Uploaded April 2013 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago

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Here's the first "standalone" song I'm doing. I'm not gonna be doing the rest of AFTK (or, at the very least not all in a row), and there was a request for this so I figured I'd do it. You can now listen to the Cygnus X-1 duology in glorious 8-bit form!

The intro is slightly truncated, because there is no way to get the whole thing in 8-bit. I did as much as I could, though!


I adhered to the NES limit of 4 maximum simultaneous sounds (technically it's 5, but I use two combined for the kick drum as did most NES composers), which means that in order to accurately represent the chords, I had to arpeggiate some parts and harmonise with the bass in others.

Oh, and yes, I made the image by tracing over the original album cover and by applying what I could discover about NES colour palettes. This one was utter hell to do, and took longer than the audio...

Want the MP3? Send me a message and I'll send it to you. Alternatively, just rip the audio off here.



Cygnus X-1
Book I: The Voyage = You are here
Book II: Hemispheres = youtube.com/watch?v=mWFurGH33jw