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Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the purpose of the Videogame Music Preservation Foundation?
A: To provide the ability to listen to videogame music in its originally intended sound for as many games as possible. This is done in order to preserve videogame history by giving easy access to
one of the best parts of the game, the music. This is not done for profit or fame, but for love of music.
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Q: Are you really going to record the music to -every- videogame?
A: That's our ultimate goal. However, in a more realistic approach we plan on first recording the music of the most popular games and unpopular games with the best music. Our reasonable goal is to
collect the music of every game that people would actually want to listen to.
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Q: Are you just ripping the music from the original soundtrack CDs and putting it online?
A: Absolutely not. Most of the soundtracks on this site have never even had a soundtrack released for them. This site is not a pirate organization. We are not trying to take away sales from any
company and for every game that does have a soundtrack still available we'll direct you to a place where you can purchase it.
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Q: So how are you getting the music from these games?
A: The music is being painstakingly ripped from the game's data files. Because they are the actual game files the music will sound identical to what you would hear when playing the game. The songs
are not stylized like they sometimes are on the OST, nor are they recreations like most MIDI and remix sites.
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Q: Are you showcasing any remixes?
A: No. There are plenty of other amazing sites that have remixes and arrangements. This site is meant fill a niche that until now didn't exist on the Internet, the preservation the classics in
their original form. If you're looking for remixes or arrangements check the links page.
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Q: What formats will you be supplying the music in?
A: The main goal is to provide the music in its original format (or the closest possible facsimile). Also, because most audio formats are not playable on modern devices, all the music will be
recorded in Vorbis format to ensure its versatility.
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Q: Why Vorbis, why not MP3?
A: MP3 is currently supported by more players than Vorbis, but it is a patented format. Vorbis, on the other hand, is open source and patent free allowing much more ease of use. It also compresses
better than MP3. For these same reasons we will not use AAC, WMA, RA, AU, or any other format.
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Q: How do I play these Vorbis files? or What are these OGG files?
A: Look at the Vorbis page for instructions on how to play these music files.
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Q: Why are you using a lossy codec? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having identical sound?
A: For posterity's sake, all of the music is originally recorded into FLAC (a lossless codec). However, in order to keep down the bandwidth use, Vorbis is used on the site. When enough demand for the
songs in FLAC format is made, we'll begin releasing the entire archive as a torrent.
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Q: How do I play these tunes on my portable player that doesn't support Vorbis?
A: If you have an iPod, or various other player that's controlled by "The Man" then you will need to convert these files into one of their DRM compliant formats. There are many converter programs
available free online. Audacity, Goldwave, Winamp, and many other audio programs support format conversion. But remember that converting from Vorbis to another lossy format will decrease the music quality.
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Q: How do I open these 7z files?
A: Look at the 7z page for instructions on how to decompress 7z files.
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Q: Why do you use 7z compression on certain archives?
A: The common ZIP compression works nicely on individual files, but 7z has a special store feature that allows it to compress similar files much better than ZIP. This feature is also available in
the patented RAR format, but we decided to use 7z over RAR because 7z is open-source, patent-free, and it compresses better.
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Q: Is this legal?
A: It's a gray area. We're not distributing the games themselves and we're not distributing copies of the original CD soundtracks. We do not want to take away any money due to the owners of this
music. Our current position is that we will no longer accept or post soundtracks unless ten years have passed since their first date of publish. We doubt the copyright holders will even care that their
music is freely available (some may even be greatful for it). However, we respect the wishes of every copyright holder who's music is showcased here and we will remove any music files they ask to have taken
down. However, think about how many times you see unauthorized graphics from copyrighted games on the Web in the form of screenshots or animated GIFS, the owners don't seem to mind.
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Q: Why don't some of the rips sound the same as when they're played in the game?
A: Some games use General MIDI instruments that are the same no matter where they are played. Most games create their own instruments that are stored in separate files that most music players
can't read or used special hardware like the Roland MT-32 which is no longer being produced. We will extract the instrument files if possible, but this is the primary reason why we offer music in Vorbis
format to get the original sound from the games that you can't get from just the music files.
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Q: How do you handle looping music when recording in Vorbis?
A: Most videogame music is set to loop forever. Obviously, we can't create a never ending Vorbis file so for most converted songs we will loop the main song twice and then have a ten second fade
out on the third loop. However, if the song is too long, usually over 2 minutes per loop, only one loop will be made with a ten second fade out of the beginning of the second loop.
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Q: How do you meet the needs of non-English speaking guests?
A: This site is obviously USA-centric. The box art and screenshots are all from the USA versions and the site is written completely in English. Until translators are made available the site
will continue to be in English. However, to better serve the global community we try to include every title variant for each language that a game was published in. This allows people from anywhere on Earth
to find the game they're looking for.
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© Copyright 2005-2008: Dean Tersigni. All rights reserved.
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