The Star Control II Music You've Never Heard
Channel: The Oldskool PC
Date: 2021-03-31

Star Control II was one of the first PC games to use a multi-channel sample-based music soundtrack, but the game's music credits hide a decades-old mystery:  One of the people listed there doesn't actually have their music in the game.  Who is it?  What did their music sound like?  Why are they listed in the credits if their music isn't actually in the game?

In this video, we answer these questions and more, getting to the bottom of an issue that's bugged me ever since I noticed it in the early 1990s.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro
01:34 Finding Musicians
04:55 Hypothesis - The credited name was fictional
05:25 Hypothesis - The credited music is actually in the game and I've just missed it
05:49 Hypothesis - The credited music wasn't good enough
07:10 Hypothesis - Fred's code couldn't play the original music
08:25 Hypothesis - The credited music was so good it would have made the others look bad
08:53 Hypothesis - The credited music's style wasn't what they were looking for
09:42 The Answer
10:16 The full combat tune

Links:

Arstechnica 2018 interview with Toys for Bob:  https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/07/an-extended-interview-with-star-control-creators-fred-ford-paul-reiche-iii/
Archive of files demonstrated in this video:  archives.oldskool.org/pub/TheOldskoolPC/SC2MarukuBarunuFiles.zip

Shoutouts:

Thanks to Space Game Junkie for providing some sample SC2 footage: http://spacegamejunkie.com
Also thanks to Dan, Riku, and Aaron for helping me with research in 2018 and 2021.
BIG thanks to Paul and Fred for providing the background info that finally answered these questions.
And a MASSIVE thanks to Marc J. Brown for making the music in the first place.  I still play techmaru and smaltech every time I test out a modplayer.

Want to support me, and help me make more videos like this?  Consider becoming a patron: https://www.patreon.com/TheOldskoolPC

Contact info:
Twitter: @MobyGamer
Email: http://www.oldskool.org/personal