C64 Skate Or Die Intro - NTSC

NTSC version of intro to Skate Or Die for the Commodore 64

[@HankyWangman]

I'm British, and I played this in PAL. But this is the correct speed, there's no two ways about it. Hubbard was in the States working for EA at this time - why would he write it for PAL whilst he was surrounded by a ton of NTSC equipment?

[@incumbentvinyl9291]

Because he is hardcore.

[@mblackritter]

@@incumbentvinyl9291 ...C00000000RE! 😻

[@RichardM-kv4uu]

I had the PAL version and it definitely played at this speed!

[@RichardM-kv4uu]

@MAJIĆ FILMS INC. No, actually, a PAL game is faster on NTSC, and an NTSC game is slower on PAL - PAL is 50hz and NTSC is 60hz.

[@tongey1]

Because Rob is a legend and from the UK. He probably brought his own equipment with him!

[@christianherbst674]

Those times... When Electronic Arts' label was a badge of honor.

[@GeneralZodFDNY77]

Okay, who else back in the day didn't start the game right away so they could bop out to the awesomeness of this intro? I couldn't have been the only one. And I played bass as a kid. I damned sure played the bass line from 2:56 on often.

[@ClickToPreview]

This is a straight up seminal track from my childhood.

[@linuxstuff73]

Pretty much every time I loaded it up.

[@christianherbst674]

Hello there, fellow veteran!

[@AndrewAmbrose]

The most impressive thing was that Rob Hubbard took samples of real instruments, which allowed him to be very creative with the power of the SID chip. Kouji Murata and Konami made a fairly respectful effort when trying to adapt the music to the NES’s 2A03 chip, but Rob took HUGE strides when he did the music for Skate or Die 2, which was exclusive to the NES.

[@christianherbst674]

Don't forget to mention that playing digi samples was only possible due to a bug in the SID chip!

[@AndrewAmbrose]

@@christianherbst674 Yup!

[@jawed]

yup

[@rhand323]

Jawed?

[@PieBathBob]

sup jawed

[@applescruff1969]

Jawed is the only guy to ever get 15 million subscribers with only one video.

[@harambezomb8373]

Hi jawed!

[@zach6372]

hell yeah

[@Bacho_Grande]

Robb Hubbard is a genius.

[@djlobb]

It blows my mind that Rob Hubbard introduced a sampled guitar into the C64 via a flaw in the SID chip. Many many years before demosceners got the C64 to play back samples in music.

[@MrBeard17]

scientology is behind the Commodore 64 ??

[@Teraforce88]

@@MrBeard17 You're thinking of L. RoN Hubbard, who invented Scientology. RoB Hubbard is the man who composed this time. Two very different people with very similar names.

[@robintst]

This theme song pops into my head at least once every couple of days. Skate or Die was a defining game of my childhood.

[@andrewrigg4905]

Same here

[@mblackritter]

😻

[@CircaMay85]

Me too anytime I hear someone say skate or die or see it on a sticker somewhere, The theme to SOD2 pops in my head.

[@Exitof99]

I always love the bass line in this so much, I feel like it gets too little attention in the face of the rest of the songs awesomeness.

[@RashaTwain]

i'm surprised i haven't heard this shit sampled. It's so raw.

[@shaolin95]

Indeed. The C64 was a beast...that SID is a legend!

[@UrielDagda]

Well like I said before this is how fast it was NTSC. I played this as a teenager on an NTSC C64, on and NTSC TV and NTSC Commodore monitor, all bought at a local department store here in the US in the mid-1980s! Proof can't be more definitive than that! :)

[@ezeepeezy]

Man this song is timeless! 2:32 just hits different!

[@ezeepeezy]

Also that bass riff at 2:58 👌🏽

[@SteveMorrow8859]

Listen to those power chords! Awesome!

[@BrianBethel72]

The high point of C64 music.

[@doktorkraesch3014]

It was a high-point of the eighties! :-)

[@magicmulder]

I prefer Hubbard’s pure chiptunes over these sampled ones though.

[@incumbentvinyl9291]

@@magicmulder Same, albeit the latter parts of the tune are good.

