Industrial Techno and SID Sound Design in the Commodore 64 GameSlipstream

Abstract

Slipstream is a rail shooter developed by the group Bauknecht. The soundtrack, composed by Ronny Engmann, accentuates the game’s futuristic space setting and emphasis on speed by invoking the electronic dance music style of industrial techno, which combines the taut grooves of minimal techno with the abrasive sonics of early industrial music to make for an intensification of the sound that made the club scenes of Detroit and Berlin famous. Despite the Commodore 64 being a supposedly obsolete 8-bit platform that had its manufacture stopped decades ago, contemporary composers like Engmann are compelled to use the machine for its SID (Sound Interface Device) chip, which stands apart from the sound chips of other 8-bit home computers and consoles due to its variety of waveform types, filtering capabilities, ring modulation, and oscillator sync effects. The skills that Engmann developed while exploring the affordances of this versatile chip enabled him to compose a video game soundtrack that is informed by his engagement with the Berlin techno scene from the early 1990s onward. Drawing from ethnographic interviews with Engmann and Slipstream’s programmer Stefan Mader, this article demonstrates how techno’s pivotal theme of synergistic existence of humanity with technology resonates with an ecstatic feeling of forward propulsion that characterizes Slipstream. Focusing on the musical dimension of timbre and addressing the practical issues of modern cross-platform development through an analysis of Engmann’s project files for the Commodore 64 music tool GoatTracker, this article shows that Slipstream’s soundtrack is exemplary in effectively harnessing electronic dance music as video game music.