On today's episode we're joined by Rob aka Xerxes of Hardcore Gaming 101's "Top 47k Games" podcast. We talk about his background, how the podcast is made, the excellent resource Hardcore Gaming 101, along with our usual jovial banter. Rob brings us a selection of fantastic deep cuts of early to mid 90s Japanese VGM used in the show, most of which are intro and ending tunes. It's a really fun show and as always we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Shout out to our friend Norm aka @normallyretro for lending his voice to the HG101 Golf Remix and the main Top 47k Games theme song. Dogs Bower!

Also a big thanks to Dee Liteyears for providing the delightful episode artwork! Follow them on Twitter @DeeLiteyears. Dogs Bower (and Bubsy)!

Track List:

0:00:00 “Main Menu” Pebble Beach Golf Links (SNES) by Yumi Satake (née Kinoshita)

0:07:57 "HG101 (Golf Remix)" remix of Pebble Beach Golf Links arranged by Xerxes

0:15:21 “Howl of Crow” Black Bird: Tori Tachi no Tooboe (PC-98) by Takeaki Watanabe

0:24:02 “Character Making” Drakkhen (SNES) by Hiroyuki Masuno

0:28:38 (Background) “House in Fire Area” Drakkhen (SNES) by Hiroyuki Masuno

0:37:10 “Staff Roll (OPN)” Metal Force (PC-98) by Daisuke Takahashi

0:59:15 “Impossible One” - Cho Ren Sha 68k (X68k, PC) by Ruzarin Kashiwagi

1:13:22 “Opening Title” Division Guardian: Twinkle-Star (PC-98) by Hiroaki Sano

1:21:34 “Ending B” Puyo Puyo Tsu (GEN/MD) by Tsuyoshi Matsushima

1:31:17 “Ending 1” Rhyme Star (PC-98) by Takeshi Abo

1:47:23 "Ending” Possessioner (PC-98) by Hiroaki Sano

 

For more Hardcore Gaming 101, check out the links below:

Top 47k Games Podcast

The List

HG101 website

HG101 Discord

HG101 books

Article on Korean gaming (old site, mentioned in show)

Worst Video Game Ever - Drakkhen YouTube video mentioned on show, just for fun

Heart Heat Girls is a lightly adult-oriented Japanese adventure game released for the PC-98 in December of 1993 by the company Panda House under their Cat's Pro label. Heart Heat Girls or H.H.G. is set in a futuristic world where humans and androids are at war. A specialized police force known as ACP ("Anti Criminal-cyborg Police") is tasked with eliminating them. The game begins with two young police officers named Angelica and Apple receiving an S.O.S. about an attack from a mysterious cyborg and arrive to the crime scene to find no survivors. Joined by their friend and colleague detective Keith Bailey, they set out to investigate the case. Despite the name, the game focuses more heavily on the narrative and setting as opposed to lewd content. The gameplay is fairly conventional with light interactions like "Talk" or "Examine" to move the plot along.

The music of H.H.G. was written by Muse and the mysterious Panda, owner of the game development studio Panda House and its subsidiary labels Cat's Pro and Melody, all companies largely associated with making adult games for the Japanese PC market. Little is known in the English speaking world about Panda and Muse, however they both worked on audio for the company Cocktail Soft, another adult games label.

A small correction: YouTube user Czarek7711 believes that Panda may be the alias of Yuki Nakayama (correction: or likely Izuho Yoshitani). The VGMdb entry for the Cat's Pro album lists him as executive producer so it does seem likely!

In any case, the music is full of lots of short but sweet tunes. Now leave playing the adult games to the professionals and enjoy this soundtrack guilt-free!

 

Track List:

All tracks composed by Panda and Muse for the YM2203 (OPN) soundchip unless otherwise stated

0:00:00 Opening

0:03:15 Title

0:13:24 SAIT

0:16:07 Department of Defense

0:20:15 Cat's Pro Jingle

0:24:53 Kurama Industries

0:26:58 Relief

0:29:23 3D Map

0:31:30 Final Battle: Abadon

Excerpt from Magician (NES) by Neil Baldwin

0:32:15 Shower

0:34:09 ACP

0:42:43 Infiltrate

0:44:40 Dawn

0:46:33 Mixed

0:49:46 Angelica's Tears

0:52:31 Counterattack

0:56:25 Reminiscence

1:01:22 Ending

Thanks to Bryan, Gnome, and Valley Bell of VGMRips for ripping the music!

