Kizyr

You know, Spiritual Warfare (another Wisdom Tree game) was actually rather fun once you get over the "smite the heathens with holy fruit" part. I've only played it on ROM, but, it might be worth it to see if you can't find that for $5 someplace as well. I played Bible Adventures (via ROM again) for maybe 5 minutes before getting bored, however. KF

Many thanks. I'm listening to them both right now. I did manage to download the songs off his own site. Many things I hadn't heard there. His original work is as great as I'd expected from someone with his kind of talent. I've been listening to a lot of his stuff lately; I had to bite my lip while listening to 'Amour dans Morte' while on the metro the other day... KF

This last one was... well, it had a lot missing. One thing I did like is how they had Roberta Williams on. I grew up playing King's Quest and other Sierra games, and I'd almost forgotten about those classic adventure games. I did like the focus on Mario and Zelda, but that was to be expected. But, there was way too much that it felt like they just dropped. Nintendo had some real aggressive marketing tactics in the 80s during the NES years, which is one of the reasons the Sega Master System didn't fare nearly as well. There was also a lot of control they exercised with the content of games on their system. None of that was mentioned. Also... the focus of a lot of this episode was supposed to be on story elements. And... they barely mentioned RPGs? Aside from showing some footage of Phantasy Star and passing mentions of Final Fantasy, nothing? Even though they had this whole deal about "video games making you cry" as a benchmark? That just doesn't make sense. There's a lot in there they could've dropped in favor of talking about stories in the genre where stories are most important to the game... They spent more time talking about the storyline of GTA3 than the storyline of any role-playing game. It also seems a bit odd that they went into the PC Gaming end quite a bit, but didn't mention the rise of first-person shooters (although maybe they're saving that for another part). I was wondering if anyone else caught that! It was funny, actually. They start talking about the great hit that the Sega Genesis had because of its 16-bit vs the NES's 8-bit, and in the middle of showing some of the games they stick in footage of the first Phantasy Star for the SMS. Though, they did the same thing in reverse several times, still talking about the 8-bit generation while showing some images of people playing GameCube or something. KF

I have the same reservations. But, the first part did it all pretty well without devolving into something that's painful to watch. I mean, it can still go downhill, but there's no reason not to have positive expectations for part two. I'm hoping that they give more of an emphasis on impact, rather than popularity (though they usually will intersect). I'm also wondering if they'll be getting into PC games at all. I mean, Wolfenstein 3D and Doom contributed a lot to the subsequent generations of games, including non-FPS and console games. KF

Everything about this song is amazing. The Cosmo Canyon theme was always my favorite track from FF7, and Ascension just puts such a majestic feeling to it. In particular, the instrumentation, and the way the crescendos/decrescendos are handled are incredible, and really lend to the overall emotion that's conveyed by this song. On a more personal note... This was the song I referred to in the memorial thread as one that I associate with certain events in my life. This was the first song I heard when I moved out of my home in Nashville (after college) to find a new place in DC. It captured what I was feeling perfectly, and I'll always associate Ascension to Cosmo Canyon with that sense of uncertainty and optimism that I felt when moving out after college. It does seem a bit late for me to review this, since this is perhaps the second or third remix I heard from this site, and it's what encouraged me to join the community and listen to everything else here... KF

As might be expected, his personal site is running into bandwidth issues. I'd like to download some of his original arrangements, if I can. Does anyone know of another place they're hosted? KF

Reuben Kee was an absolutely amazing artist. His work had such brilliant emotion and feeling poured into it--so much so that there are several of his songs that I still associate with certain events in my life. It's hard to put my thoughts into words at this. There have been very, very few artists I've appreciated this much. He'll be very missed. My prayers for his friends and his family, and for all those to whom he meant so much. KF

I thought it was good; I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of it. I particularly liked the emphasis they put on the role of Pac-Man (as the first protagonist), and the saturation of the market with crappy games in the early '80s. It's reminding me of the Discovery Channel documentary on Tetris a few months back. KF

I'm just now reading this... I don't know what to say. Reuben Kee was one of my favorite artists here, and this... I'm no good with words on things like this. 'Course I didn't know him personally, but I'll still miss him and his work. Prayers for him and his family. KF

