DMG Sound Series - Game Boy Hardware Soundtrack Rips [FLAC/MP3 320kbps]

[Shugo Takahashi]

DMG Sound is a series of soundtracks and compilation albums ripped from real DMG-01 hardware (the original Game Boy model), many for the first time ever. It's much better than emulation! Enjoy, and Play It Loud!

I will always consider requests, but please keep in mind that I already have a lot on my plate as it is.

Extra Information:

Spoiler!

I've found that most, if not all, existing Game Boy rips floating around out there are ripped via emulators or GBS players. I understand that it's easier and often cleaner than doing it from the real thing, but most of these rips are full of inaccuracies compared to the real hardware. I've been listening to Game Boy music on my real system for a while now, and it always sounds so much better than every rip I download. I figured I should share it with everyone else.

For those that don't know, "DMG-01" is the model number of the very first Game Boy. It's my opinion that the DMG's sound chip is superior to every subsequent Game Boy ever released. There's a great comparison of all the models [Hidden link. Register to see links.].

These rips come after the compilation test album I [Hidden link. Register to see links.] to check for interest in this project. It received a TON of positive feedback. A couple people even started PMing me with encouragement and requests for me to release more stuff already, so I've decided to move forward with releasing my work. I was hoping to complete more soundtracks so I could burst out of the gate with a meatier starting lineup, but life obligations have severely limited the time I can dedicate to this project. I figured I shouldn't keep everyone waiting any longer. I do plan on ripping more, so sit tight.

I'll keep this thread updated with future releases and progress on current rips.


A few important bits about these releases:

- All looping songs loop once (as in, they play through twice) and then fade out.

- Track titles are taken from official sources if available. Otherwise, fan titles or my own are used.

- Release years are taken from the first region to receive each game (usually Japan).

- Game Boy Color-only soundtracks are indeed recorded on the DMG-01, just like the rest. I have a method of playing extracted sound data from GBC games on any Game Boy model. I've done testing and discerned that there are no differences in tempo, pitch, etc. between the DMG and CGB, so it's a straight upgrade in sound quality over the whiny, noisy, low-bass GBC hardware. To my knowledge, there are no other existing rips of GBC music from a DMG system, so this is likely the first time these tracks are getting this treatment!

- Some tracks exhibit small "popping" noises, most prominently in Metroid II. This is not a bad rip, a bad conversion, or bad hardware; this is just how they naturally sound on the real thing. I've done a lot of testing to verify as such. Emulated rips don't have these pops because the GB sound chip isn't emulated 100% correctly. I've chosen not to try and remove or dampen the "pops" in an effort to preserve the original sound. Most later-released games have cleaner sound; I think the composers learned how to handle the hardware better over time.


Don't hesitate to point out any mistakes that might have slipped into the releases. I've manually recorded and processed a lot of music, and there could always be things that I missed accidentally. I hope you enjoy them, and again, Play It Loud!

COMPILATIONS

Spoiler!

DMG Sound
Originally a sampler test to check for interest in the full project. Features thirty of my personal favorite Game Boy tracks.
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)

Track List:

Spoiler!

01 - Game Boy
02 - Title - Game & Watch Gallery 3
03 - Type-A - Tetris
04 - Type-B - Tetris
05 - Birabuto Kingdom - Super Mario Land
06 - Easton Kingdom - Super Mario Land
07 - Fever - Dr. Mario
08 - Chill - Dr. Mario
09 - Surface of SR388 - Metroid II: Return of Samus
10 - Float Islands - Kirby's Dream Land
11 - Star Maze - Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
12 - Overworld - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
13 - The S.S. Anne - Pokémon
14 - Pokémon Mansion - Pokémon
15 - Vs. Bowser - Tetris Attack
16 - Octopus - Game & Watch Gallery
17 - Oil Panic - Game & Watch Gallery
18 - Helmet - Game & Watch Gallery 2
19 - Chef - Game & Watch Gallery 2
20 - Ronald's Theme - Pokémon Trading Card Game
21 - Duel! Club Leader - Pokémon Trading Card Game
22 - Catch 'Em & Evolution (Blue Field) - Pokémon Pinball
23 - Mario Bros. - Game & Watch Gallery 3
24 - Goldenrod Game Corner - Pokémon Gold & Silver Versions
25 - National Park - Pokémon Gold & Silver Versions
26 - Battle! (Trainer Battle - Kanto Version) - Pokémon Gold & Silver Versions
27 - Out of the Woods (Day) - Wario Land 3
28 - Mission Start ~ Theme of Tara (VR Training, Sneaking Mode) - Metal Gear: Ghost Babel
29 - Danger! (Vs. Lance) - Pokémon Puzzle Challenge
30 - Duel! King Biruritchi - Pokémon Trading Card Game 2: Here Comes Team GR!
31 - Credits - Pokémon Trading Card Game 2: Here Comes Team GR!

