Pixelated Audio

We're once again joined by our guest host from the last episode, KVGM host Hammock and his father figure Craig Stadler in this milestone show. It's Expansion Pack XXX - Episode 169, covering the music from adult visual novels and adventure games. Hammock is an expert spelunker in the world of adult VGM jams and the numeric convergence was just too good to pass up. We've got a selection of tunes both sexy and unusual in this show, and we hope you enjoy it!

In other golf related news, happy belated 69th birthday to our guest Craig, and check out episode 69 - Neo Turf Masters with Takushi Hiyamuta.

If you like what you hear, check out more from Hammock on KVGM - The Last Wave on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher, on Twitter at @kvgmradio, on YouTube, or online at kvgmradio.com

For more amazing adult game VGM check out some of our past shows: Grounseed, Eve Burst Error, Hole Chaser, Heart Heat Girls, and Mime

Track List:

0:00:00 Emily (Mellow) - Futa Fix Dick Dine and Dash (PC, 2020) - g3ntlebreeze

0:09:26 House of Leathers & Chains - Cobra Mission: Panic in Cobra City (DOS, 1992) - Inoue Hosadairi, Itou Shin, Team Neuronous

0:14:05 BGM 4 - Twilight Theater (PC, 2000) - Naotoshi Nishino

0:19:18 Track 01 - Mesuneko Hishoshitsu (PC-98, 1995) -  Panda (Izuho Yoshitani? formerly believed to be Yuki Nakayama)

0:25:26 Movement - YU-NO: Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo  (PC-98, 1996) - Ryu Takami, Ryu Umemoto, Kazuhiro Kanae

Alternate title: "Yu-No: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world"

0:32:31 Raffiné - Rendezvous (PC, 2000) - Panda (Izuho Yoshitani?)

0:38:53 Initial Velocity (Stage 1A) - Night Slave (PC-98, 1996) -  Panda (Izuho Yoshitani?)

0:45:31 Wander - Ladykiller in a Bind (WIN/Mac/Linux, 2016) - Isaac Schankler

Full title: My Twin Brother Made Me Crossdress As Him And Now I Have To Deal With A Geeky Stalker And A Domme Beauty Who Want Me In A Bind!!

0:52:35 Tokyo Streets - Language of Love (Various, 2019) - Yuzuki

1:01:16 Evening - Kimi to Mezameru Ikutsuka no Houhou (PC, 2018) - Arte Refact

KVGM's host Hammock joins us once again in this expansion pack to talk about the many lovely tunes produced for T&E Soft golf games over the years. We also have the voice of another special guest from 1995's hit game Pebble Beach Golf Links, arguably the crown jewel of T&E golf games.

Kick back, relax and and enjoy an Arnold Palmtree in the golf clubhouse along with some relaxing tunes. If you like what you hear, check out more from KVGM - The Last Wave on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher, on Twitter at @kvgmradio, on YouTube, or online at kvgmradio.com

Track List:

00:04 Pebble Beach Golf Links (SAT) - Opening Movie by Yumi Satake

01:19 (Bedding) Pebble Beach: The Great Shot (ST-V) - BGM by unknown

02:08 (Bedding) True Swing Golf (DS) - BGM2 by Katsumi Yokokawa

04:55 Masters Harakanaru Augusta 2 (SFC) - BGM2 by Yumi Satake

09:37 New 3D Golf Simulation Eight Lakes G.C. (PC98) - Menu by Yumi Satake

13:55 Golf / T&E Virtual Golf (VB) - Options ~ Map Screen by Ken Kojima

18:36 (Bedding) Masters Harukanaru Augusta 3 (SAT) - Settings by Yumi Satake

22:30 New 3D Golf Simulation: Devil's Course (GEN/MD) - Music 4 by T&E Sound Staff

27:35 True Golf Classics: Waialae Country Club (GEN/MD) - BGM1 by T&E Sound Staff

33:09 Swing Away Golf (PS2) - Scorecard by Katsumi Yokokawa, Kiyoe Ohashi

36:31 (Bedding) Pebble Beach Golf Links (GEN) by Yumi Satake, Shigekazu Kamaki, Yusaburo Shimojyo

38:46 Pebble Beach Golf Links (SAT) - BGM1 by Yumi Satake

42:27 Pebble Beach Golf Links (SAT) - "Breaktime at the Clubhouse" (Movie BGM) by Yumi Satake

44:15 (Bedding) Masters: Shin Harukanaru Augusta (PS1) - Track 35 by unknown

44:55 Valora Valley Golf (SAT) - Tutorial by Yumi Satake?

