X-COM: Terror From the Deep (AdLib/OPL2 Soundtrack)

CT1747 (OPL3) / SPDIF rip
John Broomhall / 1995
Digital capture from a CT1747 card. No processing except normalisation for youtube with preserved relative loudness between tracks.
Download: mega.nz/#!2ckBTY5C!jYTY48KNGL...
Tracklist (titles from game file ADLIB.CAT):
"Music for the floppy intro" 00:00
"Signature type jingle" 02:10
"Load game? New game?" 02:36
"Geoscape 1" 03:00
"Geoscape 2" 05:02
"Geoscape 3" 07:09
"Geoscape 4" 09:52
"Geoscape 5" 11:27
"Geoscape 6" 12:52
"Interception sequence" 14:28
"Alternative interception sequence" 14:50
"Second alternative interception sequence" 15:44
"Pre-mission: Islands/Ports/Ships" 16:25
"Pre-mission: T'leth" 16:57
"Pre-mission: Defend your base" 17:06
"Pre-mission: Artefacts/Attack alien base" 17:24
"De-brief for okay or above rating" 17:41
"De-brief for poor or terrible rating" 17:56
"Tactical game - aquatic" 18:24
"Tactical game - on dry ground" 20:56
"Music for the floppy outro: win" 24:10
"Music for the floppy outro: lose" 26:58

[@megalodon0076]

Me when start playing: "Finaly, no more Chrissalids."
Also me in later stage: "F*CK the Tentaculus."

[@theaimlessporpoise1084]

I haven't played TFTD in years, but can remember the brain-sucking sound of the Tentaculate. AHHHHHHH RUN!!!! (or swim)

[@0RansomStark0]

Tentaculats were truly a terror from the deep

[@windwalkerrangerdm]

I started the series with TFTD, so I had no previous experience with Chrysalids. Imagine my dread when I finally understood what the tentaculat had done to my soldier, and then when ANOTHER FRIGGIN TENTACULAT emerges from the zombie as I kill it. My first encounter with tentaculats ENDED my campaign, because I couldn't bring myself to go on...

[@RearAdmiralTootToot]

It's amazing how a collection of pixels and sounds can put you into another world and time so well.

[@PhilMante]

This is the real version of the soundtrack, considering how creepy it is.

[@yurithebrave]

+Phil Mante I will always remember it in this version, I was scared shitless by it.

[@GenuineLolotov]

I totally get that the eerie sound is why you like it. But the emulated SoundBlaster rendering of this game's soundtrack just doesn't have the same charm for me as that of its predecessor, IMPO. I personally prefer the enhanced MIDI version for TFTD.

[@Mokgor]

The reason for that is that in UFO Enemy Unknown the music was specifically composed to sound best with Sound Blaster 16 (OPL3) and only hastly optimized for Roland MT-32 (sirens on the intro) and Gravis Ultrasound. Hence why UFO only sounds good and right with SB16 only (which anyway is amazing, it beats Roland TM-32 and GUS by years imo)
TFTD on the other hand had its music composed with Gravis Ultrasound in mind only, which of course led to suboptimal Sound Blaster 16 and Roland MT-32 results (still alright but missing the special highlights/reverb/depth they added in for GUS only)
All in all this means, go for these music settings when playing the UFO Games:
UFO Enemy Unknown: Sound Blaster 16
Terror from the Deep: Gravis Ultrasound (however, set the sound settings to SB or the cinematic intro/outro won't play)

[@KonfluxGames]

That's why the videos never played for me, huh.

[@Mokgor]

Ya, I guess it's some kind of bug they didn't fully test, because the sound output is identical on GUS and SB, but for some reason it forces the game to only use the slideshow intro/outro. (by changing the intro files names you can still have the cinematics even with GUS on the sound setting)
But SB sound and GUS music is the easier solution.

[@alexanderleto7287]

Tentaculat approaching from the left corner out

[@Thegamingground]

X-Com 2 is pretty darn hardcore on the hardest difficulty setting.

[@jamesmiller113]

I'd say that about the easiest too!

[@Thegamingground]

@@jamesmiller113 Fair enough xD

[@mattgray666]

26 magnetic ion armored aquanauts packing an array of disrupter pulse launchers, m.c. disruptors, and sonic cannons would like to know your location.

[@LukeAvedon]

This game was so hard.

[@universeantimatter627]

this version is the best

[@VirtuelleWeltenMitKhan]

still gives me the chills ... Brad is under molecular control ...ahhhhh

[@windwalkerrangerdm]

And the friggin tentaculats, the nightmares they have induced on 14 year old me...

[@kimbuuu241]

awesome soundtrack. im in 1996 again

[@CappuccinO80]

Still as creepy as 30 years ago.

[@mavorenborsteel6765]

a while back i got Jumpscared by 19:44, I sent my Aquanaut into the Ufo and at the same time that part of the Battlescape played and my unit died to Reaction fire

[@skyrimted1907]

Hi, can you share how you "decat" the adlib.cat file, and subsequently how the extracted files (format?) were played? I understand programming, so feel free to use technical terms. Thanks!

[@Jezulkim]

Hi Ted, I used a program called decat to do it. It was originally made for Transport Tycoon, but the XCOM games share the same file format so you can use it here too. You might even be able to find the source code for decat because I had to build it from source back in the day. Now it seems a compiled exe is available. However only the tracklist was extracted with decat, the music is stored as OPL2 datastreams IIRC, I don't know if there is a player that can play them. However since Transport Tycoon shares the same format you can actually replace the CAT files of that game with the ones from XCOM. This is important because Transport Tycoon has a "jukebox" feature that acts as a CAT file player.

[@thomaszeh2577]

@Jez Can you put the Geoscape track on Spotify please?

[@adammclaughlin845]

It sounds like electronic farts compared to the PSX version, but it's still creepy when you get into it. This will probably always be the best and most frightening Lovecraftian game.