Pixelated Audio

KGB or Conspiracy is a 1992 game developed by Cryo Interactive Entertainment and published by Virgin Games for DOS and Amiga. KGB is a 1st person point and click adventure where you play as Maksim Rukov, an agent transferred to Department P and ordered to investigate possible corruption in the KGB after a former agent turns up dead.  It's a challenging race against time that takes places in the gloomy final days of the Soviet Union.

The core soundtrack for DOS was composed by Stéphane Picq, with an original track and porting to Amiga handled by Alexandre Ekian. The music is a mix of moody electronic ambience and energetic melodic flourishes and features some of the best use of the Adlib (OPL2) soundchip from that era thanks to the custom HERAD music system by programmer and Cryo co-founder Remi Herbulot.

Stéphane Picq worked on a number of other titles, including the incredible 1992 Dune soundtrack, MegaRace, Lost Eden and Riverworld but left the industry around 1998. Alexandre Ekian worked on the Amiga port of Dune, and wrote the music for Super Burnout on the Atari Jaguar, but unfortunately we found little else about him. In any case, sit back and enjoy these long but excellent tunes.

 

Track List:

All tracks composed by Stéphane Picq, except Exxolove composed by Alexandre Ekian

05:10 Burokrat - OPL2

24:30 Kursk - OPL2

40:45 Exxolove - Amiga

53:00 Gorbi - OPL2

1:06:30 Paradise - MT-32

1:19:20 Gulag - OPL2

1:29:30 Machine - OPL2

Today we're covering Psycho World, released for the MSX in 1988 and localized as Psychic World for the Sega Master System and Game Gear in 1991. The original MSX release was developed and published by Hertz, a short-lived Japanese game developer that also worked on number of ports with their final game being Vay for the Mega CD. The SMS and Game Gear ports of Psychic World were done through a partnership with SIMS and published by Sega.

Psycho World is an action platformer with a unique if somewhat unusual sprinting mechanic, that takes design cues from contemporary games like Metroid, Mega Man and Phantasy Star. The original MSX game features 8 lengthy stages, with the SMS and Game Gear getting scaled down ports with fewer stages, although each version has its merits.

The short and catchy MSX soundtrack was composed by Kenji Yamazaki and Yuko Yamazaki, who despite being listed by name in the credits have very little other info available. Kenji Yamazaki's other sole music credit was Hertz's RPG Sword of Legend Lenam. We couldn't find any other music credits for Yuko Yamazaki. The Game Gear and Master System ports were handled by Izuho Takeuchi aka "Ippo", a Sega veteran that also composed music for Phantasy Star III on the Mega Drive.

We focus mostly on the FM version of the soundtrack, with a few departures and comparisons to the other two. Join us as we listen and chat about the game in this lighthearted show.

 

Track List:

All tracks originally composed by Kenji Yamazaki and Yuko Yamazaki

SMS/GG arrangements by Izuho Takeuchi aka "Ippo"

3 Versions MSX FM, MSX PSG, SMS/GG PSG

00:00 Opening + Title - MSX FM

08:42 Stage 1 / Prairie - MSX PSG, SMS PSG, MSX FM

12:50 Stage 2 / Volcanic Area - MSX FM

21:40 Stage 3 / Ice Field - MSX PSG

24:48 Stage 4 / Ruins - SMS PSG, MSX PSG

33:53 Stage 5 - MSX FM

35:50 Boss 1 - MSX FM, SMS PSG

38:50 Demo (Cutscene) - MSX FM

41:49 Stage 6 - MSX PSG

43:14 Stage 7 -  MSX FM

44:43 Stage 8 / Fortress - MSX FM, SMS PSG

49:20 Demo 2 / The Revelation - MSX FM

52:58 Boss 3 - MSX FM

1:00:02 Ending - MSX FM

We once again return to the earliest days of game sound and music and trace the evolution from 1977 through 1984 in this historically focused episode. We go from the arcade boom, to early home consoles and computers, to the video game crash, and end just before the rise of the NES. The show is a much deeper dive on historical context, although we cover a lot more music in the second half.