It's been a while since our last expansion pack, and the first of 2021. It's a relaxed show with a selection of 6 deep cuts but the music is great as always. Correction: The name of the writer was actually Miyazawa Kenji not Ihatovo.

Track List:

0:00:00 Tobituki-hime - Stage 3 - MAGICAL AMBER - (PC) by Masashi Yano

0:08:42 Gekitou! Crash Gear Turbo: Gear Champion League - BGM 1 (WSC) by unknown composer

0:15:54 Guldkorn Expressen / Kalas Puffs Expressen - Title (C64) by Jens-Christian Huus (JCH)

0:20:42 Nekketsu Oyako - Big Black - LV 49 (SAT) by Hyakutaro Tsukumo

0:28:25 Ihatovo Monogatari - Ihatovo City (SNES) by Tsukasa Tawada

0:36:48 Bakuten Shoot Beyblade - BGM 13 (GBC) by unknown composer

More links

Tobituki-hime Bandcamp soundtrack

"Travel Diary" from Ihatovo Monogatari - performed by Tsukasa Tawada

HG101 article about Ihatovo Monogatari

Kalaspuffs Wikipedia page for some reason

Today we're joined by guitarist Josh of the VGM band The Runaway Four. Together we talk about his band and their music, as well as Bonus Stage, a very important project that came into being last year in April right in the midst of lockdowns. Bonus Stage is a monthly online series of live video game music concerts that feature a wide range of bands and genres. As hard as 2020 was, Bonus Stage (formerly Virtual VGM Fest) has become a bright spot in the community for VGM lovers and performers alike.

Josh comes to us from Vancouver Canada and brings with him some fantastic and varied VGM from across the spectrum, all sourced from Bonus Stage performers. We even included a teaser track for the upcoming Bonus Stage X event on February 13 and we hope you enjoy listening to the music as much as we did.

Below we've included links to the organization and some of their upcoming events, the track list, and all the bands appearing in the show.

 

Bonus Stage Vancouver

Twitch | YouTube | Twitter | Facebook

If you are interested in performing in a Bonus Stage event, email bonusstagevan [at] gmail [dot] com.

 

Upcoming Bonus Stage events

Rage Quit Vol. II Listening Party

Friday, Feb 5, 2020 - 6PM PST

Bonus Stage X

Saturday, Feb 13, 2020 - 3:30PM PST

The Runaway Four "The Fast" Listening Party

Friday, Mar 19, 2020 - 7PM PDT

Episode Track List:

0:00:00 This Game Is Baroquen (various)

Arranged by Runaway Four

Music from Final Fantasy IX, ActRaiser, Super Mario RPG, Columns, Katamari Damacy

0:10:10 Title - Robocop (C64)

Arranged by Marshall Art

Composed by Jonathan Dunn

0:21:26 Prelude - Final Fantasy (NES)

Arranged by 88bit

Composed by Nobou Uematsu

0:33:20 Jump Up, Super Star! - Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)

Arranged by Tiggs and Consoul

Composed by Naoto Kubo

0:47:30 You Will Be The Hero of this F***ing Gym - Violent Storm (Arcade)

Arranged by ErichWK

Composed by Kenichiro Fukui

0:58:58 Bright Minded Scientist

Composed and arranged by Press X

Based on story in Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

1:10:09 In My Heart - Kingdom Hearts (PS2)

Arranged by EyeQ

Composed by Yoko Shimomura

1:22:52 Fall (Ghost Synth) - Stardew Valley (various)

Arranged by Sybil Grace

Composed by Eric Barone

1:33:01 The End of the Battle - To Out World - Gunstar Heroes (Genesis)

Arranged by Monte

Composed by Norio Hanzawa

BAND LINKS

 

Runaway Four

Virtual VGM Fest 4.0 Performance

Bandcamp | Patreon | Instagram | YouTube | Twitter | Facebook |  Website

 

 

Marshall Art

Virtual VGM Fest Ultimate Performance

Bandcamp | YouTube | Twitter | Facebook

 

 

88 Bit

Virtual VGM Fest Ultimate Performance

Bandcamp | Twitch | YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Website

 

 

Tiggs & ConSoul

Virtual VGM Fest Ultimate Performance

Tiggs: Facebook | YouTube | ConSoul: Bandcamp | Website

 

 

ErichWK

Athletic Aesthetic Livestream

Bandcamp | YouTube | Facebook

 

Press X

Virtual VGM Fest Ultimate Performance

Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

 

 

EyeQ

Virtual VGM Fest Ultimate Performance

Bandcamp | Spotify | Twitch | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website

 

 

Sybil Grace

Stardew Valley - Fall (Ghost Synth) Single

Bandcamp | YouTube | Facebook | Website

 

 

Monte

Virtual VGM Fest Ultimate Performance

Bandcamp

In June of 2012, Cipher Prime Studios released Splice, a puzzle game about organizing cells into increasingly complex patterns. It's a game that requires concentration and it's also a bit about tampering with nature. Splice can be purchased on a number of platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, PS3 and PS4 but no matter where you purchase it, it's a challenging and mentally rewarding game accompanied by a beautiful piano soundtrack composed by Dain Saint, who we have joining us on the show today.