49:01 (Bedding) Pebble Beach Golf Links (3DO/SAT) - Settings by Yumi Satake

53:24 Junclassic C.C. & Rope Club (SAT) - BGM by Yusaburo Shimojyo

The hotly anticipated Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge is here for your listening pleasure! The game saw several releases between 1992-1994 on the SNES, Genesis, Game Boy and Game Gear. It was developed by UK games company Software Creations Ltd., published by LJN on Nintendo systems and by Acclaim subsidiary Flying Edge on Sega systems. It's a bad game where you control 5 different characters: Spider-Man, Storm, Wolverine, Cyclops and Gambit in a gauntlet of tedious stages with great music (except Wolverine).

The soundtrack was originally composed by brothers Geoff Follin and Tim Follin, no strangers to writing amazing soundtracks for mediocre games, many of them for Software Creations throughout the 80s and 90s. The arrangements for other systems were done by "Sound Images" on Genesis, John Loose on Game Boy, and Alastair (Allister) Brimble on Game Gear. We've disliked the game for almost 30 years but we hope you enjoy the music!

Track List:

0:00:01 Title (SNES)

0:01:56 (Bedding) Title (GG)

0:02:38 (Bedding) Title (GB)

0:03:04 (Bedding) Title (GEN)

0:06:29 Briefing (SNES)

0:11:12 Spider-Man (SNES)

0:16:19 Spider-Man (GG)

0:20:42 Gambit (GEN)

0:27:05 Storm (SNES)

0:35:29 (Bedding) Storm (GG)

0:39:30 (Bedding) Storm (GEN)

0:43:27 Cyclops (SNES)

0:51:58 Wolverine (SNES)

0:56:36 Unknown / Unused (GEN)

0:59:21 Final Stage (SNES)

1:01:58 Ending (SNES)

1:04:41 (Bedding) Cyclops (GEN)

1:07:15 High Score Table + Game Over (SNES)

 

Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge

Super Nintendo (1992) Composed by Geoff Follin, Tim Follin

Sega Genesis (1993) Arranged by "Sound Images"

Game Boy (1993) Arranged by John C. Loose

Game Gear (1994) Arranged by Alastair (Allister) Brimble

Another year another MAGWest, we're back in person this year exploring the depths of what makes 'water music' with a legend of VGM analysis, 8-bit Music Theory! We put him through the paces as we goof off in our usual Pixelated Audio style. First we 'get to the bottom' of what makes water music sound so wet with some examples and audience commentary, followed by a silly but fun quiz!

Check out 8-bit Music Theory's YouTube channel. 8bmt is a music theory expert, drummer, pianist, and all around nice guy who was so kind to join us on the panel!

Thanks also to special audience appearances by friends and previous PA guests:

Chase Bethea (Eps: #156 and #20)

Street Cleaner aka Jesse Bishop (Eps: #150 and #161)

As well as comments from new musician friends Audio Mocha and winner of the sad prize, Mason Lieberman!

Apologies about the audio quality, but that's live baby! We still hope you enjoy the show as much we did!

We did our best to make our show as enjoyable for regular listeners, but we have also included our presentation slides which help enhance the experience. Click through the presentation below to see the visual aids and video examples we used during our talk.

