Tag Archives: chiptun

It’s Got Great Music But…

There are some games out there that had incredible music, but just missed the mark in some other ways. Here’s a list of games that you definitely want to pick up the amazing soundtracks for, but might want to skip itself.

 

Awesome NES Rock but…It’s Impossible

Silver Sufer just bumped into a wall, or a tiny rubber ducky (not kidding), or maybe he just found out about this game….
Silver Sufer just bumped into a wall, or a tiny rubber ducky (not kidding), or maybe he just found out about this game….

Silver Surfer has some excellent NES music. Check out that level one guitar noodling! It’s Epic!  However this Gradius-clone fails in almost every other way. The level designs are impossible, often leaving you little space to maneuver your giant silver surfer board. It’s also unclear of what is in the background and what you’re going to crash into. Oh yeah, touch anything and YOU DIE instantly.

 

It’s hard for me to fathom how the programmers thought this game was ok. It could have been better if they had just given you a life bar. It’s a pretty sub-par side view and overhead shooter but the fact that your board is humongous and you can’t always tell what’s a wall ruins everything. But seriously, get the soundtrack, it’s amazing.

 

 

Continue reading It’s Got Great Music But…

Sega Genesis FM Synthesis Albums

coverThe Sega Genesis has one of the most versatile and powerful chips of the 8-bit/16-bit era. Although tons of chip artists utilize the Genesis or FM synthesis equivalents, there isn’t as much pure Genesis chiptune releases as you might expect. Aside from the recent Flight Away album covered here, here’s a few more excellent Sega chip artists that you have to check out. These are mostly straight-up chip endeavors that really show off the power of the Yamaha YM2612 chip.

 

 

 

Freezedream


What It Sounds Like: The American Dollar, Album Leaf, Mum, Trentmoeller on your Genesis

Favorite Tracks: Origami, The Girl In the Moon

Album: Today

If freezedream’s Today album didn’t actually come on a Sega Genesis cartridge I would never believe it was pure chip.  Instead of pumping up retro-synth sounds to the max, freezedream dials them back to delicate FM bells and gently humming bass lines for a post-rock, ambient chill environment that is the perfect thing to listen to first thing in the morning or to cool down mentally at the end of a long day. You’ve got to love the unexpected but surprisingly smooth key shift in “Realtime Love” too. Quality composing and synth programming make up this release. If the first track seems a little quiet or dull to you, skip ahead to the regae-influenced “See You Next Thursday” or any of the other moody, melodic tracks that compose this fine album.

 

Jredd

 

 

 

What It Sounds Like: Funk, Trance and Post Rock Flavors in 16-bit

Favorite Tracks: Dark Bounce Caverns, Limitless

 

Jredd often collaborates with other artists on his tracks, so they range from smoky lo-fi funky grooves to epic crunchy trance tracks. From what I can tell, he’s strictly a “for fun” artist too, his stuff can be downloaded for free and will definitely work their way into your favorites. Most of his tracks are available over at µCollective.

 

Linde

Sounds Like: Little bits of modern music mixed with funky in-game themes.

Favorite Tracks: Factory Life, Solar Surfing

Album: Stone Soup 

Linde’s music has a lot of different influences. It’s hard to put a label on them. Some tracks sound like old school break-ish stuff while some of the stand out tracks like Factory Life and Solar Surfing sound like something straight out of an old Genesis game. The album closer, Not Reading, is a nice chill way to end out of pretty high-energy and melodic album.

 

Animal Style


Sounds Like: A 90’s arcade shooter soundtrack

Favorite Tracks:  Outer Trace, Lame FAQs

Album: Trenchvent

Animal Style captures that bouncy bass sound that drove every Sonic song into your head for all time. It’s a fun and nostalgic trip that reminds of every 90’s side-scrolling space shooter I ever played. The songs have enough variety to keep you from getting bored too.  Give each song a chance, as there are lots of unexpected bits towards the ends of many of them, like trippy drums that throw you off a bit and other fun changes.

 

Want to make your own? Check out this post we did a while ago on how to start creating some classic Genesis sounds with a tracker or even in a modern DAWS.

 

Screen Shot 2013-05-03 at 2.36.44 PMBeatscribe is a full time indie composer, musician and writer. By day he creates soundtracks for various mobile gaming companies, by night creates megaman-inspired chiptunes, in the afternoons he drinks tea. Check out his latest releases, tutorials and retro ruminations at www.beatscribe.com.

Saturday Morning Cartoon NES Games

Due to the recent announcement of a remastered version of the classic Duck Tales NES Game, I thought we should take a look at some of the NES games that came out based on Saturday morning (or every morning) cartoons of the 80’s and 90’s. There are some quality games here, packed with nostalgia in more ways than one, and some surprisingly great music too. Check out some of Blind’s Remixes along the way and a final verdict of if you should bother with these games or not.

