25 April 2012

Episode 78: Beyond 16-Bit 2

It seems like once a year, Brent and Rob take a brief departure from the 8-bit and 16-bit era to look at music from eras 32-bit and up.  Episode 78 marks that time of the year, and this time, they're joined by former Battletoads Guiness World Record holder and Tetris Attack master, Pablo Bert, and video game music cover artist, Stedman Wilson.  Brent and Rob share tracks from the Sega CD, Dreamcast, Wii, and Xbox 360, while Pablo and Stedman focus more on arcade music of the post 16-bit period.  This episode is almost two hours long, so in this case, it might be more appropriate to call it The Legacy Music Hours, and since it's less "legacy" and more contemporary, you might even call it simply, The Music Hours.  NOTE: With arcade music, the end of the 16-bit era happens earlier than and isn't as exact as how it was for the home consoles, because the development of arcade games progressed at a different rates, and because there is so much variation with each arcade machine, it's a little harder to tell if a game is 16-bit or beyond, so it kind of just depends on the hardware specs of each particular game and the way the music sounds.  In other words, one or two of the arcade tracks played on this episode might be considered 16-bit.  NOTE: Stedman and Pablo played the Dreamcast version of Cleopatra Fortune, because the arcade version they brought didn't sound right.  Full track listing below.



Game - Composer - Song - Company - Console - Year (North American release unless otherwise indicated)

Batman Returns - Spencer Nilsen - Lair of Ice - Malibu/Sega - Sega CD - 1993

Eschatos - Yousuke Yasui - Silver Lining - Qute - Xbox 360 (Japan) - 2011

Battletoads - David Wise - Stage 1 - Rare - arcade - 1994

Virtua Tennis - unknown - Beginning A Destiny - Hitmaker/Sega - Dreamcast - 2000

Grid Seeker: Project Storm Hammer - Norihiro Furukawa - Stardust (Mission 5) - Taito - arcade (Japan) - 1992

Violent Storm - Kenichiro Fukui, Seiichi Fukami (Prophet Fuka), Youhei Kishimoto (Kishimaro) - Who'll Be The Hero (Stage 1) - Konami - arcade - 1993

Excitebike 64  - Matt Furniss, Chris Lamb - Kyoto Japan - Left Field Productions - N64 - 2000

Wario Land: Shake It! - Tomoya Tomita - Stonetooth Cave - Good-Feel/Nintendo - Wii - 2008

Mr. Driller 2 - Masaru Shiina - Mr. Driller's Theme (Ardenten Version) - Namco - arcade - 2000

The Terminator - Tommy Tallarico - Future Shock - Virgin Interactive - Sega CD - 1993

Kirby's Epic Yarn - Tomoya Tomita - Outer Rings - Good-Feel/HAL Laboratory/Nintendo - Wii - 2010

Mighty! Pang - Takafumi Wada - China - Mitchell/Capcom - arcade - 2000

Rainbow Cotton - Great Nakamura - Stage 1 - Success - Dreamcast (Japan) - 2000

A Boy and His Blob - Daniel Sadowski - Subterra - WayForward/Majesco Games - Wii - 2009

Mushihimesama Futari - Manabu Namiki - On the Verge of Madness (Stage 5) - Cave - arcade (Japan) - 2006

Cleopatra Fortune - Shuichiro Nakazawa - In-Game Music - Taito/Natsume/Altron - Dreamcast (Japan) - 2001

15 comments:

  1. This one's a keeper! Man, I thought I'd never hear a Mushihimesama Futari track (and my favorite one at that!) played on your show, ever! It was also nice to hear more arcade centric show this time around since a lot of people don't really hear arcade music because of crappy speakers or the sound effects on the game are mixed to high.

    Also, that Violent Storm track sounds like the music that plays at the beginning of one of the Beverly Hills Cop movies.

