My Love Affair With Lightening Force, part 2

Here's Part 1 of this series, in case you missed it!

Here in Part 2 of "My Love Affair With Lightening Force", I want to focus on a portion of the game that has been a constant companion for me over the last 20+ years: the music.  Over the last few years, the Chiptune music community has grown from a handful of guys and gals writing music based around the Chiptune aesthetic, or some even authentically using NES, Game Boy, Genesis, or other console sound chips to generate new, original music or sometimes remakes or re-imaginings of existing game music.  Some of this music is decidedly "game music" in nature, whether it belongs to a game or not, because it has much the same construction or "feel" to it as many game soundtracks do.  Others are wholly different creations, spanning genres as diverse as classical, metal, synthpop, EBM/techno, industrial, and even factoring into nerdcore hip-hop.  Chiptune artists have begun to gain more widespread appeal, with groups like Anamanaguchi having garnered more media attention than the average obscure band.

During the early stages of computer & video game development, music was often used sparingly to accent certain scenes or situations, often signaling the achievement of a power-up, start or end of a level, indicate a boss encounter, or to let you know you just met a key level objective.  Many early arcade games had little or no music, and many early computer games did the same, because the basic "beeps and boops" of simple PC & game hardware sound chips would grate after a while, or perhaps because there wasn't enough processing power to make music AND sound at the same time successfully.  As computers became more complex, and in turn, gaming hardware followed suit, we began to have simplistic song loops that complemented the game we were playing, often trying to evoke a certain mood or feeling that matched the level, game, or overall theme of what we were playing.  There are certainly some iconic tracks accompanying games, like a chiptune version of the Peter Gunn theme playing in the game Spy Hunter, or the now infamous level 1-1 music for the original Super Mario Bros.

I'm sure the Peter Gunn theme is stuck in your head now.  You're welcome.

During each era, there are music teams and/or composers who stand out on a particular game console as masters of their craft, because either they make really effective use of the console's sound hardware, or because they push that hardware to the limit and make it do things that perhaps even the creators of the hardware didn't even know were possible.  Such was the case with Sunsoft during the heyday of the Nintendo Entertainment System.  One listen to most any of their original soundtracks, and you'd know you were listening to something that had pushed beyond the mere boundaries of what other game companies were doing to take the tunes to that next level.  One listen to the soundtracks for Sunsoft's Batman title, or Journey to Silius, and you'll know what I mean.  Compare those 2 soundtracks to any other on the system, and you know they found a way to push the hardware to new heights, with great success.  More realistic drum sounds, "fuller" instrument sounds, and just a more atmospheric overall feel.

"I'm Batman."  Stage 2 theme.

Definitely a forgotten gem of a game, and game soundtrack!  Title screen theme.

In the Genesis era, while Sega made great use of the sound hardware for its first party titles (Sonic the Hedgehog rings true), it was Techno Soft that developed into one of the masters of the Z80 sound hardware.  This didn't happen all at once, however.  Thunder Force II and III had good soundtracks, but they still relied on some of the same typical "instrument sets" as were utilized by other game makers at the time, while pioneering some of their own.  In fact, despite the similarity in sound and approach between games, the music for Thunder Force II was actually composed by Tomomi Ootani.  He worked with Toshiharu Yamanishi for Thunder Force III, but Thunder Force IV (aka Lightening Force) was primarily done by Toshiharu Yamanishi.  Toshiharu Yamanishi's credits also include the nicely done soundtrack to the Genesis game Elemental Master, a bit of a hidden shmup gem for the console.  He's also worked on soundtracks for several obscure, Japan-only releases for PlayStation and PC.  On the Sega Genesis (or MegaDrive, if you prefer), he found his voice with his compositions for Thunder Force IV.

This man is a genius.