Track List:

0:00:00 [Bedding] Medusa Bay - Ecco the Dolphin CD (SCD) - Spencer Nilsen

Water Music Examples

0:05:02 Underwater Frigate Reactor Core - Metroid Prime (GC) - Kenji Yamamoto and Kouichi Kyuma

0:11:05 Lake Theme - Pokemon Diamond and Pearl (NDS) - Go Ichinose

0:18:03 Sea of Serendipity ~ The Abyss - Rayman Origins (Various) - Christophe Heral

0:22:34 Zora's Domain - Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (GC/Wii) - Toru Minegishi, Asuka Ota, Koji Kondo

0:29:08 Beyond the Deep Blue Sea - Final Fantasy V (SNES) - Nobuo Uematsu

0:32:32 [Excerpt] A Secret Sleeping in the Deep Sea - Final Fantasy VII (PS1) - Nobuo Uematsu

0:33:27 Whale sound / opening - Secret of Mana (SNES) - Hiroki Kikuta

0:33:54 Splash Down!! (Planet Undertow) - Ristar (GEN) - Tomoko Sasaki, Naofumi Hataya, Masafumi Ogata

0:37:10 Comb Reef / Diving 6 - Endless Ocean (Wii) - Ayako Saso

Quiz Examples

0:44:39 Drowning - Sonic The Hedgehog (GEN) - Masato Nakamura (Just as a joke)

0:45:12 Swimming - Super Mario World (SNES) - Koji Kondo

0:46:23 Aquatic Ambiance - Donkey Kong Country (SNES) - David Wise

0:48:16 Lower Brinstar - Super Metroid (SNES) - Kenji Yamamoto, Minako Hamano

0:49:23 A Thousand Leagues Below - Shovel Knight (Various) - Manami Matsumae

0:50:08 City of Tears - Hollow Knight (Various) - Chris Larkin, vocal by Amelia Jones

0:52:24 You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet - Final Fantasy VII (PS1) - Nobuo Uematsu

0:53:33 United Forest G.C. Winter - Hot Shots Golf 3 (PS2) - Shingo Okumura

0:55:00 Forbidden Memories - Panzer Dragoon Orta (XBOX) - Saori Kobayashi

0:56:02 Eruyt / Eryth Sea - Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii) - Manami Kiyota

0:57:20 Underwater 1 - Croc (PS1) - Justin Scharvona

Post Quiz Music

0:58:50 Medusa Bay - Ecco the Dolphin (GEN) - Spencer Nilsen, Brian Coburn, András Magyari

1:05:26 [Bedding] Map - Waterworld (SNES) - Dean Evans

1:06:36 [Bedding] Storm - Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge (SNES) - Geoff Follin, Tim Follin

1:11:44 Title - Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (DC/PS2) - Tim Follin

Trying out a new format today with MIDI Spotlight starting on a PC98 title called Mime, published and developed by Studio Twinkle and composed by Hiroaki Sano. For a while now, VGMRips stalwart ValleyBell has graciously streamed music to our Discord channel featuring somewhat less common MIDI versions of the soundtracks on authentic hardware. We wanted to share his work more broadly with our audience and we hope you enjoy it. Due to timing it's Bryan solo today, but it's a lightweight radio program style show, light on commentary and heavy on music. If you like the format let us know!

Mime was composed by Hiraoki Sano, an MVP of adult-oriented video games and anime. He's composed some great soundtracks to Japanese PC games like Division Guardian: Twinkle Star, Mirage 2, and one of the earliest English translated adult themed games, Knights of Xentar (for you old school DOS afficionados)! He's typically associated with FM soundtracks, but like many composers of the mid-90s wrote a number of MIDI compatible soundtracks like this one.

Dedicated listeners may also remember Studio Twinkle's most famous game Grounseed. The music in it is so good you owe it to yourself to listen. Today's game Mime is a first person dungeon crawler released in September of 1995 for the PC-98. The story is a fairly straightforward tale of restoring the balance of the four elements, once guarded by four kingdoms. It features a handful of adult scenes, typical of Japanese PC games of the era.

More music by Hiroaki Sano, Studio Twinkle and many others is available at VGMRips. Thanks again ValleyBell for providing us with the stream.

