Iced Earth

written and performed by Dragan Espenschied

on an IBM Thinkpad 760 XL with an OPL3 sound chip using ADLiB TRACKER II

Originally this appeared as a 30 seconds sketch on the 8bitpeoples’s Icecream Truck Compilation in 2007. In 2010 this sketch was used by a German green energy company in a cinema advertisement. After that I finally decided to finish the composition.

 

Replay instructions:

  1. Get a computer that is capable of running MS-DOS and has a OPL3 soundchip built in. There are several ways to achieve this combination:
  1. Get an IBM Thinkpad 760 XL ... probably the best Thinkpad ever made anyway!
  2. Get a generic motherboard from the time when Windows98 was the hotness. It should come with ISA ports. Plug in a sound card that features an OPL3, like
  1. Soundblaster Pro
  2. Soundblaster 16
  3. Soundblaster 32
  4. Turtle Beach Tropez
  5. Terratec EMS
  6. ... there are dozens you could use. However none that would fit into a PCI slot or later slots like PCIe.
  1. For ease of driver management I recommend installing Windows98SE.
  2. Obtain subz3ro's excellent ADLiB TRACKER II and copy it to this computer along with ICED.A2M

 

If you have difficulties acquiring a computer as described above, the emulator DOSBox reproduces OPL3 sound quite accurately. -- Of course without most of the very interesting "circuit noise" that is present in real computers.

 

Enjoy!!