Shogo: Mobile Armor Division (W32)
Shogo: Mobile Armor Division | ||||
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Shogo: Mobile Armor Division is a first-person shooter heavily influenced by anime, where depending on the level the player is either "on foot" or inside a giant robot (an MCA, or Mobile Combat Armor).
Screenshots
Music
Shogo is one of the few games that use Microsoft DirectMusic, a feature added in DirectX 6 (and discontinued not long after). This provided somewhat interactive music, where songs could have different sections and the game could seamlessly transition between them.
In Shogo, these sections were used to set a mood, with most songs having sections named A (for "ambient"), C (for "cruising"), H (for "hard driving") and S (for "silent", used when starting or stopping playback). When the player moved to a particular part of the map, the game would finish the current "segment" (approx 5-10 seconds in length), then play a short transition segment (A to C, A to H, C to H, etc.) and then continue playing from the new section.
Each section had a number of different segments (usually around 8 to 12) and these could be played in any order to make the songs sound slightly different in each level. Furthermore, each segment had a number of variations within it, so playing the same segment twice wouldn't always produce the same sound. These variations usually consisted of additional and/or missing backing instruments.
The instruments for the song were stored in DLS format, which was an interesting choice as this was the era in which the Sound Blaster Live! was predominant, and it had hardware acceleration for the equivalent SF2 format. But as it did not support DLS, DirectMusic was never able to be hardware accelerated beyond what could be done with DirectSound.
Recording
Tracks 1-6 are from the soundtrack CD, released shortly after the game.
# | Title | Composer | Length | Listen | Download |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
01 | Negai (Wish) | Yohei Takashima, Miho Nemoto | 3:28 | Download | |
02 | Akuma | Guy Whitmore, Daniel Bernstein | 3:59 | Download | |
03 | Kumoblade | Guy Whitmore, Daniel Bernstein | 2:41 | Download | |
04 | Red Riot | Guy Whitmore, Daniel Bernstein | 4:57 | Download | |
05 | Maritropa | Guy Whitmore, Daniel Bernstein | 3:06 | Download | |
06 | Informant | Guy Whitmore, Daniel Bernstein | 3:54 | Download |
The rest of the tracks are from the DirectMusic version included in the game. There are multiple versions of each song in an attempt to capture as many of the variations as possible, as well as as many transitions as possible. For example the "complete" songs start with section A, then transition to section C, then H, allowing the transitions S-A, A-C, C-H and H-S to be heard. The alternative versions vary, and try to capture as many unique transitions as possible (transitions that are the same as ones already heard are not necessarily included).
The non-CD songs were recorded using Winamp with the Microsoft DirectMusic plugin.
Credits
- Ripper: Malvineous
- Recorder: Malvineous
- Game Credits:
- Music: TODO
Game Rip
Links
- mobygames.com/game/shogo-mobile-armor-division - MobyGames.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogo:_Mobile_Armor_Division - Wikipedia.