We were very pleased to collaborate with special guests Alex Smith and Jeff Daum of They Create Worlds, a podcast, blog and book that focuses on getting nuanced and often untold stories from the game industry, with an emphasis on the lesser talked about business side of things. Their show does a fantastic job of capturing engaging context on everything from game genres, mega hits like Space Invaders and Tetris, to the founding of individual companies.

Our teams chose this specific time frame to both coincide with the first volume of Alex's recently released historical chronicle on gaming, and as a chance to explore music from a period that doesn't often get talked about. We also wanted to give a special thanks to another video game historian Ethan Johnson for connecting us with Alex and Jeff of They Create Worlds.

If you'd like more information on They Create Worlds, they can be found at:

theycreateworlds.com, on Twitter @tcwpodcast, or podcast.theycreateworlds.com

The book: "They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry, Vol. I: 1971-1982"

CRC Press

Amazon

For even more, Alex's older blog covers several more topics not discussed in the podcast videogamehistorian.wordpress.com

 

Track List:

0:00:00 Wandering Across Sosaria - Ultima III: Exodus (1983, APL2) - Kenneth W. Arnold

0:20:32 Circus (1977, ARC) - Edward Valleau, Howell Ivy

0:27:56 Space Invaders (1978, ARC) - Tomohiro Nishikado

0:32:06 Asteroids (1979, ARC) - Lyle Rains, Ed Logg, Dominic Walsh

0:34:11 Sheriff (1979, ARC) - Genyo Takeda

0:38:29 Targ (1980, ARC) - Unknown

0:40:15 Pac-Man (1980, ARC) - Shigeichi Ishimura, Toshio Kai

0:45:33 Wizard of Wor (1981, ARC) - Tom McHugh, Dave Nutting

0:47:44 Rally-X (1980, ARC) - Toshio Kai

0:48:00 New Rally-X (1981, ARC) - Nobuyuki Ohnogi

0:54:52 Venture (1981, ARC) - Ed Anderson

0:59:54 Snafu (1981, INTV) - Russell Libelich

1:04:05 Moon Patrol (1982, ARC) - Ichirō Takagi

1:08:47 Pengo (1982, ARC) - 1st version is a cover of "Popcorn" by Gershon Kingsley (likely the Hot Butter arrangement)

1:10:01 Super Locomotive (1982, ARC) - cover of "Rydeen" by Yellow Magic Orchestra

1:12:42 Xevious (1983, ARC) - Yuriko Keino

1:14:50 Mappy (1983, ARC) - Nobuyuki Ohnogi

1:18:05 Donkey Kong (1983, FC) - Yukio Kaneoka and Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka

1:19:13 Necromancer (1984, C64 | 1983, Atari 8-bit) - Bill Williams

1:24:22 SubRoc (1983, ColecoVision) - Arnold Hendrick, Philip Taterczynski, David Wesely

1:25:55 Title - Forbidden Forest (1983, C64) - Paul Norman

1:28:52 Title - M.U.L.E. (1983, Atari 8-bit) - Roy Glover

1:31:33 In-game - Spy Hunter (1983, ARC) - cover of "Peter Gunn Theme" by Henry Mancini

1:32:46 Attract Mode - Tube Panic (1984, ARC) - Ryoichi Yamada, Ichirou Takagi

1:34:30 In-game - Pitfall II (1984, Atari VCS) - David Crane

1:36:30 Tower of Druaga (1984, ARC) - Junko Ozawa

1:40:07 Title - Dragon's Lair (1984, Coleco Adam) - Unknown

1:43:59 Intermediate Race - Marble Madness (1984, ARC) - Brad Fuller, Hal Canon

1:52:46 Rank Theme 2 - Road Fighter (1984, ARC) - Yoshinori Sasaki

What does it feel like to soar through the skies in a hot air balloon? Kaze no Notam on the Sony Playstation attempts to answer that question. Released September 1997 by the mid-sized Japanese developer Artdink, Kaze no Notam is an easygoing flight sim in the vein of Pilotwings with some light objectives, although it's more tech demo than game.

