Author Topic: King of Fighters 96 music  (Read 8733 times)

MLX

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King of Fighters 96 music
« on: April 09, 2016, 02:52:51 PM »
So huh, I've noticed that at least one of the King of Fighters 96's tune is based on some older song; New York's not my home by Jim Croce.

Check for yourself:
In KOF96: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skUhuTVQdso

Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGW1j2hPm1c

KingPepe

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King of Fighters 96 music
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2016, 03:00:29 PM »
Now that just makes me wonder what Hummer Team's other original tracks are based on...

KimKaphwanAndKnuckles

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King of Fighters 96 music
« Reply #2 on: April 09, 2016, 04:02:02 PM »
I had a look on The Cutting Room Floor and as a KOF fan (hence my name) I can say that one of the songs is in fact Esaka from the original game. The music in the dock/Iori Women Team stage is the Art of Fighting team's theme from KOF '98 (if you've played the game before, you'll recognize the theme at the 0:15/0:16 mark here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXSD6LY5HEc originally it was Todoh's theme from Art of Fighting, but since KOF '98 came out the same year as Hummer's '96 did...)

GermanOffspringDude

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King of Fighters 96 music
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2018, 05:25:19 AM »
All right, just to be sure I checked through the other songs on the album, and I think track 11 here is a cover of Time In A Bottle, though very corrupted:
https://www.zophar.net/music/nintendo-nes-nsf/king-of-fighters-96

Other tracks from the album also sound a bit similar to '96s, but I'm pretty sure on this one.

GermanOffspringDude

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King of Fighters 96 music
« Reply #4 on: February 06, 2018, 05:13:27 PM »
A thought just entered my mind - could some of the tracks (both used and unused) be early versions of Final Fight 3 songs, before it was rushed into production and Hummer slapped Mighty Final Fight onto it? I'm giving the FF3 (the SNES original) soundtrack a listen as I type, but so far nothing familiar-sounding.

GermanOffspringDude

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King of Fighters 96 music
« Reply #5 on: February 13, 2018, 07:30:36 AM »
Okay, I recognized something new again. Sorry for the poster clutter.

Track 5 in my link is another cover of a KOF '98 song, though, again, very corrupted. "In Spite of One's Age," the Father's Team theme. This is very odd, considering that the father's team was not in the original 96.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbEB_dKS2_4

Hummer Team always seemed to port games that were regarded as smash hits when they were released, or game entries that differed from previous games in the series. KOF '98 did so in that it had no storyline and was just a reunion of sorts of all the best characters. Makes me think that they were indecisive whether to port 96 or 98, and decided to go with 96 as it was the older one. However, they seem to have liked 98 so much, and still wanted to port it over, that they wrote 'King of Fighters 98' in the ending and added a few tracks from the game in. They may have chosen to use the AoF '98 theme in the game due to the fact that AoF characters were to appear in the game (though only Yuri made it to the final game) and the Father Team theme went unused as the team wasn't in '96.

Calypso76

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Re: King of Fighters 96 music
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2020, 05:34:59 AM »
Okay, it's me again and I have some updates after two years.

Track 8 (I just noticed this!) appears to be "Rhythmic Hallucination" from KOF '98, though it's been corrupted almost beyond recognition. Once the instruments kick in one can hear a very slight resemblance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqPznTznp8c

Track 11 is a cover of "These Dreams" also by Jim Croce:
Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaCE-1BVQPg

Track 12 is very hard, and I'm still not sure. I think it might be a cover of "Fanatic Waltz" from KOF '98:
At about 1:06 it starts to sound kind of similar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2km0abdZdj4

Still need to identify tracks 6, 8 and 12. They don't sound like any Jim Croce or 98 songs, but maybe I'm overlooking something? Also, since one of these tracks is actually from Shisen Mahjong 2, I'm most probably searching for one of them in vain.

MLX

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Re: King of Fighters 96 music
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2020, 05:03:16 PM »
Fascinating. The fact some songs are based on KOF'98 which was released in mid 1998 makes the Hummer port way more recent than one would think. Final Fight 3 was seemingly manufactured around September 1998. KoF'96 containing the unused string LET'S HIT THE STREETS in its code suggests it was build atop (partly) Final Fight 3, or at least a work in progress version. It's also the closing title of the NT-6xxx line which contains more than a hundread of different entries. All from 1997 and 1998. Thus it was likely released at the very end of 1998.

guyzis

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Re: King of Fighters 96 music
« Reply #8 on: January 13, 2020, 05:24:55 PM »
Wasn't KOF96 built off Hummer Team's Street Fighter Alpha port? Like, the similar AI patterns, and the music. I recall both using the same VS screen and also using lots of repeats. At least that's what i think.

