Pixelated Audio

EVE burst error is an adult-oriented visual novel originally released for the PC-98 in 1995 by C's Ware with additional ports to Saturn and Windows.

In EVE you follow the interconnected stories of Marina and Kojiroh as they avoid death and danger at every turn in order to discover the truth behind their respective missions.  Combine the powerhouse compositional forces of Ryu Umemoto and Ryu Takami with the storytelling finesse of Hiroyuki Kanno (lead designer of YU-NO) and you get a recipe for a gripping game whose impact reverberates all the way to contemporary visual novels like Steins;Gate.

EVE Burst Error launched a number of sequels and remakes, but few of the soundtracks hit as powerfully as the original PC-98 where we'll spend most of our focus. Join us as we listen to music from two of the greatest FM synthesis masters of their day; funky bass lines, hard hitting techno, soulful melodies and all. View the post for more info!

What could be better than more sports games? Celebrity tie-in sports games!

We dug deep in the archives (and the bargain bins) and found some wonderful and obscure games with celebrity athletes representing sports from snooker to soccer (or football for those outside the US).

Whether you like sports or not, we hope you enjoy this varied selection of tunes in our latest expansion pack!

Track List:

0:00:00 "All_Comp" (title theme) Miyazato San Kyoudai Naizou - Sega Golf Club (PS3) - Unknown

0:07:38 Track 1 John Barnes European Football (Atari ST) - Matt Furniss

0:15:22 Title The Carl Lewis Challenge (Amiga) - Chris Huelsbeck

0:26:00 Title Nick Faldos Championship Golf (CD32) - Andi McGinty

0:34:14 BGM1 Jimmy White’s Cueball (GBC) - Manfred Linzner

0:43:51 Menu Shawn Johnson Gymnastics (NDS) - Unknown

0:52:50 Untitled Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis (PS1) - Namco Sound Team

1:00:20 Win Tournament Jimmy Connors Pro Tennis Tour (SNES) - Roger Goede

1:06:13 Title Jimmy Connors Pro Tennis Tour (LYNX) - Paul Tonge

1:11:48 Shooting Stars Shimono Masaki no Fishing to Bassing (SNES) - Iku Mizutani, Kinuyo Yamashita, Shinya Kurahashi

Basted (バステッド) is a Japanese exclusive PC-Engine CD game released in 1994 developed and published by NEC Avenue.

The game is a very lightweight action RPG. Over the course of its rather short 3 hour playtime, you'll see over 30 minutes of beautiful (and sometimes risque) cutscenes from AIC Spirits with the voice acting and music handled by 81 Produce.

The game uses redbook audio almost exclusively so prepare for CD audio spanning a wide range of genres from rock, dance, to honky tonk and beyond. We hope you enjoy the show and the various tracks Basted has to offer.

Track List:

All tracks produced by 81 Produce, with project management led by Touru Nakano

00:05 File Manager (Save Data Menu)

07:16 Overworld

12:15 The Town of Marisoon

18:58 Marisoon Aftermath

22:32 Battle Player Select / Battle

31:52 Ruins of Marisoon Castle

35:52 Boss Battle

43:12 Palace

46:20 Largryme Final Form

50:03 Staff Roll

55:40 Ending

Inspired by our talk at the Library of Congress, we have a shorter show covering the music of Gyruss over about 25 years of releases.

Gyruss was originally developed by Konami in 1983 with ports developed and published by many companies over its history. We even find the game showing up in a few unexpected places.

The original theme is based on J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor which is a fairly well known organ piece in the classical repertoire. You'll hear a few different takes on the Bach piece as well as a few new compositions. We hope you enjoy the show!