[@karlsjostedt8415]

@@magicmulderThis is still a chiptune. Just the distorted guitar is a sample... So he has 3FM synth voice plus one sample voice.

[@zaphod77]

Anyone who says this is the wrong speed is, well wrong. :) American company. American developed game. America had NTSC c64s. Th is is the tune as meant to be played.

[@RaptorZX3]

If this music doesn't psych you up to play this game, then i don't know what could!

[@sandwichsteen]

Rodney.

[@AlmightyPolarBear]

I feel this title theme is much more epic than regular skateboarding. It makes you feel like a hero/heroine.

[@gelbadayah.sneach579]

It blows my mind that the C64 sound board only had 3 voices but that Rob Hubbard managed to pull this song off. If I'm not mistaken, it sounds like he laid the percussion and base notes between each other on the same track. That's some aggro shit right there!

[@mohameddiaa1975]

Gelbadaya Sneech actually it is more complex than an this, he used a SID hardware glitch to be able to playback 4 bit audio samples over and above the 3 normal channels

[@gelbadayah.sneach579]

@@mohameddiaa1975 Cool! I have this song on my work playlist. I'm going to love it even more now.

[@karlsjostedt8415]

3 fm synth voices and a trick to use the noise filter to get one channel of samapled sounds which he used for the distorted guitar.

[@Wolfmoss1]

This was one of the best C64 games. Aaah good times.

[@zaphod77]

@rmcdev incorrect. The game was developed by a north american company (EA) and if you play the original on an NTSC c64, it indeed sounds like this. If played on a PAL c64, it plays at 5/6ths speed. The super slow version is what happens when you play the PAL version of the game on an NTSC c64. because the interrupts happen faster, the music updates every alternate interrupt. yielding 3/5ths speed compared to PAL.

[@UltraCollagenBooster]

I were a UFC fighter...this would be my walkout song. The exact sound, bit, quality, etc. 👍

[@atomiswave2]

doesnt get any more badass than that. you can take all your xbox 360s and ps3s and shove em where the sun dont shine. Old school games had heart!

[@UrielDagda]

I played this in my teens on an actual Commodore 64, and this is exactly what it sounded like.

[@797gaming]

Absolutely destroys the NES version!

[@Sh-hg8kf]

Skate or die 2 on the nes comes a lot closer tho, tho I did hear the pcm sample used got screwed over because the cpu sends sprite over to the ppu

[@797gaming]

@@Sh-hg8kf true

[@Renne308]

This makes a rather non-noticeable cameo in The Sims 3. If you zoom in on sims playing the "exploding tank man" arcade game, a snippet of the main melody can be heard.

[@zaphod77]

@rayadhd The game was written in the USA. hence, it's a NTSC game. Hence, NTSC is the proper speed for the tune. yes, it's supposed to be this fast.

[@j-z75]

God, this brings back memories. I would load this and play it over and over in my room. I thought (and still do) that this is best video game tune ever written. Thanks for posting it.

[@Jdub14000]

At 3:47 I love how it changes to guitar and synth. Awesome!

[@2150dalek]

I loved this game. Funny concept.

[@whynottalklikeapirat]

Haha that tune was part of the reason i picked up the electric guitar

[@drweedon]

Wow....the BEST intro to any computer game period! It got me so pumped to play this game every time. Brings back a lot of memories!

[@senorverde09]

@Gfors85 Well Gfors85, I've done listens to both, and actually on technical terms the only thing sampled in the NES versions are the drums while this has a digitized 5 minute electric guitar thing going on. I do however praise the NES version for its clever use of square waves to mimic the guitar though.

[@Wflash00]

The track is so grand and awesome that the border even dances along

[@boiii3productions945]

It was because it was using up all the Ram so screen was used for memory

[@chuckbatson595]

Ah the fabled fourth voice by modulating the 4 bit volume register. Those were good days!

[@zaphod77]

@rhinonose GO listen to NES skate or die 2, which has it's rocking title tune at just about the same tempo (and is obviously right), and then come back and tell me it wasn't supposed to be this fast.

[@farerse]

this tune punishes!

