Pac-Man World & Re-PAC Sound Info Rant Thing

NOTICE: The following text was written before the recent update to Pac-Man World Re-PAC, and is text I would send to content creators who were more interested in the sound side of the game, and what was wrong. Some of this information is still useful, I believe, despite no longer being accurate. I am going ahead and making this information public, just for those who are curious, as I believe I was one of the only folk who did thorough research into the sound side of this game, around the time of it's launch.

Thanks for reaching out to me, NAME!

There's a lot of things to cover on the sound side of the original game, and the remake of Pac-Man World, that I think would be important to mention or consider in a video. I would be grateful if you gave it all a read.

Re-PAC remakes music from the original game that is compressed ADPCM in the original game, but incorrectly assumes things like that the pitched up nature of the ADPCM tracks was intended, alongside the compression itself.

Some of the music tracks in the original game are present as Redbook Audio, for stuff like Mazes, Menus, and Bosses, because those segments don't need to stream in level assets, like the main levels do, as the original PS1 game streams levels, Crash Bandicoot style.

In addition, it was discovered by a friend that the reason everything in the game sounds pitched up (minus the previously mentioned Redbook Audio) is because of a fine tuning value that was globally set. With a Gameshark code, it's actually possible to disable this fine tuning value for all versions of the game, which brings the music back to the speed it was originally produced, and even brings SFX to be more in-line with how they sound in the sequel, Pac-Man World 2. This thread contains the Gameshark codes, if you want to try it out for yourself: https://twitter.com/lebrickster/status/1558183423189065730

If you want to directly compare the music of the game to the remake, without needing to record from the game itself, I've made this FLAC set of the original game, with everything converted at the correct sample rates. Mind you, the README needs to be updated, as it reflects an older version of the pack: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c31jS32IN28P-oqx4n3tLwjk6X6ZA_qF/view?usp=sharing

If you would prefer something in native format, however, I recently redid my rip of the game's music, for the JoshW website. The readme acts as a guide for what is what, should you decide to explore this, instead of the FLAC set: http://psf.joshw.info/p/Pac-Man%20World%20(1999-10-15)(Namco%20Hometek)(Namco)[PS1].7z

I don't have a FLAC pack ready for Re-PAC, but you can play and convert these ripped .FSB files, using the VGMStream plugin for WinAmp and Foobar2000, if you wish: http://pc.joshw.info/p/Pac-Man%20World%20-%20Re-PAC%20(2022-08-25)(Now%20Production)(Bandai%20Namco)[PC].7z

With said plugin being available here: https://vgmstream.org/downloads/

For the remake, some more odd things about it's music would be how Crazy Cannonade was the only song remade with the correct pitch, while the rest weren't. In addtion, despite re-using PS1 tracks when available, they remade Under Pressure, which feels pointless, as that track was already in CD Quality, on the original PS1 Game Disc, for the mazes. Furthermore, despite reusing the song from the PS1 game, the Krome Keeper boss battle song is now Mono, instead of Stereo, as it was on the original PS1 Disc. Why this is, is beyond me, frankly.

Lastly, and most damning, is how they got rid of a track variation for the Sci-Fi levels. While the remake goes onto remake the song for "Far Out" (heard here: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/916933702158802985/1014390013389197342/16._Far_Out.flac ), it fails to remake the variation for "Gimmie Space" (heard here: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/916933702158802985/1014390038127202334/17._Gimme_Space.flac ). Admittedly, it might be easy for one to miss that these songs are not 100% the same, but to see the variation be excluded from an official product just confuses me, honestly.

One thing the remake did right, at the very least, was use the finished version of Toc-Man's theme. In the American version of the game, his battle theme sounded like this: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/916933702158802985/1014389358259884033/MANBOSS_LCDA_1.flac

While in the European and Japanese release, the song sounded like this, with added choir and strings: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/916933702158802985/1014389375410384896/MANBOSS_PAL_LCDA_1.flac

Re-PAC uses the European and Japanese version of the song, which is a good thing, as it's clear that's the finished song, while the American song was missing those elements.

I hope some of this is insightful, or interesting, and I would be beyond grateful if at least some of this information could be covered at a wider scale, at some point. I don't really have the gear or editing skills on hand to make a video for myself, and I think these would be things worth noting in a video, comparing the two games.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you're doing alright.