DMG Sound: Volume 2
A fun followup to the first. Contains many tracks not yet released in the soundtrack albums, including some obscure tracks from a GBC demo cart and the official GB Memory Cartridge.
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)

Track List:

Spoiler!

01 - Game Boy
02 - Title - Game & Watch Gallery 2
03 - Birabuto & Easton Kingdoms Underground - Super Mario Land
04 - Overworld - Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
05 - Big Forest - Kirby's Dream Land 2
06 - Battle! (Trainer Battle) - Pokémon
07 - Viridian Forest - Pokémon
08 - Vs. Gargantua Blargg - Tetris Attack
09 - Helmet: Stage 3 - Game & Watch Gallery 2
10 - Game Boy Color Promotional Demo
11 - Credits - Game Boy Camera
12 - Overworld - Pokémon Trading Card Game
13 - Duel! - Pokémon Trading Card Game
14 - Music Room - Game & Watch Gallery 3
15 - Game Boy Menu - GB Memory Cartridge
16 - Game Boy Color Menu - GB Memory Cartridge
17 - S.S. Aqua - Pokémon Gold & Silver Versions
18 - Viridian Forest - Pokémon Gold & Silver Versions
19 - Battle! (Champion) - Pokémon Gold & Silver Versions
20 - Retribution - Metal Gear: Ghost Babel
21 - VR Training (Weapon Mode) - Metal Gear: Ghost Babel
22 - Goldenrod Gym - Pokémon Puzzle Challenge
23 - Bandit Town - Shantae
24 - Day Travel 2 - Shantae
25 - Credits - Game & Watch Gallery 3

SOUNDTRACKS

Spoiler!

Tetris (1989)
Includes the original Japan-only A-Type theme.
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)




Super Mario Land (1989)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)




Dr. Mario (1990)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)




Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)




Game & Watch Gallery (1997)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)




Game & Watch Gallery 2 (1997)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)




Pokémon Red, Blue, & Yellow Versions (1998)
Includes all tracks from Red/Green/Blue and Yellow Versions. Also includes all of the Pikachu voice clips.
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)




Pokémon Trading Card Game (1998)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)




Metal Gear: Ghost Babel (2000)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)




Pokémon Gold, Silver, & Crystal Versions in Mono (2000)
Includes the Japan-only Crystal tracks.
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)





Infinity (2001/2016)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)




Shantae (2002)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)
[Hidden link. Register to see links.] (MEGA)

[XeRo9009]

Bad ass! This is top-quality stuff, people... something to pay attention to for sure. Thank you!

[Masta Moai]

Hey, you're back! Thanks for sharing all this greatness Keep up the good work!

[The12thGripper]

Glad to see you followed up on your idea, hoping to see a rip of Pokémon Puzzle Challenge and TCG2 someday!

[Shugo Takahashi]

Glad to see you followed up on your idea, hoping to see a rip of Pokémon Puzzle Challenge and TCG2 someday!

Yep, those are in my queue. Pretty much any game featured in the compilations is already in line for a full rip. It just takes time, which I don't have a lot of these days.

Hope everyone enjoys what I have done so far, though. Shantae is next!

[TRIFORCE89]

Wow, great! I really like the compilations.


Looking forward to maybe Pokemon GSC, Donkey Kong Land, Kirby 1, and the Zelda games some day maybe

[Shugo Takahashi]

Wow, great! I really like the compilations.


Looking forward to maybe Pokemon GSC, Donkey Kong Land, Kirby 1, and the Zelda games some day maybe

Definitely doing GSC; it's one of my favorites. It's just a pretty big soundtrack, so it'll take some time. For the time being, there are some great snippets of it in the compilation albums.

[Toothless]

Can't wait for GSC!!

[jairisongs]

Thank you.

[TRIFORCE89]

Listening through Super Mario Land and Tetris was great fun. I didn't know there were so many fanfare variations


Curious why the Pokemon release is in mono (I think? Unless I'm really bad a detecting the stereo here) and not the Stereo "Earphone 1" option from Yellow version?

[Shugo Takahashi]

Curious why the Pokemon release is in mono (I think? Unless I'm really bad a detecting the stereo here) and not the Stereo "Earphone 1" option from Yellow version?

I prefer the mono version. The music was composed to be in mono. The stereo options from Yellow and G/S/C simply separate the sound channels in various ways, which doesn't really do anything for the music. It just puts entire channels on the left or right, and at least for me it's kind of painful to listen to over headphones since the sound is really unbalanced that way. (Ironic, considering it's an "earphone" setting.)

I do have working copies of the stereo sound data from Yellow and G/S/C that I can record from, but it would require an entire second recording session to produce a stereo version. If enough people want it, I may do it at some point. I'd like to get other games out of the way first, though; I have quite a few that I want to do before I start doing requests.

