I can't believe this happened.... RIP Geoff Follin, you did some of the best retro tunes ever, you would be remembered as the legend that you are. I feel so bad for Tim right know, I hope for the best to him and Geoff's family.
I had just came back to check this video out randomly and this is the first I've seen of the news.. That's incredibly sad to hear, all the best to the family and friends of Geoff Follin. Rest in peace to a legend.
He was also in highschool/college and did this part time for extra cash, and stopped to pursue a career in BBC. He did make his own game a few years ago though called At Dead Of Night, it’s a horror game with an interesting mix of having a lot of live action visuals
@@t.b.cont.oh shit he made that? that game’s really good, kinda want to see what a game he’d make that he could actually use his compositional talent in would be like
Tim Follin composed a whole country song to go with a licensed racing game that came free with breakfast cereal. He did not care what he was working on. He went as hard as he could no matter what.
@@spranktonI know of Bjorne Lynm strictly because of a song I used to hear all the time as hold music at an old job, hearing about him in context with the Follin Brothers is fucking wild, haha
@@TheOneFlyron >Tim didn't care about the game he composed for, therefore the music is... le bad! That's basically your comment. What an absolutely horrendous opinion
There was that one time he composed a seven minute intro tune for a miserably bad beat 'em up based on a barely-known comic. It had deliberately suggestive lyrics, sung in a deliberately over the top way. Yet the song oozes musical merit. It's calculatingly prog rock-certainly Tim Follin's go-to genre. It has three solos in a row: electric guitar, flute, synth. The game itself almost didn't get released, and then only as a pack-in for something else equally unwanted. The tune was also a little bit corrupted on the game pressing. I fixed it up and added it to my playlist.
"okay tim, this is the sega genesis chip, it's... rough and sounds like farts, but we'll pay you for your services" tim follin: *straight rock opera with metal riffs* *game gets cancelled anyway*
@@Minority119 The issue with the Megadrive isn't its sound chip, it's the set of samples the dev kits came with. They were terrible and most games used them for their music.
The saddest part is that Tim said he stopped making music for video games because he was so underpaid and stressed out. Makes me wish someone would hire him again for a big budget game. I bet he’d kill it. The dude clearly understands theming.
Big budget games pay their employees even worse than indie games sometimes lol, a lot of the budget goes into stuff like renting out a motion capture studio and marketing. Plus the big budget studios often are located in expensive areas, so you end up broke working for companies like Blizzard lol.
If I could I'd make a simple and cool 90s themed racing game where his music would be the focus, and all the money would go to him because he deserves it.
That Solstice theme is like "Oh, we'll just start with some happy-go-lucky Dragon Quest bgm," and then suddenly a Yes album comes in and smacks you upside the head.
Anybody that thinks that has never heard a Sonic the Hedgehog soundtrack, a Streets of Rage soundtrack, or a Vectorman soundtrack. Man, even the QuackShot soundtrack is good! Never sleep on a good composer.
@@rocoX1234 Dune 2, Earthworm Jim, and Comix Zone prove GEMS was just fine if you gave the sound team enough time to learn how to use it. Most multiplat developers just used the sample instruments provided with the program.
Tim Follin, on raw sound generation hardware, was the king of mid-call interrupts, allowing a single channel output to seemingly play two notes at the same time, filling out the sound with a 'power chord' without wasting more of the limited channels available. His greatest use of this trick and the first to show his amazing coding skills was his work with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. ZX Spectrum 48k - Chronos - Title Screen. Tim Follin composed a seeming multi channel song with percussion on a single channel 1BIT BEEPER! It is pure magic what he pulled off. Also Agent X on Spectrum. When you compare his work with other ZX Spectrum 48k 1bit beeper music, it's simply beyond their level. Not to be confused with 128k ZX Spectrum music (LED Storm was a 128k track), those used an AY chip which was much more versatile in sound generation with 3 channels. To show the level of difference in the beeper and the AY chip, 'Short Circuit' 48k version vs 128k version, which was also composed by a capable programmer in Fred Gray but his 48k version, while sounding good, has noticeable interrupts between each note while Follin's stuff is the work of digital wizardry that defies the hardware. For clarification, the 1Bit Beeper can literally and physically ONLY play 1 note at a time, with limited tonal ranges and no volume control. (edited for spelling errors).
The irony about the 1-bit ZX Spectrum music is that they're easier on the ears if they've been recorded to tape, as that has the effect of softening the _extreme_ sibilance. Most renditions on UA-cam are straight emulated and digitally perfect, which unfortunately means they're as harsh to the ears as it can possibly get. Incidentally, somebody on UA-cam figured out how to separate the individual voices that were mixed for those 1-bit tunes. The only step left after that is to reiterate those individual voices so that instead of tiny 1-bit pulses they are something synthesized, analog and easy on the ears.
Came here to say the same. You can't talk about Tim without mentioning his work on the Spectrum (and the C64; infinitely more musical by default, but he made it *sing*).
Yeah. I think I heard Chronos done with a PC beeper, and he somehow got music... music, out of that. The terrible shrieking speaker that lets out awful beeps to tell you your computer's messed up on boot. I was sitting there thinking, "That almost approaches a melody! But HOW?"