Calypso76

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Re: King of Fighters 96 music
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2020, 02:05:38 PM »
Fascinating. The fact some songs are based on KOF'98 which was released in mid 1998 makes the Hummer port way more recent than one would think. Final Fight 3 was seemingly manufactured around September 1998. KoF'96 containing the unused string LET'S HIT THE STREETS in its code suggests it was build atop (partly) Final Fight 3, or at least a work in progress version. It's also the closing title of the NT-6xxx line which contains more than a hundread of different entries. All from 1997 and 1998. Thus it was likely released at the very end of 1998.

It should be released before Final Fight 3, as FF3 was their last game released by JY. Due to the release of ‘98 it was released sometime late July or (more likely) August 1998. Maybe you used an early reprint for reference?

I don't know how to explain this, but I have some sort of synasthaesia for music and time, and it's definitely telling me this was released in the summer of 1998.

So to sum it up in one post:

Boss Team stage - These Dreams by Jim Croce
Fatal Fury Team stage - New York's Not My Home by Jim Croce
Japan Team stage - Unknown
Iori Team stage - KOF '98 Art of Fighting team theme
(which itself is Todoh's theme from AoF 2, but it's obvious where they got it from)
Goenitz stage - Still unknown, but now that I think of it it sounds very strongly like the bridge from Fairy, which was Chizuru's theme in 96. Compare from 1:20: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lseEsjtm1Ms

Unused tracks:

Esaka (possibly the 98 version?)
KoF ‘98 - In Spite of One’s Age
Unknown, possibly Rhythmic Hallucination.
Street Fighter Zero 2 ending theme (left over from SFZ297)

MLX

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Re: King of Fighters 96 music
« Reply #10 on: January 16, 2020, 04:14:02 PM »
But KOF'98 was released in July 1998? If they did use it as a base for some tracks, that can't sum up.
Also, J.Y. could have ordered both games at nearly the same time but decided to cancel KoF'96 due to the release of Rex Soft The King of Fighters '97. It's hard to say how long it took Hummer to make Final Fight 3 as they may have had the beat'em all engine ready (due to the cancelled Battle of the Red Cliff port) but I don't think it took them much longer than King of Fighters '96. There were a lot of graphics to get done for KoF96 however. The final game was supposed to be larger than 768KiB (probably 1MiB?) but was cut down for Ka Sheng.
What I can see happening is that they started to port it before KoF'98, working with KoF'96 as a base. They would then have done some quick changes (music & gfx) to make it a fair '98 port. But it likely got delayed or cancelled before they could do it properly. The ending clearly states King of Fighters '98. I don't think Hummer Cheng could get the tracks done in a few days either, at least a good week of work for two tracks, done in a rush.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2020, 04:22:22 PM by MLX »

Calypso76

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Re: King of Fighters 96 music
« Reply #11 on: August 17, 2020, 05:58:45 AM »
Just wanted to let everyone know that I am still working on identifying the songs.  :)

Goenitz' theme is, as far as I'm concerned, a cover of Croce's "It Doesn't Have To Be That Way." It could also be "Alabama Rain," but when playing them side by side, It Doesn't Have To Be That Way sounds more similar.

From 27:28 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw21RjyvbvA
Compare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxvd8NEd_C8

If you play it at 0.75 speed (or Croce's song at 1.75x) it sounds very similar.

Thinking of taking this to r/tipofmytongue. It's really too interesting of a case to be left alone.

Calypso76

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Re: King of Fighters 96 music
« Reply #12 on: October 22, 2022, 09:07:23 AM »
Okay, I know I've been coming back to this a lot, but just wanted to let everyone know that I definitely worked out another song from the game.

Track 8 in the link at the top is a cover of 'Ne!' This song was originally used as the Woman Team theme in KoF '94, but returned in '98:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeookeicQ1s

And another interesting thing I noticed: KOF '96 was rereleased in Japan for PS1 on July 23, 1998 - the exact same day that '98 came out and around the exact same time Hummer's port was released. Plus, judging by the "character stance" versus screen in Hummer's version, which only appears in the 32 bit versions, it seems extremely likely that they used this occasion - and version! - to port the game!