Chiptune pioneers 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer have released a compliation of the best tracks from over a decade in chipmusic! This Los Angeles based duo has been instrumental in the popularizing of chiptune music in both recorded format and live performance. Working together as 8Bit Weapon, Seth & Michelle have created their unique sound and powerful use of antique hardware.
This is not to be confused with Dj CUTMAN’s Chiptopia mixtape, which shares the same name. Both Cutman and 8Bit Weapon arrived at the name independently, but it was 8 Bit Weapon who first released this song with that name. This 8bit Weapon compilation is brand new for 2013 and features the best songs from 8Bit Weapon’s and ComputeHer’s incredible catalog! Stream below or Download now from Bandcamp!
On January 12th we celebrated the first fantastic 8static of 2013 and pulled no punches in doing so! The show was not only mostly comprised of national musical acts like Crashfaster and SSD Engage, but also the visualist (a personal favorite of mine), Party Time! Hexcellent!, came all the way from Austin, TX!!
Photo by Majorie Becker of Chiptography
I knew we were in for a good night when, less than 30 minutes after doors had opened, the place was already packed with people! I looked over at the entrance line to see an entire group of friendly faces that had came from NYC and my night had already been made. People from all over the region were had shown up from places such as NYC, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Virginia, Seattle & Baltimore; many hoping to do open mic. Rather than turn away such a great talent pool, the open mic was extended to one hour and it turned out to be one of the best to date! One highlight was the fantastic southern rock hybrid teamup from Kentucky of Solarbear & Mr. Wimmer (who had incited the crowd into demanding he get off the stage shortly before he began playing)
But it didn’t end there, we were treated to plenty of other national guests showcasing different styles! (click the artist’s name to see the video of their performance!) Firedrill came all the way from Seattle and Tony Ness shared an awesome new rap. Kentucky’s Mr. Wimmer made all the ladies swoon with his Roy Orbison-inspired song and Inverse Phase got everyone singing with his cover of Information Society’s “what’s on your mind?” on the POKEY chip. 17 year old newcomer, MiLs DJ, played his second live song ever and introduced to his latest choreographed dance routine, the brick breaker! (“it’s easy to learn!”) NYC’s favorite dragon, Fumu Battleship, brought us some noisy nanoloop music & Ro-bear debuted a beautiful new LSDJ song on his gameboy, ending the open mic perfectly.
After that fantastic open mic the stage was cleared to make room for our first main performer, SSD Engage, coming off their excellent recent release, “Nostalgia Paradigm“. SSD Engage is a trio from Cincinnati comprised of S.P.R.Y., Sp00ked and Disabletron in which they make improvisational dance grooves with two Gameboys and a MPC1000 sampler (for drums). These guys did a fantastic job and are serious emerging talent to keep an eye on this upcoming year!!
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Next up was Crashfaster from San Francisco. Having just come off an amazing performance at MAGFest 11 and finishing up with their East Coast tour here at 8static. The last time Crashfaster played 8static, two years prior, it was a one-man show; now expanded to four members and definitely benefitting from that decision. Their musical style sounds like it has roots in electronic industrial / EBM music with intense vocals heavily distorted by a vocoder plus guitar player, live drummer and beautiful backup vocals by the lovely Keiko Takamura. Starting the set off with a fantastic cover of Nine Inch Nail‘s, “Closer” (performed by special request for 8static) they tore into their regular set and brought the house down. Their set ended with a cover of Weezer’s party time favorite, “Say it ain’t so“, that literally had the entire audience singing!
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Void Vision is a well-established name in Philadelphia outside the chip scene through coldwave & darkwave circles. It had been a couple years since she last performed at 8static and, being a recovering goth myself, I was pretty excited to see her play again. Void Vision plays with an assortment of vintage synthesizers and gear all while singing. Part of the enjoyment of the performance is knowing that the setup is old school and more challenging than using modern gear. Shari may play hauntingly dark music and sing heartbreaking lyrics, but her intimate set and candid, down to earth personality drew the audience in even closer as she manually loaded and prepped each component of gear between songs. She also played a few songs arranged on LSDJ which, complemented by her amazing voice, ended the night perfectly!
