best of the best Trek TV series episode scores. And say what ever you want about Dennis McCarthy, but year-after-year he steadily cranked out superior scores. So, I still await the day where I heard a Trek video game score and am simply just taken by it.
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I thought I'd revive this with a new score; it's not a game, but it's a theme park that had original music scored for it (I thought I'd lump it into this thread):
"Star Trek: Operation Enterprise"
By: Andreas Kübler & Sebastian Kübler
Making of the score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB0vBIWbtu4
The score is orchestral. It's pleasant enough on it's own, but doesn't make me want to hear more. And while fine on it's own, it's just not Star Trek. It's like I said in a post earlier in this thread: I know Star Trek music when I hear it and this just isn't it.
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I thought I'd revive this with a new score; it's not a game, but it's a theme park that had original music scored for it (I thought I'd lump it into this thread):
"Star Trek: Operation Enterprise"
By: Andreas Kübler & Sebastian Kübler
Making of the score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB0vBIWbtu4
The score is orchestral. It's pleasant enough on it's own, but doesn't make me want to hear more. And while fine on it's own, it's just not Star Trek. It's like I said in a post earlier in this thread: I know Star Trek music when I hear it and this just isn't it.
All of the ride music (and new recordings of the Trek themes) was released on CD in Germany. Ive got it. Its all orchestral.
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I thought I'd revive this with a new score; it's not a game, but it's a theme park that had original music scored for it (I thought I'd lump it into this thread):
"Star Trek: Operation Enterprise"
By: Andreas Kübler & Sebastian Kübler
Making of the score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB0vBIWbtu4
The score is orchestral. It's pleasant enough on it's own, but doesn't make me want to hear more. And while fine on it's own, it's just not Star Trek. It's like I said in a post earlier in this thread: I know Star Trek music when I hear it and this just isn't it.
All of the ride music (and new recordings of the Trek themes) was released on CD in Germany. Ive got it. Its all orchestral.
I'm a big fan of this cd. Some of the tracks were recorded with a live orchestra in Budapest, but others use a synth orchestra.
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I thought I'd revive this with a new score; it's not a game, but it's a theme park that had original music scored for it (I thought I'd lump it into this thread):
"Star Trek: Operation Enterprise"
By: Andreas Kübler & Sebastian Kübler
Making of the score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB0vBIWbtu4
The score is orchestral. It's pleasant enough on it's own, but doesn't make me want to hear more. And while fine on it's own, it's just not Star Trek. It's like I said in a post earlier in this thread: I know Star Trek music when I hear it and this just isn't it.
All of the ride music (and new recordings of the Trek themes) was released on CD in Germany. Ive got it. Its all orchestral.
I'm a big fan of this cd. Some of the tracks were recorded with a live orchestra in Budapest, but others use a synth orchestra.
Agreed. As much as i love the original recordings, this CD was a good one!
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