The composer for the game is Ryuuji Nishida who also worked on a number of projects for Artdink like 'No One Can Stop Mr. Domino', Zeus II Carnage Heart, A-Train DS, and Sword Art Online: Lost Song. He's an accomplished composer and has been at Artdink for over 20 years and is currently the head of their sound department.

The game was chosen by friend of the show Brennan aka "Hammock" from his podcast KVGM – The Last Wave, which specializes in delivering breezy jams 30 minutes at a time from his native Aqua City. Hammock takes a break from drinking Arnold Palmtrees at the KVGM studio to bring us this hidden gem of a soundtrack featuring a wide range of relaxing styles of late 90's electronic sounds, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

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

 

Track List:

All tracks composed by Ryuuji Nishida

0:00:00 Opening Demo

0:00:40 Menu

0:12:12 Departure

0:17:36 Customize

0:26:32 Tranquility

0:34:00 Phantom

0:47:44 Task Completed

0:52:07 Task Failed

1:02:00 Nature

1:12:25 Solitude

1:22:19 Staff Roll

Harald Hårdtand: Kampen om de rene tænder (or Harold Hardtooth in The Fight for Clean Teeth) or simply "Colgate" for short, is an advergame platformer released in 1992 for the C64, Amiga and DOS. The game was developed by SilverRock Productions, a Copenhagen-based Danish company founded in 1988 and renamed in 1992 to Interactive Television Entertainment (ITE), best known for developing and producing the Hugo the Troll media franchise.

The soundtrack is short and sweet with only 3 tracks, or 4 if you count the unused title theme. The music was originally composed on C64 by Thomas Mogensen, a.k.a. (DRAX) of the demoscene group Vibrants. Additional support for sound effects and music for all three platforms was handled by Jens-Christian Huus (JCH) and Jesper Olsen (JO) of Vibrants, and Thomas Engel. Join us as we dive into the music of an advergame for the first but probably not last time.

Track List:

Original music and C64 version composed by Thomas Mogensen (DRAX)

Amiga music ported by Jesper Olsen (JO)

DOS (OPL2) music ported by Jens-Christian Huus (JCH)

0:00:06 Title theme (Funk.SID) - C64

0:07:20 Unused title theme (Harald Hårdtand.SID) - C64

0:18:22 Title theme - DOS

0:23:06 Boss theme - DOS

0:25:30 Boss theme - Amiga

0:31:01 Hiscore theme - DOS

Alex the Allegator 4 (aka Alex 4) is a freeware platformer released for PC, Mac, Linux and BeOS in 2003 by Free Lunch Design. Free Lunch Design was a small indie developer based in Gothenburg, Sweden, best known for their game Icy Tower. The company was started in 1998 by Johan Peitz with the goal of creating fun, high quality games with a focus on gameplay.

We're excited to have the composer for the game Anders Svensson calling in from Sweden. Anders spent the early 2000s writing music for indie games in the lesser known early social internet. In the intervening years he's devoted his energy to his acapella group Kvartetten DEO (Quartet DEO), whose wonderful music can be found at deo.se.

Listen with us through the soundtrack to the fun and charming Alex 4, and a number of other tracks from the heyday of Free Lunch Design.

 

Track List:

All tracks composed by Anders Svensson unless otherwise stated

0:00:06 Once I was an egg (Intro)

0:00:35 Once I was an egg (Menu loop)

0:09:22 Once I was an egg (Game Loop)

0:24:24 Lola's space fighter

0:31:41 Man of Constant Sorrow (excerpt) - From Icy Tower

Original folk song published by Dick Burnett (1913)

0:33:49 Gräddkola - Entry for Compusphere 2005

0:37:05 Once I was an egg (Boss Loop)

0:41:58 Menu Loop - From CubeAttack (Go Bots!)

0:45:22 Game Loop - From CubeAttack (Go Bots!)

