Stolen music in GB pirates

[codeman38]

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this already on the RX Forums, but I figured it was worth repeating here because it's something I'm still quite curious about.

There is a game which is credited to Sintax called "Zhong Zhuan Qi Bing". More specifically, there's no in-game credit, but the ROM ID is "SINTAX MM V1007" - and since the game was inspired by the Famicom RPG "Metal Max", it seems like this is probably the right ID. It also has the boot logo which, if you sort of squint at it, looks like "Kwichuu" or "Kwichvu"-- another sign suggesting it's by Sintax. I believe this may be the same game as "Raider Max" on Sintax' now-defunct site, though it's hard to tell because the image wasn't archived with it.

Now here's the interesting part. This game uses the same music as "Super SLG", which is credited in-game to SKOB. It's also in the "Final Fantaxy IX" (sic) game that taizou owns, which is credited to TD-Soft. And aside from that, it's also in "Saishuu Gensou", a.k.a. "Final Fantasy Unlimited Saga", which has no in-game logo but also uses the "Kwichuu" boot logo associated with Sintax.

It's also very similar in style to the music used in Sintax' "True Three Kingdoms" (a.k.a. "Sangokushi Act C"), though as far as I know, none of the tunes are the same. (Then again, I haven't played very far in any of them. Anyone know if there's any overlap?)

So... is this music taken from a legitimate licensed game? Or is it just a bunch of pirates stealing each other's code? Were Sintax and SKOB in cahoots, or did they just steal from the same places? Because these are some curious coincidences indeed.

[KingPepe]

It's probably possible that they're actually taking the music from a licensed game.

[taizou]

my guess would be that the same developer actually made all the games - I'm pretty sure SKOB is just a publisher, Sintax might have done some stuff in-house but they definitely used at least one external developer, BBD. TD-Soft I'm not sure about.

I'm still no closer to knowing if it's stolen from anywhere though (but I played quite a bit of FFIX before I managed to wipe my saves messing about with a Game Genie, I don't recognise any of the True Three Kingdoms tunes from there)

[codeman38]

Oh my. I just figured out what game the music in the three RPGs I mentioned above is taken from.

The official Game Boy version of RPG Maker.

Seriously.

The irony, 'tis hilarious. I guess that is a good place to start for generic RPG music though!  :whistle:

Alas, it is not the source of the True Three Kingdoms music, despite the similarities in style. Wonder if it's another game that Hiroyuki Takei did the music for, perhaps?Ooh, another SKOB discovery! Their Phantasy Star clone, Meng Huan Zhi Xing, has its music taken directly from "Revelations: The Demon Slayer" (a.k.a. "Last Bible"). The music's by another Hiroyuki-- Hiroyuki Yanada, specifically. I knew it was too good to be pirate original!

Even weirder, Meng Huan is a monochrome game, but Revelations is GBC. Guess it's actually newer than we thought it was.

Edit: And oh my, Last Bible is also the source of the music in taizou's VFame multicart menu!

[taizou]

wow RPG Maker. Fantastic. seriously did no one apart from V.Fame make their own music on the GBC (and Yong Yong, but, well, yeah).

Last Bible was originally released for the mono GB in 1992 btw (only the '99 colour version got a US release)

[codeman38]

taizou

Aug 21 2010, 08:04:01 PM

wow RPG Maker. Fantastic. seriously did no one apart from V.Fame make their own music on the GBC (and Yong Yong, but, well, yeah).[/quote]Well, there is Sachen, but they're basically an extension of Yong Yong anyway on most of their recent stuff. I think Gowin's GBC games have original music, too, but since they won't even play on some actual hardware, much less emulators...

Quote:

 

Last Bible was originally released for the mono GB in 1992 btw (only the '99 colour version got a US release)[/quote]Ah, that would explain it. The GBS rip is of the GBC rerelease, and thus shows a '99 copyright.

[taizou]

I just noticed the music from my 19 in 1 is from Last Bible too. though i guess thats not surprising, what with both menus being pretty much identical. I wonder if the menus were coded by someone who worked on Meng Huan Zhi Xing or if its just a coincidence..

[codeman38]

taizou

Aug 21 2010, 08:17:37 PM

I just noticed the music from my 19 in 1 is from Last Bible too. though i guess thats not surprising, what with both menus being pretty much identical. I wonder if the menus were coded by someone who worked on Meng Huan Zhi Xing or if its just a coincidence..[/quote]LOL, I had just edited my comment to mention the 12-in-1 cart before you posted that.

I have no idea if it was coded by one of the same programmers, though with the links between so many pirate companies, you never can be too sure...

[taizou]

ooh I just found the game True Three Kingdoms's music is from. its Seme COM Dungeon: Drururuaga. published by Namco but developed by the same team as RPG Maker GB.

[codeman38]

taizou

Aug 21 2010, 09:08:43 PM

ooh I just found the game True Three Kingdoms's music is from. its Seme COM Dungeon: Drururuaga. published by Namco but developed by the same team as RPG Maker GB.[/quote]Ooh, good catch! Don't know how I missed that. That would explain why it sounds so much like the RPG Maker music!

And the music in Castlevania EMO Demo is from Castlevania II. Yeah, that one's a shocker.

So yeah... pretty much every good GB pirate soundtrack is from another game, with the exception of VFame's. This is enlightening, but sad...

[taizou]

Yeah, it is a bit. though I guess there werent as many pirate/unlicensed GB developers as on other consoles - its just unfortunate that probably the most prolific one (assuming all these Sintax/SKOB/TD games were developed by the same people, which seems kinda likely) was the one with a habit of stealing music.

[codeman38]

taizou

Aug 22 2010, 01:44:08 PM

Yeah, it is a bit. though I guess there werent as many pirate/unlicensed GB developers as on other consoles - its just unfortunate that probably the most prolific one (assuming all these Sintax/SKOB/TD games were developed by the same people, which seems kinda likely) was the one with a habit of stealing music.[/quote]I know BBD is responsible for a large number of Sintax' games that I've seen, and is often explicitly credited therein. And one of those explicitly credited games, True Three Kingdoms, has the TD-Soft boot logo in its ripped version (San Goku Shi Act C). So yeah, there's definitely a connection on those two, at least. And it wouldn't surprise me at all that they did contract development for SKOB too, given the similar quality and given that a SKOB game used the same music as a TD-Soft game.

[Edit: Thought I had something here with Saishuu Gensou displaying the same "Please use a Game Boy Color" message in mono mode as several Sintax titles, but Saishuu Gensou wasn't credited to SKOB in the first place. Oops. However, it does appear that the code to display the "Please use a Game Boy Color to play this game" message is buried in the ROM of SKOB's Super SLG, but doesn't run in the dumped copy. And both Super SLG and the Sintax games have "0123456789ABCDEF" in PC Paint's font near the beginning of the ROM. So yeah...]

But yeah, it could still be much worse. It could be that the most prolific one made music like Yong Yong's rather than stealing it from good soundtracks. <wishes there were a "covering ears" emoticon>