12 June 2013

Episode 137: Asiatic Music 2

Asiatic sounding video game music tracks are all the rage of Episode 137 (also see Episode 74).  Good music here with lots of pentatonic action.  Brent and Rob try to crack the mystery of "Kenny's Song".  Also, Brent's new friend makes a return visit, and Rob and Brent get a work out.  Full track listing below.



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

Mouryou Senki Madara 2 - Tappi Iwase, Miki Higashino, Hirofumi Taniguchi - Madara 2 Theme - Konami - Super Famicom - 1993

Toughman Contest - Brian Schmidt - China Theme - Electronic Arts - Genesis - 1995

Table Game Dai-Shuugo!! Shogi Mahjong Hanafuda - unknown - Mahjong - Varie - Super Famicom - 1996

Monster in My Pocket - Hiroshi Takeyasu, Kozo Nakamura - Oriental Illusion (Stage 5) - Konami - NES - 1992

Shanghai - unknown - Round Complete - Hudson Soft/Activision - PC Engine - 1987

Granhistoria: Genshi Sekaiki - Motoaki Takenouchi - Opening - J-Force/Banpresto - Super Famicom - 1995

Bonze Adventure - Hisayoshi Ogura, Yasuhisa Watanabe (Yack), Y. Ohashi, C. Ichikawa - Round 7: Emma's Lair - Taito - arcade (Japan) - 1988

Live A Live - Yoko Shimomura - Secret Mission - Square - Super Famicom - 1994

AIII S.V.: A Ressha de Ikou 3 Super Version - unknown - Theme 3 - Pack-In-Video/Artdink - Super Famicom - 1995

Out to Lunch - Mark Knight - China 1 - Mindscape - SNES - 1993

Mahjong Taikai II - unknown - Sinbad - Koei - Super Famicom - 1994

Yie Ar Kung-Fu - Miki Higashino, unknown - Fight Theme - Konami - Famicom - 1985

Ninja Warriors - Hiroyuki Iwatsuki, Yasuo Yamate (N. Tate) - Boss 5 - Natsume/Taito - SNES - 1994

Samurai Ghost - Norio Nakagata, Guppy/Honchin (arr.), Miyoshi Okuyama (Okkun/Okuyaba) (arr.), Hiroyon (arr.) - Title Screen - Namco/Now Production - TurboGrafx-16 - 1992

Mini Yonku GB: Let's & Go!! All-Star Battle Max - Toshiyuki Ueno - China Meeting Place - ASCII /Jupiter Multimedia - Game Boy (Japan) - 1998

7 comments:

  1. Having been sonned already, I'll change my answer for "Kenny's Song." Billy and Jimmy's Neutron Grill. Or Road Rash maybe.

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  2. Great episode! I can't tell you how excited I am for the Alberto Jose González episode next week!

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    1. I'm really excited for the Alberto Jose González episode too. Episode 115 (Mountain Areas) was my first listen to the show (which actually had two tracks by AJG). Rob. F. Switch said he could count the number of reggae songs he enjoys on one hand, so one of those fingers would be The Smurfs - Act 6: The Mountains. That's a pretty powerful endorsement.

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  3. Excellent show! with many favorite gems, specially Live A Live, Ninja Warriors and Yie Ar Kung-Fu.

    For a future Asiatic music episode I would recommend any of the Super Chinese games from Culture Brain, and specially the RPGs.

    Another source of excellent high quality Asiatic tunes is the first Ganbare Goemon game for the Game Boy, which also is very special technically: (Warning, excessive technical info ahead!)

    Usually, sound drivers in old consoles and computers are updated once every frame (60 frames per second), but in this game the update happens at much higher speed by using the timer of the console only for that purpose.

    The result is faster and smoother response of frequency, volume and waveform modulation, and also much higher CPU usage only for the sound. The FX in this game are particularly awesome and not possible to do in other way. Also the Drum sounds benefit from the higher modulation speed. "Gradius: The Interstellar Assault", also from Konami, shares the same technique.

    While all of this may seem irrelevant, it shows that Konami gave a lot of importance to the music in their games.

    Can't wait for "the episode" ^^

    Cheers!

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  4. I think the A Ressha de Ikou games are railroad games. For a time, railroad games were apparently super popular in Japan. Maybe they still are.

    Sinbad was tight. The track, I mean. No comment about the comedian's tightness.

    These Aziatic songs all end up sounding like the Ganbare Goemon/ Mystical Ninja games.

    Does this help? Probably not, but here it is anyway.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_riff

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    1. Also. I'm thee biggest fan of Rob's pocket monster. Could you guys tell him/her/it I said hello? Thanks.

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  5. This is one of my favorite episodes, mostly for the fun Brent and Rob have during the Samurai Ghost track. But also the second appearance of the monster in Rob's pocket is good, and Brent is a little more comfortable talking to him than the first time.

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