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Thanks all, and especially to Modus and DFW! Proud to have inspired the one and only judging conflict.

I've been thinking about the past a bit lately. Looking back on who I've known, what I've done, what I still want to do from some of those moments... things like that. Among those thoughts came something of an oddity; a little idea that kind of got me strolling through smaller bits and pieces of those gone-by times. Namely, what was the first game that I can remember buying with my own money? Now, I'd owned systems before the point in this little tale. The Atari 2600 and the Atari XEGS were where I spent my earlier years in console gaming. But the games I got for them were always bought for me from places like Toys R Us, Sears and whatnot. Even anything I bought with Christmas or birthday money, was still gotten with money that I'd been given by my parents. I was just a brief middle-man stopping point, which made it so that it was really them still buying something for me. Which means, to the best of my knowledge, the first game I bought with money I'd earned on my own was After Burner II on the SEGA Genesis. I remember I had to work that day, and my mom wanted to go to a Target store that was near where I worked (as in, pretty much right across the street). We left early enough so that I could go with her before I had to get to work, which meant walking to that Target in the warm mid-morning Phoenix sun. While she picked up some things that she wanted, I spent my time in the video game area, browsing through the Genesis section that was less than organized. I swear, it was like they'd only get one or two copies of a game in and then they'd just put them wherever... which meant digging though each row to see all that they had in stock. Anyway, it was there that I found After Burner II hanging on one of those long metal pegs that were always used to display the Genesis games via their plastic hang tabs. I'd just gotten my second paycheck a couple of days earlier (the first had to go toward helping pay some bills) and, with me being a fan of the arcade original, I was all for getting to play the game at home. So, I picked it up, tracked down my mom elsewhere in the store, and paid for it after she'd gone through the checkout line. We walked over to the store where I worked and grabbed a quick bite to eat at one of those little food wagons that would set up at the far end of the parking lot. We talked, ate and commented on how we wished the car was working again. It wasn't long before the time came for me to get to my job. I handed my bag to my mom, she walked home with my game and her own goodies, and I spent the next seven hours waiting to play what I'd bought. It was worth the wait, though. It's not the best port of After Burner II out there, but for the time, it was fast, fun and close enough. God knows I put enough hours into it before I finally beat it for the first time. So... what was the first game you guys and gals bought with the money you'd earned for yourself? Feel free to share

Thanks, looking forward to working on it!

I would suggest you pre-mix it to an ideal level (e.g. to levels that would normally be used for OCR submissions). The album and WAVs are quite old at this point, and the people involved are honestly not easy to collectively get a hold of / files have been lost over time, so it would be pretty crazy for me to try to get a set of WAVs with headroom that don't already have it. Thanks for asking, though! Also, I'm DEFINITELY looking forward to your WAV submissions.

All credit goes to Kylok for really nailing his concept and execution. The remix is greatly enhanced by playing Skies, walking through Valua, experiencing the heavy poverty, and the NPCs telling stories of loss. It's such an iconic segment of the game.

This reeds and voices in this are very intimate, which juxtapose the industrial-ish drums so, so well. It also paints a very clear picture of the condition of Valua as an environment, even more so than the original. Man. I love this track.

This track got passed around to a few remixers until it landed onto Kylok's lap. He had a specific vision and he went with it. It was Modus who stepped in front and center to really deliver the hard feedback to make this a standout track. Where it was initially mixed soft, he wanted it pumped out louder and specific instrumentation to be more felt to invoke the mood and feel of our first time traversing Valua City ourselves in SOA and feeling the grime, grit and despair of that city. Kudos to Kylok for bringing it all into stark reality for us.

Aaron Webber @RubyEclipse on Twitter, Social Media and PR guy for SEGA of America was delivered by us, over 70 copies of the physical Arcadia Legends album! They also sent over copies with personalized letters from us to SEGA of Japan where a copy got into the hands of REIKO KODAMA, the producer of Skies of Arcadia! She was VERY pleased! We did it guys! They appreciated all the hard work and effort we did to make this a reality! It may not make a huge difference in getting a Skies of Arcadia 2, but I'm willing to take whatever we can get! Thanks again to everyone who contributed and supported us!

Hey, thanks a lot man. All of my love is going into this. I've always wanted to make a video game.