That Silver Surfer theme is legendary, it even made a pretty infamous Guitar Hero custom because the solo is so good and the final few seconds of it are SO INSANELY FAST. EDIT: Just FYI it's 6:56 to 7:00 and it's probably about like 30 notes per second EDIT 2: After about an hour of trying, I hit the solo. Mom are you proud of me yet.
Silver Surfer was one of my first games as a kid... it's not that bad, it's just tons of memorization. I feel most people that can memorize Souls-like boss fight patterns can easily memorize the few tricky areas each level has.
Gotta say though, if you were handed this game and went "Yo, make a song for SPIDER-MAN", I'm sure he was ready to kill it even more than he ever did before!
I feel like every gamer eventually goes down a Tim Follin rabbit hole. I'm happy it finally happened for you Max. I wish I remembered where I was when I first heard the Solstice opening theme haha
"Ah yes, a jaunty little tune for a wizard happily picking herbs on the forest, how quaint. SIKE, YOU HAVE THE POWER OF AEONS AT YOUR HANDS, SORCEROR!!!!!!"
Changed the title to "Tim & Geoff Follin" because some of the tracks Max listened are probably from Geoff too (Brother of Tim), but it's just a guess, both are at the same level of quality! PS: Max in later streams started mentioning "Tim and his brother" when talking about the music ;)
Tim Follin, Chris Huelsbeck and Olof Gustafsson are composer legends of 8/16 bit era. It's fascinating that these simple by today's standards songs still evoke emotion.
I always find it curious how you can tell they're european composers because even in systems like the NES and such they still make it sound like an amiga chip
@Minority119 You're right. The C64 and the Amiga were both platforms that many European chiptune artists cut their teeth on and many composing tricks used to push the SID chip (in the C64) and the Paula chip (in the Amiga) worked on other 8/16 bit platforms too. As an example, the use of fast arpeggios to approximate the sounds of chords.
I think his work on the ZX spectrum will always be impressive. Like who looks at the audio capabilities of the spectrum and says, I think I can make this play the firebird suite? Tim Fn’ Follin that’s who! 😂
I love that people are discovering Plok. I’ve been singing its praises since it came out. It’s the single most amazing musical achievement on the SNES, IMO. It’s a fantastic platformer as well!
Tim Follin is simply a god, and I've had the good fortune to be enjoying him from the 80s on. When everyone else was just cranking out some tunes, he was writing pocket symphonies. Lots of people could compose for those soundchips, but few could make them sing in ways that absolutely defied expectations and made you wonder "How the hell...?" while you listened to it, and you had no idea where it would go next - but that you were in for a ride. Tim Follin is one of those people who could do that. It's a certain kind of magic that's lost nowadays now that everything is simply streaming audio. But it's great to see people discovering him, and getting the credit he deserves.
I wish someone made an MVC1 demake for the SNES and inserted the Spider-Man / X-men Arcade’s Revenge themes for the characters minus Wolverine for clown reasons lol
The Genesis has fantastic audio capabilities. It has a yamaha chip used in many keyboards. The problem is most western devs used a shitty music library tool.
Unfortunately Max (and the online retro gaming community at a large) is a pretty big diehard Nintendo guy, the internet has kinda conditioned everyone to just believe Nintendo was always better than Sega in every way
@@THENAMEISQUICKMAN it's true, tho Sega of America did provide the bad sound tools to devs so they should take some blame also. I think the Genesis actually sounds better when tracks are tailored to it, because the SNES has a lot of reverb by virtue of sampling. Look up Mega Man X remixes on Genesis and they sound amazing, way cleaner.
@@Thiagomii yeah, it's an understandable mistake to make when in reality many games do sound horrible on the Genesis. I used to believe like Max that the hardware itself was just inferior. Sega of America gave western devs a tool suite called GEMS which made it much easier to write or import midi into, but it usually sounded awful.
@@esmooth919 yeah its so wild to hear the 80% of games that all have that exact same sound in their Genesis soundtracks, then the few who knew how to use it make it sound like a COMPLETELY different system.
GEMS has been the worst thing to happen for the Sega Genesis, it's the program a lot of companies started using that made every OST sound bland and shitty. The Yamaha chip inside it is actually great - check out Xenocrisis Genesis OST by Savaged Regime for top tier use of it
I was thinking of Earthworm Jim, Streets of Rage, Rock n Roll Racing Genesis (Tim only did the SNES version) and a whole lot more. The problem is not the quality of the sound chip; it's the fact that it's FM Synthesis, a very complicated techinique to understand fully.
Apparently for Pictionary, he used like half of the watchamacallits he had available to him, so he made music THAT crazy without even using the full capabilities of the system.
Thought there was an interview where Tim said he actively hated working with the limited hardware, and still does and never went back to it from each successive generation. kinda funny.
@@fidgetypenguin8153 i'm struggling to find it again. Its a shame though, because wehn the truly creative are given these kind of boundaries, there's a chance that something special comes from the creative process.