Track List:

All music composed by Hiroaki Sano and logged by ValleyBell. Playback is using the SC-55 mkII MIDI Module

0:00:00 My Dream

0:07:49 Medley

0:09:54 Be Asleep

0:11:06 Pendulum Clock

0:12:42 Noah's Saloon

0:14:43 Labyrinth of Calnaval (Carnival)

0:18:13 Labyrinth of Fun

0:20:00 Labyrinth of Tears

0:23:24 Labyrinth of Nothing colors

0:26:30 Labyrinth of Lost sheep

0:31:03 Labyrinth of Phantom

0:34:54 EAGLE WINDEED

0:38:42 TEAR MARE

0:41:55 HENZOE LANCASTER

0:47:55 ELDELYCA CUTREY

0:50:39 Shadow inhabitant

0:52:38 Night Safe

0:54:27 Black Rose

0:57:04 dance to a tune

0:59:51 Night Mare

1:00:50 Tear Curse

1:03:23 Doubtful eyes

1:06:04 Kind Time

1:08:34 Chirp a Hello!

1:09:49 A friend you are!

1:11:06 Crystals Whisper

1:13:55 Time Fish

1:17:28 a Fairy Tale

1:19:26 Biased mind

1:21:14 Holy Space

1:26:47 Mother…

1:30:08 Be Ruined The Wind

1:31:47 Wish

1:35:50 in the Darkness

1:37:53 Nonentity

1:39:49 Chain of fortune

1:45:08 See You

Pixelated Audio joins the many podcasts participating in the Masters of VGM (@MastersofVGM) event organized by bedroth, host of Very Good Music and BGMania. Masters of VGM is a month long event of participating podcasts and their own take on who they think are the best of the best!

We picked 8 veteran VGM Masters and aimed for a good blend of well known and lesser known tracks to keep things interesting. As always we hope you enjoy!

Track List:

0:00:02 Flower Garden - Yoshi's Island (SNES) by Koji Kondo

0:04:40 Helicopter - Pilotwings (SNES) by Koji Kondo

0:08:53 Dampe's Cabin - Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (GC) by Koji Kondo

0:12:20 (Bedding) Time of the Falling Rain - Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) by Koji Kondo

0:13:13 (Bedding) Forest of Mystery - Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) by Koji Kondo

0:13:57 (Bedding) Priest of the Dark Order - Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) by Koji Kondo

0:14:50 Little Sweet Cafe - Seiken Densetsu 3 (SNES) by Hiroki Kikuta

0:19:57 Patience - Koudelka (PS1) by Hiroki Kikuta

0:23:19 (Excerpt) Main Theme - Last Labyrinth (Oculus, WIN, PS4) by Hiroki Kikuta

0:27:32 Ogre's Theme - Tekken Tag Tournament (PS2 version) by Keiichi Okabe

0:30:52 (Bedding) The Overture of Battle (Remix) - Demons' Score (iOS, Android) by Keiichi Okabe

0:33:24 Robot No.28 - Ibara (ARC, PS2) by Shinji Hosoe

0:37:31 (Bedding) Phantom Bomb - Street Fighter EX2 Plus (ARC, PS1) by Shinji Hosoe

0:39:41 Boss4 Excessive Information - iS: internal section (PS1) by Ayako Saso

0:43:35 (Bedding) Gabbiano Deck - Endless Ocean (Wii) by Ayako Saso

0:46:09 Positive Mind - Di Gi Charat: DigiCommunication (GBA) by Manabu Namiki

0:50:28 (Bedding) To Shinju Forest (Stage 1) - Mushihimesama (ARC, others) by Manabu Namiki

0:53:28 Be Absentminded - Tales of Phantasia (SNES) by Motoi Sakuraba

0:57:52 Stab the Sword of Justice - Star Ocean: The Second Story (PS1) by Motoi Sakuraba

1:01:49 Stand on the Earth - Last Ranker (PSP) by Yoko Shimomura

1:07:28 (Bedding) Round 3 - Block Block (ARC) by P-Chan (Yoko Shimomura) and T'Yomage (Masaki Izutani)

1:08:48 (Bedding) Trade City - Breath of Fire (SNES) by Yoko Shimomura

1:10:56 (Bedding) The End! - Super Mario RPG (SNES) composed by Koji Kondo, arranged by Yoko Shimomura

1:13:37 Mechanical Kingdom - Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology (3DS) by Yoko Shimomura

We're joined today by another amazing and prolific guest; composer Jeff van Dyck. Instead of focusing on a specific game we take a tour through Jeff's entire career from Skitchin' all the way to recent games like Unpacking. Jeff began his career in 1992 with EA (Electronic Arts), working on games like the FIFA, NHL series, and Need for Speed 1 & 2. He went on to do music for many of the major games in the Total War series, starting with the original Shogun: Total War, and continuing with the Medieval and Rome Total War games. In recent years, Jeff has written music for a number of indie titles like Assault Android Cactus, Hand of Fate 1 & 2, Submerged, Forts, Paint the Town Red and Unpacking.