His soundtrack for LF/TFIV is nothing short of incredible.  It takes the same "bigger" approach that Sunsoft did with the NES and threw out the rule book.  The instrument set has a "fuller" and thicker sound than before, there is actual bass sound, the drum sounds in use are heavy and driving, and the music encompasses several genres of rock, heavy metal, avant-garde, electronic, and more traditional video game balladry or pomp & circumstance.  One listen to the intro music to the game's title screen (a track known as "Lightning Strikes Again"), and it's abundantly clear that this isn't going to be your typical Genesis game soundtrack.  Screaming heavy metal guitars, drum sounds that are more than just thin snare hits and limp bass drum, bass guitar sound that is present in the mix, and a layered sound that belies the fact that it is still mere sound chip-based video game music.  Each subsequent track takes you on a journey through some of the most meticulously composed and arranged music you'll hear in a video game.  While some games work best with spare music and effects, Lightening Force was all about the "bigger, better, more" approach that shoot-em-ups were taking, and the music reflected that perfectly.  Everything you love about a good, high-energy shmup soundtrack was taken to the Nth degree here.

In fact, the soundtrack for Lightening Force has been a favorite of mine since practically the first time I booted the game up.  I was instantly impressed by the music in the game so much that I would sometimes boot it up and go into the hidden options screen (accessible by holding down the A, B or C buttons at or before the Title Screen and hitting Start on the controller) for the sole purpose of listening to the music, it is that good.  Imagine my delight, then, when I found out that after beating the game, you unlock the 10 "Omake" tracks, all tracks composed for the game, but ultimately not used within any level or portion of the game.  I poured over those songs like I did the main soundtrack, because by and large, they were just as good.  Some of the Omake tracks have become just as much favorites as some of the level themes.  It's a shame there wasn't more game to include those songs, but the game is so good as it stands, it's hard to argue with them just being bonus songs.

I'm going to switch into "hyper nerd" mode for a moment, and explain my obsession with the LF/TFIV tunes a bit more in depth.  A year out of high school, I got married, and when I went into the work force shortly thereafter, I got a job with a telemarketing firm.  Initially, I was just calling leads like everyone, but a few months in I worked my way into the IT department.  From there, I advanced whenever and however I could.  Having access to the equipment that I did at that time was a real treat, and I was able to do some pretty cool things.  I began rekindling my love for gaming which had been slightly cooled between college and marriage, and pulled out my beloved Genesis console and hooked it up at home.  Pulling out Lightening Force again and playing it, I remembered what a fantastic soundtrack it was, and how much I wished I could take that soundtrack with me on the go.  Keep in mind, this was in mid-1998, when the graphical Internet was just beginning to really get a foothold, so there were no game music MP3 downloads, no .VGM files for complete soundtracks, nothing.  If I wanted to accomplish that desire, I had to do it myself.  So I moved my Genesis into the home office, connected a cable from the stereo out jack on the face of the Genesis to the Microphone/Input port on my PC's trusty Soundblaster card, and began the arduous task of using GoldWave (STILL fantastic software) to record each song from the game.  As is now standard with .VGM soundtrack rips (and indeed, most finite-length console game music rips), I recorded just over 2 loops of each track and manually programmed a 5-20 second fade-out for each one, depending on the total track length and level of repeat in the main melody line.  It wasn't an exact science, to be sure, but I feel as though my original recordings were well timed.

All those recordings were done to .WAV files, which was quite space consuming on my then-huge 1.5GB hard drive.  In order to burn them to CD, I had to somehow get them to the office.  I didn't have a CD burner yet, because those were quite expensive at first.  We had a single speed, external parallel port model at the office, that had the full tray you would drop the CD into, close the lid, then insert into the drive.  When done, you'd eject the tray, pull it out, open the lid, take out the CD and then label accordingly.  It was a thing of beauty for a guy just starting out in IT.  We didn't have USB thumb drives back then, because half the PCs around were still running Windows 95 and wouldn't even have supported such a thing, so I had to compress the files down to 256KB .MP3 files, copy them onto a pair of 100MB Iomega Zip Disks (remember those?), take them to the office, copy them back to a PC, then convert those .MP3 files back into .WAV files, since that was the only audio format the burner software recognized.  Prior to that conversion, I did a little fiddling with the files, using GoldWave to boost the bass levels a bit, so that I could get a bit more low-end when listening on a stereo system.  Unfortunately, this made the tracks slightly "buzzy", in that the added bass made the bass level just a bit too high, so when the tracks were compressed, then converted back to .WAV files, there was more a bit more noise in the mix than would be preferred.  I still think they sound good, but I'm more acutely aware of such things today as I was then.  Besides, I didn't have much choice at that time, due to limitations of the technology at my disposal.

