Amiga music: Hired Guns (compilation - Dolby Headphone)

Hired Guns (1993) music by Brian Johnston. A compilation containing all themes that have been featured in my earlier Hired Guns uploads. This upload is intended for headphones only.
00:00 The Boundary (Hired Guns Overture)
01:20 Worldlines Part 1 (Front)
02:53 Worldlines Part 2 (ChSelect)
03:57 Mission Elapsed Time (Static05)
05:15 Falling into the Sky (Outro)
06:50 The Wreckage of Dreams (Death)
The level loading theme has been very slightly extended (because it's awesome).
Individual stereo join versions can be found from my Brian Johnston playlist:
• Playlist
My real recordings of main and character selection themes can be found from here:
• Playlist
Visit my channel for more Amiga music.

[@gravious]

this is a really great soundtrack :) sounds even better in dolby on a nice pair of Sundaras :D

[@gravious]

bit of a strech, but you wouldn't have the FLACs for this would you?

[@Kuokka77]

@@gravious Dolbyfied here bit.ly/3H4Zc9a (source from real hardware this time, unlike what's on the video)

[@alexandersalz5850]

u can replicate the feeling by buying a pair of the first hama generation XD

[@MikaHalonen1974]

Born 1974 and listening to this. Oh those golden memories!

[@matieucastel835]

This is what I call real game music. Long live Amiga !

[@reds005]

I’ve owned an N64, PS1, Jaguar, PS2, XBOX, XBOX 360, XBOX ONE abs and XBOX ONE X. My Amiga is still my favourite

[@asdrubael1985]

and after that, the N64!

[@MikaHalonen1974]

Amiga will born again. I just know. I feel it in my veins.

[@Dukefazon]

Always gave me the chills. This music can bring me back to my parental home, sitting on the floor with the Amiga next to me, 2 mouse were ready to play the game with my late brother. Damn, good old times.

[@Kilusonak]

28 years later, worth listening in 2021. Probably still would in 2121.

[@sonicology]

Still sounds fresh, even after all these years!

[@starygraczpodcast]

Still great ost

[@amciuam157]

30 years later and still counting

[@TangoEchoAlphaUK]

This takes me back to my youth - so many brilliant games, so many fond memories. What an amazing machine the Amiga was...

[@neglesaks]

+Tango_Echo_Alpha Still is! The stuff you could do with MOD music was astounding given enough talent and work... lots of the crap "music" today that is sold on MP3 formats in APple Store and whatnot takes up 100 times the space than you needed for a good quality MOD... just staing a music example. The games of course that such inspirationer (well some of them... there was also plenty of crud...)... artistry back then was real because with only 16 or 32 colours to work with the painter had to hand-pixelate the art to get the proper gradients and tones... And so on. Remember Team Yankee?

[@TangoEchoAlphaUK]

+neglesaks I don't remember Team Yankee, no. I do remember so many great tunes from both the Amiga and Commodore 64 - especially some of the Ocean Loader tunes :)

[@neglesaks]

Tango_Echo_Alpha Yeah, the cracktro/bootloaders have a community of its own, plety of them here on YT, else look to C64 remix or AMigaremix.

[@Khaos969]

I swear the Amiga had an actual soul

[@asdrubael1985]

it had some fuckin SOUL!!! yeah!!!

[@rottenfist220]

I spend countless hours on my A500 learned great deal of stuffs like programming, composing music with trackers. I got a multi-ice cartridge so i was able to freeze current state of memory and dig into games and rip graphics and music :) My friends (we were 14-16 years old kids) learned 68k assembler with almost zero resource (no internet back then) only few books but we got patience to bring down mountains. Good times.

[@jimbotron70]

Cool. Any notable achievements? 😀

[@d0nKsTaH]

Amazing how this did NOT make the top 100 Best Amiga soundtracks video (either of them!) here on youtube. Someone should march right on over to those videos and remind them of this

[@elnonoo591]

One of the best amiga game musics ! :)

[@ciosy3135]

Arnaud NoNOo yes toki the best :D

[@cstom6722]

Arnaud NoNOo yes Street fighter 2 and lotus esprit turbo chall. 1 also

[@gambar]

Legendary game with legendary music and legendary atmosphere.