In this interview we talk about a great many things; working in a constantly shifting industry, evolving as a composer, writing music for AAA games as well as indies, a bit of light hardware discussion, and just life in general over the last three decades. 2022 marks 30 years for Jeff in the games industry, a landmark achievement for anyone, and he's still going strong. We crammed in as much music as we possibly could, and we hope you enjoy listening to some lovely selections of music that Jeff has written over the course of his career.

Episode Track List:

All music composed by Jeff van Dyck unless otherwise stated

0:00:04 "Title Screen" Skitchin' (1993 - Gen)

0:04:18 "Smells Like Tuna" bedding

0:07:20 "Silken Liver Slipper" bedding

0:10:32 "Song 1" Fifa 95 (1994 - Gen)

0:16:00 "Song 3" bedding

0:18:24 "Aaeeyaaeeyaa" The Need for Speed (1996 - PS1/SAT)

Vocals by Angela van Dyck

0:24:20 "Gore" Need for Speed II (1997 - PS1)

with Saki Kaskas

0:36:48 "Pi Pa Village" Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom (2002 - WIN)

0:46:15 "Mobilize 3" Shogun: Total War (2000 - WIN)

0:50:50 "Melee Cafe" Rome: Total War (2004 - WIN)

0:57:06 "Divinitus" Rome: Total War (2004 - WIN)

Vocals by Angela van Dyck

Guitar and mandolin by Saki Kaskas

1:00:43 "Forever" bedding

Vocals by Angela van Dyck

1:02:45 "Cactus" Assault Android Cactus (2013 - Various)

1:10:40 "The Beginning" Hand of Fate 2 (2017 - Various)

Vocals by Angela van Dyck

1:20:06 "Infatuation" Unpacking (2021 - Various)

1:27:58 "I Like Water" excerpt

1:30:14 "Lost and Found" bedding

1:36:07 "Hog Wild" Paint the Town Red (2021 - Various)

[Correction: When discussing the song Forever, Jeff said Russian soldiers, but meant Roman soldiers]

Other links:

Jeff van Dyck

Bandcamp - purchase many of Jeff's wonderful albums!

YouTube - listen to a selection of Jeff's music

Unpacking: The Fun Behind the Foley - Talk at GDC

Recently released and upcoming games mentioned

TemPoPo by Witch Beam

Forts - High Seas - with music by Ella van Dyck

We had a great time at VGMTogether presenting our talk on game audio logging and the dedicated communities around the world that have spent years archiving music as accurately as possible. It's a commonly overlooked topic that nevertheless supports a lot of activities in the game music scene.

You may have heard it referred to as "VGM ripping"; logging is the process of accessing, capturing, organizing and ultimately archiving game music in more accessible ways. There are a few ways that game music is stored in data, and a few ways that game music is captured for easier access. It's a time-consuming but rewarding process that requires some computer skills and a decent amount of patience.

In addition to the tracklist we've included a number of other resources: links to some of our past shows with a focus on logging and preservation, links to some of the more prominent game and computer music archives, and some other relevant talks. To all of those involved in VGM logging including our good friends ValleyBell and ctr, as well as the many folks we didn't mention, we thank you for all of your hard work and for everything you've done for the VGM community over the years.

We did our best to make our show as enjoyable for regular listeners, but we have also included our presentation slides which help enhance the experience. Click through the presentation below to see the visual aids and video examples we used during our talk.