Track List:

00:00 Start + Main BGM 1 (ARC)

06:58 Main BGM 2 (ARC)

10:11 Main BGM 3 (C64)

14:58 Stage 1 (FDS)

21:11 Stage 2 (NES)

25:46 Bonus Stage (FDS/NES)

29:01 Jungle Theme 1 (PS1) - from Contra: Legacy of War

34:33 Main BGM (XBLA)

41:04 Ending (FDS)

Gyruss - (Arcade, 1983) Arranged by Masahiro Inoue

Gyruss - (C64, 1984) Arranged by Unknown

Gyruss - (FDS/NES, 1988/1989) Composed and arranged by Atsushi Fujio, Yuichi Sakakura, Harumi Ueko

Contra: Legacy of War - (PS1/SAT, 1996/1997) Composed by Attila Héger

Gyruss - (XBLA, 2007) Arranged by Jeroen Tel

We also want to thank Hardcore Gaming 101 for their excellent article on Gyruss which was the source of some of the episode information.

Today we're joined by long time listener and friend to the show Norm as we cover the classic soundtrack of Quartet.

Originally developed and published by Sega in 1986, Quartet is a futuristic 4-player arcade platformer with elements borrowed from Gauntlet. Quartet only saw one major wave of releases in arcades and home consoles plus a Sega Ages rerelease, but it maintains a dedicated fanbase and the music composed by Katsuhiro Hayashi plays a big role.

Katsuhiro Hayashi, a.k.a. "Funky K.H" is a composer and former S.S.T. Band keyboardist with some impressive credits. In addition to Quartet, he worked on Super Hang-On, SDI, and Galaxy Force I/II in arcades, and many other console games over the years. Since 2005 he left the conventional games business to work mostly on pachinko games but his music has left a lasting impact.

Join us as we listen to the Arcade and Sega Master System versions of Quartet along with a few brief departures.

Track List:

All music composed by Katsuhiro Hayashi unless otherwise stated

Quartet - Arcade

Quartet - SMS

0:00:04 Miami Samba Machine (ARC)

0:00:16 Quartet Theme (ARC)

0:08:10 Quartet Theme / Stage 1 (SMS)

0:16:25 FM Funk (ARC)

0:19:56 FM Funk / Stage 4 (SMS)

0:23:38 FM Funk / Stage 2 (ARC) - from Spider-Man: The Video Game

0:30:12 Sky (ARC)

0:33:22 Sky / Stage 2 (SMS)

0:47:27 OKI_RAP (ARC)

0:49:43 OKI_RAP / Stage 3 (SMS)

0:52:10 OKI_RAP / Stage 3 - from Spider-Man: The Video Game

0:54:44 Rap Test (ARC) - from sound test

0:57:25 Stage 5 (SMS)

1:01:21 Stage 5 - FM arrangement by "For Me"

1:07:22 Stage 6 (SMS)

1:11:24 Subtune 6 (C64) - composed by David Whittaker

1:14:17 Final Boss (SMS)

1:15:46 Ending Theme (SMS)

1:23:38 Quartet Medley 2005 (PS2) - from Sega Ages Vol. 21: SDI & Quartet

Arranged by: Mitsuharu Fukuyama

Performed by (H.) the spiritual successor to the S.S.T. Band

Keyboard & Trumpet: Mitsuharu Fukuyama

Keyboard: Hiroshi Kawaguchi

Bass: Takenobu Mitsuyoshi

Guitar: Keitaro Hanada

Links

Check out Norm on his Twitter (Normally Retro), his YouTube channel featuring video game voice samples, and his excellent theme song for the Top 47k Games podcast from HG101

For more on character designer Rieko Kodama read interviews with her on her work on Phantasy Star IV, Skies of Arcadia or go to her Sega Retro page for a list of game credits.

Listen to Quartet FM arrangements of SMS exclusive songs by YouTube and NicoNico user "For Me"

Albums mentioned on the show

SDI & Quartet (2005 by Sega) (JP) - originals and arrangements

Sega Game Music Vol. 2 (JP) - Quartet main theme only

Sega System 16 Complete Soundtrack Vol. 1 (JP) - a 3 disc set from 2010

Sega Arcade Selection D-RAM Remix - Sega Remix album (info only)

Music

SMSPower - Quartet (SMS)

VGMRips - Quartet (Arcade)

After a long break we're back with another Music Disk volume for more FM synth.

