Gateworld is a challenging DOS platformer that I played a lot when I was younger. It has a short soundtrack with music that sounds crude and dissonant when you first listen to it, but quickly grows on you.

The game supported numerous different sound card setups for music, but this rip does not by any means replicate the original sound of the music, or at least not the "MPU-401", Adlib, or Soundblaster versions of the music (I had to pull out the game off my floppy disk and test it on DosBox=). As the person who did the rip, mirwais57, stated, "The files were converted from MT format using MTTOGM, but I'm not sure all the files converted correctly." The surprising result is a collection of rips that actually sound more like arranges.

One file in the archive, MENU.MID, did not actually appear in the game as far as I recollect, and may possibly be a bad rip by the conversion tool, seeing as the song sounds like bad MIDI-ized avant-guarde jazz. However seeing as all the songs are pretty quirky, I wouldn't be surprised if it were a song that didn't end up being used or something.

The other songs vary in their sound a bit. The first in-game song sounds drastically different from the original and has a happier, more upbeat tone to it. The title music and 4th and 5th in-game themes all sound close to the MPU-401 versions in the game, while the boss theme and 2nd in-game theme sound closer to the soundblaster version. The interesting thing about the second in-game theme is that the ripped version is much more intricate and eclectic than the original ever was, and is absolutely beautiful. The third ingame theme is fairly close to the original, but the ripped version seems to suggest blues influences, while the original did not by any means. The disappointing thing about it is that what was once a wailing, howling choir solo was converted to a trumpet(or very high tuba?), and the pitch bends were poorly done, so much of the soul of the song was lost.

Long story short, if you want something accurate, you'll be quite unhappy, but if you don't mind listening to music with an arranged/remixed sound, I highly recommend checking this out.

7/10

Steel Grey