ReMix: Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship 'Diamond Worlds'
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Solar Jetman! I had no idea that it was the third Jetman game and sequel to Lunar Jetman until I wiki'd it just minutes ago; how many more jetmen could the world yet see? Or perhaps jetwomen? I think this NES arcade/shooter will ultimately be the most famous jetperson, due in no small part to a great, catchy score from the one and only Dave Wise. I was being interviewed recently and got one of the standard "bast game theme EVAR!" questions, and while the usual responses came to mind, I ended up picking Wise's theme from Wizards & Warriors; it's a great bit of game music that gets a good amount of attention, but put in perspective with the rest of the composer's work, it really struck me as being a classic gem and representing VGM quite well. Obviously, answers to those types of questions can and should change on a daily if not hourly basis, but my point is that Dave Wise really deserves a lot of credit for being a Western VGM composer who managed to capture the classic sounds of Japanese NES games, as well doing his own thing, and who also survived the transition from NES to SNES to cowrite the epic DKC series' scores. Platonist gives us our first coverage from SJ with this lengthy, Impulse Tracker-made electronica that starts off minimalist but grows from there:
"Another Impulse Tracker piece! this track is more sofisticated than "forest of hysteria" and i tried to keep the tension down as much as a could while making it. the first part is an arrangement of melody where i take the very simple source bassline and put my own material on it, and since it's a line of only 2 chords it might be a little repeative but i won't change anything, as i am perfectly happy with the result thanx to the next part which turns the whole thing around just in time:
the second part is different, there is a part in the source where nothing but a few notes go on for a while (consisting of 4 chords) i made my own bassline out of these and instead of putting 100% original material here i altered the bass line from the first part and turned it into a melody on top of these 4 chords. the rest of the arrangement here is mine (piano etc)"
The intro here develops nicely, with chirpish, minimalist stereo blips percolating over an offbeat bass, until at 0'39" we get some melodic action. There's another drop at 1'37" that adds more dominant melody, with a bevy of chiptunish textures layered over the quantized, mechanized beat. At 2'33" the straight quantization is interrupted a bit with a nice little transition triplet - good, intelligent addition that I liked in particular. Andy writes:
"Platonist's style is really growing on me. It tends to be dry, up-front, minimal, and tight; none of which are negative adjectives in this case. Most electronic music I hear is drenched in reverb and densely layered... I'm guilty of it myself, but it takes some skill to slim down the soundfield to the essentials and still have something that's enjoyable. This remix is very well-crafted in that sense. The drums and the various bubbly synth stabs and arps are excellent, particularly the constantly moving FX at 4:12."
Pretty much; if you dug Jonas' previous mix, this one'll be similarly up your alley, and if you've been waiting for Solar Jetman to finally get some lovin' here on OCR: the sun doth shine.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the Great work and keep it up!
- Loning on July 9, 2009
WesternZypher;481879 wrote: I SOOO used to play this game ALL the time back in the day. I doubt ppl would find it impressive these days but it was SO much fun..
http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/solar-jetman-hunt-for-the-golden-warpship/screenshots
yes indeed, it's a very rare piece of gaming, i too played it alot and that's why i decided to remix it, cause no one seemed to even have heard of it - not even pretzel himself 8O
love the gravity simulation in SJ, it takes true skill to complete this game - skill that i don't have myself - i have only played through this game once (from planet 1-12) without a game over screen .. and it's been on my shelf for over a decade ^^
- Platonist on December 3, 2008
http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/solar-jetman-hunt-for-the-golden-warpship/screenshots
- WesternZypher on December 3, 2008
- Shadow Wolf on November 3, 2008
Martin Penwald;457773 wrote: Proof that you don't need the newest tools to make good music. Almost hypnotic chiptune-esque goodnees. Well done.
indeed and thank you ^^
- Platonist on September 29, 2008
- Martin Penwald on September 29, 2008
I've listened to this song for 9 hours straight (throughout an entire workday), and I can easily say it helped me get through the day. I would go so far as to say this song is glorious, and I personally prefer to reserve the use of that word for the REALLY good stuff. Stuff so good it glows.
I look forward to hearing your future SJ ReMixes!
- Stellos~Core on September 19, 2008
i noticed that i mistyped in the submission email..
Shammy Gen is Planet 10 (as i said before in this thread).. not Planet 11 (as it says in the submission thread)
also if you're unfamilliar with the game's awesomeness,
check this guy's videos out:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Ferret5317
he's pretty good actually ^^ nice walkthrough/speedrun/whatever vids
also: Reunion is Back now
http://www.reunionstudio.org
- Platonist on September 19, 2008
Great transitions and varied sections, pretty groovy overall.
- OA on September 15, 2008
- SoulinEther on September 13, 2008
It has this bouncing effect that I can relate to those push-hands exercises on tai chi practice.
- DramaNoMore on September 12, 2008
Eidiolon;449685 wrote:
Besides that I could barely notice any similarity to the originals, it also lacked the simple, ambient yet melodious tunes the original had that made it so great. Too much drums and other noice in this one.
if you can't hear that it's from Shammy Gen (planet 10) then you're not a real solar jetman fan ;P
just kidding bro, i hear ya, there's alot of original stuff in there. but the bassline throughout the entire first part (which turns into a melody in the second) is basically the only thing that is in the original song, so yeah - if that's not enough then i don't know how to please you ;)
Eidiolon;449685 wrote:
I am looking forward to the rest of the Solar Jetman remixes you are working on tho. I hope some of them will be more to my liking! :)
In any case, applauds to you for even attempting something that, to my knowledge, no one else have tried and succeeded.
thanx man :) and also there will be a medley on the album, which im sure you'll prefer if it's the originals you're after
- Platonist on September 11, 2008
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