I have a Follin story. So my brother and I saved up around $70 or $80 dollars one summer and we had to figure out which game we were going to buy at K-Mart. We were really getting into Marvel Comics cartoon shows at that time in the mid 90s. So when we saw Spider-Man and X-Men Arcade's Revenge SNES in the kiosk it was the perfect combo. So we threw down $70 dollars (plus tax..😢) and the game was not very good. It was easy at first with Spider-Man and the difficulty spikes when you get to choose the X-Men stages. But...we never sold the game. The music was far better than most games we had on snes at the time. It really saved the game. Not to mention the cool poster it came with. Anyway, the Follins are amazing at what they do.
Yeah the actual song that plays during gameplay is a lot less intense than the famous title theme but I still love it a lot too! It actually does nail the creepy crypt vibe pretty well
I've been into this music for years, and for just as long, I've had people dismissing it as not "real music." While I don't need validation, it's refreshing to finally see someone just get it.
Tim worked up in till the early 2000s, last game music he made was for the skarky and hutch game, he is now a photographer, and has directed 2 FMV games
Thank you so much for this. I also discovered Tim and Geoff thanks to this video and my god they did some great job. Feels like whenever someone wanted to make some music that blew the minds of the players they'd just go: "Call the brothers!"
I came across Plok! through Silvagunner, and it's one of the best discoveries I've made in my music experience ever. Solstice's soundtrack really made me think how faithful Jake Kaufman's composition in Shovel Knight is to NES and SNES soundtracks. The absolute first thing I shouted when Plok Beach theme came up was "THIS IS JUST DOA XTREME BEFORE DOA XTREME" TimeTrax was just all-in Comix-Zone X Streets of Rage. God, Plok Boss theme, again, the Silvagunner mashup with Roller Mobster is absolutely perfect, they play off eachother SO GOOD
This is my first discovery of the soundtrack to Spiderman and the X-Men in Arcade's revenge. I've struggled to play that game for years and this soundtrack was just background noise to my pain. Now, hearing it without having a brain aneurysm trying beat that impossible game, it's pure joy. Wow! I have to listen to it again on it's own.
I’ve been looking for this VOD for a while now cause I was half asleep listening to the stream but I always wanted to go back and find these songs. Thank you so much
Funny how Barry Leitch (another amazing game music composer) got a bit of a cameo because someone recommended the Top Gear OST to Max. I know Max isn't primarily a VGM reaction content creator, but I wish more of them out there on UA-cam would listen to the Plok! OST. It's still holds up as a masterpiece to this day.
every time i hear someone talking about the GOD that is tim follin, i can't help but remember that time i got gifted a copy of starky and hutch for Pc, it was one of my first pc games, and everytime i heard those godly beats i couldn't help but thinking "huh, must be standard in games to have music this good" it wasn't the case tim follin just GOES HARD no matter the genre of music or the genre of game, ITS INSANE
I remember singing the praises of this man's music and showing a friend a playlist, and this came on. Both of us were confused, no way this music came from a console that old, we skipped it because we thought we found a mistakenly labeled song. Shit is wild!
Warms my heart to see Max discovering and listening to a lot of Tim and Geoff Follin’s work during the NES-SNES days. They truly made some of the best tracks/bangers and had no reason to go that hard but they let the Follin brothers cook in the studio 🔥
Yes!!!! Finally someone made an edited version of Max's reaction. You have no idea how happy I am to finally see someone edited this particular VOD. And yes, I've tried asking Arsonius and other people who may be able to get Max's VOD for this particular part but good thing exist now. Thank you so much for this edited clip, Dood!!! Shine On!
I don’t know if Tim is still alive or not but I hope he somehow see this or at least just just knows how much and how many people appreciate his work. The tracks he made are something you can only make with talent AND passion. There are video games with better audio capabilities and higher budgets that don’t have nearly this level of interesting music composition.
Hah, can't wait to watch this. I grew up with games that had Follin's music and it's always fun to see someone stumble across it for the first time. Especially in Max's case, since the dude is known for his reactions. This should be a laugh.
Tim Follin blows the competition away, not just with brilliantly written music, but with mastery of the hardware. I don't think i've heard any other composer squeeze so much out of the NES sound chip. Incredible stuff. I mean i like the "hella classics" as well, amazing songs. But just imagine if they were written with the same technical ability that Tim Follin had.
I can't believe this happened.... RIP Geoff Follin, you did some of the best retro tunes ever, you would be remembered as the legend that you are. I feel so bad for Tim right know, I hope for the best to him and Geoff's family.
I had just came back to check this video out randomly and this is the first I've seen of the news.. That's incredibly sad to hear, all the best to the family and friends of Geoff Follin. Rest in peace to a legend.
I heard his death in a Plok Longplay in World of Longplays.
Plok is a good game
Pancreatic cancer is a bitch. :
Aww goddamnit, he's dead!?
"CALM DOWN TIM! ITS JUST PICTIONARY!"
Best comment from that video
@@goukenslay7555 And they were just repeating a comment from 15 years ago, lol
"AIN'T NO CALM IN THESE DRUMBEATS MUTHAFUKKA!"
@@Lost_n_Found_1it's likely a sentiment repeated again and again through the ages
@@BJGvideos Eggs Zachary
TIM FOLLIN COMPOSED THIS IN A CAVE.
WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS.
He was also in highschool/college and did this part time for extra cash, and stopped to pursue a career in BBC. He did make his own game a few years ago though called At Dead Of Night, it’s a horror game with an interesting mix of having a lot of live action visuals
he is tony stark of video game music industry
I'm sorry, but we're not Tim Follin...
im sorry...im not tim follin......
@@t.b.cont.oh shit he made that? that game’s really good, kinda want to see what a game he’d make that he could actually use his compositional talent in would be like
Tim Follin composed a whole country song to go with a licensed racing game that came free with breakfast cereal. He did not care what he was working on. He went as hard as he could no matter what.
@coldsnap5742 Ford Racing 2, but he was apparently only a co composer with Bjorne Lynn on that.
@@spranktonI know of Bjorne Lynm strictly because of a song I used to hear all the time as hold music at an old job, hearing about him in context with the Follin Brothers is fucking wild, haha
That's what I don't like about his soundtracks. He doesn't care about the game. IMO he should've.
@@TheOneFlyron >Tim didn't care about the game he composed for, therefore the music is... le bad!
That's basically your comment. What an absolutely horrendous opinion
There was that one time he composed a seven minute intro tune for a miserably bad beat 'em up based on a barely-known comic. It had deliberately suggestive lyrics, sung in a deliberately over the top way. Yet the song oozes musical merit. It's calculatingly prog rock-certainly Tim Follin's go-to genre. It has three solos in a row: electric guitar, flute, synth. The game itself almost didn't get released, and then only as a pack-in for something else equally unwanted. The tune was also a little bit corrupted on the game pressing. I fixed it up and added it to my playlist.
"Ok Tim here's the NES sound chip it can go bloop bleep bloop, see what you can do"
Tim: *Hardcore electronica and guitar solos*
"okay tim, this is the sega genesis chip, it's... rough and sounds like farts, but we'll pay you for your services"
tim follin: *straight rock opera with metal riffs*
*game gets cancelled anyway*
If you want something thats also crazy for the nes/famicom listen to Death Match from Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei II
@@Minority119 The issue with the Megadrive isn't its sound chip, it's the set of samples the dev kits came with. They were terrible and most games used them for their music.
@@Oscar97oGEMS
@@Minority119wow Genesis hate is crazy
His music deserved better games
He's the only guy to make me want to play pictionary.
How dare you say that about Plok?!
Plok's a masterpiece
silver surfer is fun if you hate yourself :^)
Plok was fantastic, you silly cunt.
The saddest part is that Tim said he stopped making music for video games because he was so underpaid and stressed out.
Makes me wish someone would hire him again for a big budget game. I bet he’d kill it. The dude clearly understands theming.
Yeah
He's good at making music but none of what he makes is used thematically appropriately.
Big budget games pay their employees even worse than indie games sometimes lol, a lot of the budget goes into stuff like renting out a motion capture studio and marketing. Plus the big budget studios often are located in expensive areas, so you end up broke working for companies like Blizzard lol.
If I could I'd make a simple and cool 90s themed racing game where his music would be the focus, and all the money would go to him because he deserves it.
Go play At Dead of Night! It’s a horror FMV game that Tim made, and it’s amazing!
Most composers were making music for video games, Tim thought he was auditioning for a prog band.
Tim Follin out here composing a beach theme in 7/8 time
Nobody knew how to tickle the sound chip like this guy
Oh he didn't tickle it, he made sweet, sweet love to it, with candle lights and soft music and all
First half of Plok!'s boss theme = "Oh no I'm locked with them!!"
Second half of the theme when the beat drops = "No, they are locked in here with me"
I mean, have you seen Plok when he has his angry face up? God might show mercy but he doesn't.
First half: graveyard dance party
Second half: *_"Do you like hurting other people?"_*
Facts
@@michelvanderlinden8363it takes NO PRISONERS
Dude the Pictionary theme has no business going that hard what the hell 😂
ITS JUST PICTIONARY! 😂
Tim and Geoff have only two settings: Sleep and WTF
@@tanall5959facts
There's a reason the playlist for Tiim's music is called "Tim Follin is a God".
tim follin on the nintendo wii
That Solstice theme is like "Oh, we'll just start with some happy-go-lucky Dragon Quest bgm," and then suddenly a Yes album comes in and smacks you upside the head.
Wasn't Yes one of Uematsu's influences too?
@@BJGvideos Both Tim and Uematsu were heavily inspired by Prog Rock so I wouldn’t be surprised if they both had Yes inspirations.
not a Yes reference!
Solstice misdirect goes so hard
Pokey battle in Earthbound but on the Title Screen...
I love that Max calls it out too, he knows it's coming and he's still blown away.
~22:10 "genesis does not have good audio"
tim: * smirk *
Anybody that thinks that has never heard a Sonic the Hedgehog soundtrack, a Streets of Rage soundtrack, or a Vectorman soundtrack.
Man, even the QuackShot soundtrack is good!
Never sleep on a good composer.
Devilish: Prairie Theme.
People think genesis had shit audio is due to soa and american developers using GEMS for composing the music.
