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Ripped off RPG music?

roshan

Arcane
Joined
Apr 7, 2004
Messages
2,426
OMG I just heard this, and Michael Hoenig totally ripped this off for one of the combat tracks in BG1:



I think Mark Morgan's ripoffs in Fallout 1/2 are pretty well known. Any others?
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
I heard one the other day which was a blatant rip off of 2 Unlimited's "No Limit" but I can't remember what game it was (wasn't Biometal, which did include the actual track).

Then you've obviously Xenon 2's "Megablast" From Bomb the Bass, which is of course lifted straight from John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13.........



 

hexer

Guest
I think one of Conan the Barbarian's songs ended up as a theme for the town of Targos in IWD2.





You have been waylaid by plagiarists and must defend yourself!



That entire soundtrack is superb, it has a perfect PST vibe for obvious reasons.

This one's not a ripoff but original PST music by lustmord that never ended up in the game.
It was only featured in E3 trailer.

 

roshan

Arcane
Joined
Apr 7, 2004
Messages
2,426
OMG can't believe that the PST main theme was plagiarized from a movie called "Shark Attack", LOL! Wish the original soundtrack by Lustmord could be recovered and restored. I think it would have been better than Mark Morgan's schlock.
 

hexer

Guest
I think Mark Morgan is also Shark Attack's composer so he just recycled his own work.
But I guess if you ask him why he did it, he'd probably reply with the usual "I only had like 3 days to finish the entire soundtrack"
 

roshan

Arcane
Joined
Apr 7, 2004
Messages
2,426
List of Fallout ripoffs:

TRADERS LIFE ORANG LITTLE SISTER
TRADERS LIFE MARK SNOW X FILES OST
MORIBUND WORLD APHEX TWIN WINDOW SILL
KHANS OF NEW CALIFORNIA SCORN SILVER RAIN FELL
VAULT OF THE FUTURE DEPECHE MODE TO HAVE AND HOLD
VATS OF GOO BRIAN ENO ALTERNATIVE 3
FLAME OF THE ANCIENT WORLD DAVID SYLVIAN MARIA
CITY OF LOST ANGELS APHEX TWIN GRASS
ACOLYTES OF THE NEW WORLD NIJIUMU ONCE AGAIN I CAST MYSELF INTO THE FLAMES OF ATONEMENT
CITY OF THE DEAD TECHNO ANIMAL STRANGULATION SELF STRANGULATION
BIGGEST LITTLE CITY IN THE WORLD JERRY GOLDSMITH BASIC INSTINCT MAIN THEME
ALL CLEAR SIGNAL SYNAESTHESIA INTELLIGENCE DREAM
GOLD SLOUCH SNUFFY WALDEN PROJECT BLUE
FOLLOWERS CREDO APHEX TWIN JOURNEY REMIX
DESERT WIND APHEX TWIN GREY STRIPE
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
Some of these aren't rip-offs in the sense of plagiarism, but they are a product of the same musical language and composing style which inevitably lead to very similar sounding stuff. There is also the possibility of the "skeleton" of a piece to be picked up from music tracks in the public domain, like these -


 

hexer

Guest
Interesting. Someone in the YT comments says it's an old song often reused

It's an old song reused in a couple of media
fairy tail zeref's melancholy and rakuen no tou, medieval 2 european summer, witcher 3 fields of ard skellig, heroes of might and magic 4 wandering, and a couple of others i can't remember right now.

But isn't W3's OST made up from already existing Slavic folk songs and those previously released by a band Percival?
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
music designer from HOMM4 in response to questions about similar sounding music
I think what all three of us composers have in common is that we probably used an ancient instrument sample (companies sell pre-recorded bits of ancient instruments playing very old melodic fragments which then I can add orchestral accompaniment and vary the speed of the melody to suit the mood. These fragments come in instrumental catalogs and many soundtrack composers will use bits and pieces of melodies to incorporate into their scores. I’m not sure what catalog the little tune came from but I’m sure it’s from the same one that the other composers used as well. I try not to use such pre-recorded fragments due to the fact that lots of other composers will be using the same tool, but when you have deadlines like we have in this industry (i.e., producers needing a 3 minute piece of music within 24 hours, composed, recorded, mixed, mastered, then embedded into the graphics), we use every tool possible in order to have a good-sounding piece of music created in a timely fashion.
 

hexer

Guest
Bros, down the rabbit hole we go

Risen steals Fallout 3 theme. Starts at 0:19



Endless Mark Morgan steals

 

hexer

Guest
Background melody in this song is very similar to Fallout 1's Necropolis theme



So it's safe to assume it's just a matter of time before we find out the original "inspiration" for all the other Fallout/PST songs
 

rohand

Cipher
Joined
Aug 20, 2014
Messages
592
Location
Planet Escape
Maybe not a straight up ripoff, but I always found that this battle theme from PoE1 was inspired by either (or both) of these from IWD:





 

Starwars

Arcane
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Messages
2,829
Location
Sweden
The Pillars of Eternity track that plays at the start of the game right as you flee the Biawic into the cave (there's a scripted interaction going along with it) is completely ripped off from one of the tracks from the LOTR movies. I don't know what it's called and all that but I'm sure someone knows it. I think it's associated with the Nazguls or Orcs, can't quite recall. It's really obvious.
And I believe the Caed Nua track is also pretty close to one of the tracks in LOTR.

But yeah, the one from the start always really stood out to me with a similar pattern for the horns as well as the choir.
 

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