Cipher Prime is a Philadelphia-based indie game and interactive art studio co-founded in 2008 by Dain Saint and Will Stallwood. With Dain as technical director and Will as creative director, the team has made more than 10 games including Pulse, Intake, Auditorium and Fractal. Cipher Prime has also been a driving force in the Philadelphia indie game scene for over a decade where they ran a co-working space and hosted numerous events for game developers over the years.

Dain Saint himself is an accomplished musician, artist and designer. In addition to his composition and technical work on games, he also writes poetry, produces music videos, and many other creative pursuits. His first and main instrument is the piano, and he also sings and plays guitar. The piano work on Splice features beautiful melodies, sweeping arpeggios thick with reverb and emotional highs and lows that switch from euphoric to dark at a moment's notice.

Join us for this captivating first interview of 2021 where we cover a range of topics from the music itself, to the metaphysical symbolism throughout the game, to current events and beyond.

All tracks composed by Dain Saint

Track List:

0:00:00 Barachiel

0:13:03 Gabriel

0:32:23 Eremiel

0:41:41 Darda'il

0:51:01 Cassiel

1:04:30 Ganymede

1:18:16 Reflection

 

Bandcamp

Splice OST

Splice epilogue OST

Earthbound album

 

cipherprime.com

Splice

sheet music

Lineweight

 

dainsaint.com and more

Instagram

City Don't Sing music video

martinobranding.com - shot and produced the video

YouTube

phillygamemechanics.com

On the surface, Xixit is a pretty straightforward Columns clone. Go a little bit deeper and you find a columns clone with impressive coding, visual effects and music. Xixit was released for DOS in 1995 by Optik Software, a small American publisher that only ever released 3 games, the other two being a point and click called Igor and an RTS called War Inc. The gameplay is your typical match three game with a 1-player or 2-player versus mode and an impressive array of difficulty and graphics options.

All of the staff that worked on the game were active members of the demoscene at the time. If you like what you see and hear, thank the folks below:

"Tran" Tomasz Pytel - Programming

"Oman" John Hood - Art and Design

Music by

"Necros" Andrew Sega

"Mesonyx" Jon Dal Kristbjornsson

"C.C.Catch" Kenny Chow

"Nemesis" Andrew Wise

Link to the game Xixit on Archive.org

Link to Impulse Project Podcast - a sibling podcast about demoscene music

Track List:

00:00 Exuding Titleness - Necros

10:13 Music1 - Mesonyx

20:16 Music2 - Mesonyx

25:58 Music3 - Mesonyx

36:45 Pentagonal Dreams - Necros

43:10 Sacred Grounds - C.C.Catch

51:56 Visionary - Nemesis

30 years later the film Home Alone remains a holiday classic. The games, not so much. The success of the first two films spawned a spate of 13 cheap cash-in games from 1991 to 1993 across just about every mainstream game system. Co-hosting alongside us, friends and longtime listeners Norm and UtopiaNemo join in what could be considered a holiday episode. We share some joy and laughter at the music that ranges from forgettable to miserable, with a few genuinely great songs in there for good measure.

2020 has been an exceptionally hard year for many of us, and we hope that you can find some joy in listening to the music of Home Alone as we close out our last show of the year. Whether you're just joining us or have been listening for a long time, we at Pixelated Audio wish you all well.