These babies were awesome for carrying around files larger than would fit on a measly 1.44MB floppy drive.

I used the company's Photoshop 4 license to design and create the CD sleeve artwork, as well as the tray card.  At the time, text with flames was a big thing, so of course, I found a Photoshop Action file to assist with that.  For the tray card, I also wanted to include screenshots of the game from various locations, but there weren't really any image search engines or great scans of most games yet (Google Images was just a glint in the eye!), so I had to make my own.  I downloaded the now-defunct Genecyst emulator for DOS (still a remarkable feat of coding) and proceeded to play through much of the game via keyboard controls in order to get the level screenshots I wanted.  I ended up with great shots from the Air Raid & Daser stages, as well as a shot over the Level 5 battleship, and a nice boss fight shot of Level 6, complete with discharge of the powered-up CRAW.  I didn't have the right software or materials to print a CD label, so I had to make due with just using a fine-tip marker to label the disc itself.  But after designing the sleeve and tray card, I used up A LOT of ink in my Epson printer in order to print them out.  Due to the limitations (at that time) of CD-R technology, I was relegated to a 650MB CD, topping out at 74 minutes of music.  The way I lined out the tracks, I filled that 74 minutes completely, and had to omit "Omake 10", the continue screen music, as well as the standard Ranking Screen theme, and even the Game Over music, and then slightly shorten a couple tracks to make it all fit.  With today's 700MB, 80-minute CD-R discs, I think I *might* be able to make it all fit on one disc.  In any event, it was an exercise in calculation and careful planning to get it all recorded, converted, formatted properly, and laid out in a manner that would allow me to get it onto a blank CD-R disc.  As you can see by the finished product below, a lot of love went into this project.

It doesn't look as nice today, but at the time I printed the sleeve & tray card up, I thought it was absolutely fantastic.

Something else you may not be able to tell immediately from the picture (unless you look at it full-resolution) is that I came up with all my own track names.  The Internet was still quite new, and there weren't endless resources regarding video game music yet.  No Video Game Music Database yet, no Galbadia Hotel (no, I'm not linking there!), not even a fully formed VGMusic site yet.  I had no way of knowing, other than watching the game's credits roll, who composed the music in the game, let alone the song titles of each track.  So, without the benefit of a track list, using only the instruction manual & intimate knowledge of the game as my guide, I set about naming all the songs in the game so I could come up with a nice tracklist for the tray card.  I broke each stage into a "suite", and then created 2 suites at the end, 1 for the various endgame music tracks, and 1 for the omake bonus tracks.  Below is a chart (yes, I'm that nerdy) detailing my track titles & order, along side the actual titles, and what stage/area they each correspond to.

