Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Monday, 28 June 2010
Robocop (title) - Gameboy - Jonathan Dunn
Music by Jonathan Dunn
A strange one this, as it was used pretty much raw in an advert by Ariston in the 80's. I do remember it, and was surprised at its obvious chiptune sound even then, but I wasnt aware that it was from Robocop until recently.
And here is a great modern remake:
Robocop Title by Andy Gilmour and LMan
Last Ninja III (Outro) - c64 - Reyn Ouwehand
Music by Reyn Ouwehand
and since I just linked to remix.kwed.org I'll post a link to a remake of this song - one of the best remakes I've heard.
Last Ninja III (qso-mix) by Cirdan
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Zoids - C64 - Rob Hubbard
Music by Rob Hubbard
One of the things I like most about old c64 tunes is how varied they can be. Who would have thought that the soundtrack to a kids toy license would end up being so slow paced and brooding..
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
The A-Z of Chiptune
This is a decent feature on MusicRadar
Brief, but worth a look. I might take this as a starting point and expand it into a sort of glossary/index at some point.
Brief, but worth a look. I might take this as a starting point and expand it into a sort of glossary/index at some point.
Saturday, 12 June 2010
New logo!
I almost forgot to mention, I finally got around to adding a new logo up at the top!
Its been ages since I last did any proper pixel art. I'm too spoiled with Photoshop these days so it was a refreshing change to go back to doing things with a limited palette, and no layers.
It's supposed to be inspired by the look of old retro computers (in particular the C64 and Amiga) without actually resembling any of them.
It was my first attempt at using a pixelart progam I recent found called 'Grafx2'. This is a Windows app that seems to be a modern version of Deluxe Paint with support for many screen resolutions. Even the shortcut keys are the same, so it took me a while to shake off the Photoshop shortcut memory, and try to remember what I used to do in 'the glory days'. There is already a decent modern clone of DPaint called Pro-Motion (which is great!) but Grafx2 is free so I decided to have a go. I had a lot of fun with it, hopefully I'll do some more.
Links : Grafx2 | Pro-Motion
Its been ages since I last did any proper pixel art. I'm too spoiled with Photoshop these days so it was a refreshing change to go back to doing things with a limited palette, and no layers.
It's supposed to be inspired by the look of old retro computers (in particular the C64 and Amiga) without actually resembling any of them.
It was my first attempt at using a pixelart progam I recent found called 'Grafx2'. This is a Windows app that seems to be a modern version of Deluxe Paint with support for many screen resolutions. Even the shortcut keys are the same, so it took me a while to shake off the Photoshop shortcut memory, and try to remember what I used to do in 'the glory days'. There is already a decent modern clone of DPaint called Pro-Motion (which is great!) but Grafx2 is free so I decided to have a go. I had a lot of fun with it, hopefully I'll do some more.
Links : Grafx2 | Pro-Motion
Parallax - c64 - Martin Galway
Time for an Epic.
Music by Martin Galway
Over 10 minutes in length! Galway was definately king of the warbly synths.
Music by Martin Galway
Over 10 minutes in length! Galway was definately king of the warbly synths.
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Jim Power - Amiga - Chris Hülsbeck / Mieko Ishikawa
Swipe, or Homage?
Swiping is everywhere. Comic artists do it. Pixel artists do it. And musicians do it too!
Sometimes it could be considered homage, other times outright theft.
Consider these 2 tunes:
Jim Power - Level 1 - Chris Hülsbeck (1992)
and
Y's III - A Searing Struggle - Mieko Ishikawa (1989/1991)
We dont know why theres a portion of 'A Searing Struggle' at the start of the Jim power level that is almost identical. Perhaps it was a gentle nod in homage, perhaps because it was an obscure eastern game he felt it might not be noticed. Who knows?
its a good bit of music regardless.
Heres a nice epic remix.
Swiping is everywhere. Comic artists do it. Pixel artists do it. And musicians do it too!
Sometimes it could be considered homage, other times outright theft.
Consider these 2 tunes:
Jim Power - Level 1 - Chris Hülsbeck (1992)
and
Y's III - A Searing Struggle - Mieko Ishikawa (1989/1991)
We dont know why theres a portion of 'A Searing Struggle' at the start of the Jim power level that is almost identical. Perhaps it was a gentle nod in homage, perhaps because it was an obscure eastern game he felt it might not be noticed. Who knows?
its a good bit of music regardless.
Heres a nice epic remix.
Monday, 7 June 2010
Pinball Fantasies - Amiga - Olof Gustafsson
Music by Olof Gustafsson
A great track, and very unique throughout.
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Actraiser - SNES - Yuzo Koshiro
Fillmore Stage
One of the first games I got on my Super Famicom. Playing a 'god game' entirely in Japanese was a bit of a challenge.
One of the first games I got on my Super Famicom. Playing a 'god game' entirely in Japanese was a bit of a challenge.
Friday, 4 June 2010
Seiken Densetsu 2 / Secret of Mana - SNES - Hiroki Kikuta
Music by Hiroki Kikuta
Another 'all time favourite' game here, its strange how so many of them have such good soundtracks. Perhaps its the memories they stir up when I listen to them? :)
Secret of Mana was amazing. I'm not massively keen on the Final Fantasy style of random encounters with turn based combat so this was a breath of fresh air - mixing the RPG stats with realtime combat like zelda, and up to 3 players co-op!