[dekamaster2]

Thanks a lot!

[betaking]

Good Job and thanks a lot!

[XeRo9009]

Btw just out of curiosity, I'm wondering if you can describe the equipment you use and your process for recording/converting the files, if you're up to it. Thanks again for all your hard work.

[bambalam]

Excellent work. Hopefully you'll feel up to a third compilation one day.

[ultimategamer1457]

Would it be okay if you can please upload the soundtracks to Game & Watch Gallery 2 and Game & Watch Gallery 3?

[Shugo Takahashi]

Btw just out of curiosity, I'm wondering if you can describe the equipment you use and your process for recording/converting the files, if you're up to it. Thanks again for all your hard work.

I convert GBS files (ripped GB sound data) into ROMs that play back the music using a program called GBS2GB. I load them onto my Everdrive-GB and record them from my Game Boy plugged into my sound card via 3.5mm cable. Pretty simple setup, though it wasn't possible until the recent Everdrive came out since the converted GBS ROMs didn't play nice with the crappy Chinese flashcarts that used to dominate the market.

However, there is the occasional GBS that isn't ripped correctly, and when converted it causes broken music or broken ROMs. In these cases, I've had to record from the actual game. Annoyingly, it usually ends up being tracks toward the end of the data like credits themes or multiplayer tracks. So I've had to beat a couple games myself and dig out the old link cable, a second system, and another copy of the game. That's happened with Tetris, Super Mario Land, and Metroid II so far. Tetris Attack is partially broken at the end too, so I've been working on a way around it.

Anyway, I record a song in Goldwave for a while so I can listen for when the music loops, then I clip off feedback from the start and fade out the end if necessary. Save as WAV then batch-convert to FLAC and MP3 when I'm ready to release. Then it's just figuring out titles, album order, artists, etc.

Would it be okay if you can please upload the soundtracks to Game & Watch Gallery 2 and Game & Watch Gallery 3?

They're not fully ripped yet. Soon, though! I love G&WG's music.

[XeRo9009]

Annoyingly, it usually ends up being tracks toward the end of the data like credits themes or multiplayer tracks. So I've had to beat a couple games myself and dig out the old link cable, a second system, and another copy of the game.

Since you have an Everdrive, I believe it's possible to download saves (SRAM saves from emulators; not save states), rename them to match the ROM name of the game, put them on the SD card and it should load the save when you boot up the rom AFAIK. Could be a nice shortcut. Game Genie codes are apparently supported too in the Everdrive-GB so there might be codes to jump around to certain points in the game.

[Shugo Takahashi]

Since you have an Everdrive, I believe it's possible to download saves (SRAM saves from emulators; not save states), rename them to match the ROM name of the game, put them on the SD card and it should load the save when you boot up the rom AFAIK. Could be a nice shortcut. Game Genie codes are apparently supported too in the Everdrive-GB so there might be codes to jump around to certain points in the game.

I did actually do that with Metroid II. But Super Mario Land doesn't have save games, so I had to do a run-through of it myself for the credits theme, lol. For Tetris, I was just missing the multiplayer stuff so I simply played some games against myself using my real copy.

I actually don't know if EDGB supports GG, but I do have a program that can hard-patch GG codes into ROMs anyway so it's a moot point. I guess I just hadn't considered that route before for music-ripping. Thanks.

[ultimategamer1457]

They're not fully ripped yet. Soon, though! I love G&WG's music.

SAME

[thenoobisgone]

Wow, thanks for these high quality rips.

[rixen]

Can you do Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories for GBC? I can't find the music anywhere!

[ultimategamer1457]

Do you think you can do the soundtracks to Tetris Attack (GB) and Donkey Kong '94 (GB)?

[Shugo Takahashi]

Had some free time today and got halfway through recording Shantae (21/41 tracks). Next time I get a few hours off, Shantae will be complete! It sounds gorgeous on the DMG. Jake Kaufman's work is always amazing.

Can you do Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories for GBC? I can't find the music anywhere!

A GBS for it exists, so it's probably possible. I would need a lot of help with tagging and tracklist organization, though, because I've not played that game and apparently an existing rip/soundtrack doesn't exist.

Once I get done with my existing personal queue and move on to requests and games I haven't personally played, I'll probably need to enlist the help of others to tag and sort my rips. That's a ways off, though.

Do you think you can do the soundtracks to Tetris Attack (GB) and Donkey Kong '94 (GB)?

Yes and yes. Already in my queue. In fact, I just investigated how I was going to rip Tetris Attack the other day (since the last couple songs in my converted data are corrupt), and I found out that they're easy enough to just rip from the actual game since no sound effects play over them. I'll be needing to beat the game on hard mode myself to obtain the credits theme. Not a problem, though, because I'm good enough at Panel de Pon to take on Bowser. B]

[mouseDown]

awesome, keep it up! and thanks