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  2. eschatos soundtrack is next level

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  3. wow really amazing 80s sitcom breakdown in the wario track... very 80s/early 90s japanese pop vibe

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  4. great ep! BRENT if you are even remotely entertaining the idea of getting an Xbox, you must get these two games - you will love them. And Fez is amazing so far.

    Bastion (now available for Macintosh, I believe)

    Scott Pilgrim (much like River City Ransom)

    Rayman Origins

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    1. Just want second Gabe's call on 2 of those games; Bastion and Scott Pilgrim. Haven't played Rayman, but Bastion and SP are definitely worth a shot, purely for their retro feel.

      Also, another game to consider is "Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP". Don't want to say it has the same emulated nostalgic feel as Bastion or Scott Pilgrim, but it kind of veers toward that direction in an experimental sort of way (kind of want to say it feels a bit like "Another World"). Take a look at this trailer:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-W5nQQPiAQ

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    2. Also: the greatest of all Sega Saturn games was rereleased on X-Box 360: Guardian Heroes. Made by Treasure, of Gunstar Heroes fame, it's a side-scrolling beat-em-up with lots of fighting-game DNA, great hand-drawn graphics, and amazing multiplayer co-op & arena modes. The Soundtrack is also very kick-ass.

      I need everyone to buy it so they release it on PSN also (not likely)!

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  5. Could anybody tell me where to find Pablo's youtube videos of his speed runs and stuff? Definitely interested in seeing him playing!

    Fell in love with that Mr. Driller track

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  6. Hey Kenny, thanks for the interest!

    You can see my youtube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/djmikehaggar

    There are all my Mr. Driller runs. It contains perfect runs for most arcade versions of the game. (some of the simpler ones aren't there, but I have done them all).

    Also, since my Battletoads speedruns have been beaten, you can't see that at usual places, but my no warp run was posted on youtube by somebody else: http://youtu.be/dM34_X-qRc8

    ANd glad you like the Mr. Driller soundtrack...there's so much good Driller music out there (including the ones for the console versions of the game), but I had to pick one....

    -Pablo

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  7. I've found a Windows version of Mr. Driller 2 by googling and have been playing it. Pretty punishing but fun game! I've beaten the easy level so far but the normal one is too much for me yet! Hah.

    Good game, and thanks for the links!

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  8. The guy that composed the music for Eschatos actually also did the soundtrack to one of those Japanese DS games that teaches people English, and even though it's literally two songs that are in PSG-style that he composed for the game, the one that's used the most is one of my top songs of all time, even tough I found out about it through a Japanese music ranking video just recently.

    Counter Strike - NEW Eitango Target 1900DS
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT5Gsk7tSzE

    It's pretty obscure, but if you know about it already then this is kind of a moot post but I'm assuming you don't. I think you guys'll like it anyway ;)

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  9. Great episode, really loved the part about Terminator and the training montage to win Sarah Connor's heart while the Scorpions-esque music played.

    What was Pablo's Tetris Attack site? I wanna learn more about that game since I always get my ass kicked in it.

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  10. This is one of my all-time favorite LMH episodes. I usually don't enjoy when guests show up, but these folks treated the material seriously while still being light and fun. And what tracks! "Outer Ring" is a mood changer. That Eschatos track made me say "Wow!" when the melody started to come together. That is a jam of jams. This is a 'sode of 'sodes in the LMH pantheon.

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  11. I'm really happy and surprised to hear Mr. Driller represented here, and to hear that Stedman is such a fan. I've never met anyone else who's into the series and even though I'm garbage at it, I really enjoy it.

    In response to Dashed Siamang's question above, they said the name of the site in the episode: TetrisAttack.net.

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    1. TetrisAttack.net is no longer up but you can sort of explore the site because of WaybackMachine:

      http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://tetrisattack.net

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  12. I don’t know why, throughout the years I always find my self coming back to this episode. Some really good moments and all round good vibes. I love you guys, thank you for existing

    -Anonymous

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