[@TomCatT_]

My best friend and I would only load this game mainly for the intro music. Come to find out most games we played that's about all we did was rocking out on game music. To this day still, Skate or Die, Tetris, Turbo OutRun, BMX Kid, and Afterburner are my top game music tracks. (Because of the digitized sounds/tracks.) Oh yeah, The Last V8 had that voice in the game as well. Thanks for the upload

[@carlopepi]

Give crazy comets, sanxion loader and Monty on the run a listen

[@jumhed994]

'Latht V8...Weturn to bayth IMMEDIATELY!'

[@karlsjostedt8415]

@@carlopepiI still bop to Crazy Comets music. But the videos using emulation sound terrible as compared to videos that use real hardware, it is like night and day difference... Same with other C64 music, gotta find real hardware versions or the sound is quite messed up... That classical music theme in Saxxion title screen is also one of my favorites...

[@carlopepi]

Y@@karlsjostedt8415 you mean loading

[@TheWhocrazy]

I now have the original pal version here in Australia, with copy protection intact, and on a pal machine, it plays at the same tempo as in this video, however, when I first encountered this game, it was a cracked version that my friend had, which played the intro music at the slower speed that some are used to. So, in the early days, at least, an easy way of telling if someone was using a crack was to listen to the speed of the intro music. Some more recent cracks, however, don't have this problem and will play at the proper tempo.

[@paulcanniff4308]

So much better than the DOS "music".

[@sbmrunning]

I LOVED THIS MUSIC EFFECT ! I JUST PLAYED IT OVER AND OVER ON MY 128 THANKS FOR THIS! also i remember breakdancing ones too!

[@VilleHelin]

Greetings from a PAL country. The NTSC version is much better. And awesome. This feels right.

[@zaphod77]

@zaphod77 And for real proof, the PC version of the tune (which wouldn't be subject to pal/ntsc issues) is also this fast.

[@ViableNutria797]

This is 10 times more badass than the NES version.

[@WaveGazer]

Not really. This is too tinny.

[@paulcanniff4308]

SummerWave, the NES version is boring compared to this. You're just not used to the C64 audio.

[@theobserver4214]

Paul Canniff the C64 sounds better than the NES in many cases, it's less flat and beepy.

[@rickgrimes3479]

Some retard actually said the Nintendo version sounded better than this lol

[@zaphod77]

Actually the real reason it slows down and pitches down in PAL is because the rest of the song is adjusted to match the sampled sounds, which play back slower (and thus a lower pitch) because of the slower speed of interrupts. If it didn't use samples then they could have made the speed auto-fix itself. instead it adjusts the pitch to match the samples.

[@wewk584]

Ahh.. brings back memories.. I knew KZbin wouldnt let me down. Thanks OP

[@KTJohnsonkidThunder]

@Scioneer Konami was actually responsible for the NES version. But Rob Hubbard was still the main composer. -KT

[@toddoroi4947]

It's sample playback similar to that on the master system, st, spectrum, cpc, etc... done by quickly altering the volume of a particular channel to produce PCM or PWM. Because of the weird analogue/digital hybridization of the SID it's kinda hard too pull off.

[@karlsjostedt8415]

It does not use any of the 3 fm synth voices for the sample, as we hear in this song where only the guitar is sampled and we still hear all 3 fm synth voices at the same time. I think it was switching on and off the noise filter that was used to play back samples... So similar to what you were saying, just clarifying the details...

[@MrBrown77]

I was used to the slower version as a kid. But I understand that this is the original version. It's supposed to be fast and energetic - it's finest 8 bit punk rock! ^^

[@351oldskool]

Awesome!!!

[@zaphod77]

SO you are implying that one of the greatest c64 musicians ever was unaware of video standard differences? THe game was US developed, as was the skate or die 2 for NES, which had more of his work. ANd guess what? the title theme is at the same tempo in that game too.

[@kennethallen1765]

Thanks for posting. Brings back great memories.

[@miaouew]

My Jr High computer class teacher let us play this whenever we wanted to but you had to have the volume turned all the way down because he would kick you out of the classroom if he heard this song.