0:48:49 Zombies - From Zombiepox

0:52:28 Ullared (excerpt) by Kvartetten Deo

1:01:11 Once I was an egg (Intermission + Game Over)

Pixelated Audio reflects back on 2019 and welcomes in a new decade with a selection of tracks from a variety of systems. Here's to a lots more great game music!

Track List:

0:00:00 God of the Four Winds - The Legend of Xanadu (PCE-CD) - Falcom Sound Team jdk

0:06:31 Title - Yuu Yuu Hakusho-Bakutou Ankoku Bujutsu Kai (FC) - SWITCH-E

0:12:42 Stage 2-4 - God of Thunder (DOS) - Roy Davis

0:20:15 Deliverance - Assassin's Creed III Liberation (VITA) - Winifred Phillips

0:29:39 BGM 3 - Magical Drop (GBC) - Hiroaki Yoshida, Allister Brimble

0:33:14 Cross a Fear - Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PCE-CD) - Keizo Nakamura

0:40:50 Game Point - Mario Tennis (GBC) - Motoi Sakuraba

0:46:44 The Stars Come Out - Digital: A Love Story (PC) - Brother Android

Panzer Dragoon Saga or Azel has been on the Pixelated Audio radar for some time and we couldn't be happier that it's finally here. The stars aligned and with the help of Alex Aniel of Brave Wave Productions, Saori Kobayashi became the first confirmed Japanese guest to come to MAGWest 3 in California. We had the chance to interview her in-person, see her talk about her career and hear her splendid live concert featuring Stemage on guitar, Ronin Op F on violin and Michelle Dreyband on vocals.

The series began as a pair of rail shooters on the Saturn developed by Sega's in house group, Team Andromeda. In order to compete with games like Final Fantasy VII, Panzer Dragoon Saga was made into a JRPG and released worldwide on the Saturn in 1998. It features a semi-realtime 3D combat system, an evocative soundtrack and gorgeous art design. Although the game had a small print run in the West due to its relatively late release, it received critical acclaim and became one of the most well-loved classics on the system, remaining a cult favorite to this day.

Composers Saori Kobayashi and Mariko Nanba bring together an incredible album of exotic soundscapes that has rarely been matched. They combine the best characteristics of classic melody driven Japanese game music with the expanding richness that was becoming possible during the Saturn era to make a soundtrack that stays with you long after you stop listening.

Saori Kobayashi has become synonymous with the world of Panzer Dragoon, having written the music for Panzer Dragoon Saga, Orta, the spiritual sequel Crimson Dragon, her original album Terra Magica and the Panzer Dragoon Saga 20th Anniversary album. She's also worked on titles like Sylvan Tale on the Game Gear and Shadowgate 64.

Mariko Nanba is the lesser known composer of the two but she is no slouch herself. Nanba joined Sega in the early 1990s and in addition to writing some of our favorite songs in Panzer Dragoon Saga, went on to write music for Space Channel 5 Part 2, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Sonic Rush Adventure, Sonic Colors and many others.

 

Track List:

All music composed and arranged by Saori Kobayashi unless otherwise stated

0:00:00 Ecce Valde Generous Ale ~Behold the Precious Wings~ (Title theme)

Composed by Mariko Nanba, arranged by Hayato Matsuo

0:09:28 Premonition of War

0:14:31 Overworld - excerpt from Sylvan Tale

0:21:18 Mutation I

0:25:30 The Chaos Within the Silence

0:33:36 Giant Creature

0:43:23 Rest

Composed by Mariko Nanba

0:49:08 Seekers' Stronghold / シーカーの里 (20th Anniversary)

Composed by Mariko Nanba, arranged by Saori Kobayashi

0:54:36 The Expected Enemy / The Unexpected Enemy

Composed by Tomonori Sawada - from Panzer Dragoon Zwei

1:05:36 Paet's Theme

1:14:52 Zoah

1:26:12 Wandering

1:38:30 Atolm Dragon (20th Anniversary)

1:51:38 Forest Shriek / 森の悲鳴 (20th Anniversary)

1:59:34 Tears / 涙 (20th Anniversary)

Performed by Triforce Quartet

2:01:55 Tears (excerpt)

2:05:49 Sona Mi Areru Ec Sancitu ~Art Thou the Holy One~

Vocals by Eri Ito

Thanks again to Alex Aniel and the wonderful folks at Brave Wave Productions for giving us the opportunity to bring Kobayashi stateside and interview her. Check out their bandcamp page for tons of other great releases!

