By now you may have played the brand new game inside Guild Wars 2, the Super Adventure Box.

In Guild Wars 2, Moto, an asura inventor, created Super Adventure Box as a way to teach young asura important life skills, like cooperation and avoiding poisonous water.

Our developers created Super Adventure Box out of a desire to see how creative we could be with jumping puzzles and a dream to pay homage to video games of the classic era.

In this video, Josh Foreman talks about the inspiration behind Super Adventure Box, what games influenced it, and what kind of things you can do while playing it. Have a look:

I would absolutely hate to be making music for video games in the 1980s.

Don’t get me wrong. I love classic game music. The hours spent playing and listening to classic NES, Super Nintendo, and Gameboy games had an enormous influence on me. However, the restrictions composers such as Koji Kondo, Hip Tanaka, Kazunaka Yamane, and Hiroshige Tonomura (just to name some of my favorites) had to deal with to create the iconic pieces of music we know and love are so mind-boggling, I’m thankful to not have to deal with them. Here’s a crash course on what making music for video games used to be like, as seen through the lens of our recent Super Adventure Box release in Guild Wars 2.

I’ll focus primarily on the Nintendo Entertainment System, since it’s probably what the majority of people think of when they think of classic video games. For a much more technical breakdown, see the Wikipedia page on the NSF Sound Format.

Limited Choices

Back in the day, the sound chip inside the NES console was only capable of playing back five channels of audio at one time. There were four very basic synthesis channels and one channel that could be used to play back very low resolution samples. The sample channel was used much less frequently than the other four channels, so I won’t focus on it much.

The remaining four channels were as follows:

Channels 1 and 2 – Square (or Pulse) Wave

These channels do the majority of the heavy lifting, providing the main melody, counter-melody, harmony, and arpeggios. They are the most flexible channels, in that you can play around with the overall timbre, volume, and vibrato for each note as well as do some other fun stuff like pitch bending and even simulated echo and reverb, if you get a little tricky.

Image via Wikipedia

Channel 3 – Triangle Wave

This channel is almost entirely used for bass lines. It’s possible to use it for other sounds, but it’s not nearly as flexible as the square wave channels. You can’t play around with volume or timbre.

Image via Wikipedia

Channel 4 – Noise

This channel generates a white noise hissing sound. It’s possible to alter the pitch a bit, but it never really becomes a proper note. It’s either just “lower” or “higher” noise. It’s used almost exclusively for creating drum/percussion parts.

And that’s it; that’s your total sonic palette. No eighty piece orchestras, no awesome band or electronic artist to write some tracks for you. Just four channels. There was also no polyphony, or multiple notes played simultaneously by one instrument, so no chords. Finally, every piece of music and sound effect had to fit into 128k of memory. Good luck on your adventure.

Tracking Numbers

Next, let’s talk a little bit about how these folks had to actually compose the music. Nowadays, a composer generally writes and records all their music into a computer program called a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), either recording live instruments or using virtual instruments loaded on the computer for each part. There are very few limitations placed on the composer, and they have more to do with time and budget than with the technology available. However, back then, it wasn’t so easy. I’ll pass it off here to my colleague Leif Chappelle, who also wrote some pieces for the Super Adventure Box content.

Leif Chappelle:

In the days of the NES and other 8-bit systems, there were no standard ways of getting music into a game. Composers either had to program hexadecimal data that called up the sounds we know, or write their own program to create that data. We call these programs “trackers.”

One of the main tools I use to write chip tunes is a program called Famitracker, which is a more modern approximation of a tracker used by 8-bit-era composers. Because it’s not the most traditional means of composition, let me go into a bit of detail on my process.

What you’re seeing above is just one bar of the Super Adventure Box “Stage Complete” theme. If you’re not familiar with how trackers work, it probably looks nothing like music, or notation, or even a piano roll. Each column represents one of the four possible channels: Square 1, Square 2, Triangle and Noise.

Writing in a tracker is almost like filling out a spreadsheet. The entire piece is organized into frames and rows. Each frame consists of rows and is a singular unit that can be called back when organizing the piece’s structure (see above). So, if you want a repeating drum line, you just need to write it once, and then continue calling the same frame.

Within the frame, a row is an individual beat. If you were to equate it with traditional notation, a row could act like a sixteenth note. In the example above, the downbeats are highlighted every four rows.

When all the instruments have been defined, it’s time to get down to writing! In the case of Famitracker, the keyboard approximates a piano layout, so I just navigate around with the arrow keys and input notes in the vertical scroll.

Tying Your Hands Behind Your Back

Thanks, Leif.

So, just imagine: it’s 1986, and you’ve been tasked with writing the music for a new adventure game starring a little elf in a green suit. You have 128kb of memory to use, four instruments, no chords, and you have to write everything in a program that requires a computer science degree in addition to your musical chops. It’s a miracle these men and women were able to pull it off, let alone create iconic music that almost any gamer can hum at the drop of a hat nearly 30 years later.

Be sure to head over to the official ArenaNet SoundCloud page to listen to all the music from Super Adventure Box and more.