Here's the link to our video presentation on YouTube

Track List:

0:06:50 Stage 2 – Yuurei-kun (MSX2)

By Manabu Saito

0:20:23 Ending 2 - Earthbound Beginnings (NES)

By Keiichi Suzuki & Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka

Exclusive to the US version of the game

Logged by MrNorbert1994

0:26:12 The Mountains - The Smurfs (GB)

By Alberto Jose González (Twitter)

0:32:02 Isotoxin - Unreal (PC)

By Andrew "Necros" Sega, edited by Alexander Brandon

0:39:08 Security - System Shock (PC)

By Greg Lopiccolo, Tim Ries

Originally logged and fixed by Joey "Chicajo" D in 1998

0:47:11 Vigilante Shuffle - Interstate '76 (PC)

By Bullmark

Leader [Music Direction By] – Arion Salazar, Jason Slater, Kelly W. Rogers

Written-By, Bass, Keyboards – Arion Salazar

Guitar – David Shul

Drums – Bryan Mantia

Horns – Les Harris

Engineer, Mixed By – Eric Valentine

Executive-Producer – Kelly W. Rogers

0:51:24 Song of the Ancients [excerpt] - Nier (360/PS3)

Composed by Keiichi Okabe

Interactive audio demo example

1:01:26 Launching (Title) - Star Trader (X68000)

Originally composed by Mieko Ishikawa

Additional composers for X68k port: Hiroya Hatsushiba, Keishi Yonao

1:04:34 Elevator - System Shock (PC)

By Greg Lopiccolo, Tim Ries

Originally logged and fixed by Joey "Chicajo" D in 1998

Some past episodes

Logging community and audio format discussion

Namco C352 with ctr - Community member ctr discusses his custom playback software for 90s Namco arcade games "QuattroPlay" as well as some favorite picks

Hole Chaser with Masahiro Kajihara - Composer Kajihara-san talks about his music and developing the PMD sound driver, also used by his contemporaries to write FM music for 80s/90s Japanese computers

5 Years of VGMRips - A retrospective on some favorite music direct from the archivists in the VGMRips community

Roadkill - Jesse Bishop aka "Street Cleaner" talks about his work logging the audio from the game Roadkill. Check out our interview with Jesse about his game too!

Interview with Chase Bethea - Composer Chase Bethea talks about his music, including a live demo on dynamic audio

Hover Racing - Friend of the show electricboogaloo logged the music for the PS1 indie game on the "Net Yaroze" platform

KGB / Conspiracy - A great soundtrack and a discussion of the custom HERAD sound driver that makes the Sound Blaster music really shine

Heart Heat Girls - We cover music from a game that was logged for the show

Yuurei-kun (Mr. Ghost) - We cover the music composed by Manabu Saito, and Bryan and Gene's first full show together

Shows on VGM history

A Brief History of Game Audio - Our live talk at the Library of Congress about the evolution of game audio hardware up to ~1998

Early Game Music with They Create Worlds - Follow-up to the LoC talk, a joint discussion with game historians and podcast "They Create Worlds" about pre-1985 game music

VGM Arrangements - We talk with Nick Marinelli about the awkward adolescence of VGM remixes and arrangements

Artist feature: Manabu Saito - A deep dive into the history of Manabu Saito, a brilliant composer that left us way too soon

Other shows mentioned

Splice with Dain Saint - composer and technical director Dain Saint talks about his music, and his work in the Philly game dev scene

Panzer Dragoon Saga with Saori Kobayashi - VGM legend Saori Kobayashi talks PD Saga and her career crafting the sound for the series

Pilotwings with Dan Hess - Dan Hess and friend of the show Ian Cowell join us to talk about the amazing N64 launch title Pilotwings 64

8-Bit Big Band with Charlie Rosen - Grammy Award winning VGM arranger Charlie Rosen joins us to talk about the 8-Bit Big Band

Lunar: The Silver Star with Noriyuki Iwadare - An amazing all-timer of a show with Noriyuki Iwadare

Matt Furniss - We attempt to stump Matt Furniss with his own music tracks

Colgate the Game - Brush your teeth to the music of this game, featuring our unofficial mascot "Harold Hardtooth"

A non-exhaustive list of game audio repositories

Various systems

VGMRips - dozens of systems including many rare arcade soundtracks

World of Game Music (Mirsoft) - Search is the easiest way to navigate

Zophar Music - A very large and long-running archive

Console specific

SNESMusic - Self explanatory

Project 2612 - Sega Genesis / Mega Drive

SMSPower - Sega Master System / Game Gear

NSF Archive - Nintendo NES, maintained by MrNorbert1994 and hosted unofficially on the NESDev forums

PMH - Game Boy / GBA / PSP

Home computers

Commodore C64

High Voltage SID Collection (HVSC) - The largest C64 SID archive, both game music and music from independent musicians. Music is still made today, and added regularly!

