Download here: Part 1, Part 2. Password is stevemv.com
Watch a preview video here.

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Info
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Tony Hawk 2: Custom Remix - Dreamcast Music Replacement
January 15th, 2006
For the Sega Dreamcast console.

Nothing amazing here. Just a custom remix of Tony Hawk 2. I still play this game quite a lot. I've played most of the TH series, and it's my opinion that if you've played one, you've played them all. No harm in sticking with your favorite of the series.

The music selection is pretty basic. I tried to use tracks that were never overplayed on the radio, just to make things seem fresh. However, I almost never listen to the radio, so you'll have to forgive me if some of these songs are indeed overplayed in real life. I'm just going by my sixth sense here.

I also tried to steer clear of any music that simply doesn't go with the whole skateboarding thing. But I didn't just stick in punk music either. In fact, going by my knowledge of musical genres, I don't think I have any true punk music in here. It's not really my thing.

Also, I increased the size of the dummy file here, so it may help increase the load times during the menus. This of course requires an 80min CD-R.

And don't email me just to tell me that the music sucks. If you don't like it, then stick with your original copy. I did not touch that copy. It is forever your's. I am sick of whiners. You can go and make your own mix if you like. But don't ask me how. I don't have time to tutor anymore.

As always, effort was made to make sure the tracks are tightly edited, normalized, and taken from a good quality source.

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Improvements v1.2 ~ May 18th, 2009
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The file order of the game has been optimized, thanks to the efforts of TuxtheWise's Dream Resurrection project. This should improve load times, work your Dreamcast's GD-ROM less, and lower the chance of the music skipping due to various reasons. The following is an excerpt from his readme for his version of Tony Hawk 2. All of the technical details of his rip apply here.

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Ripped: Ambient sounds (can't be noticed, see readme).
Downsampled: Some videos (only companies logos, other videos are intact).
Source: GD dump.

First of all, I'd like to say I'm very proud of the work I made in this game. All important videos (introduction, ending videos) are intact, so as sound of them and in-game music. How I did that? First, I examined the "preview" videos, you know, the little ones that plays when you select a level. Like the music videos in THPS 1, they're encoded them with the same quality of the main videos (bad work, bad work...), including the sound (yeah, I know they don't play any sound!). So I re-encoded then to a very little bitrate, and guess what, I played them side by side and couldn't notice any difference. Well, at this point I still needed some space, so I took a look at the music files. Each level has a ambient "music", and you can't hear them with music turned on. It's useless sounds like birds in the school, horns in NY, etc. I deleted them, and you wouldn't notice if I haven't tell you. It doesn't affect the gameplay at all. The only way to notice that is if you play without music, and I doubt anyone do that. At this point files almost could fit in a CD-R. To get the extra space I needed, I downsampled companies intro videos (I haven't touched the cool introduction video!), and you can't notice any difference (even if you could, who care about them?). As a bonus, I adjusted the volume of Activi... logo, because the guys that ported the game just used copy/paste in the intro of other game, and volume level was different of the other videos. Anyway, I got the space I needed. Again: all videos except companies logos and mini level preview are intact, it means full quality and stereo sound. Same about the sounds and music, nothing touched, full quality and stereo sound. Echelon got the space they needed downsampling the videos, but I found a better solution. Last thing was adjusting file order. Last thing but the most important, because files were a mess, all in alphabetic order (again, bad work!). You remember Echelon's release? Everything you select made your Dreamcast reader moves a lot making noises? Well, that's solved. I optimized file order as I did in THPS 1, and results got very alike. Your reader almost don't move during reading! It means faster loadings and MUCH LESS noise. A lot less. After making that I hacked binary and burnt the disc with a little dummy file. If you like this game and have played other releases, I really recommend that you try this one, it's much better for sure.

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Unfortunately, Tux's release, with the new soundtrack of mine, came out to be just about 5MB too big for 700MB discs after the selfboot session. To compensate for this, I copied over just one of the downsampled videos from the ECHELON release; the hidden Spider-Man skating montage.

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Improvements v1.1 ~ July 10th, 2008
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The game can now be mounted and/or emulated on your PC. Enjoy.

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Notes
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Quite possibly the coolest part of this mix is that I changed the game's Music Credits menu to display the information for these new songs. All I had to do was edit the "MUSIC.TXT" file in the game's files. So now, when you go to Options > Movies > Music Credits, you will see the song title and band name for each song, and the appropriate song will play when it's information shows up on the screen. It works great, but do NOT press down on the d-pad to fast-forword these credits. If you do, the music will become off-sync until the credits are over. This is just a fantastic feature that makes this custom remix feel legitimate. Future mixers of TH2 take note.

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Track Listing
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Please don't use the track list as a means of judging this mix. Play it and EXPERIENCE it first!

01. 8Stops7 - Satisfied (3:05)
02. Blue Man Group - The Current (3:48)
03. CKY - Lost in a Contraption (3:22)
04. David Bowie - Suffragette City (3:25)
05. From Zero - Erase (3:28)
06. Gorillaz - 19-2000 (Soulchild Remix) (3:27)
07. Hoobastank - Karma Patrol (3:28)
08. Insane Clown Posse - Assassins (5:15)
09. Korn - I'm Done (3:23)
10. Nirvana - Breed (3:04)
11. Primus - DMV (4:58)
12. Rage - War of the Worlds (6:07)
13. Stabbing Westward - Haunting Me (3:35)
14. Taproot - I (4:12)
15. Ultraspank - Click (4:24)

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Warnings
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Do not ask me how to replace music in a Dreamcast game.
Do not ask me how to self-boot a Dreamcast game.
Burn with DiscJuggler or take your chances with anything else.
If you don't like it, stick with the original version.

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Contact Info
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Site: www.stevemv.com



Last edited by Mozgus on Tue May 26, 2009 12:12 am; edited 8 times in total

This project now has a host again. You can find it on LordofDuct's FTP server. Go here:

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1483

You may need to register on the forum to see the thread.

Log into that FTP and go to the following folder:

/Zgamemusic/Dreamcast Mixes by Mozgus/Tony Hawk 2/

The project may be moved to a different folder within the FTP sometime, if he decides to reorganize.

Sorry, his FTP has been down for months. This is no longer a valid option.



Last edited by Mozgus on Fri Nov 02, 2007 1:45 am; edited 2 times in total

Hi there.


Since Racketboy's FTP is down, could you upload a new torrent of this compilation ?


Thanks in advance.


-Chris

DCEvoCE wrote:

Hi there.


Since Racketboy's FTP is down, could you upload a new torrent of this compilation ?


Thanks in advance.


-Chris

I'm uploading it. Check back in a few hours. By the way, it's an honor to have you stop by. DCEvo is a fantastic site. I've downloaded a lot of keepers there.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=67IOA0GK