[@Thonik76]

Xenon 2 mega blast ,Blood money , secret of monkey island, Apydia

[@dallesamllhals9161]

IF more than 1 MB

[@GinjaNinjaJay]

4 player split screen with friends. loved it

[@daremasterco7321]

Still remember how scary it was to play Hired Guns in the dark, Brrrr :)

[@ciosy3135]

I remember playing with 4 people on 1 screen

[@VastyVastyVoid]

You must not have played the Amiga version of Space Hulk. Man, that was an eerie game.

[@NickHunter]

@@VastyVastyVoid I did but I don't think I even made it halfway through the first level. Fucking gene-stealers....

[@fortnitepros8025]

Remember the sentry gun

[@christopherthompson3387]

@@VastyVastyVoid Playing Space Hulk froze my blood. My only salvation was the Heavy Flamer blowing himself up and taking with him all the gene-stealers in the room. My introduction to Warhammer 40K.

[@jimbotron70]

1:37 amazing track. Johnston is such a good musician and should deserve more recognition, I wonder what he did after the Amiga era.

[@BarrySlisk]

Sounds a bit like Alien Breed.

[@frisnitfrisnit]

I remember going round to Brian’s house to hear it on an afternoon off from college. Lovely guy, think he was too humble to realise how awesome his music was

[@LandersWorkshop]

Cool.

[@rikthornton5273]

"MOVE!" 😂 Many, many happy hours staring at my corner of screen trying not to get distracted or die stupidly falling off lifts. Can confirm that many a Cheetah Bug met its end firing tungsten shotshells... ❤

[@sajethan]

I have goose bumps listening this. Jesus what a beautiful memories. This music is so cool that i could cry

[@migproductions4045]

This game BEGS to be remade..

[@Ben_______x]

Still worth listening to in 2023

[@ameldancalippo6912]

There arent many standout Amiga tunes....but this is one of them, fantastic.

[@CalumDouglas]

I still play this, and try to complete it on winUAE at least once a year. I never found anything that hit the spot until Quake 3 arena came out, and even then it never came close to replicating the atmosphere of horror when you round a corner and turn straight into a Mech and hear BOOM! BOOM! a scream - and the screen goes black.

[@LordPBA]

Old times when the games where build for passion and not only for money like now

[@BarrySlisk]

Yeah I hate the endless auto generated quests and 400 hours required to complete a game!

[@Mav2000GER]

After so many years, still cool music!

[@grzegorzportus8542]

computer with soul ....... beast ever !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@paternoga1977]

masz racje to byly zajebiste czasy i doswiadczenia

[@paternoga1977]

ta muza mnie rozwalila wtedy doszczetnie

[@bryonmiller4326]

The guy that did this music is awesome, he also did tracks on the lemmings games on Amiga

[@NR-rv8rz]

I understand why Brian Johnston quit the games biz and went to work for Apple but I don't understand why he didn't continue to produce music if his early work was this awesome.

[@Decrosion]

i can't believe the quality this is really amazing! thanks Kuokka77 :-D

[@zbyneknyklicek6934]

And try to imagine that this game music was created in 1992 :-)

[@HyRax_Aus]

@@zbyneknyklicek6934 ...and the samples were 8-bit too! (Though strictly Paula could do 14-bit)

[@hobbesyhobbit]

"The level loading music has been extended (because it's awesome)" - I couldn't agree more! Awesome effort and great quality!! Thanks.

[@steve323f]

My absolute favourite game of all time. Music brings back some fond memories! Thanks for the upload!!

[@codoltube]

I played this in 1994 in a dark room with extremely great sound... ah... the memories... thanks for the video (and audio !!!!)

[@joeymanson]

Thank you Kuokka77, you made my day. For me, the best game ever made.

[@stephenhall2980]

I would argue that this soundtrack is definitely up there with yuzo koshiro's stuff on streets of rage 1 and 2 on the megadrive. i could go on for ages about the relative strengths of the sound capabilities of both machines but can you imagine playing level 1 of sor 2 with some of this music from hired guns?

[@zoltanormosi5617]

Streets of Rage was genial indeed on it's own term. My Megadrive/Genesis fan electric musician friend always comes with it, and it's power. That's alright. But can't we just agree on that we might not neccessarily look for the same mood and sound? :D

[@stephenhall2980]

@@zoltanormosi5617 sorry I didn't understand any of that. If English isn't your first language that's cool.