My Title	Actual Title	Stage/Area
Intro to Kha-Oss	Lightning Strikes Again	Title Screen
Prepare For Battle	Tan Tan Ta Ta Ta Tan	Options Screen
Decisions, Decisions...	Don't Go Off	Course Select
Conflict Above the Strite Sea	Fighting Back	Stage 1A
Testing the Waters	What!	Stage 1B
Battle of the Stritian Sea	Evil Destroyer	Stage 1 Boss
Daser Deluge	Sand Hell	Stage 4A
Desert Assault	Where!	Stage 4B
Iron Phoenix	Strike Out	Stage 4 Boss
Target Practice	Space Walk	Stage 2A
Left In Ruins	Danger!! Danger!!	Stage 2B
Ruined By the Clawed Wonder	Attack Sharply	Stage 2 Boss
Intercepting the Fleet	The Sky Line	Stage 3A
Air-Raid in the Eastern Sky	Air Raid	Stage 3B
Multi-Faceted Techno Terror	Simmer Down	Stage 3 Boss
Battleship	Battle Ship	Stage 5
Indestructable Behemoth	Stranger	Stage 5 Boss
Knighted With Thunder	Neo Weapon	Stage 5 Docking
Braving the Waves of Volbados	Great Sea Power	Stage 6
Frozen Aquatic Menace	The Breaker	Stage 6 Boss
Entrance to the Bio-Base	Sea of Flame	Stage 7
Armordillo	Rancor	Stage 7 Boss
Bio-Infiltration	Metal Squad	Stage 8
Infestation vs. Electro-Pesticide	Phantom	Stage 8 Bosss
Heart of Vios	Down Right Attack	Stage 9
Menacing Mass of Machinery and Mayhem	Recalcitrance	Stage 9 Boss
Paradox (Cannon In Death Major)	The Danger Zone	Stage 10
Supercomputer Shutdown	War Like Requiem	Stage 10 Boss
Reflections of a Shallow Victory	Shooting Stars	Easy Ending
Still No Impending Danger	Silvery Light of the Moon	Normal Ending
Almost Overtaken	Light of Silence	Hard Ending
True Victory	Love Dream	Maniac Ending
Victory's Theme	Stand Up Against Myself	Staff Roll
Next To Excellence	Remember of Knight of Legend	Name Entry
Spoils of War	Because You're Number One	Name Entry Ace Ranking
Rynex Theme	Omake 1	Omake 1
Fight Theme	Omake 2	Omake 2
Stukk's Theme	Omake 3	Omake 3
Galaxy Federation Theme	Omake 4	Omake 4
Kha-Oss Theme	Omake 5	Omake 5
Vios Theme	Omake 6	Omake 6
Emperor Lohun's Theme	Omake 7	Omake 7
Lightening Force Theme	Omake 8	Omake 8
Cruise Home	Omake 9	Omake 9

Now, keep in mind, the main purpose for this chart is to preserve my own work.  I don't expect anyone else to care about it, really, but since the Photoshop files for this stuff are probably long gone and I can't easily re-create them without going through all the steps again, part of what I'm trying to do here is to just save this for my own posterity.  Plus it gave me a chance to see a couple gross errors in my track listing.  I had the tracks for the Daser, Air Raid and the Ruins stages switched around and they were labeled wrong on my custom tray card, so that's something I would want to fix.  In addition, I noticed that for "Omake 7", I had a typo resulting in the title showing up as "Eperor" instead of "Emperor".  I'm generally meticulous enough to avoid such things, but mistakes like that happen, and it's good that I'm finally catching some of that.  Not because I can do anything about it now, but because I'm picky about such things and I have some teensy sense of closure this way.  It also factors in to my decision to possibly tackle this project again, with the key differences being that I'll try & fit all songs onto the one CD, I won't enhance or change the tracks in any way prior to them being burned to CD, no compression will take place prior to the CD burn, and the sleeve & tray card prints will be done via my personal color laser printer, probably on a heavier card stock for a more durable, long-lasting and professional look.  If I do that, I will probably make the finished product available for download in various parts, probably a combination of high-res .PNG or GiMP formatted graphics and then FLAC files for the audio.  My big decision will be whether to use the "official" track names, or keep my own and augment them with a few new ones.  I really like some of the original names, such as "Recalcitrance", "War Like Requiem", "Sand Hell", "Because You're Number One", and especially "Stand Up Against Myself" - awesome stuff.

So with all of my blubbering on about how excellent the music is, and all my nostalgia for the CD project that took so much love and effort, I think it's about time I stop talking about it and just share.  Below, I'll be linking to a couple things.  First, a YouTube video that contains a nice play-through and the entire soundtrack to the game straight through, in a nice sequential order.  In addition, I'm going to link to the soundtrack download via Project2612, a great website which offers downloads of Sega Genesis/Megadrive rips in .VGM format, the current recognized king of Sega Genesis (and other consoles) music formats.  VGM way outperforms the older .GYM specification in nearly every aspect, but keep in mind that Genesis sound emulation isn't 100% accurate.  It's so close that you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference, but it's not 1:1 sound.  For a really authentic experience, the way to do it is to get the cart yourself and experience it firsthand.