[@LoganMora]

[@Dwedit]

And KZbin has applied their "auto volume control" filter to the music, ruining it completely.

[@Teebonemendez]

fuXn rockin!

[@brittislove]

sounds pretty rough, but after reading enough youtube comments, this IS the superior version

[@RichardM-kv4uu]

Pretty rough? It's an 8-bit computer from 1982 playing digitised sounds, what were you expecting?

[@johnwbyrd]

Shh, don't bother him, he's on a roll...

[@carlopepi]

Arise Dr Hubbard

[@elijahvincent985]

Back when Electronic Arts meant what its' name bore... a masterpiece of Electronic Art and not some cash-grab shell of its' former quality and self. The Trip Hawkins years were the best. (Nice guy, BTW!)

[@SeaJay_Oceans]

8-Bits 4 Ever!

[@Matthew28845]

Starts at 0:34

[@Bruno-hd9qo]

Matthew28845 I almost jumped off my couch with such blast ffff

[@Nikku4211]

Thanks for preserving the NTSC aspect ratio, too. C64 was only 16:10 in PAL countries, but here in the States, it was thinner than 4:3.

[@adimifus]

What do you mean by "aspect ratio"? Displays were always 4:3 regardless of resolution, NTSC and PAL. The higher vertical resolution of PAL C64s meant the pixels weren't as tall as on NTSC C64s because the display aspect ratio was the same (4:3).

[@JeDorsBeaucoupTrop]

@Gfors85 It's a question of taste but I think the C64 got more funky sound. The NES seems to me too flat imho.

[@mtunayucer]

Video starts at 0:35

[@chrisdoessomestuff4782]

Why do imagine an ice cream truck playing this song?

[@CapitaineSabor]

+ChrisDoes SomeStuff maybee the chord sound like this... by it will be so rad if a ice cream truck play this kind of tune :p

[@richardhookway]

Or a swarm of bees!

[@kiwirocket64]

Man PCs really did sound a whole lot different back then I don’t know what it is about them, but they just sound more grand especially the Amiga

[@karlsjostedt8415]

The Amiga uses 4 sampled voices. A lot like all modern games that just have better quality and more power for more voices. Amiga can sound like any tape recording or modern game if there is enough memory to spare for higher quality instrument samples.

[@NessaNekochan]

Actually the song is at 150bpm which would be perfectly possible on NTSC as well as PAL (thats why this tempo is used so often), so they probably just forgot to implement that.

[@karlsjostedt8415]

The samples play at a different speed and pitch on PAL vs NTSC due to the interrupts being tied to the display frequency.

[@NewMusicNetworks]

80s

[@NessaNekochan]

Didn't think about the samples (haven't looked into programming the SID yet, only for some cheaper fixed waveforms), and after listening to the PAL version I heard that they changed the pitch there too. Guess its was easier/cheaper to do it like this.

[@mightypotato]

God, the only two people who could play that bass line are Geezer Butler or Cliff Burton. Damn.

[@9-11wasthecoolestthingever9]

Love the cheesy anologness of this song

[@DougGlendower]

This is the 80s distilled into pure awesome.

[@way2muchNFO]

I approve

[@nopenope6034]

Yeah! The Last Ninja 2! YEAHHH! YEAH!!!

[@BodSTAX1]

And it would work the other way around. Composing on an NTSC C64 and then running it on a PAL system, the tune would slow-down.

[@ViableNutria797]

DAMN and this is on a SID CHIP?!

[@toddmiller5322]

The first one, yes.

[@robertsiegert9870]

:) Old Time bby

[@officialmashitup]

Haha rob hubbard beat machinae supremacy to SID-Metal!

[@marquisor]

it's not a bug, it's a feature. the 8580 needs to have a "voice played" to get digisound. the 6581 not.

[@rickgrimes3479]

@@LarsTragel-zh7ei this guy must have been born yesterday cuz he's obviously not from the 80s

[@toddmiller5322]

Yes it actually was a bug in the first SID revision. You can show this by the guitar solo being lost from the later model SID.

