Retro Shmup sound effects: 12 free sounds from one prompt
Play 12 retro shmup sound effects that Claude Code made from one prompt. Copy any sound's prompt, or download the pack as WAV files.
What we asked“Make a sound effect pack for a retro vertical shoot-em-up: chiptune lasers, explosions and bright arcade feedback. Save each sound as a WAV file in a sounds folder, named like this: - player-shot: A rapid tiny square-wave laser shot from the player ship, very short, under a tenth of a second. - spread-shot: A wider buzzing triple laser shot for a spread weapon, under a quarter second. - enemy-shot: A small low pew of an enemy bullet being fired, under a quarter second. - enemy-explode: A small enemy ship exploding into a crunchy burst of noise, under half a second. - boss-explode: A huge boss explosion: a chain of booming noise bursts ending in a long rumble, about three seconds. - player-hit: The player ship getting hit: a harsh falling noise crash, about one second. - power-up: Collecting a weapon power-up: a quick rising arpeggio of chiptune notes, under one second. - bomb-blast: A screen-clearing bomb: a deep booming blast with a long swelling roar, about two seconds. - shield-on: A shield activating around the ship: a bright warbling hum that rises, about one second. - extra-life: A cheerful short chiptune jingle for earning an extra life, about one second. - boss-warning: A pulsing two-tone warning siren announcing an incoming boss, about two seconds. - stage-clear: A bright victorious chiptune fanfare for clearing the stage, about three seconds. Make them sound like they belong to the same game.”
What happened
Claude
I've made all 12 sounds and saved them as WAV files in sounds/. I couldn't listen to them, so I haven't judged how they actually sound. What I did check by script: every file has sound in it, the volume rises and fades the way each sound should, and every length matches what you asked for.
We gave the prompt above to a fresh Claude Code session in an empty folder, with no skills and no extra tools. It wrote a small program that makes every sound from scratch, and it took under 2 minutes. Claude can’t hear, so it checked the sounds by measuring them. Press play and judge them yourself.
Every sound is also in the sound effects library, where you can search all packs at once. They are free to use in your games, commercial or not.