Track List:

Home Alone

0:00:00 Title Theme (GB)

0:04:50 House (NES)

0:15:10 Track 4 (GB)

0:21:15 Harry and Marv (SNES)

0:25:55 In-Game (DOS)

0:30:55 Outside (GEN)

0:35:18 Weapons (GEN)

0:41:00 Family House & Power House (SMS)

0:47:25 Haunted House (SMS)

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

0:51:45 Airport / Game Over (GEN)

0:59:35 Street / Old House (GEN)

1:04:15 Dark Streets (GEN)

1:13:30 Title / Ending (GEN)

1:22:26 Ending (SNES) - From Home Alone 1

Home Alone

NES (1991) Composed by George Sanger

Super NES / Gameboy (1991) Composed by Mark Van Hecke

DOS (1991) Composed by Tom McMail

Genesis (1992) Composed by Rolf Weber and Clifford Falls

Sega Master System (1993) Composed by Matt Furniss

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Genesis (1993) Composed by David Delia and Paul Gadbois

In the last installment we talked about Treasure Conflix, and today we're talking about the platform itself, the Nintendo Satellaview. The Satellaview was created as a partnership between the broadcasting company St.GIGA and Nintendo's R&D2 Division, the team responsible for the original Super Famicom. It was released as an add-on in 1995 and was a somewhat unique approach to an online service.

The system required a broadcast satellite just like you'd need for television, but instead it would broadcast digital data like games, news and hints through the service. It was reasonably successful with roughly 100,000 users at its peak and around 230 games were produced for it. Games ranged from ports of popular games, competition games for prizes, live broadcast games narrated by professional voice talent and original games. The weekly broadcast format was used to release certain games episodically over the course of several weeks, including games in the Zelda and F-Zero series. The Satellaview ran officially until 1999 when Nintendo dropped support but broadcasts from St.GIGA continued through June of 2000.

 

The Satellaview was like many online services in the mid 90s and featured a mini "world" where you moved your avatar around and communicated with NPCs to access the various features, similar to Nintendo's Miis in later consoles. Music plays while you're walking around the world and accessing the features, such as seeing the upcoming broadcasts or when downloading new games. The music for the Satellaview was composed by three veteran Nintendo composers: Akito Nakatsuka, Naoto Ishida & Yuichi Ozaki, which we believe are the primary composer and two sound designers respectively. The service may be offline but we can still enjoy some of the very characteristically Nintendo music, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

All tracks composed by Akito Nakatsuka, Naoto Ishida & Yuichi Ozaki

Track List:

00:00 St. Giga Logo & Title

01:45 Naming Screen

04:03 Town

11:35 Overworld

14:11 Soundlink Schedule

20:50 Download 1

22:40 Download 2

26:55 Download 3

33:00 Breeding Charts (from Satesopo DX 4)

39:16 Error Screen

In early 1996, Squaresoft released Treasure Conflix and three other exclusive titles for the Satellaview Broadcast Satellite system, an add-on for the Super Famicom. The soundtrack was written by longtime composer Junya Nakano. The game is an aerial combat and RPG hybrid where you split your time between fighting other airships in real time and traveling to small caves and towns to find upgrades for your airship. It remains untranslated but it isn't some long lost classic; the gameplay is serviceable and it can be beaten in just under 2 hours.

The Satellaview games do mark an interesting period of experimentation for Squaresoft. They sit between the earlier success of landmark RPGs like Final Fantasy IV, VI and Chrono Trigger and before the transition into the PS1 generation with games like Final Fantasy VII and Parasite Eve. Some of you might recognize Square's more notable Satellaview game Radical Dreamers which became the basis for Chrono Cross.

Composer and arranger Junya Nakano started his career at Konami in 1992. After that he moved on to Square from 1995-2009 and continues to work as a freelancer. As lead composer he's written the music for Threads of Fate and Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. More frequently he's been a co-composer and has worked on games like X-Men arcade and Tobal No. 1, as well as regular collaborations with Masashi Hamauzu on projects like Front Mission: Gun Hazard, Final Fantasy X, XIII, and the X/X-2 remasters.

Link

Bandcamp

Junya Nakano artist profile on VGMOnline

All tracks composed by Junya Nakano

Track List:

00:00 Title

05:40 Introduction

14:00 World Map

15:23 Battlefield

21:40 Town

26:58 Auction

28:30 Doom Triangle

31:40 Ending

35:00 Staff Roll

The most interesting thing about Aworg: Hero in the Sky is that it was released on Sega Meganet, an early online service and precursor to the Sega Channel. Released in 1991 by Sega, Aworg is a short and fairly unremarkable action game where you traverse a maze in a robotic suit that can fly around, dash, and push enemies away with its jet stream. The game is short, and can be beaten in about 20 minutes with practice.

The music is credited to "Bambi" whose real name is unknown, but they were most likely a member of Sega's in-house sound team. It largely features early 90s piano house styled tunes and is more groove than anything, but catchy nonetheless. Enjoy what is perhaps our shortest episode ever.

Composed by "Bambi" (real credit unknown)

Track List:

00:00 Title

04:10 How to Play

09:21 BGM

15:02 Boss

17:50 Ending Theme