Duck Tales

Capcom 1989

Verdict: Worth playing, numerous times. Definitely on the top of the heap.

Here I am in Woodman's Stage..I mean, the Amazon...
Here I am in Woodman’s Stage..I mean, the Amazon…

DuckTales was one of the many games that Capcom put out in the 90’s that used Megaman II’s game engine. It was a genius move, since Megaman’s engine is a true masterpiece of 8-bit technology. DuckTales definitely feels like a Megaman game right away. However, there are a lot of nice changes in dynamics and controls to keep things interesting. The cane pogo-stick/golf swing move keeps things exciting and unique. The quality level of everything from music to level design is extremely high. I love how there are tons of mysteries and secrets hidden throughout the levels. It gives you a great replay value. The Moon level song is probably one of the most soothing songs ever written on the NES. However, it is totally inappropriate for the level, it’s just too calm!

This game definitely deserves to be remastered. It set the bar pretty high for the competition. As you’ll notice, some cartoon-based NES games didn’t even make my list.

 

 

 

Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers

Chip N Dale enter a strange world were nothing is proportioned as it should be...
Chip N Dale enter a strange world were nothing is proportioned as it should be…

Capcom 1990

Verdict: Worth Playing At Least Once or With a Freind

 

Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. This game pretty much plays like any standard platformer from the time. You can pick up crates, throw them, stack them, but other than that, it’s your basic game play. There are some creative ideas like shutting off water faucets in order to reach different parts of the stage. The music is pretty good but not all that memorable. Still, it’s good for a trip down memory lane.

The 2 Player mode is also pretty cool. I don’t recall many games on the NES that had simultaneous play like this. It was much more common in the SNES days. This is the saving point for a game that’s pretty standard in other respects.

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Konami 1989

Verdict: Play it if you’re a sucker for punishment.

Real sewers are never this cool...
Real sewers are never this cool…

TMNT was arguably one of the biggest franchises in the 80’s and 90’s. There are tons of totally awesome TMNT video games out now for NES, Genesis, Arcade, SNES but this was the first. Was it great? Well, it was pretty cool at the time and the music was pretty rocking. However, this game was HARD. Not like, “challenge accepted” hard, but like, “this is not fair” hard. With no save point and the dreaded underwater level, many gamers just gave up. The Killer Seaweed tune from the underwater level is quite memorable.

 

 

Bucky Ohare

Konami 1992

Verdict: Play it or at least download the soundtrack!

His slogan: "Let's toast some toads!" (face palm)...
His slogan: “Let’s toast some toads!” (face palm)…

I always had a soft spot for Bucky O’Hare. Sure, it was sort of like Ninja Turtles ripoff in space, but there was something unique about it too. I remember having all the action figures. They were huge, detailed and colorful and just awesome. The game too is colorful, innovative and pretty fun. The music is my FAVORITE of all these cartoon based games. The only weak spot in this game is sometimes the quality level drops in certain levels. While most of the game is top notch backgrounds, innovative levels and awesome bosses, you’ll sometimes find yourself on a screen with about six unique tiles. I mean, come on, you couldn’t even make corners on the platforms? Check out the original theme song too, its like Joe Esposito (Karate Kid song) rapping. Just wow.

 

 

BeatScribeFaceBeatscribe is a full time indie composer, musician and writer. By day he creates soundtracks for various mobile gaming companies, by night creates megaman-inspired chiptunes, in the afternoons he drinks tea.  Check out his latest releases, tutorials and retro ruminations at www.beatscribe.com.

The Most Baffling Video Game Songs of All Time

Designing a video game requires hundreds of tiny creative and technical decisions that all amount to a finished product. You might think music was a no-brainer in the early days, with limited sound chips and minimal memory, but from the beginning their have been some totally baffling video game songs that make you wonder what the developer or composer were thinking. Here’s a few of those confusing moments that you may or may not have heard before. You might be surprised at how enjoyable some of these pieces are, they just don’t fit in their respective games.

Metroid – Norfair

Metroid has one of the best NES soundtracks out there. It’s memorable, heroic and creepy in all the right places..except for this one. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a lovely piece of music. In fact I listen to it regularly, but after all this time and so many listens, I have no idea how this song makes me feel! Is it supposed to be scary? Relaxing? I find it rather relaxing until those weird unsettling pauses occur. It sort of makes me picture a lifeless puppet dangling in the wind. Wierdly, it reminds me of a 90’s math-rock/emo band called Ethel Meserve.

Continue reading The Most Baffling Video Game Songs of All Time