Stone Oakvalley Authentic SID Collection (SOASC) - Hardware recordings from both main chip variants

Compute Gazette SID Collection (CGSC) - A collection of amateur musician compositions, sent into the magazine

Commodore Amiga

UnExoticA - Amiga game music files

Stone Oakvalley Amiga Music Collection (SOAMC) - Amiga hardware recordings. A near exhaustive project done by one person, Stone Oakvalley over the course of 15 years

Other 8-bit computer systems

Atari SAP Music Archive - Music from Atari 8-bit computers (XL/XE)

Atari SNDH - Atari ST archive

World of Spectrum - ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC

Japanese home computers

Kurohane (JP) - Huge archive of Japanese music logging

Hoot Archive - Sharp, NEC, MSX computers and several others, mostly FM music

Windows / PC

Roland Music Lossless Archive (RMLA) - Music from 90s Western PC games using custom sound hardware (MT-32, CM-500, LAPC-I, CM-32L & SC-880) Only available via Wayback machine

Other music repositories

The Mod Archive - PC module files, not specifically game music. Many of these musicians went on to work on games

Modland - Another Mod archive, organized by player file type

VGMusic - The largest archive of VGM MIDI files, started in 1996 and one of the most influential early internet sites dedicated to game music

A small selection of game music players

VGMPlay - Written by logger ValleyBell

ZXTune - A multi-format music player

Quattroplay - A player for Namco arcade music

Additional talks and organizations regarding audio formats and preservation

Library of Congress 2019

The Interface Between Music Composition and Game Design - Wonderful talk by game music composer Winifred Phillips, with discussion about formats and dynamic music

#Declassified: Processing & Preserving Video Games - LoC staff discusses its game collection, the process of making a preservation copy of the data for long-term storage, the unique challenges for video games and possible access solutions

A Brief History of Video Game Music - The video version of our talk (episode 112)

Trackers: The Sound of 16-Bit - Wonderful mini-documentary about the history of trackers and mod music

They Create Worlds - Podcast, book and blog dedicated to preserving game history, primarily from the business side (formation of companies, etc)

VGM Preservation Foundation (VGMPF) - A wiki style site about game music

Game Developer Research Institute (GDRI) - A website dedicated to researching the companies and people involved with video game development, especially the hidden world of contract development

Today we're joined be returning guest Jesse Bishop aka Street Cleaner to talk about Roadkill! It's an Amiga and Amiga CD-32 top down combat racing game released around early 1995, developed by Vision Software and published by Acid Software, both New Zealand based studios. The game's music was written by Blair Zuppicich, a composer and demoscene artist that went by the handle BaZ.

Jesse fills us in on some cool discoveries he made ripping the sound and music, along with some technical discussion on how Blair and his team implemented it all in the game. We talk 90s 'tude, combat racers and butt rock (yeah!) in this short but fun episode.

All music composed by Blair Zuppicich unless otherwise stated

Track List:

0:00:03 Race start stinger + Song 1

0:07:49 Car Select

0:15:00 Title Music

0:30:17 stingers and voice clips

0:38:06 Stats

0:38:35 Song 2

0:40:38 [excerpt] Ragnarok Canyon - Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (SNES) - composed by David Wise

0:46:18 End Theme

 

Street Cleaner game music

Street Cleaner: The Video Game

Game: Switch, Steam

Soundtrack: Bandcamp

Past show: PA150 - Interview with Jesse

Chex Quest HD

Game: Switch, Steam

Music: Bandcamp

Street Cleaner the Video Game sequel teaser video

Creaky Lantern Games

Other links

Demoscene Podcast: Impulse Project

Blair Zuppicich - DemoZoo, Bandcamp

More Street Cleaner Music Bandcamp

The 8-Bit Big Band is a 30-65 member Jazz/Pops orchestra (led by Charlie Rosen) that formed to celebrate and realize some of the best musical themes written from various video games. The members of the 8-Bit Big Band come from all around the world, but most reside primarily in New York City, and are some of the most highly sought after musicians and performers, all gamers at heart who enjoy playing their favorite games of all time!