@@rocoX1234 Dune 2, Earthworm Jim, and Comix Zone prove GEMS was just fine if you gave the sound team enough time to learn how to use it.
Most multiplat developers just used the sample instruments provided with the program.
I love how Max immediately ate his own words. And HAPPILY so.
Tim Follin, on raw sound generation hardware, was the king of mid-call interrupts, allowing a single channel output to seemingly play two notes at the same time, filling out the sound with a 'power chord' without wasting more of the limited channels available. His greatest use of this trick and the first to show his amazing coding skills was his work with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
ZX Spectrum 48k - Chronos - Title Screen. Tim Follin composed a seeming multi channel song with percussion on a single channel 1BIT BEEPER! It is pure magic what he pulled off. Also Agent X on Spectrum. When you compare his work with other ZX Spectrum 48k 1bit beeper music, it's simply beyond their level. Not to be confused with 128k ZX Spectrum music (LED Storm was a 128k track), those used an AY chip which was much more versatile in sound generation with 3 channels. To show the level of difference in the beeper and the AY chip, 'Short Circuit' 48k version vs 128k version, which was also composed by a capable programmer in Fred Gray but his 48k version, while sounding good, has noticeable interrupts between each note while Follin's stuff is the work of digital wizardry that defies the hardware.
For clarification, the 1Bit Beeper can literally and physically ONLY play 1 note at a time, with limited tonal ranges and no volume control.
(edited for spelling errors).
was going to the comments to say something similar, seriously it is the most a 1 bit beeper can do and it is soooo good
My dude grabbed that one chip and made sweet sweet love giving birth to the best 8/16bit music ever
The irony about the 1-bit ZX Spectrum music is that they're easier on the ears if they've been recorded to tape, as that has the effect of softening the _extreme_ sibilance. Most renditions on UA-cam are straight emulated and digitally perfect, which unfortunately means they're as harsh to the ears as it can possibly get. Incidentally, somebody on UA-cam figured out how to separate the individual voices that were mixed for those 1-bit tunes. The only step left after that is to reiterate those individual voices so that instead of tiny 1-bit pulses they are something synthesized, analog and easy on the ears.
Came here to say the same. You can't talk about Tim without mentioning his work on the Spectrum (and the C64; infinitely more musical by default, but he made it *sing*).
Yeah. I think I heard Chronos done with a PC beeper, and he somehow got music... music, out of that. The terrible shrieking speaker that lets out awful beeps to tell you your computer's messed up on boot. I was sitting there thinking, "That almost approaches a melody! But HOW?"
That Silver Surfer theme is legendary, it even made a pretty infamous Guitar Hero custom because the solo is so good and the final few seconds of it are SO INSANELY FAST.
EDIT: Just FYI it's 6:56 to 7:00 and it's probably about like 30 notes per second
EDIT 2: After about an hour of trying, I hit the solo. Mom are you proud of me yet.
If the Silver Surfer game went as hard as some of the music, it'd be a TAS only game.
@@ArispeMatt Or a Game Genie game.
@@striderhanzo It's not the tool assist most people mean when they say TAS,, but it's still technically a tool assisting.
:p
Never played it but the song is in my video game music playlist. Its just so good
Silver Surfer was one of my first games as a kid... it's not that bad, it's just tons of memorization.
I feel most people that can memorize Souls-like boss fight patterns can easily memorize the few tricky areas each level has.
_"it was just Pictionary, Tim."_
Textbook definition of "did not need to go that hard"
if there is something life taught me,
going hard is the only way to go.
Rest in peace, Geoff. You and Tim were a dynamic duo making banger after banger.
Tim Follin also did the OST for Ecco: Defender of the Future, and it's one of my favorites.
Max listened to the Title Theme of that game also in the stream! ;)
@@Thiagomii Oh, noice, I must have scanned past it. Thank you!
It's fucking incredible. Like, almost every theme fits that game perfectly.
Literally ascended when Spider Man and the X-Men played, Tim went in haaaard
Gotta say though, if you were handed this game and went "Yo, make a song for SPIDER-MAN", I'm sure he was ready to kill it even more than he ever did before!
Literally listened to the whole soundtrack a few times 2 weeks ago then this video popped up. Thank you for uploading! I love Tim
I feel like every gamer eventually goes down a Tim Follin rabbit hole. I'm happy it finally happened for you Max. I wish I remembered where I was when I first heard the Solstice opening theme haha
My cousin got it Christmas 1990, that's when I heard it first.
"Ah yes, a jaunty little tune for a wizard happily picking herbs on the forest, how quaint.
SIKE, YOU HAVE THE POWER OF AEONS AT YOUR HANDS, SORCEROR!!!!!!"
I’m a max fan, and a huge Tim Follin fan, I never knew this happened lmao. This is so awesome
Enjoy!
Changed the title to "Tim & Geoff Follin" because some of the tracks Max listened are probably from Geoff too (Brother of Tim), but it's just a guess, both are at the same level of quality!
PS: Max in later streams started mentioning "Tim and his brother" when talking about the music ;)
Those brothers work wonders with every soundtrack opportunity they get. They alongside Matt Furniss are underdogs of 90s music composition.
What's PD mean...?
@@oBuLLzEyEo1013 Post Script, I thought it was the same as Spanish (Post Data).
