The Legend of Zelda: A Beep to the Past
Twenty Thousand Hertz
The Origins of Sound on the Nintendo Entertainment System
Koji Kondo has written hundreds of video game tracks, including dozens of classic themes from Mario and Zelda. As primitive as these sounds may seem today, creating them wasn't easy. The Nintendo Entertainment System had built-in synthesizers that composers would have to write for. This musical code was stored in the game's cartridge and read by the console,. which would then produce the sounds using onboard synths in real time.
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