This episode's music comes from a disk titled Imagical Musion Depot Vol. 3 by the group Active Gamers, led by NT-3 for the PC-8801. The disk was released in 1996 and uses PMD ver3.9 (by KAJA). Get ready for another round of mostly originals from a slew of different musicians in a range of styles.

Imagical Musion Depot Vol. 3

Composed by: NT-3, Monden, Amakko 2go, OSATOH, MKR, SHYNER, JNY, yon, Stradivarius, Masaya Saito, Anima, Unira, MORU

activegamers.com

Track list:

0:00:00 The Second Mission - NT-3

0:09:02 Hangout - NT-3

0:13:31 Tricky - NT-3

0:18:35 Stranger - Monden

0:22:34 Euro Dance - Monden

0:24:53 Bad Scheme - Monden

0:29:05 Catch Me Tonight - Monden

0:33:46 Urban Cats - OSATOH

0:39:26 Schizoid - Masaya Saito

0:43:57 Imada Minu Chinohate ni - yon

0:47:39 Passed by - Anima

0:54:12 Yume no Naka no Chiisana Genjitsu - NT-3

After the Library of Congress we're kicking off a new short episode format and making a return to the wellspring of great VGM with another sports title. This time we're listening to the music of tennis game Rackets & Rivals released on the NES in 1993 only in... Europe?

Developed and published by Konami or more accurately their European subsidiary Palcom, Rackets & Rivals is an unremarkable late-era NES game with a brief but excellent soundtrack worthy of some attention. The range of Konami technical tricks is on full display here.

Just after recording, Bryan confirmed with Hiroshi Takeyasu (of Bemani fame) that he did indeed compose 2 songs and create sound effects for the game. Although he couldn't recall which two tracks, stylistically Match Results and the Unused track sound most similar so that's our best guess. The other suspected composer Tomoya Tomita also responded to Bryan with a confident "no", so the second composer of the game remains a minor mystery. Enjoy!

 

Track List:

All tracks composed by Hiroshi Takeyasu and (?)

00:08 Title Screen

08:41 Main Menu

13:48 Next Opponent

17:52 Match Results

22:05 Tournament Victory

29:07 Unused (Ending/Staff Roll?)

We're back from the Library of Congress and what a rare honor it was to be included in their inaugural weekend long event celebrating the music of games. Our talk, which you'll hear today, covered the early history of video game audio with a few detours into film and pop culture for context

In addition to our talk, we also got to speak on a panel discussion alongside composer Austin Wintory (Journey) and game designer Rami Ismail (Nuclear Throne) for the world premiere of Austin's interactive piece Arrows. We also got to meet Winifred Phillips (Assassin's Creed III: Liberation) after her talk on interactive game audio!The Library of Congress was a wonderful experience; certainly one for the history books (quite literally) and we hope you enjoy our talk.

We’re back from our break with a new episode, and this time we have an expansion pack with the many supportive friends and family members that joined us in Washington DC.

On the show we have Bryan, Gene and his wife representing Pixelated Audio, Ed and family members Logan and Myla of the VGMBassy, and Emily of Sound Test Roulette. Each person picked a song that holds a special place in their heart as we reminisce on our time over the weekend.

Though they couldn’t be with us for the recording, we were also joined over the weekend by Rob and Pernell of Rhythm and Pixels as well as perennial VGM stalwart Chris Murray.

Stay tuned for our recording from the Library of Congress in the next few weeks, or wait until it’s officially up in 3-4 months.

Gabriel Knight was developed and published by Sierra On-Line on December 17, 1993 for DOS/Windows/Macintosh. Join Gabriel, a bookstore owner, would-be author, and a man with a love for the ladies as he follows the "Voodoo Murders". With the help of his trusty assistant Grace and longtime friend Detective Mosely, what starts off as searching for inspiration for a novel ends up uncovering ties to New Orleans' voodoo past, the present day criminal underworld and his own tangled family history.

The evocative score was composed by industry veteran Robert Holmes, and the game was written and designed by powerhouse creative Jane Jensen. Together their work perfectly captures a place in time so memorably it resonates even all these years later. We're honored to be joined by Robert Holmes for an interview that we've been looking forward to for a long time.