Project2612 page to download of the Thunder Force IV soundtrack

Stay tuned for part 3, where I gush about the game's graphics!

My Love Affair With Lightening Force, part 1

You beautiful Engrish, you.

In the summer of 1992, I was the proud owner of a brand new Sega Genesis console, complete with Sonic the Hedgehog pack-in cartridge.  I had previously played Sonic, and indeed a Sega Genesis, via a casual friend from school.  He was the guy that lived with his grandparents and seemed to have a limitless supply of new cool stuff to show off to the other guys in school.  So when the Sega Genesis came out and was the "next big thing" in video games in our little corner of the world, he was the first one in town to have one, and we were all lined up at his house to watch in awe as he booted up Altered Beast with its then-awesome graphics, sound, and presentation.  Those huge characters!  The beyond-awesome transformation screen completely with cheesy/cool fire effect!  Those big bosses!  It was magical.  And even though hindsight tells us differently, Last Battle was even impressive those first few times we played it.  I was witnessing the beginning of something incredible.

Thankfully, this wasn't indicative of the future of gaming.  Except the blood part.

Fast forward a year or so later, and this same guy had come home with a new game that was highly anticipated: Sonic the Hedgehog.  Once again, we all lined up to play, and when I finally got my chance at the control pad, I was awestruck at the incredible graphics, fun music, great level design, and simple but effective mechanics.  By the time I had played long enough to get through the Green Hill Zone and reached the Marble Zone, I was sold on the game.  Once I saw the Labyrinth Zone and how much variety there was in the game, I absolutely knew I just HAD to have the game, and a Sega Genesis system to play it on.  My mission was clear: attain a Genesis console by any and all means necessary, within my Jr. High kid's allowance limits.  Unfortunately, that meant waiting until I had nearly graduated, if I was to go at that pace.  Thus, I made the difficult choice to sell my Game Boy system I had bought just 3 years earlier, along with all my carts, to earn enough money to go in half-way with my younger brother to purchase the Genesis console, along with a used TV to play it on.  My parents never allowed me to purchase or own the NES console, because they said I would monopolize the TV, and they were right.  By the time the Genesis came into the picture, my parents at least told me I could get a TV to play it on, since my brother and I could purchase this stuff together.

I spent weeks pouring over Sonic the Hedgehog, playing until I had mastered each level and got through the game all the way.  I then went back and played through again while gathering all of the Chaos Emeralds and perfecting my technique.  After that, my younger brother, a friend, and myself all played the first couple levels doing "speed trials", seeing who could complete the first couple stages the fastest.  I held the record for Green Hill Zone stage 1, at just 30 seconds.  I don't know that I've ever been able to complete it that fast since, but it sure was a rush zooming through tubes, around loops, and spinning through the air propelling toward the end of the level.

Run, blue hedgehog, run!

So why all this talk about Sonic the Hedgehog?  What about Lightening Force?  I'm getting to that, gentle reader, but I feel it's necessary to set up my history with the Genesis console, and just how much it meant to me as a young lad to finally have my own, having only played at friend's houses for years.  Point being, I spent an awful lot of time on Sonic.  I also clocked a lot of hours on the puzzle game Columns.  I played Quackshot starring Donald Duck a lot, and dumped a heap of time into Decap Attack too.  I played Strider a ton until I finished it, then set it aside and didn't touch it again for some 10 years.  I (mistakenly) sold Fantasia and Toki after finishing them.  But I don't think I spent more time on the Sega Genesis with ANY game outside of Lightening Force.

