o7 Salutations everyone!
Whenever we talk about chiptunes, inarguably, the big three have always been C64/Amiga, NES, and Gameboy.
C64/Amiga, being a unique and powerful computer system loved by many of its days (and still to this day) have always had a strong following and a rich and deeply rooted history in cracktros and the demoscene. For many, the sound of Amiga is a reminiscence to those days when we ran our first warez, and for some, that sound lingered and remained in our mind and never exited.
NES, on the other hand is the gaming console that we grew up with and loved. To put it plainly, it's the iconic gaming symbol of our youth. A gaming console so beloved and prevalent that an entire generation was named after it - "The Nintendo Generation."
Gameboy, being the first popular and perhaps successful handheld gaming platform requires no further introduction - I'm sure most of us have held one or seen one at one time or another. ^_^ (tfw I just realized my introduction went a little out of hand....)
Anyways, I started this thread because I wanted to get everyone's opinion on the sound characteristics of each of these systems; how they differ from each other, and most importantly, what do they sound like to you?
For me, Amiga's sound is very clear, and each note is very pronounced, which brings a special characteristic to it as everything contrasts more sharply in a way. NES, to me sounds extremely smooth, and i think for me this is somewhat of a double edged sword, as the smoothness somehow contradicts the genre of music that chiptune generally represents. Whereas, gameboy on the other hand provides a raw, chirppy, hoarseness type sounds that gave it its own unique flavor and authentic feel to it.
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In addition, what's your reason for choosing one over the other?
As I'm just starting my journey, my observation could be wrong, but it seems both gameboy and amiga are heavily respresented - gameboy by the chiptune crowd and favored perhaps for its portability and the ability to faciliate live performance, and amiga by computer enthusiats and demoscene people who are still keeping the art alive.
but NES seems to be somewhat missing in the midst!?!
And, aside from the computer enthusiasts and demoscene crowd, how come Amiga/C64 isn't as popular of a choice for those who are purely music fans? Is it because having to collect samples adds another layer of difficulty? granted, when it comes to hardware, it's certainly not a portable system, but that goes for nes as well to a certain degree.