8static is philadelphia’s monthly chip music event; held the second saturday each month. Keep up to date with future 8static shows at: http://8static.com
If you were also at the show or enjoyed this recap, please share your experience or feeling in the comments below!
I’ve gotta hand it to Rom hackers. I can’t imagine having the intelligence and drive to pick apart the code of an old video game and reassemble it into a newer game. It’s just mind-boggling to me that someone would take the time to do this as a hobby. I can only figure that they’re such hardcore programmers that it’s easy compared to whatever they do during the day (rocket science?! Actual Robot Master design?).
I’m certainly glad they do what they do though. If you’ve never heard of this, ROM hacks basically involve rewriting a game to add graphics, music, levels and enemies or modify the existing behavior of these things. Some hacks are simple, turning Super Mario into a girl or adding some differnet music. Some ROM hacks are like completely new games.
There’s a bunch of MegaMan II ROM hacks. My understanding is that they are legal since all they are is small patches of code changes that you apply to the ROM (how you get the ROM legally is your own business).
These are like alternate universe Megaman games that are much more challenging than the original. A lot of them feature graphic and music assets cobbled together from other NES games to create a new project. You might recognize something here or there from a game you played years ago. Here’s two of the best Megaman II Rom hacks. Have fun. These two require the Japanese Rockman II ROM to perform the patching. Patching the original rom is not hard, just follow our IPS patching tutorial to learn how to modify your legally-obtained backup copy of the original ROM.
Rockman No Constancy
Rockman No Constancy has some of the most gorgeous 8-bit graphics I’ve ever seen.
Rockman No Constnacy is a massive tribute to the 8-bit and 16-bit era Megaman games. This game features meticulously redesigned levels that emulate parts of Megaman X and other later titles. To play the first level of Megaman X in glorious 8-bit is just a surreal experience. The level of detail put into this game is amazing. It’s hard to believe it’s a legit 8-bit game since it has some of the best graphics I’ve seen on the NES. If it wasn’t running on an emulator and my GameKing I’d think there was some sort of graphical cheating involved.
This game is HARD too. I’m ashamed to admit I only got as far as the level where you fight all the Robot Masters a second time. I have been unable to best them all. That’s just on Normal mode too. In hard mode, you don’t get the ‘reflex’ time when Megaman takes a hit and flashes for a moment. Nope, you can get hit over and over again, which means any robot master can take you out in about 2 seconds. I give up.
The music comes from Ikari Warrios and a bunch of other classic NES games. The quality level of this hack is just mind blowing. It’s my #1 recommendation.
Rockman Deus Ex Machina
While perhaps not as visually stunning as No Constnacy, Deus Ex Machina has great tunes and insane challenge level.
Rockman Deus Ex Machina is not quite as pretty as Rockman No Constnancy, but it has some of the most insane level designs I’ve ever seen. Any time you approach a pit that looks like a simple jump, you’ll be surprised by something unexpected, a bird swoops down, a monster flies out of the pit right as you jump. I seriously wanted to cry after a few attempts. You can shoot 4 bullets in this version, which only slightly tips the scales in your favor. Another cool thing is the fact that there are lots of branches through many of the levels. You’d be hardpressed to beat this game witout using save states though. That’s just the way it is.
There’s a bunch of other ROM hacks of varying quality out there, but these two are the ones I’d recommend. Make sure you follow the patching directions. It’s really very simple if you follow the directions. Enjoy!
Beatscribe 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.
MAGfest may be over, but GameChops is just heating up! This new release is a huge milestone, Overclocked Remixer bLiNd has created TEN remixes based on games from the Nintendo Entertainment System; Final Fantasy, Mario Bros, Castlevania and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to name a few! It’s called NESteryears and you can download it right now!
I’ve been listening to bLiNd’s music for nearly a decade, it is a great honor to have worked with him to release this album. Some of you may remember my bLiNd Trance mix from back in 2010, which showcased my appreciate for bLiNd’s music.
NESteryears is a licensed remix album thanks to a collborative effort between GameChops and Joypad Records.
Chiptune pioneers 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer have released a compliation of the best tracks from over a decade in chipmusic! This Los Angeles based duo has been instrumental in the popularizing of chiptune music in both recorded format and live performance. Working together as 8Bit Weapon, Seth & Michelle have created their unique sound and powerful use of antique hardware.