I had read positive reviews for Thunder Force II and Thunder Force III, but hadn't actually had the pleasure of playing them.  Matter of fact, I hadn't even had the joy of playing a Sega Genesis shoot-em-up yet, because I didn't own any, and no one I knew that had a Genesis had one at that point.  Guys were too busy with Sonic the Hedgehog to invest time in yet another scrolling shooter.  But when I saw Lightening Force (known as Thunder Force IV outside of the US) on the shelf at Kay Bee Toys, despite the humorously misspelled name, I knew that was a game I had to have.  It was a similar reaction to the box art, screenshots, and description as my first reaction to the Genesis when I played it, or Sonic when I first laid eyes on the game.  I was filled with a complete wonderment and desire to jump right in and play.  So a few months after I bought my Genesis, I plunked down the $40 I had been saving up to buy a new game and took it home, anticipating what an incredible game it was going to be.  I had made my mind up already that it was going to be great.

Say what you will about "Western" box art, but I think this is just as effective as the Japanese artwork at communicating just what's in store.

Thankfully, when I actually got it home and plugged it into my console, it was just as magical as I had hoped.  My clunky old 19 inch tube TV crackled with incredible music and vibrant colors, and I was wowed at the parallax scrolling, fast moving game play (Blast Processing!), interesting locales, and intuitive weapon system.  I was struck at the Mega Man-like ability to choose the order of the first four stages, which lent an element of strategy and planning that I hadn't previously seen in a shooter.  I was immediately sucked-in when my ship suddenly went underwater in the Strite stage, presumably to face off against the giant battleship, only to discover that was but a ruse.  I was thrilled with the giant Blade weapon, and awed by the powerful Rail Gun.  When I made it to the Ruins level, I was impressed with the Hunter weapon, a truly useful homing weapon that made things easier, but still no cakewalk.  This was the shooter I had waited all my gaming life for.  Gradius had entertained me, and R-Type 2 had impressed my socks off in the arcade (my local bowling alley!), but this...THIS was the game that all those previous shoot-em-ups had teased me about, the game that would be the culmination of all that had come before it.  At least in my 15-year old mind, it would.

The thing to understand about Lightening Force is that, it was the penultimate scrolling shooter game on the Genesis, and rivaled even the Super NES for sheer quality.  The SNES port of Gradius III was plagued by slowdown.  Super R-Type wasn't quite the conversion of R-Type 2 many had hoped for, and was just a slow game overall.  Axelay was impressive, but the 2.5D overhead perspective of some stages was confusing and it was difficult to judge the perspective.  And other than Mode 7 effects, it didn't offer anything more impressive than what Lightening Force was already doing.  And the ill-fated Thunder Spirits, a SNES port of the arcade conversion of Thunder Force III (aka Thunder Force AC), was a mediocre translation of Thunder Force III that was actually inferior in many ways to the Genesis original.  That doesn't mean these games are inherently *bad* by any stretch, but compared to Lightening Force in terms of all it has to offer, all it can do, and all the entertainment value it brings, they just don't add up.  I feel the same way about the rest of the shmup library on the Genesis as well - there are plenty of gems like Gaiares, M.U.S.H.A., Robo-Aleste, Android Assault, and the Japan-only releases of Gleylancer and Eliminate Down, but I still believe Lightening Force stands tall above the rest due to its sheer quality and execution.

So now that you've read an entire novella of me gushing about the game, how about reading some more on the subject?  Because I'm far too emotionally connected to this title to do a proper, objective review, I'm simply going to break it down into various components and talk about the game at length.  I'll do a whole part on the music, as that was highly influential for me, and talk about some of my obsessiveness over same.  I'll do an entire section on the graphics, and may delve a bit into the technical details that prove why this game was head and shoulders above the competition for the Genesis.  I plan on writing a portion on the game play and level design, because I think it bears exploring more specifically.  I will also likely write a piece musing about my memories of playing, beating the game, discovering the "omake" music tracks, the "99 lives" trick, and more.  I realize that is a lot of content to write about a single game, but I feel like this game often gets skipped over when people talk about the best games the Sega Genesis has to offer, and that's a shame, because it's an absolute gem.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series!