[@Delta225]

The Virgin NES and the Chad C64

[@lkjyuiop1987]

This game was a fun 2 player game I was good at it

[@silenceofthehills]

Blonde Archfeind on a skateboard.

[@DecodingDoom]

I'm here from Caddicarus

[@RashaTwain]

where can i download this?

[@MrBeard17]

You know how to easily tell this game is from the 80's ? The character is skating... not texting.

[@robintst]

+Drunken Punk 800 If I ever had the nerve to utter the words, "I'm bored," around my parents when I was a kid, they'd tell me to go play in the dirt and dig a hole and I literally would go out in the yard with an old spoon and some toy cars or action figures and do just that. Active play and engaging one's imagination was enough for me. Otherwise, my means of gaming were a ColecoVision my brothers and I had to share and one of them had a Commodore 128 where I discovered Skate or Die, to not so subtly reference the video we are commenting on (hehehe). We were never accused of laziness for playing video games too much that I can really remember, I think the three of us kind of moderated our own free time well enough to take up a variety of activities.

[@Sh-hg8kf]

Drunken Punk 800 Stop complaining like a dumbass. If you had such technology in your childhood, you too would've stayed home. The reason kids use walk throughs is because games are being directed at adults, which means that they have to be challenging for the average adult, which thus makes it very hard for kids. Back then, games were directed at kids, which means that they were made easy for the sake of kids. Stop whining

[@zierkly]

@mightypotato How about, oh I dunno, Geddy Lee, Flea, Chris Squire, Victor Wooten, John Entwhistle if he was still alive, I could go on.......

[@brickblock369]

Are the animated borders an unintended side effect when playing the samples via SID trickery? Or is it intentional?

[@RichardM-kv4uu]

Intentional - the program is rapidly changing the border color creating those weird lines!

[@karlsjostedt8415]

It is kind of unintended. Not strictly because it is playing samples but because they had to use the screen memory to be able to fit the samples. This is also why the lines seem to fit the sound, the stuff in memory is changing due to what is playing which has a direct effect on the screen since that is the memory that is being changed.

[@zierkly]

@Gfors85 Maybe not as noisy but the NES version is missing a ton of synth notes because it can't physically play all the notes in the chords. Compared to this exact version, the NES version is lame.

[@zierkly]

@Gfors85 I can go along with that =)

[@whynottalklikeapirat]

from 2:18 and on particularly

[@bernierose719]

Remember when c64 only cost £2.99 😁

[@zaphod77]

Umm, no. this game is most definitely NTSC.

[@rmcdev]

@wrestletube1 Correct. Most people think the opposite, that the PAL version is too slow. That was the way it was meant to sound, and I prefer it.

[@karlsjostedt8415]

This version is how it is supposed to sound (search it up). And the slower version sounds way worse.

[@boiii3productions945]

I heard real guitar samples (although low quality)

[@boiii3productions945]

@Stefan W. ik it has limitations when using samples

[@BodSTAX1]

I'm a bit confused as to what the correct speed of this should be. Thinking about it the slower version is the correct speed. Running a machine at NTSC speed on a PAL TV results in screen refresh speed-up and music speed-up. This happens no matter what machine you program on. I suppose the only real way to find out how the tune should sound is to ask Rob Hubbard himself.

[@karlsjostedt8415]

This speed is the correct speed. It was created for NTSC machines to begin with and the use of samples makes it very hard to just change the speed on PAL machines to the correct speed.

[@Gfors85]

I think the Nes version is so much better, not so noisy.

[@wrestletube1]

This is a non otomised PAL game being played in NTSC speed.

[@Gfors85]

@zierkly I agree with the comment above yours, its a matter of taste. the wannabe electric guitar sounds like shit and the nes version is much cooler and cleaner...thats what I think and you dont have to think the same :)

[@rayadhd]

The tune was obv meant to be played slower. The NTSC was a usa thing.

[@karlsjostedt8415]

Nope, this game was developed in the USA for NTSC machines and the slower PAL version is obviously the wrong speed if you listen and compare both...

[@nightowl8936]

The PAL version of this song is not unlike Europe itself ... slower and more pussified.

[@Zarggg]

Skate or Take Mild Leg Abrasions