This intro track is brilliant. Im not ashamed to admit to welling up a bit when I hear it!
You can listen to the entire ripped soundtrack in higher quality here.
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Apidya - Amiga - Chris Hülsbeck
Music by Chris Hülsbeck
Several good bits of music on this one, my favourite being 'Meadows Edge' (the theme from level 1-1, skip to 1:12 in the video above)
I cant find a better youtube vid to embed, so I'd encourage you to open the mp3 from the page below.
Also of note is Techno Party 1, which starts with a sample from James Brown Is Dead
Download MP3's of the music from this Apidya Fansite
OutRun - Arcade - Hiroshi Miyauchi
So what Retro music blog would be without 'Magical Sound Shower'?
If I ever get to drive a Ferrari Testarossa down Miami Beach, this is what will be on the CD player.
VVVVVV - PC/Mac - Souleye
Pushing Onwards
Disclaimer - I'm aware that this is NOT retro! (nor is it a chiptune thats been done on native sound chips - 'fakebit' if you will :) )
VVVVVV came out this year and is a lovely little retro STYLED platform game. Wide pixels, named rooms, limited palette, *Excruciatingly hard*, and a corking soundtrack that sounds straight out of a NES.
The soundtrack (called PPPPPP) is by 'Souleye' and is a fairly authentic chiptune with cues from all sorts of old games in there, created using a tracker (madtracker). Theres a few bits that do sound straight out of the Streetfighter 2 soundtrack (i think he even admits this inspiration!)
To be honest, I could have picked any of the tracks to post here as they are all great, but Pushing Onwards is my favourite. You can buy and download the sountrack from Souleye's page here, I highly recommend it.
Disclaimer - I'm aware that this is NOT retro! (nor is it a chiptune thats been done on native sound chips - 'fakebit' if you will :) )
VVVVVV came out this year and is a lovely little retro STYLED platform game. Wide pixels, named rooms, limited palette, *Excruciatingly hard*, and a corking soundtrack that sounds straight out of a NES.
The soundtrack (called PPPPPP) is by 'Souleye' and is a fairly authentic chiptune with cues from all sorts of old games in there, created using a tracker (madtracker). Theres a few bits that do sound straight out of the Streetfighter 2 soundtrack (i think he even admits this inspiration!)
To be honest, I could have picked any of the tracks to post here as they are all great, but Pushing Onwards is my favourite. You can buy and download the sountrack from Souleye's page here, I highly recommend it.
Freeload ('Ocean Loader') - C64 - Various
1 + 2 + 3
Not stricly 'one tune', The Ocean Loader was a clever bit of tech on the C64 that allowed the playing of music -while- the game was loading. (You have to remember that games took ages to load back then so any entertainment was welcome). And, it helps when the music is great in its own right!
The first 2 version of the Ocean Loader are usually credited to Martin Galway and then further versions remixed or created by other people. For the full story on this I'll just send you to this page on the website of the creator of the Ocean Loader - Paul Hughes - coincidentally enough a work colleague I've been working with for a good many years, and a lovely chap. :)
Not stricly 'one tune', The Ocean Loader was a clever bit of tech on the C64 that allowed the playing of music -while- the game was loading. (You have to remember that games took ages to load back then so any entertainment was welcome). And, it helps when the music is great in its own right!
The first 2 version of the Ocean Loader are usually credited to Martin Galway and then further versions remixed or created by other people. For the full story on this I'll just send you to this page on the website of the creator of the Ocean Loader - Paul Hughes - coincidentally enough a work colleague I've been working with for a good many years, and a lovely chap. :)
Streets Of Rage - Megadrive - Yuzo Koshiro
I've never been a great fan of FM synthesis, I always find it sounds a bit metallic and noisy. But this is a very melodic intro tune, not the type you'd normally find in a beat-em-up. The beat and chords seem to be a fairly blatent lift of that Enigma song that was big in the early 90's.
This first track of the game has a beat straight out of Technotronic's 'Pump up the Jam' . skip to 1:50 :)
Bejeweled 2 - PC - Skaven
PART 1
PART 2
Music by Skaven, in 2 parts as the track is 20 minutes long!
Dont laugh, Bejeweled may be considered a casual game and is hardly retro, but its got a great soundtrack by a guy called Skaven who use to be part of the great amiga demoscene group Future Crew.
You can check out more of Skaven's tracks on this streaming site and his Futurecrew page here.
PART 2
Music by Skaven, in 2 parts as the track is 20 minutes long!
Dont laugh, Bejeweled may be considered a casual game and is hardly retro, but its got a great soundtrack by a guy called Skaven who use to be part of the great amiga demoscene group Future Crew.
You can check out more of Skaven's tracks on this streaming site and his Futurecrew page here.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Project X - Amiga - Allister Brimble
Music by Allister Brimble
Sounds incredibly 90's, but it's still a crackin tune!
Cybernoid 2 - C64 - Jeroen Tel
Music by Jeroen Tel and the Maniacs of Noise.
My favourite piece of C64 music ever. Something about the SID chip makes me feel warm and fuzzy. :)
Hired Guns - Amiga - Brian Johnston
Music by Brian Johnston
One of my favourite games ever, with great music. 1-4 players on one Amiga. Co-op gameplay, though we frequently abused this and played it deathmatch.
One of my favourite games ever, with great music. 1-4 players on one Amiga. Co-op gameplay, though we frequently abused this and played it deathmatch.
More info on the game here.
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