SkyRoads (DOS)

SkyRoads

Platform: DOS Year: 1993 Developer: Bluemoon Software Online: Download

SkyRoads is a racing puzzle game where you control a spaceship that glides along roads in space. The roads are quite hazardous, and you can die by smashing into walls, driving off the road, or running out of oxygen. You win by reaching the end of the road intact.

While the basic premise makes the game simple to learn, there are 30 ever-increasingly difficult roads to make the game a chore to master. There are also special road types like speed up, slow down, death, slippery, and supplies that add increasing difficulty to the game.

SkyRoads is based on an earlier game by Bluemoon called Kosmonaut, though it didn't feature music. After SkyRoads saw commercial success, Bluemoon released SkyRoads Xmas Special in 1994 as a separate game, though it is merely a level pack with 30 new roads and a few changed backgrounds. The interface, controls, and music remain unchanged. Both games are also freely available for download on Bluemoon Interactive's web page.

Screenshots

Title screen. The different road types. All others are normal. The 10 areas and 30 different roads to master. Space is a highway, I want to drive it! Ah crap! I knew I shouldn't have had that vodka for the road. Now we're talking!.

Music

VGMPF Album Art

SkyRoads has a varied and complex soundtrack with songs covering numerous genres. The memorable title track was composed by Hasso Brück, a guest composer, but the remaining 13 tracks were composed by Bluemoon Interactive's own Ott Aaloe.

The music took a pretty intensive route. Ott Aaloe wanted to compose the game's music in Oktalyzer, a tracker he was familiar with. However, playing back these files was too processor intensive for the 1993 PC market, so the game music had to play in native AdLib. Aaloe ended up getting his way by sampling the FM synthesis output of the AdLib and loading them into Oktalyzer. From there, he composed his songs, and then converted the output into AdLib commands. There was a fair amount of degradation in this process. The percussion took a major hit, and the music was all a half-tone higher pitch than the originals, but overall, the end result resembled the original mod music enough.

The official titles come from the company's web site which made the music available.

The Intro track and Road 3 are particularly long, and do not feature a second loop in their respective recordings.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Length	Listen	Download
01	Intro	Hasso Brück	3:27		Download
02	Menu	Ott Aaloe	2:16		Download
03	Road 1	Ott Aaloe	3:33		Download
04	Road 2	Ott Aaloe	2:05		Download
05	Road 3	Ott Aaloe	3:26		Download
06	Road 4	Ott Aaloe	3:34		Download
07	Road 5	Ott Aaloe	3:48		Download
08	Road 6	Ott Aaloe	3:02		Download
09	Road 7	Ott Aaloe	4:04		Download
10	Road 8	Ott Aaloe	3:48		Download
11	Road 9	Ott Aaloe	2:24		Download
12	Road 10	Ott Aaloe	2:07		Download
13	Road 11	Ott Aaloe	3:01		Download
14	Road 12	Ott Aaloe	3:09		Download

Credits

• Ripper: Andrew Griffiths (SX), Tom (VGM)
• Recorder: TheAlmightyGuru
• Game Credits:
  • Music: Ott Aaloe
  • Music: Hasso Brück

(Source)

Game Rip

Format	Conversion	Download
		Download (Info)

The SX and BNK files were extracted from the compressed Muzax.lzs file, though some of the road tracks are still missing. However, since no player yet exists for SX, a VGM log was made. It is the VGM log that was used to record the soundtrack using VGM Input v0.4 in Winamp.

The original Oktalyzer files are also included in the rip.

Audio Devices

Music
Sound

(No Source)

SkyRoads automatically detects if you have an AdLib compatible sound card and uses it if you do. Otherwise, it uses the PC Speaker.

Releases

World Title: SkyRoads Platform: DOS Released: 1993-??-?? Publisher: Bluemoon Software     World Title: SkyRoads Xmas Special Platform: DOS Released: 1994-??-?? Publisher: Bluemoon Software

Links

• mobygames.com/game/dos/skyroads - MobyGames.
• bluemoon.ee/history/skyroads/music/index.html - Official company page about the music of SkyRoads.
• gamefaqs.com/pc/562702-sky-roads - GameFAQs.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyRoads_%28video_game%29 - Wikipedia.