Aahh! I finally located where Gary Gilbertson mentioned that AR was the
inspiration for Bard's Tale. It was amongst the notes which accompanied a
tape of AR music he sent me a few years ago. Interestingly, I found the
notes online too, but I can't remember ever transcribing them, so maybe he
sent the tape to other people as well.

I've decided to attach the transcription to this post (which may appear in a
future version of the FAQ if I ever get hold of Mr. Gilbertson again). It's
from a website which used to be located at http://kang.aroo.tv/ar/ but which
is now gone.

/Robert

AR MUSIC Tape:

The enclosed tape has a number of AR songs converted to play on the Amiga.
The problem with converting old Atari songs is they were all composed
knowing that there would be but four voices. Waking up one day with a
computer like the Amiga and moving out of the realm of the 4 fource square
wave music thing into the world of instrument samples and no realistic
memory constraints, is a bit overwhelming. I must say that in many of the
cases here presented, I never really had the time to fine tune what you are
about to hear. So hang in there... If you recall the tunes, I guess I've
succeeded.
I've included background on each tune, more than you ever wanted to know
about AR songs. *chuckle*

GANTHEM 1:45 [AR - City]
Ganthem was written at Datamost while Phil and I were being courted to sign
a contract allowing them to distribue "The Tail of Beta Lyrae" (our first
game), have Phil do copy protection for them and me to write game music for
their other releases. Phil was checking out the place and I found a spare
Atari and sat down and wrote Ganthem. At the time I wasn't sure what it
would be for. The inspiration for it was the slave powered boats in the Ben
Hur movie. I could picture that guy setting the rowing pace by pounding the
drum below decks. Aside from that, I wanted to write an anthem. Well it
didn't turn out to sound like an anthem, so I put a "G" in front (I wrote
it) and figured nobody would know what the title meant... I was safe. :)

HAVEN (Sanctuary) 2:30 [AR - Dungeon]
Haven was written around the time the acrinim story found on the web page
was written. The lyrics and the melody came to me at the same time. Like
Thoreandan, Haven was an attempt to write some period type music for the
medieval atmosphere of the City and Dungeon. Please excuse me for the
Beatle-esque ending... Couldn't help myself *chuckle*

MOMENTS 2:00 [AR - City]
While Phil and I were working with Datamost, we were phoned by some fellows
in northern California who had caught wind of our work on Alternate Reality.
Being farmiliar with Beta Lyrae, they wanted us to sign with them for
Alternate Reality. They flew to Hawaii and we entertained them in my home.
Because we had little to show on AR (Phil had the beginning of the 3D walk
thru, but no monsters), the visit became nothing much except a demo of the
music (with words on screen etc). Well Moments was done and I recall one of
the Advertising people that came along, helped me with some of the words.
This is one of those songs that maybe worked better on Atari. I claim no
brilliance in drumming and... Well I could use help in that area.

ARMOR 3:36 [AR - City & Dungeon]
I seem to be alone on this, but this is without question, my favourite song
in AR. In it's first incarnation (Atari 8bit), the integrating the hammer
blows into the music and the lament of the song... I could feel the
blacksmith's labor. The version recorded here, I like even more. This ARMOR
not only has the blacksmith's hammer, it also has him placing the hot blade
into the water (sizzzzle). Even though it has no bridge, as a musical piece
it has one of the more complex melody(s) in all of AR music. In the second
verse you can hear a trumpet laying down a new melody, while the old plays
in the background. The third verse is highlighted by yet another (although
sparse) melody line (high pitched). After this verse, as the song appears to
climax, a dream sequence commences and the blacksmith's hammer gets louder
and louder with the final beat of the song being his putting the blade in
the water (sizzzzzzzzzzzzle).

INTO THE FRAY 2:22 [AR - Dungeon]
Someone once told me that it was very difficult in western music to write a
song in 5/4 or 7/4 time. Well that's not true... I sat right down and wrote
Into the Fray (7/4 time). In this version, you can hear the water dripping
into puddles on the floor of the caverns you are walking through :)

DWARF DANCE 1:15 [AR - City]
Just as goofy as the little people this was meant to depict. Children always
like this song.

WAVES 4:06 [AR - City]
This song along with the AR theme was debuted at the Consumer Electronics
Show, January, 84, in Las Vegas. Phil and I had a special rig and version of
these great tunes that used 8 voices (we sunched two Ataris together).
Interesting sideline to this is that a fellow game writer saw the AR 3D
graphics demo and decided to drop work on his then current project and move
to finish another one he called Bard's Tale. True Story.

GREMLINS 1:13 [AR - Dungeon]
The Troll song was already done and I knew I needed another song in a
similar vein to cover the Gremlins. As time was running out, I finally
finished this little ditty.

TROLL 2:22 [AR - Dungeon]
Actually, I cheated on this one. I had written this for another project,
that I ended up not needing. This song was written as Baby Dinosaur. It had
lyrics like:

Baby dinosaur is walking down the street
Look'n kinda hungry think it wants to eat
If you're in its way...
Don't stay.

Oh well, it fit in the Troll area just fine in Dungeon. By the way, this
tune has had more work done on it than most. I needed this for another
project and was able to devote a bit more time to this Amiga version.

AR THEME 3:33 [AR - City]
Don't expect to enjoy this one. I've not had time to do a version of this
that captures and appeals to those who liked the 8 bit Atari version. Maybe
someday.

DEATH :57 [AR - City & Dungeon]
Silly, but seemed fitting to throw this on the end of the tape :)

Thanks for indulging me,

Gary Gilbertson