06 November 2019

Episode 218: Puzzle Games 3

Mixtape mistress Emily joins the boizz on this puzzle game focus and gives them a bunch of gifts.  The episode also seems to have a beach theme -lots of the tracks tend to relate to water and relaxation and tropical stuff.  Full track listing below.



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

Columns III: Revenge of Columns - Morihiko Akiyama - Networked Melon - Sega - Genesis - 1993

Mole Mania - Taro Bando - Beach Theme - Nintendo/Pax Softonica - Game Boy - 1997

Ishido - Masaharu Iwata - Unknown Theme A - Hiro - Famicom Disk System - 1990

Soreyuke Ebisumaru Karakuri: Meiro Kieta Goemon no Nazo - unknown - Level Music 7 - Konami - Super Famicom - 1996

S.O.S: Sink or Swim - Tim Haywood - Ending - Zeppelin Games/Titus - SNES - 1996

Shi Kin Jou - Shinichi Seya (A.S.S.), Hiroshi Tsukamoto (Tsukamoto) - Warrior's Relaxation - Sunsoft - Mega Drive - 1991

Soldam - Yasuyuki Suzuki, Atsuyoshi Isemura - VS Mode - Jaleco - arcade (Japan) - 1992

Puyo Puyo - Masanobu Tsukamoto (Mats) - Sticker - Compile - Mega Drive - 1992

Pieces - Nobuyuki Hara - Puzzle Music 3 - Prism Kikaku/Atlus - SNES - 1994

Shanghai II - Hiroshi Tsukamoto (Tsukachan), Yukichan - In-Game Theme C - Sunsoft - Game Gear (Japan) - 1990

Mario’s Picross - Toshiyuki Ueno - Star Course - Nintendo/Jupiter Corporation - Game Boy - 1995

Fire 'n Ice - Ryuichi Nitta (Kajiya Shitamachi) - Grandma’s House (Menu) - Tecmo - NES - 1993

16 comments:

  1. SO GOOD! Awesome to have (not so)remote staffer Keyglyph on the show again! Now that the Key is down in LA, hopefully this happens more often.

    Kudos to Gabe for pointing out the Paula Abdul snare on Soldam, I was thinking the EXACT SAME THING. Straight up, now I tell you. Uh buh-buh-buh-pah buh-buh-buh-buh-buh.

    Thunder Force was for the PC-88, along with Herzog(the predecessor to Herzog Zwei). Rob, you're in for a musical delight with Thunder Force II; that OST was composed by Tomomi Otani, who's one of my very favorite composers. He also co-composed Herzog Zwei with Naosuke Arai... Pixelated Audio did an episode on the music of HZ, and interviewed Otani. I was on it; you should listen to it anyway. https://pixelatedaudio.com/herzog-zwei/

    I like Gabe's Corner, and that track was sooo good. In my head canon, Gabe works at LMH headquarters, and while he doesn't have his own office, he has his own cubicle. A Kickle Cubicle. It's Gabe's Cube.

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  2. Also for Rob: https://youtu.be/0NadCQ4LA1k?t=271

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  3. Happy belated Birthday for yesterday Gabe! And a belated (and serenaded) "happy birrrthdaiiy" to Brent too, whenever that was! This was a super fun episode to listen to, even if I admittedly spent half the episode trying to work out the time measure for 'Level Music 7' (11/4?) and the other half distracted whilst investigating that Christopher Manson book (look up Masquerade by Kit Williams as well). Like any great puzzle, this episode needs to be revisited a few more times for the fullest enjoyment, but even on first listen I had an a-maze-ing time (couldn't resist the terrible pun). Great to hear KeyGlyph joining you again too, and I salute you on your final words ;)

    TOU-John

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  4. I'm the guy who recommended Soldam. Happy to have heard it played! It's interesting that Gabe mentioned Rod Land during the episode because that's the game that Soldam spun off of. It's a similar situation to Puyo Puyo and Mado Monogatari.

    All the other tracks were great as always!

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  5. It doesn't happen a lot, but I like when you play VGM I'm already familiar with and I get to hear someone else fall in love with a track that I know. I probably posted about it the last time it happened, but I can't remember what it was. This time it was Shi Kin Jou. I'm familiar with that tune primarily from Game Boy, although I have heard the Mega Drive version as well. On Game Boy it's more subdued without percussion, and because it's the main BGM when you play as a knight (your default character is a jiangshi, the Chinese hopping zombie/vampire) it sounds like medival Europe to me. The two versions are largely the same, but whereas the MD version loops by playing the last note over the intro, the GB version starts right at the melody and then the melody (with all other voices) ends for a perfect eighth-rest in the last measure before starting over. (Although a last note being held over into the reiteration of the intro is also a great way to loop!)

    When I was in college I discovered my roommate (Ryan Olson of VGM cover band Naju and formerly of Kirby's Dream Band) had a program called Noteworthy Composer on his computer (I didn't have a PC of my own), which was a MIDI editor with a sheet music interface, and I used that and a VGM music player to transcribe a few tunes, and the Game Boy version of Warrior's Relaxation was one of them. (I also did the final level tune from jiangshi mode, which is unique to the Game Boy.)

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    1. I think my prior experience of someone loving a track I was familiar with was Gauntlet III in the computer games episode.

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  6. Wow, great to hear keyglyph dissect musical techniques and timings at play in these selections.
    Also, I want to download *every* track on this episode. They're just excellent pieces of music! Thanks for keeping me elucidated and aware of amazing videogame music.

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  7. I also had that Maze book as a kid - it was pretty amazing. It would translate really well to a point and click adventure game.

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  8. It's not a book, it's a building! And in that building is a cricket. Solve the puzzle, silence the cricket.

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  9. man the fusion vibes on Soreyuke Ebisumaru Karakuri: Meiro Kieta Goemon no Nazo are fantastic. this was a great episode, I really enjoyed using it. I'd love to hear Emily co-host more often too

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  10. Keyglyph has brought an interesting point: the association of waltz-like rythms to a "watery" ambient is old. I don't know how old, but at least a couple of centuries. My music history teacher used to say that quite a lot.

    And I couldn't agree more with Rob. Although there's an explanation for the "1-e-and-a 2-e-and-a" countdown, musicians are very obnoxious sometimes. Some of us, all the time :-P

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  11. Hey guys just downloaded this episode and unfortunately there seems to be an audio glitch on the version currently out (as of May 20, 2020) and the parts without music are unfortunately plagued by a constant whirring/squeaking noise. Hopefully you guys can sort it out! Love and peace to the LMH team!

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    1. That's an environmental noise -a refrigerator or air conditioner or cricket or something. Sorry!

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    2. Ah no worries. It happens!

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  12. I found a YouTube video that shows the credits for Shi Kin Jou on Mega Drive. (https://youtu.be/tA08BDpppdc a little more than two minutes in) It says the music is by "A•S•S." (yes, that's more or less how it seems to be rendered) and "Tsukamoto" (Hiroshi? I don't know).

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