 

Charlie Rosen is extremely talented; he's a composer and arranger, professional bass player and multi-instrumentalist and does just about everything involved in producing the 8BBB albums. He's been playing professionally for years and has orchestrated and composed music for television, film and over a dozen Broadway shows.  He's well-versed in all manner of Big Band and Jazz, and his expanded arrangements give new life to old classics.

Together with Charlie we cover a selection of tracks from 3 full-length albums and an EP. We talk music theory, arrangement, our favorite pop cultural references and so much more in this densely packed show. It was a blast start to finish and as always, we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Episode Track List:

All arrangements by Charlie Rosen of the 8-Bit Big Band

Soloists credits provided where available

0:00:05 "Bob-Omb Battlefield" Super Mario 64 (N64)

Alto Sax - Andrew Gould

Drums - Jared Schoenig

Originally composed by Koji Kondo

0:15:28 "Athletic Theme" Super Mario World 2 - Yoshi's Island (SNES)

Clarinet - Felix Peikli

Trumpet - Benny Benack III

Trombone - Jimmy O'Connell

Drums - Jared Schoenig

Originally composed by Koji Kondo

0:26:07 "Still Alive" Portal (PC)

Vocals - Benny Benack III

Originally composed by Jonathan Coulton

0:33:53 "Luigi's Mansion Theme" Luigi's Mansion (GC)

Clarinet - Mark Dover

Originally composed by Shinobu Tanaka and Kazumi Totaka

0:42:21 "Aquatic Ambiance" Donkey Kong Country (SNES)

Vocals - Danielle Gimbal

Bassoon - Jenice Rosen

Alto Sax - Andrew Gould

Piano - Sydney Kjerstad

Originally composed by David Wise

0:52:25 "Hydrocity Zone" Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (GEN)

Alto Sax - Grace Kelly

Originally composed by the Sega Sound Team

1:01:28 "Dire Dire Docks'" Super Mario 64 (N64)

Bass - Charlie Rosen

Originally composed by Koji Kondo

1:13:05 "Meta Knight's Revenge" Kirby Super Star (SNES)

Keyboard - Buttonmasher

Originally composed by Jun Ishikawa and Dan Miyakawa

1:23:04 [Excerpt] "Super Mario Land Underground" Super Mario Land (GB)

Baritone Sax - Leo P.

Originally composed by Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka

1:26:37 "K.K. Moody" Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS)

Clarinet - Patrick Bartley

Originally composed by Kazumi Totaka

1:33:03 [Bedding] "Birdman" Pilotwings 64 (N64)

EWI - Zac Zinger

Originally composed by Dan Hess

1:37:07 "Super Mario World End Theme" Super Mario World (SNES)

Originally composed by Koji Kondo

Other credits:

Engineered and Mixed by John Kilgore

Mastered by Alan Silverman at Arf Mastering

 

Links to things mentioned in the show

The 8-Bit Big Band [Website]

Album 1 - Press Start! [Bandcamp]

Album 2 - Choose Your Character! [Bandcamp]

Album 3 - Backwards Compatible [Bandcamp]

The K.K. Sessions (Animal Crossing EP) [Bandcamp]

Smart Game Piano [Website]

Famikoto [YouTube] [Facebook] [Website (JP)]

Tom Brier - Athletic Theme [YouTube]

 

8-Bit Big Band upcoming events

March 25, 2022 - Howard Theater in Washington DC - Tickets

April 3, 2022 - Grammy Awards Nominated for category 65. Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella

Meta Knight's Revenge (From "Kirby Superstar") Charlie Rosen & Jake Silverman, arrangers (The 8-Bit Big Band Featuring Button Masher)

April 9, 2022 - The Berklee Performance Center in Boston, MA - Tickets