The Music of Video Games [167] Magician

Entry 167 in an on-going video series that offers a selection of musical tracks from various titles throughout gaming's history.

Magician

Year: 1991
Platform: NES
Developer: Eurocom Entertainment Software
Publisher: Taxan
Video source: Nesguide.com

For more info on the game, follow these links:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/magician
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/nes/home/587434.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magician_%28video_game%29

Watch this video with 44 KHz stereo sound:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=kp6T2YueKig&fmt=18
Using this link may affect video quality.

Music composed by Neil Baldwin.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• magician
• nes
• nintendo
• entertainment
• system
• famicom
• fc
• video
• game
• music
• soundtrack
• song
• theme
• play
• intro
• opening
• taxan

[AlucardsQuest]

A kind of rare game, a difficult game, but seriously underrated... especially the music.

[garudoh]

Tell me about it. Of all my vids, I think this is the one with the lowest view count (excluding anything I posted this week). I can't say I've played this game myself, but the soundtrack sports some of my favorite NES tunes ever. Wish I knew who the composer was.

[neilbaldwin99]

Wow, I've recently stumbled across this video. It's been nearly 20 years since I wrote this NES music (first NES game I did) and it's nice to see it still being appreciated today!

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments.

[garudoh]

I love it when composers find one of my vids. Awesome stuff.

The work you did on this game is amazing, Neil. Like I've mentioned before, I never played Magician, so nostalgia isn't blurring any appreciation I have for these tunes. This is really, really good stuff.

I gotta ask, what's your personal favorite work you've done for a game?

[neilbaldwin99]

Funnily enough, your YouTube stuff got me digging out some old stuff. My best NES work (IMHO) was on 2 titles that never saw the light of day - "Hero Quest" (though you can get the music files and the ROM on the internet because the guy who wrote the game decided to release it into the public a few years back). I had a lot of fun doing that as by then (it was quite late in the NES's life) I'd evolved the music driver to have some really cool features so I got to play around and show off a bit :)

[MrNorbert1994]

@neilbaldwin99 Could you tell me why Erik the Viking and Hero Quest was never released?

[explod2A03]

@AJF786

I finally got around to uploading the whole thing! All songs are up in their entirety now. Just do a search for 'Magician NES music' or something like that, and it should come up. But I still have to thank Garudoh for breaking the ice on getting some Magician music up on YT in the first place (and getting Neil Baldwin out of the woodwork!). :)

[JonGeric]

@neilbaldwin99

my life dream is to be a VG composer i've been a musician for 10 years but i don't know how to make the jump into the market....how did you get your start mr baldwin?...by the way the music for this game is phenomenal

[gades9999]

Neil your my hero your music is amazing it helps motivate me in life an awesome game to beat it you must be smart and persistent. Thanks again

[TwinUzis]

This game had the best music you've never heard.

[AJF786]

I also like how the Forest theme starts out with what seems to be ambient noise(crickets chirping, etc.) before going into the song itself.

Awesome stuff, Neil!

[AJF786]

Just to reiterate, I wish this video played all the songs in their entirety.

Most of the songs in this game are quite lengthy, going for several minutes before looping. That in itself is a rarity for NES music.

The Lake theme is actually my favorite(though the Caverns is pretty good). It's so sad and really gets across the homesick feeling that Paul has by that point in the game.

[Camwi]

Seriously, that's gotta be such a great feeling. Considering how much work you've put into this series of yours, I know how much you really care about video game music. So actually talking to one of the composers, that's just awesome.

[Camwi]

I was just going to comment on how blown away I was by the music in this game which I'd never heard before and then I saw your comment.

And I'm not trying to blow smoke up your ass or anything like that. I'm sincerely impressed by some of the songs in this video, especially the first two tracks.

Great job, Neil.

[Alianger]

really impressive for nes, game seems quite ambitious as well.