Are there famous games that use music in module format?

[Metro28]

Are there famous games that use music in module format?

[Saga Musix]

Many famous games from the late 80s / early-to-mid 90s (mostly on Amiga, where the original MOD format was developed for game music). Anything using Unreal Engine up until Deus Ex. Many PopCap games including the well-known Bejeweled series. Yes, there are quite many popular(mostly older) games using module music. These days it's not so relevant anymore because the size and CPU constraints are gone in most games, so streaming formats are easier to use and more prevalent. It's mostly indie games using tracker music directly nowadays.

[LPChip]

Also, back in the day, it was practice to hide/pack the modules inside a container file, and there were file rippers that could extract them. That's how I got the intro music for one of the worms games. Jazz Jack Rabbit was another gem. I was quite surprised when Jazz Jack Rabbit 2 just had them in a music folder instead of in a packed file.

But yeah, the list is extensive.

Some games went for .mid others went for modules until diskspace wasn't an issue anymore. Also, some games went for CD-Audio before pc's got powerful enough to go to MP3's.

[LDAsh]

I would go so far as to say every Super Nintendo game uses a sequenced "tracker" format and I consider SPC files generally similar to something like XM in practice.

[Saga Musix]

That's not quite right. Just because SNES music is sample-based doesn't make it tracker music. Yes, a few (mostly European) SNES game soundtracks were originally tracked (e.g. Waterworld), but especially the Japanese tracks are mostly sequences in one way or another. SPC files are also essentially just a memory dump of the program code running on the SNES processor, similar to how SID files work. They are not similar to tracked formats at all because they miss any sort of pattern information.

[LDAsh]

Depends how specific and technical you want to be.  I watched a video of David Wise composing music on (what I think was an) Amiga, working on Battlemaniacs for SNES.  Looked an awful lot like a tracker software to me, with hex for notes/samples and instructions to the chips.  I would post the video but it was a portion of a much larger interview somewhere.

[Saga Musix]

Yes, David Wise is one of those European exceptions. But that's completely different from how the majority of the (Japanese) developers made their soundtracks, and those are responsible for the majority of SNES music I'd say. I think I read at some point that they might have used an MML-like language for writing the music, but that's also not really akin to tracking.

[visionwave]

Are there famous games that use music in module format?

Hello there, I signed up today just to answer your question

It's a funny coincidence, because I came here to get the newest modplug to edit the music from a famous video game that uses module music - Unreal and Unreal Tournament. They use screamtracker format, and if you use modplug you can simply open the .umx files and listen/edit

I've been experimenting with modding Unreal and Unreal Tournament since the 90's. it's a fun game to tinker with.

On that same note, any game that uses Unreal Engine, such as Deus Ex, also uses the same screamtracker format. (specifically Unreal Engine 1, I'm not sure about the new UE games. I would guess that UE5 still supports modules natively although everybody uses different formats for new games).

[Saga Musix]

While the original Unreal still contains quite some Scream Tracker files indeed, the Unreal Tournament soundtrack is already mostly in Impulse Tracker format (with two exceptions in S3M and XM format respectively). Deus Ex was fully in Impulse Tracker format, no Scream Tracker files there at all. Galaxy Sound System supports a few more formats but they are not used for any official tracks.

On that same note, any game that uses Unreal Engine, such as Deus Ex, also uses the same screamtracker format.

Not quite. Unreal, Unreal Tournament and Deus Ex are pretty much the only Unreal Engine games using tracked music. Even during Unreal Engine 1 times, other games were already using other formats. For example, Rune does not used tracked music. Newer versions of the Unreal Engine most likely do not support tracked music, at least there is not a single game using tracked music in those. It would be quite a liability for Epic to still ship Galaxy Sound System with Unreal Engine these days, but of course game developers can just add their own module decoder to their game and then feed the decoded output into Unreal Engine's sound system.

[visionwave]

That's not quite right. Just because SNES music is sample-based doesn't make it tracker music. Yes, a few (mostly European) SNES game soundtracks were originally tracked (e.g. Waterworld), but especially the Japanese tracks are mostly sequences in one way or another. SPC files are also essentially just a memory dump of the program code running on the SNES processor, similar to how SID files work. They are not similar to tracked formats at all because they miss any sort of pattern information.

Yeah, the SNES and older systems require you to emulate the sound. But Nintendo 64 did use a soundbank midi format which isn't terribly difficult to convert to module.

https://www.retroreversing.com/n64sound

It's fun to tinker with old game engines and sound formats, one of my favorite hobbies

[visionwave]

While the original Unreal still contains quite some Scream Tracker files indeed, the Unreal Tournament soundtrack is already mostly in Impulse Tracker format

Ah, cool  I hadn't noticed they changed, I always treated U1 and UT as essentially the same game. Then again, I've always used UT tools and environment to edit U1. There's a cool mod called Oldskool Amp'd which allows you to combine the games into one.