[@zoltanormosi5617]

@@stephenhall2980 Not even the last sentence? :) That's cool too.

[@fortnitepros8025]

100 percent

[@yeraysantanaaday6827]

Now days you can do this, i us to play spectrum games using amiga soundtrack..is incredible good

[@naviamiga]

Love that grunty Amiga sound, nothing quiet like it.

[@Lechiander]

Będę uwielbiał do końca mego żywota! Czyli niedługo... :D

[@stephenhall2980]

it's amazing that a computer from 1986 can produce music of this quality

[@Nebulous6]

1985. And they even demoed the hardware in the summer of 1984. Amazing!

[@CaptainNow2]

In a class of its own. Stunning music full stop.

[@SirAndacar]

Man this sure is bringing back some fond memories. I remember playing Hired Guns obsessively through the long weekends on my Amiga 500! It was even better when you had the upgraded 1 MB Paula audio chip. I had saved a game halfway through and then got the upgrade. About five minutes into the game I was blindsided by a nasty robot. One of my characters had the mounted mini gun and blasted at the thing in panic. For the first time you could hear the rumble and ricochet of the gun. Now THAT was cool.

[@neglesaks]

SirAndacar Must've been a borefest having to switch floppies constantly.

[@TheJaaaMan]

+neglesaks lots of space on the A500 case for all those floppies :-)

[@neglesaks]

Martin Roeleveld And df1,df2,df3 of course ;)

[@TheJaaaMan]

+neglesaks i can still remember how jealous i was of my friends a1200 wth external drive.

[@neglesaks]

Martin Roeleveld The A1200? Next to the A4000/040, it was the God of Amigas.... it ran E2: Frontier fluidly ffs! (My A500 ran it... well. tolerably, considering how cool it was at the time).

[@GodofLegacy]

this game showed off what the amiga was capable off back in the day, the pc version of this game was atrocious

[@umdesch4]

This is the best thing ever. I have the med files right here, and I even worked on this for a while, doing a mashup of a couple different sections of the music to make my own extended remix. But this...this is perfect. I will be listening to it for hours now.

[@Kuokka77]

Using foobar2000, i'm applying "Convert stereo to 4 channels" and "Dolby Headphone" DSP effects (in that order) to a file that has full stereo separation (i.e. original Amiga stereo image, which alone sounds nasty with headphones). Just recently i did a guide video of sorts to show the process (no talk, but gives a general idea): watch?v=pr7hPclH1cw&hd=1

[@rickybe]

wow first time hearing this since my childhood. Nostalgia! Its goes from T2 to Doctor Who to Street Of Rage. Back when life was simpler

[@sickleandsuckle]

this music made me get outta my chair and groooooove!

[@jxsvify1]

Perfect multiplayer game. Oh, memories!

[@christopherthompson3387]

Awesome stories! I can relate to every one I've read on this thread...wow! I'll throw in an especially troubling thought I had before my squad and I broke and ran anywhere but the vicinity of where we were, now. I recall I set up a group of auto-turrets that would fire on enemy creatures if they got within range...and I made sure we were covered from every direction...some of the level was flooded. Anyway, something happened..there was a big boom and I could hear my auto-turrets opening up on something and I grinned...cool, I had used those auto-turrets before and they mowed people/things down! What happened next really made my blood run cold, as I thought I heard a "boom!" and then one less turret was firing then another "boom!" and one less of my turrets was firing, still..then "boom!" (wow, that was closer to us!) another turret fell silent, then "boom!... BOOM!... BOOOM! "What the hell is that?"(Those turrets were folding like wet tissue!) MAN those explosions are coming straight at us "WHAT THE HELL IS IT?!...RUN!!" We BOOKED! Man! We managed to get away (for now)..I just couldn't believe something could have waded through those auto-turrets like that! So...effortless, it seemed! My well-planned defense failed miserably. What a blast, though! Scared the %$#@ out of me! Anyway, thanks for hearing me out! Thanks for the great stories! Hopefully, you'll relate to some of my "Thank God for Depends(tm)" moments. I seriously can't remember what things were coming at us, it being the '80's-early '90's and all...lots of "all night" gaming.... I and my three friends were playing on one computer and it was an experience that really blew my mind! We ended up finishing the game, btw...I think I've really only finished maybe five games in my life.

