Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
This is a collection of music modules from PC and Amiga games that I've "ported" to the NES. All of the audio was recorded from a toaster-model North American NES deck. The songs are .nsf files that I loaded from a PowerPak flashcart.
Here's the song list:
0:00 Mick & Mack as The Global Gladiators (1993 Virgin, Amiga) Title theme
1:35 Body Blows Galactic (1993 Team17, Amiga) Title theme
4:42 Tempest 2000 (1994 Atari, Jaguar/Dos) Digital Terror
7:11 Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge (1992 Gremlin Graphics, Amiga) Miami Ice
And if you aren't feeling the techno vibe:
Aladdin (1994 Virgin, Amiga/Dos)
10:07 Prince Ali
12:47 Arab Rock
15:07 Rug Ride
The Lion King (1994 Virgin, Amiga/Dos)
16:44 I Just Can't Wait to be King
18:35 Be Prepared
19:50 The Circle of Life
These tracks were made with SuperNSF, a sound driver from Mukunda (github.com/mukunda-/supernsf) that allows the NES to downmix up to four streams of 6-bit PCM data at 10.2 kHz. The driver can play music generated by the NES (and optionally, the VRC6), but everything you hear in this video is sample-based.
I was curious to see if the playback engine and the NES hardware were robust enough to handle full-blown tracker music from 90s Amiga and Dos games. It turns out that they indeed were! I had to do a fair amount of massaging to get the module data to play nicely (some of the more complex commands needed workarounds, and many effects don't transfer 1:1 between formats), and I tweaked several of the samples so as not to deafen anyone. Without the heavy-handed use of a low-pass filter, high frequency noises tend to become super screechy and piercing at such a low bit depth.
Since memory was so expensive, you would've never heard something like this on an NES cartridge produced back in the system's heyday, but I still think it's cool that this is possible at all. In case you're curious, the file sizes of the .nsf files range between 90K-205K (roughly .7-1.6 megabits). They're big, but not obscenely so. Most NES games from 1989 onward were 256K-512K (2-4 megabits).
Putting this together took a whole lot more time than I had anticipated (isn't that always the way?), but I think that end result was worth the effort. What do you guys think? Pretty nifty, right?
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NintendoComplete (nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
This is a collection of music modules from PC and Amiga games that I've "ported" to the NES. All of the audio was recorded from a toaster-model North American NES deck. The songs are .nsf files that I loaded from a PowerPak flashcart.
Here's the song list:
0:00 Mick & Mack as The Global Gladiators (1993 Virgin, Amiga) Title theme
1:35 Body Blows Galactic (1993 Team17, Amiga) Title theme
4:42 Tempest 2000 (1994 Atari, Jaguar/Dos) Digital Terror
7:11 Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge (1992 Gremlin Graphics, Amiga) Miami Ice
And if you aren't feeling the techno vibe:
Aladdin (1994 Virgin, Amiga/Dos)
10:07 Prince Ali
12:47 Arab Rock
15:07 Rug Ride
The Lion King (1994 Virgin, Amiga/Dos)
16:44 I Just Can't Wait to be King
18:35 Be Prepared
19:50 The Circle of Life
These tracks were made with SuperNSF, a sound driver from Mukunda (github.com/mukunda-/supernsf) that allows the NES to downmix up to four streams of 6-bit PCM data at 10.2 kHz. The driver can play music generated by the NES (and optionally, the VRC6), but everything you hear in this video is sample-based.
I was curious to see if the playback engine and the NES hardware were robust enough to handle full-blown tracker music from 90s Amiga and Dos games. It turns out that they indeed were! I had to do a fair amount of massaging to get the module data to play nicely (some of the more complex commands needed workarounds, and many effects don't transfer 1:1 between formats), and I tweaked several of the samples so as not to deafen anyone. Without the heavy-handed use of a low-pass filter, high frequency noises tend to become super screechy and piercing at such a low bit depth.
Since memory was so expensive, you would've never heard something like this on an NES cartridge produced back in the system's heyday, but I still think it's cool that this is possible at all. In case you're curious, the file sizes of the .nsf files range between 90K-205K (roughly .7-1.6 megabits). They're big, but not obscenely so. Most NES games from 1989 onward were 256K-512K (2-4 megabits).
Putting this together took a whole lot more time than I had anticipated (isn't that always the way?), but I think that end result was worth the effort. What do you guys think? Pretty nifty, right?
_____________
NintendoComplete (nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