@@Thiagomii Ooh I know post script I had never heard PD before. Spanish, huh? Well I'm Texmex so naturally I don't speak eat I just eat it...
Hah! Are you kids just discovering Tim Follin's game music?! For shame.
Tim Follin, Chris Huelsbeck and Olof Gustafsson are composer legends of 8/16 bit era. It's fascinating that these simple by today's standards songs still evoke emotion.
Absolutely all legends, but you forgot to put Jeroen Tel in there.
Thumbs up for mentioning Chris Huelsbeck
You're missing quite a few other legends off that list, including Rob Hubbard and David Wise.
I always find it curious how you can tell they're european composers because even in systems like the NES and such they still make it sound like an amiga chip
@Minority119 You're right. The C64 and the Amiga were both platforms that many European chiptune artists cut their teeth on and many composing tricks used to push the SID chip (in the C64) and the Paula chip (in the Amiga) worked on other 8/16 bit platforms too. As an example, the use of fast arpeggios to approximate the sounds of chords.
Rest in peace, Geoff. You and Tim made banger after banger.
2:41 That song was composed by none other than Jeroen Tel, another phenomenal video game composer.
I once heard someone liken the NES sound chip to "a wooden block, 2 chanting monks, and a triangle"
and they did this with it
envisioning this is hilarious 😭
The stuff he did is very prog rock. Hence why they sound like they take you in a journey. Very based.
Folin is the Rush of video games!
every time someone discovers tim follins music, an angel gets their wings
I think his work on the ZX spectrum will always be impressive. Like who looks at the audio capabilities of the spectrum and says, I think I can make this play the firebird suite? Tim Fn’ Follin that’s who! 😂
39:43 oh my gooood that tiny little Spider-Man theme song motif, absolutely immaculate
Bionic Commando on the Amiga also has a few Star Wars motifs thrown in.
Oh shit! I never noticed that!
I love that people are discovering Plok. I’ve been singing its praises since it came out. It’s the single most amazing musical achievement on the SNES, IMO. It’s a fantastic platformer as well!
It was our first SNES game we got
It nice that every Tim follin album came a free game.
Tim's music work can be boils down to "either this goes hard or goes HARDEST"
Tim Follin is simply a god, and I've had the good fortune to be enjoying him from the 80s on. When everyone else was just cranking out some tunes, he was writing pocket symphonies.
Lots of people could compose for those soundchips, but few could make them sing in ways that absolutely defied expectations and made you wonder "How the hell...?" while you listened to it, and you had no idea where it would go next - but that you were in for a ride.
Tim Follin is one of those people who could do that.
It's a certain kind of magic that's lost nowadays now that everything is simply streaming audio. But it's great to see people discovering him, and getting the credit he deserves.
Tim Follin's picture is in the pictionary under "You Didn't Have To Go That Hard".
Now imagine Tim Follin composing for a fighting game. HOLY!
Yeah!!!!!
IIRC he did for Sega CD
I wish someone made an MVC1 demake for the SNES and inserted the Spider-Man / X-men Arcade’s Revenge themes for the characters minus Wolverine for clown reasons lol
I want him to be a guest composer for a future FFXIV track...
"Pre-Todd MacFarlane Spider- man was a creeper!" THANK YOU Max. As usual, Max gets it
His brother, Geoff Follin is just as good! Look up his music in the Gameboy game "Spot", specifically what plays when you decide your next move.
So true! Also Tom & Jerry for the NES is a good one from him!
@@Thiagomii Wolverine for NES also has a killer soundtrack by him :D
If Silver Surfer is ever to appear in a theoretical MVC4, that nes theme NEEDS to be his character theme, its too perfect!
Finally somebody uploaded this on UA-cam! Tried to find this in Twitch vods, and it is such a pain in the butt. Thank you so much!
Have you ever found it? I’d love to see it :(
@@TheNameCannotBeFoundCheck the description of the vid ;)
The Genesis has fantastic audio capabilities. It has a yamaha chip used in many keyboards. The problem is most western devs used a shitty music library tool.
Unfortunately Max (and the online retro gaming community at a large) is a pretty big diehard Nintendo guy, the internet has kinda conditioned everyone to just believe Nintendo was always better than Sega in every way
@@THENAMEISQUICKMAN it's true, tho Sega of America did provide the bad sound tools to devs so they should take some blame also.
I think the Genesis actually sounds better when tracks are tailored to it, because the SNES has a lot of reverb by virtue of sampling. Look up Mega Man X remixes on Genesis and they sound amazing, way cleaner.
@@THENAMEISQUICKMAN Weird you say this because Max is more of a SEGA guy since the beginning
@@Thiagomii yeah, it's an understandable mistake to make when in reality many games do sound horrible on the Genesis. I used to believe like Max that the hardware itself was just inferior. Sega of America gave western devs a tool suite called GEMS which made it much easier to write or import midi into, but it usually sounded awful.
@@THENAMEISQUICKMANIt's weird that you say this when you don't sub to me 😏
"The Genesis has DOGSHIT soundchips in it"
Go play Phantasy Star 4 and say that again, Max-
I was thinking Streets of Rage myself. But it's not like the statement is inherently wrong though.
