"The term is commonly used to refer to tracker format music using extremely basic and small samples that an old computer or console could produce (this is the original meaning of the term)"
emphasis on that an old computer or console could produce (this is the original meaning of the term)
chiptunes on Amiga (mod, xm) where reproducing samples of the sounds created with HW synthesizers (CHIPs), like, for example, the C64 SID, one of the most popular ever.
For example the intro of "Cannon Fodder"[1] on the Amiga is not considered a chiptune, because it used samples from real instruments and a human singer
For some original true chiptune, see the amazing work of the amazing Rob Hubbard[2]
The 8bit electric guitar of Skate or die still gives me goosebumps almost 40 years later[3]
"emphasis on that an old computer or console could produce (this is the original meaning of the term)"
Yes, old computers and consoles with sampling capabilities. Chiptune means to "emulate" older sound chips with sampling hardware.
In the nineties SID music was just SIDs.
"For example the intro of "Cannon Fodder"[1] on the Amiga is not considered a chiptune, because it used samples from real instruments and a human singer"
Agreed.
"For some original true chiptune, see the amazing work of the amazing Rob Hubbard[2]"
Rob's work is amazing, but I really don't think he'd refer them as chiptunes.
In the early nineties, as a demo (intro) coder you wanted a chiptune when you had space constraints. 40 kB total for code / gfx / music, which was a pretty common size limit for Amiga intros that time, so you had maybe 4-15 kB for the chiptune.
> For some original true chiptune, see the amazing work of the amazing Rob Hubbard
His Commando tune is pure gold, I still love it after about 40 years since the 1st listen. A real song that I plan to make a rock cover one day, hopefully before I die (did I say I'm quite lazy?:)
Others already did metal covers, sometimes with good results [0]. My idea is to keep it funky like the original and use mostly real instruments.
You may be correct about wording, it was a life time ago and I only spoke about this in Swedish. I think one of the trackers I used called itself a chip composor, there's a nice archive of these things things (some of them quite recent) here https://dhs.nu/files.php?t=chipeditor
"Chiptunes" means that some microprocessor was used as a sound synthesizer. In the initial years, you coded the tune. Then a standardization happened, as music code could be generalized in "sound patterns" definition and organization: hence, e.g., Chris Huelsbeck's Soundmonitor (1986). That is one of the first public "trackers". The name comes from the Ultimate Soundtracker on the Amiga (1987) - but the Paula was more typically used as a sampler, not as a synth. Speaking of "chiptunes" implies a style - that may or may not be the output of a tracker (it depends on how it is used).
I'm old enough to remember playing games with chiptunes, but young enough to not have known what a tracker was. This YouTube video (from the amazing Ahoy channel) is an incredible, in-depth overview of trackers, their sound and history:
In the 1990s chiptunes meant *tracker (Protracker, etc.) tunes with short loops used as instruments.