It’s a cliché that form follows function, but in the case of classic game music, it’s absolutely true. The style one associates with old game music was mostly a result of the restrictions the composers faced. Despite the freedom afforded to us by modern technology, I wanted the music for Super Adventure Box to stick as close as possible to those restrictions.

Each piece needed a strong melody—some based on existing Guild Wars music and some wholly original. Each piece could only have four channels (we occasionally fudged this, but some NES games had extra sound chips in their cartridges, thereby adding more available sound channels, so technically it’s “canonical”). Finally, each piece had to loop back on itself, unlike the 2-4 minute ambient pieces in Guild Wars 2, which come and go randomly, leaving occasional breaks between the music.

For inspiration, we drew on everything from the obvious—like the Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda series—to some other favorites like Battletoads, Double Dragon, and Metroid. Even with the restrictions we worked under, it’s incredible how far that sonic palette can be stretched into a wide variety of styles.

Game Over

So that’s the gist of it. It was an incredible amount of fun working on the music for Super Adventure Box, and the entire team did an amazing job bringing the 8-bit vibe into the world of Guild Wars 2. Be sure to head over to the official ArenaNet SoundCloud page to listen to all the music from Super Adventure Box and more.

If you’d like to learn more, here are a few resources:

Retro Game Audio: [URL: http://retrogameaudio.tumblr.com/] It hasn’t been updated in a while, but this is a very informative blog on the more technical aspects of classic game console sound chips.

Chipsounds: [URL: http://www.plogue.com/products/chipsounds/] The incredible virtual instrument that we used to create all the music and sound effects you hear in Super Adventure Box.

Famitracker: [URL: http://famitracker.com/] The program Leif mentioned that he uses for his own chip tune compositions

Now you can take the Super Adventure Box fun into Tyria with the Gem Store’s selection of charmingly retro items! With a brand-new PvP finisher, three new minis, and a special Super Adventure Box of Fun, our virtual shelves are packed with old school fun!

Don’t wait — these items are available only for the month of April!

Available This Month Only in the Gem Store!

Log into Guild Wars 2 and press “O” to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these limited-time offers and more!

How do I get into the Super Adventure Box?

Moto has set up shop at the north end of Rata Sum, near the portal to Lion’s Arch. Round up a party, enter the Box and grab a super coin from the vending machine, and feed it to Virtual Moto.  Make sure you save any baubles you collect in the Box, in case you run out of lives.

Can I bring my sweet pet moa or use my amazing teleporting skills in the Super Adventure Box?

To minimize the impact of Tyrian technology and magic on the core edutainment concepts that Moto espouses, all your items and buffs are disabled inside the Super Adventure Box.

How long will the Super Adventure Box be in Rata Sum?

Moto will be demoing his Super Adventure Box throughout the month of April, to gather important data and metrics, as well as to identify any potentially lethal bugs that may or may not be present in his holoware.

Why can’t I hold all these baubles?

Baubles in your inventory are managed by a wallet that is upgradable inside the Super Adventure Box. Your wallet will not total baubles that you’ve stored in the bank or elsewhere. If you enter the instance and have more baubles in your inventory than your wallet can hold, you will be unable to earn more baubles. Be sure to speak to Moto to trade your extra baubles in for Bauble Bubbles so you can keep earning more.

How can I earn the Super Adventure weapon skins?

That’s what the bauble bubbles are for. You can convert 250 baubles into one bauble bubble. Once you have enough bauble bubbles, trade them in to Moto for some of his amazing, solid-holographic weaponry.

What are continue coins?

Once you lose all of your lives in the Super Adventure Box, you must trade baubles for a continue coin in order to keep playing. You can also stock up by trading Moto your baubles for continue coins outside the Box.

Do I have to collect every bauble dropped by a monster in order to earn bauble achievements?

No, you only need to collect ambient baubles that exist in the zone, not the ones in jars, dropped by monsters, buried, or in the end-of-zone chests. Finding hidden baubles, including those in locked chests will challenge your awesome sleuthing skills.

Why did I buy this useless shovel?

There are secret spots with buried treasure all over the various zones. Be sure to check all the nooks and crannies, especially in hard-to-reach areas.

King Toad is too hard! What is wrong with you?

Super Adventure Box bosses are only difficult until you learn to read their “tells.” Don’t forget to use the whole arena. Remember: knowing is half your battle!

It turns out that I’m not good at jumping puzzles. Is there an easy mode In the Super Adventure Box?

After you give Virtual Moto a super coin, you will enter the Hub. Look for the friendly cloud and talk to him about your need for a low-risk experience.

I can’t read Tyrian. What if I miss an important clue?

All Tyrian text is translated for you in your chat log.

Pro Tips:

• Zoom your camera all the way out with your mouse wheel.
• Disable double-tap to evade in your Combat/Movement Options under General Options.  Learn to use the V key to evade.
• “Dodge Jump” for a little extra height and length by hitting evade (V) right after Jump (Space Bar).  Practice rolling your thumb from the Space Bar to the V key in one smooth movement.
• Don’t pick on innocent wildlife. Some might even lead you to treasure!
• Always carry a towel with you to deal with sweaty palms.
• Be brave and go for reckless jumps.  After all, it’s just a game. Within a game.  Have FUN!