I have started writing a game rather centered around Elvis Presley. Because all of the art in this game is made in a retro NES style I wanted to find some software to synthesize music within the limitations of the A023 NES sound chip. I will gladly suggest any recommendations, if you do recommend something I would appreciated if you tried to stay within the realm of freeware. Thank you in advance for all future posts!

Hello,

Here you go!

;)

If you use the forum search, you'll see the topic has been covered quite a few times.

Cheers,
Moritz

Thank you.

If you want something that sticks strictly to the NES limitations, try Famitracker and don't use any of the extra chips.

...well, "strictly" is kind of loose, really. I mean, there's this tune, but that trumpet is pretty much impossible on real hardware without keeping the CPU in a 100% busy loop (the VRC6 has no envelope hardware so the required volume changes have to be done by hand by the CPU). Put some common sense when messing with stuff like that.

Make sure to obtain a license to any Elvis music you make for your game. And I'm pretty certain the Presley estate will need you to license Elvis' name and likeness, as well.

Thank you, would you consider this as infringing upon the likeness of Elvis, if so, please let me know. Also I greatly appreciate that recommendation from you, I will definitely keep that in mind.

would you consider this as infringing upon the likeness of Elvis, if so, please let me know.

Certainly. Anything that looks 'like' Elvis, 'much like' Elvis, 'a bit like' Elvis or even just 'in a way like' Elvis is an infringement, regardless of intention. That means even if your intention was to create an original character, that character turned out to look kind of like Elvis, and you're completely unaware of that fact... you would still be infringing the trademark. The only exception to that (that I am aware of) is parody.

Also, it's the name 'Elvis Presley' that is trademarked, meaning 'Elvis' is not. However, that does not mean use of the name 'Elvis' is safe. If the use of the name 'Elvis' for your product is causing confusion (a court would decide this) over whether that product is associated with the trademark holder in anway, this would be an infringement of their trademark.

Edit: Contact information for Elvis Presley Enterprises for clearing rights etc. can apparently be found here http://www.elvis.com...contact_us.aspx
'nother edit: On the topic of trademark infringement you will probably find this email conversation of satirist David Thorne helpful as it covers an actual case of that http://www.27bslash6.com/covers.html

Hey,

Native Instruments massive is a pretty common and useful synth. I use it for everything, anyways I just made a tutorial on how to make Nes sounds and tones with it-if you get it or own it.

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Also there are some links here to free VST that do the job

http://www.ashtonmorris.com/how-to-make-8bit-nintendo-tones-with-ni-massive/

Hope this helps.

Ashton

Plus 1000 points for paperboy reference!

Here is an interesting video somewhat related to the topic of retro game sounds that I found inspiring:

Eric