Xak: The Art of Visual Stage

vgmrips · Post by **vgmrips** » 2015-04-29, 20:30:29

Title	Xak: The Art of Visual Stage
Composer	Tadahiro Nitta, Ryuji Sasai
System	MSX2
Sound Chips	MSX-MUSIC (YM2413), PSG (AY-3-8910)
Tracks	50
Playing time	1:08:40
Pack author	Grauw
Pack version	1.01
Last Update	2018-02-21

Download

Computers/MSX/Xak_-_The_Art_of_Visual_Stage_(MSX2,_OPLL).zip (1 142 539 bytes)

Pack author's comment
You will be hard pressed to find YM2413 music better than this… Micro Cabin truly mastered the OPLL + PSG !

Other notable Micro Cabin games are Xak II: Rising of the Redmoon, Xak: Tower of Gazzel, Fray in Magical Adventure and Illusion City.

The pack was recorded with openMSX 0.11.0 using the vgmrec script which can be found in the vgmplay-msx source code repository.

Kaminari · Post by **Kaminari** » 2015-04-30, 16:19:11

Good job and very nice pack, although you should get rid of the SFX-only tracks.

Can't wait for Illusion City!

grauw · Post by **grauw** » 2015-04-30, 19:39:34

Hey Kanimari,

Thanks for your feedback! How strong of a “should” is that?

Tracks 01-50 are on the OST, I don’t think I should remove any of those. Tracks 51-53 I added, I could remove the explosion tracks if needed (52/53).

Re. track 01, it’s the intro of the game and I think it’s part of the atmosphere, Xak II, Gazzel and Ys have similar intros (was popular at the time I guess

). I could try to load the game from HDD so it becomes a bit shorter absent loading times, maybe…

As for Illusion City, I’d like to play the game sometime but there’s no complete translation

and I’ve got other projects I’m working on as well, so not anytime soon. I wouldn’t mind at all if someone else would rip these games, actually I hope the Xak soundtrack will inspire people to take a look at the other games

.

Kaminari · Post by **Kaminari** » 2015-05-01, 1:50:55

I don't know if there are any specific recommendations here at VGM Rips, but Project 2612 and SMS Power strongly discourage (ie. remove) tracks which are only composed of sound effects. I tend to agree, as ambient sounds are not music per se (however immersive they are). But that's my personal take on the subject.

grauw · Post by **grauw** » 2015-05-02, 15:37:30

I updated the pack, removed tracks 51 (battle field with waterfall sound effect), 52 and 53 (explosion effects). Track 01 I will keep because they are really drums, used musically. I did shorten it though by reducing load times.

The track listing now is a 1:1 match with the OST.

I hope it’s final now.

MaliceX · Post by **MaliceX** » 2015-05-09, 19:14:21

VERY nice! Have been eyeing the Xak series but damned if anyone could rip every single song of each game!

PS: also listening to this on the opl3 hw mode in VGMPlay. Kind of can't believe this is from 1989.

Pasokon Deacon · Post by **Pasokon Deacon** » 2015-05-28, 9:52:37

Nitta's the unsung hero of OPLL. He wasn't just a great musician during his time at Micro Cabin (leaving around the time Elm Knight and Gal Act Heroism released)—the sound programming he did for their games is breathtaking. Y'all should listen to his OPN work on Dragon Half and Konpeki no Kantai. They're overlooked perhaps because they're licensed games, but his soundtracks for them are superb.

Great work on the rip, Grauw. Now I can listen to Land of Flames, The Sky anywhere.

Post by **vampirefrog** » 2016-04-21, 21:23:15

Grauw pack, Great!

grauw · Post by **grauw** » 2018-01-27, 2:45:17

The 1.01 update fixed a stray drum at the start of some tracks.