Music
Introduction
Music in the Creatures series of games started out in Creatures as a variety of synthesized chimes, chords, bloops and other non-specific sounds, simply combined together into audio files and played at certain points in the game or as certain applets were opened.
For Creatures 2, a far more capable dynamic music system was created - MNG - and this system was also used in Creatures 3 and Docking Station. MNG File Format documents the MNG music format, which changed depending on factors such as location and the mood of creatures.
Creatures Adventures, Creatures Playground and Amazing Virtual Sea-Monkeys used non-dynamic music in MIDI format instead, which were far easier (and hence cheaper) to produce than if using the complex MNG system.
Editing and Playing Creatures Music
For games which use the MNG format, two tools are designed to edit the music, MNGPlayer and MNGPad - MNGPlayer lets you play music in the background (or foreground), while MNGPad allows you to edit existing MNG files and create your own.
The music of other games can be manipulated using normal audio or music editors.
DJ_G
Hidden within the audio directory of Creatures 2, an amusing musical track entitled 'DJ_G' is to be found, consisting of a Grendel repeatedly hitting a Norn to the sound of a techno remix of some of the sounds from the game. Upon the release of Creatures 3 a similar track was found in there. These may have been made by Mark Ashton. See also Defiant Doosers.