[@LandersWorkshop]

I know the level you mean, it was like LV-426 on steroids and scary AF. The funny thing is on the playthroughs online for it you can complete it without having to fight single alien by just quickly rushing through and finding the exit.

[@ignaciofonseca8696]

Awesome Game.. Awesome Music

[@Nebulous6]

Some of the best Amiga music every written. And a great game too.

[@benmaffin]

Loving the stereo wah guitar - blew my mind when I heard it from my Amiga.

[@ufuk_c]

the game music scene never got better than this...

[@dopenoisia]

Oh wow! These tunes bring back so much memories when I was a kid on secretly played Hired Guns on my brother's Amiga. :D

[@rockandrollmachine]

Still as good today.

[@jacu27]

one word EPIC !

[@SNST3184]

I've sadly never played this because i wasnt bor into this age but i still love the music and can imagine what huge effort this took to make

[@Milkymalk]

I had the original game. It came with a short novel, a fluff background book and a manual, all separate high-gloss printed books. The game itself was kind of a letdown, because it was advertised and reported about as a 4-player 1st person action game, but it was really a 3D puzzle game (find keycards, push blocks, use limited special equipment to overcome obstacles) with action elements. What made it unplayable for me was that when you stood on an elevator, you had no idea if you were going up or down because it didn't scroll and you usually didn't know how many total stops the elevator had, so orientation and navigation was hell.

[@SNST3184]

@@Milkymalk god damn that sounds awful hahah, but i like the soundtrack tho

[@Milkymalk]

@@SNST3184 The soundtrack is great and the novel and fluff part were really good. You could make an RPG out of that background. Aside from the elevators it was a good game, though.

[@robertadamus1883]

OMG! i loved this game on my A1200! It had a additional sfx due to 2mb of Ram... Great Music! Amiga Rulez :)

[@tomahzo]

8-channel OctaMED music if memory serves me right. Late in the Amiga mainstream lifecycle (of course Amiga is forever, but as far as its mainstream appeal goes it was late ;)), but just compare this to how Amiga music sounded back in 1987 when the Amiga 500 was first introduced. This music was made 6 years later. It's staggering just how quickly developers learnt how to squeeze every last drop of computational power and power of expression out of that machine. Just think how clunky it sounded back then and how slick and tightly produced this soundtrack sounded at this later stage. How much does art and technology change in 6 years these days? 3:57 : Holy mother of God, could this be the most overpowered stage loading music ever conceived? ;D It's like a shovel smacked straight in your face ;D ;D

[@ghua]

Best game soundtrack EVER!

[@andrewcooke4251]

Outstanding work on the mastering of the music.

[@Momo-or8xy]

LOTTA LOYALTY FOR A HIRED GUN

[@yurci]

Incredibly Beautiful!

[@xoen6]

Damnm, splitscreen mode was like multiplayer before internet era, Amiga RULEZ! But this music, daaamn :) YESSS...:) Next stop: Apidya sndtrack :))

[@erdal_bora]

You are sharing very interesting music, loved from my childhood.

[@joanjett8814]

Well this is a incredible sound and experience... mi amigo lol I absolutely love this one.. thank you so much...

[@pnvgordinho]

Great game, Awesome music.

[@ricardoalves898]

Awesome! Thanks for making this :D

[@FabrizioCurletto]

un ricordo indelebile di un bellissimo periodo con amici... non so se lo avremo mai finito ma sicuramente ci ha divertito veramente tanto!

[@Nemo88881]

@poita: There is a piece about the Brian Johnston and the Hired Guns music in 'The DMA Design Blog' here (dmadesign.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/a-dma-musical-medley/). Funny how DMA Design went on to found Grand Theft Auto

[@gambar]

I'm a mildly spoken person, but as soon as I saw this I went FUCK YEEEEEEEEEAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

[@artisticgoose2609]

Man!!!!! holy shit this game used to rock!!! One of the first Amiga games I ever really completed. And if I remember rightly it came on 6 or 8 floppies. I swear it was this game. I had a HD for my Amiga and you could install it on the workbech... I've just cried thanks dude

[@nomadsinn2826]

Greetings from Tesseract. CIM.