The problem with the Genesis sound chip is, not many composers knew how to work it... Especially the majority of the Western composers
@@esmooth919 yeah its so wild to hear the 80% of games that all have that exact same sound in their Genesis soundtracks, then the few who knew how to use it make it sound like a COMPLETELY different system.
GEMS has been the worst thing to happen for the Sega Genesis, it's the program a lot of companies started using that made every OST sound bland and shitty. The Yamaha chip inside it is actually great - check out Xenocrisis Genesis OST by Savaged Regime for top tier use of it
I was thinking of Earthworm Jim, Streets of Rage, Rock n Roll Racing Genesis (Tim only did the SNES version) and a whole lot more.
The problem is not the quality of the sound chip; it's the fact that it's FM Synthesis, a very complicated techinique to understand fully.
Apparently for Pictionary, he used like half of the watchamacallits he had available to him, so he made music THAT crazy without even using the full capabilities of the system.
RIP Geoff Follin. The legendary composer ❤
It's been a delight seeing different folks in the internet-o-sphere find out about the absolute legends that are the Follins.
Thought there was an interview where Tim said he actively hated working with the limited hardware, and still does and never went back to it from each successive generation. kinda funny.
Weird I thought he said he loved to tinker with it. Can’t find the interview tho, so it was just a rumor I heard
@@fidgetypenguin8153 Love to tinker with it, hate the multitude of limitations
@@fidgetypenguin8153 i'm struggling to find it again. Its a shame though, because wehn the truly creative are given these kind of boundaries, there's a chance that something special comes from the creative process.
I have a Follin story. So my brother and I saved up around $70 or $80 dollars one summer and we had to figure out which game we were going to buy at K-Mart. We were really getting into Marvel Comics cartoon shows at that time in the mid 90s. So when we saw Spider-Man and X-Men Arcade's Revenge SNES in the kiosk it was the perfect combo. So we threw down $70 dollars (plus tax..😢) and the game was not very good. It was easy at first with Spider-Man and the difficulty spikes when you get to choose the X-Men stages. But...we never sold the game. The music was far better than most games we had on snes at the time. It really saved the game. Not to mention the cool poster it came with. Anyway, the Follins are amazing at what they do.
Game devs: "Tim, is this a normal song?"
Tim: "Yes, it's a Very Normal Song."
As someone who owned *Solstice* as a kid... I'm glad to say that I was one.
The ingame music is still my go-to song for dungeon crawling.
Yeah the actual song that plays during gameplay is a lot less intense than the famous title theme but I still love it a lot too! It actually does nail the creepy crypt vibe pretty well
Yeah, what Tim and Geoff were able to do with early video game soundchips is borderline magic
I've been into this music for years, and for just as long, I've had people dismissing it as not "real music." While I don't need validation, it's refreshing to finally see someone just get it.
Tim worked up in till the early 2000s, last game music he made was for the skarky and hutch game, he is now a photographer, and has directed 2 FMV games
For what I know, his last work in the industry was on the Lemmings game from 2006. Then he started making his own games.
Didn’t Markiplier play one of his FMV games? At Dark of Night I think it’s called?
@@Somerandomjingleberry That's right!
Thank you so much for this. I also discovered Tim and Geoff thanks to this video and my god they did some great job.
Feels like whenever someone wanted to make some music that blew the minds of the players they'd just go: "Call the brothers!"
I came across Plok! through Silvagunner, and it's one of the best discoveries I've made in my music experience ever.
Solstice's soundtrack really made me think how faithful Jake Kaufman's composition in Shovel Knight is to NES and SNES soundtracks.
The absolute first thing I shouted when Plok Beach theme came up was "THIS IS JUST DOA XTREME BEFORE DOA XTREME"
TimeTrax was just all-in Comix-Zone X Streets of Rage.
God, Plok Boss theme, again, the Silvagunner mashup with Roller Mobster is absolutely perfect, they play off eachother SO GOOD
Rush. Genesis. Supertramp. King Crimson. *FOLLIN.*
Max didn't even let some of the music cook to the good parts😢
Thanks for the upload! I love when people discover these old BANGERS and show them love that they deserve
this was in 2021?? It feels like I was watching this stream just last year holy shit
thanks so much for uploading this!
Me too! Time passes so fast!
i just remembered that 2021 wasn't a year ago
This is my first discovery of the soundtrack to Spiderman and the X-Men in Arcade's revenge. I've struggled to play that game for years and this soundtrack was just background noise to my pain. Now, hearing it without having a brain aneurysm trying beat that impossible game, it's pure joy. Wow! I have to listen to it again on it's own.
I’ve been looking for this VOD for a while now cause I was half asleep listening to the stream but I always wanted to go back and find these songs. Thank you so much
you can really tell Tim loves prog rock
From a guy who doesn't like or watch twitch . Thank you for this treasurable moment!
Funny how Barry Leitch (another amazing game music composer) got a bit of a cameo because someone recommended the Top Gear OST to Max.
I know Max isn't primarily a VGM reaction content creator, but I wish more of them out there on UA-cam would listen to the Plok! OST. It's still holds up as a masterpiece to this day.
