Pointed out to me by a friend on facebook:
TIE Fighter soundtrack updated by Laserschwert
The game originally used midi music, played through the dinky little synth chip on your adlib or soundblaster card. This chap however has instead used some professional-grade orchestral sample libraries. As much as I have a soft spot for the old fm synthesis days, I have to admit this sounds a lot more impressive.
Of course, TIE fighter had a great soundtrack in the first place. The original composer came up with pieces that feel mysterious or grandiose, without being permanently parked in the realm of Obviously Villainous. After all, despite you working for the Empire all this isn’t just a game about blowing up transports full of refugees or somesuch. It does try giving you a sense of how, an Imperial Pilot could feel he’s on the right side, bringing order to the galaxy. So the themes and fanfares need to be inspiring in their own way, stirring you to go forth and do your duty to the Empire.
What you’ll find here is basically is all the music from between missions – cutscenes, menu screens and so on. I especially love the “Tech Specs room” theme. Sadly he’s not done the in-mission music but that’s understandable. It consisted of a multitude of little snippets that were assembled on the fly (using Lucasarts iMuse system), reacting to events as they happened. I imagine it would be quite a lot of work to assemble all that into a satisfying few-minutes-long standalone piece.
(ps if you’re looking for Actual Content, Rik did a great roundup on Ea Sports Cricket 97 a couple of days ago)