For more music from Kobayashi and the very talented musicians that work with her:

Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga 20th Anniversary Arrangement album

Bandcamp, Apple, Amazon

Terra Magica

Bandcamp, Apple, Amazon

Crimson Dragon soundtrack

Apple, Amazon

Journey by 茜 -AKANE-

Bandcamp

Members:

Saori Kobayashi (Panzer Dragoon)

Yumiko Takahashi (Suikoden)

For links to the MAGWest content

MAGWest 2019 Concert

MAGWest 2019 Panel

And finally a link to the Polygon article

Panzer Dragoon Saga: An oral history

MAGWest 2019 came and went in San Jose, California and what a ride it was! We cap off another jam-packed weekend with a panel featuring a very special guest; chibi-tech!

Chibi-tech is a world-renowned chiptune artist that is originally from the Bay Area. She now lives in Japan and works as an in-house composer and sound engineer for M2, the company responsible for stellar ports like the Sega Ages and Sega 3D Classics games. Join us as we chat with the talented and versatile chibi-tech about her career as a composer, sound designer, remixer and much more.

Track List:

0:00:00 Main Menu Mix - NEOGEO Station (PS3, PSP, PSV)

0:09:41 Camino a Mi Amor - 3D OutRun (3DS)

Based on tracks composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi

0:18:37 Golden Axe II (Menu Theme) - Sega Vintage Collection (PS3, 360)

0:27:26 Monster World IV (Menu Theme) - Sega Vintage Collection (PS3, 360)

Based on tracks composed by Jin Watanabe

0:32:50 Untitled (Cinnamon Bun?)

0:38:13 Skyclad Observer 8BIT Mix (instrumental) - 8-BIT ADV Steins;Gate (SWITCH), from the album FAMICOLLE STEINS;GATE

Originally composed by Takeshi Abo

0:40:20 Moe Moe Kyunstep (PART II - キュン -)

0:51:47 A New Leaf Everyday - Tokyo School Life (PC)

0:54:54 Asteroid - N'th Driven Mix - from Psyvariar THE MIX album

Originally composed by Tetsuro Sato

1:01:55 ToeJam & Earl (Menu Theme) - Sega Vintage Collection (PS3, 360)

Based on tracks composed by John Baker

1:13:30 Return to Bounds - from Psycho Somatic Generation

Links

MAGWest 2019 Performance

Bandcamp, Soundcloud

Psycho Somatic Generation album and NES/Famicom: a visual compendium from Bitmap Books

MoeNES vol.1 album, contains Moe Moe Kyunstep

Sega Ages website

M2 website

PSYVARIAR "THE MIX" album

Pixelated Audio is excited to bring Megan McDuffee into the studio to chat with us about her work for the recently released River City Girls!

River City Girls is a classic action beat-em-up with light RPG elements, building on the long legacy of River City (or Kunio-Kun) games started by Technos in the 1980s. It was released September 5th, 2019 for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and Steam and developed by WayForward Technologies with oversight and some publishing handled by Arc System Works.

Megan McDuffee has been making a name for herself in the music community as a synthwave vocalist and producer, composer and sound designer. She has worked on several games with River City Girls being her biggest game to date. Megan brings the heat to this soundtrack with high energy dance music, thrilling vocals, and crisp production work on over 50 tracks with her signature 80's inspired synthwave sound.

Additional tracks in the game are provided by Chipzel, NateWantsToBattle, Christina Vee, and Dale North, which can be found on the full soundtrack. We hope you enjoy the music and this show as much as we do!