Original Sound Version Enter Retro Commodore Goodness with The Amiga Works (Review)

Enter Retro Commodore Goodness with The Amiga Works (Review)

August 29, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | Comment? Share this

I’ve made it no small secret that my computer gaming experience growing up rested solely with the Commodore Amiga. I grew up with it alongside my Sega Genesis, and had a small collection of games I played religiously, and as can be told by my dedication to games like Turrican, I grew to love Amiga music just as much. When I was an adult and reclaimed my love of the system, I went back and samples the music of an even greater variety of Amiga games that I hadn’t had the pleasure of experiencing as a kid, and I can say that I’ve enjoyed them just as much.

Several of the games whose music I ended up delving into as an adult while rekindling my appreciation of the Amiga had soundtrack done by composer Allister Brimble. In 2013, Brimble released a compilation album that consisted of remastered version of themes from the games he composed for on the Amiga, titled The AMIGA Works. I was graciously given a copy, and despite my shame in only getting to it until now, I can report it to be a worthy addition t Brimble’s legacy.

Originally funded via Kickstarter, The AMIGA Works features two disks with 27 tracks, spanning some of the most recognizable themes from Brimble’s composition library, sampled from some of the Amiga’s most popular titles. Alien Breed, Assassin, Project-X, Superfrog and more are all among the represented games featured on the album.

The tracks themselves have been completely remastered and arranged with updated sound samples and effects. Some are straight covers of their originals, while others have some variation that breaks apart from the source slightly, such as with the main theme to Assassin.

Now a snippet of the arranged and newly-sampled version from The AMIGA Works:

“Assassin Theme (Arranged)” – Allister Brimble

This is one of the more prominent examples of a noticeable change from the original, with different chord progression along with the new samples. At first, I wasn’t sure I liked the change from the source, but quickly realized that it was the change that made it interesting and made the original tune more distinct. Having a few deviations from the source and thus making the new arrangement unique in more ways than one is something new to appreciate, even if my preference may leans towards the original Amiga sound synths. That just is an additional credit to what Brimble was able to do on a 30-year-old system back in the mid-80s and early-90s.

The AMIGA Works is a great testament to the era of Commodore music, much like the Turrican Soundtrack Anthology and the upcoming Tel Me More. It’s a great addition for anyone like me who salivates at Amiga music for it’s fantastic diversity. The AMIGA Works can be purchased for about $18.75 American dollars or 11.95 British pounds directly from their website, where you can sample more tracks from the album. You can listen to the original tracks that the album sources from on Allister Brimble’s Soundcloud.