Good here, better in game.

(Review for 1830 Railroads and Robber Barons: Game rip by Dvd Avins)

The music in the game is surprisingly catchy for MIDI files of 1994. The timbre of notes changes within the note. Each piece is played in the background in a loop, with game context eventually switching the background to another selection.

Most of the time, with MIDI of this era that doesn't stop playing, I get tired of it and switch of the sound eventually. Here, the orchestration (yes, well executed simulated instruments) is so well done and the beat is so good that it gets catchier the longer it goes on. That's more true for some of the modern pieces that play when high-level trains are out than for the earlier pieces, but none of them are bad.

The music played from here sounds somewhat different, which I've heard happen before in archives. More disappointing, I think some of the high-numbered files are truncated--they end in the middle of a phrase and not in a way that could loop back to the beginning. Still, it's nice to be able to play it while the game isn't running.

I don't know how to rate this. The music in the game deserves at least a 9. The archive is more a 6 or 7. I'll give it a 9, but beware.

9/10