Martin Galway's music source files from 1980's Commodore 64 games

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TLDR

  • Martin Galway released annotated C64 music source files from 1980s games, covering two player generations across Wizball, Athena, Times Of Lore, and Insects In Space.

Key Takeaways

  • Two distinct SID music player generations: 1st Gen used from 1984 through mid-1987 (Wizball), 2nd Gen debuted with Athena and carried forward.
  • Source is re-assemblable and modifiable; Galway requires attribution but permits derivative works and new music generation.
  • Galway did not own the rights at creation time; he acquired copyright from Infogrames later, making this a deliberate archival release.
  • Release framed as educational: read through, analyze, and understand the music player architecture and how the compositions were built.
  • 2nd Gen player was written specifically for Athena, not ported; subsequent games like Times Of Lore and Insects In Space adopted it wholesale.

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