[@sraaju]

Still with your wet pee shooter, Cim-lite? My minigun sends regards.

[@suburbia2050]

The peak of the Amgia game scene music-wise

[@tomislavdrvar7137]

Wooooah, this is amazing!

[@leighsaunderson9203]

Amazing music on a brilliant game. I love the part at 1m39 where that "weeewoooooo" comes in. Playing the game and having one character up above, and one below in a room, then dropping a grenade or something and seeing it on the other characters view was amazing, really made it feel 3D

[@jarek14973]

Thank You very much Kuokka77. Excelent job. Try to create more music from amiga games. I ask for more. Greetings from Poland!

[@Simi822]

wow so Brian Johnston when not on tour with AC/DC was creating such music in his free time...(LOL)

[@BNU_bezzNicku]

Very good, thanks for sharing this:)

[@babylfsh]

Watch out! Beware! Take Care! MASHEEN is hiding out there somewhere! Don't get mashed now!

[@mikey7326]

Brilliant stuff

[@chris15939]

When I listen this music again after 18 years, reminds me of Mass Effect. And really this game was the beginning of the Mass Effect era games.I realy liked this games.

[@Zili83]

i love this game 4ever.

[@SAGREMORE1]

Best game Ever on Amiga

[@xXxBatouxXx]

would like it 1000 times if i could :D

[@khelben1979]

No remix that I have heard yet can beat this original!

[@LarvaExoteech]

i am not sure how you achieved this (i am not into sound/music stuff really), but it sounds superb on on headphones i never heard that awesome turning for headphones +1 for u dude

[@Frantzen79]

Has anyone ever considered how far ahead of its time this game was? Look at what drives the gaming industry today, not the least the Esports. And look at what they tried to do with this game... and yes, the music is fucking brilliant.

[@d0nKsTaH]

Be cool to see an updated version on steam for example... I'd love to play it with a group of friends

[@mikeday510]

i felt exactly this when i first saw it, and heard it. felt like it instantly out-classed practically everything before it, and even much after it

[@Poita]

Amazing music and sound effects. What happened to Brian Johnston? I love the music from Hired Guns and still have it in my music collection but it's not easy to find what he did next with his career.

[@andrewcooke4251]

Long shot. There is a youtuber by the name of Kimble justice. She could potentially have some answers to this question.

[@ZIqbal]

Fine!! I'll play it again!

[@GLAJMAN]

You sir rock...

[@sneki8904]

Top notch game with (also) top notch music and local MP. And guess what, 2MB was all it needed for enhanced edition.

[@tvokokiemsnajpera3856]

Legend!!!

[@LordPBA]

6:50 hmm... An ester egg for Lotus Turbochallenge? :)

[@supermegabrobro1185]

love it

[@EvilKris]

this fucking rules

[@veelckoo]

Great quality! How do you record the music? Is it recorded from the original amiga?

[@Kuokka77]

No, this upload is not from real Amiga. Audio source is DeliPlayer (PC) software in this case (which is just a part of the process to make these Dolby uploads). My latest uploads with A1200 Dolbyfied in their title are using actual A1200 sound as source.

[@veelckoo]

Thanks for replying and for reviving some of the best Amiga music in great quality!

[@lucaslewoszewski9038]

Super game and music...

[@LordPBA]

Must be listened on a 1084s , trust me

[@yeraysantanaaday6827]

desperados 3 final change with the core of enemys and the music 7.00 is western total.

[@gavindownes4541]

i really loved the thunderstorm . i think it was on the area select screen

[@Kuokka77]

Thunderstorm uploaded kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZ69ipelr66KqdU

[@mikeday510]

yes! the map... the whole game had such a cool vibe.

[@bbrtki]

I made a snippet from this into my ringtone ^^

[@leblogdeletrange2733]

the game was compressed with rob norten compressor and a friend of mine done the uncompressor :D , this song is terrible, great

[@Nostrum84]

holy SHIT the music is some 2 unlimited style :DDD god i miss this

[@Lechiander]

My music from my game Cudo!