Top Gear is good stuff man.
Gambit’s theme is one my favorite pieces of video game music, so glad someone in chat mentioned it
I think the coolest thing about Plok is that he only used 5 channels out of the 8 available to make the soundtrack. That is unheard of
Not really, most SNES games didn't use all 8 channels for music, so it's not unheard of
@@leoleonvids I'm not sure you are correct
But regardless of semantics, plok used a lot less channels than most SNES games
I wish I were HALF the composer Tim is, like DAYUMM dude~
I'm glad folks enjoy Plok more nowadays:3
Remember that there's a sequel comic by series creators, too! It's called Plok: The Exploding Man:3
I wonder if Max listened to TimeTrax...
AW YEAH BABY THERE IT IS.
Shame he never listened to breafing
every time i hear someone talking about the GOD that is tim follin, i can't help but remember that time i got gifted a copy of starky and hutch for Pc, it was one of my first pc games, and everytime i heard those godly beats i couldn't help but thinking "huh, must be standard in games to have music this good" it wasn't the case tim follin just GOES HARD no matter the genre of music or the genre of game, ITS INSANE
Imagine Silver Surfer gets to be in the next Mahvel
And his theme is an arrangement of the NES game's theme
By the Follins themselves
Would be awesome
if it's NOT done by Tim, it won't be up to par, it just can't
28:17 YES i knew Max would stumble upon Ghouls n' Ghosts eventually, that theme SLAPS
I remember singing the praises of this man's music and showing a friend a playlist, and this came on. Both of us were confused, no way this music came from a console that old, we skipped it because we thought we found a mistakenly labeled song. Shit is wild!
Warms my heart to see Max discovering and listening to a lot of Tim and Geoff Follin’s work during the NES-SNES days. They truly made some of the best tracks/bangers and had no reason to go that hard but they let the Follin brothers cook in the studio 🔥
Thank you for making a vid on this! I remember seeing Max I believe re-reacting to this clip a few weeks ago? All the music slapped
Are you serious?! I'd love to see that! If you have more info I'll appreciate it!
Well like the OG stream when I say clip. I know I saw Max listening to Tim Follin stuff recently, not 2021 lol @@Thiagomii
Yess, just wondering where did you saw him re-reacting to the clip, if you remember of course ;)
Yes!!!! Finally someone made an edited version of Max's reaction. You have no idea how happy I am to finally see someone edited this particular VOD. And yes, I've tried asking Arsonius and other people who may be able to get Max's VOD for this particular part but good thing exist now. Thank you so much for this edited clip, Dood!!! Shine On!
Comments like these are the bests! thanks!!
@@Thiagomii You're most welcome.
Prog rock on NES. Only Tim Follin
I don’t know if Tim is still alive or not but I hope he somehow see this or at least just just knows how much and how many people appreciate his work. The tracks he made are something you can only make with talent AND passion.
There are video games with better audio capabilities and higher budgets that don’t have nearly this level of interesting music composition.
He is! His studio, Baggy Cat Games, has released 2 games so far.
Thanks for uploading these highlights! I giggled when his cursor starting dancing along to Creepy Crag lol.
I love watching people discover Tim and Geoff Follin...
This was a such a treat, thanks for this. Now I’m gonna check out that playlist myself.
Those guys are amazing. A shame they didn't had the recognition they deserve. So much good stuff
My sister and I have been blessed and inspired by Plok since we got it as kids on the snes. The soundtrack is unbelievable
This was a damn good segment to watch, especially as fan of both Max and the Follin Brothers. Thank you very much, Thiagomii! 🙏
dude! this is one of my favorite reactions of his! thanks for uploading this!
Hah, can't wait to watch this. I grew up with games that had Follin's music and it's always fun to see someone stumble across it for the first time. Especially in Max's case, since the dude is known for his reactions. This should be a laugh.
9:00 So kind of the box artist to use Tims own likeness on Solstice.
In my honest opinion like Max said, the Silver Surfer Level 1 track is easily one of the greatest ever made with the NES soundchip, it is insane
Finally another Tim discovery stream, Northernlions stream was last one i remember.
Thank you for uploading this. I've been thinking about this part of the stream for a while, but I was never able to find it.
For solstice, the start is when you see an ordinary wizard.... the drop is when the wizard rips off his shirt and he's absolutely ripped.
24:23 "Babe stfu I'm listening to Time Trax mission one on genesis"
I’ve been looking for this stream for so long. Thanks for the re-upload.
Tim Follin is the only reason a lot of these games ever got played more than once. Legendary.
I've been talking about this stream since it happened. Thanks for uploading and editing it!
I wonder if capcom listened to the funky spider-man & x-men track as a reference when making MvC2 soundtrack.
Finally, people are paying more attention to the FOLLIN BROTHER'S EPIC MUSIC!!!!! :D
Follin in love with Follin
Tim Follin blows the competition away, not just with brilliantly written music, but with mastery of the hardware. I don't think i've heard any other composer squeeze so much out of the NES sound chip. Incredible stuff. I mean i like the "hella classics" as well, amazing songs. But just imagine if they were written with the same technical ability that Tim Follin had.