I have to disagree. Translations will be different depending on the purpose, and lyric translation more than anything requires a lot of creativity. You already have the Japanese lyrics and translation available, so if you want the original meaning, there's always the original song. It's better to look at this as writing new lyrics altogether, and trying to convey the meaning of the song as a whole, instead of the meaning line-by-line. By the way, I'd be really happy if either Pixietricks or DragonAvenger sung this one. KF

Second vote for the Creative Zen Vision:M. I have the 30GB version, but it's the same interface, only less memory. Order it through Amazon.com and you'll probably be able to get it for $25-$50 less than the regular MRSP. Anyway, the Zen Vision:M's interface takes a little bit to get used to, but after maybe 2-3 days of playing around with it, it gets intuitive. Plus you have extra playlist features, an FM tuner (and ability to record from radio), video playback (WMV only though), and a microphone. Durability-wise, I've had no problems with mine so far. You might also want to get some $5 skins for it to keep it scratch-proof (http://www.bestskinsever.com/servlet/StoreFront). KF

Done. Questions were well-worded, by the way. KF

The cheap cellphone I got in Japan was perfect, since you could program in your own ringtones--polyphonic with multiple instruments (so near MIDI quality) as well. After a few months, I had programmed in: Tetris: A & B themes Super Mario Bros. 1-1 (overworld), 1-2 (underground), & 1-3 (underwater) Super Mario Bros. Starman Legend of Zelda 2 Temple theme and several others I don't remember anymore... Not to mention a few sound effects, like a Mario 1UP, Mario dying, Legend of Zelda whistle, etc. The Legend of Zelda whistle was also the sound effect for whenever I got an email. It attracted a bit of attention when it went off once in class (forgot to put it on silent), mostly because everyone around me recognized the sound. I also found one other person who, coincidentally, had programmed in nearly all the same songs I did into her phone. KF

How many of them are college students? While I was there, I was pretty surprised at, comparatively, how little work Japanese colleges required compared to their US counterparts (and compared to high school, at that). Not that I was terribly complaining, mind you. It gave me plenty of time off to travel a bit. ...and time to spend at arcades. KF

Man, if you're wondering. 'KF' is my initials; I usually end every post/email I make with that. It's become habit now. KF

That's one of the best parts of the storyline... You really didn't know whether someone was going to live or die after this. KF

That's the same thing I say about Rocky V. Even Spike TV agrees with me. Whenever they marathon Rocky, they omit V. Anyway... Yeah, Alundra, it's still my absolute favorite Action RPG. The puzzles were extremely challenging and enjoyable (and yeah, I didn't bother looking at a guide once). One of the best things, also, is how the enemies weren't just automatons (a la Legend of Zelda) but had decent AI for attacking. It's been a pretty long time since I've played it, though. KF

Wait... the full version of Hajime? Or were they just playing the 40s sample she released a while back? KF

Ok, I'm no professional, so take that into account for my comments... First, Mystic Cave... It's okay. I don't hear anything that stands out as bad choice in arrangement or instrumentation at all. But, it doesn't sound none too interesting--more like background music that you'd almost tune out, even if played by a live orchestra. Though bear in mind though that I might be a bit biased, as I'm not that fond of the Mystic Cave theme to begin with. Second, Water Zones... The first part is good--mellow and all, so I like how that goes. But, I really think you should completely drop the 'drowning' theme at 1:00~1:23. It's too stark a contrast to both the first (Labyrinth) and second (Hydrocity) themes. Literally, it does sound like it's thrown in arbitrarily, and going from a really good theme, to a really irritating 20-seconds, then back to another really good theme, ends up detracting from the entire song. As for the Hydrocity part of it... Overall I think it sounds great--then again my bias might be going the other way as this was one of my favorite themes from Sonic 3. I'm not sure about some of the instrumentation, though. The brass (?) that comes in at 2:02, were you going for muted trumpet or something? I think something a little less high-pitched would be better (brass or no), alto/tenor sax, e.g.. Also... what effect are you going for with the 'falling' notes (again, not an expert, so I'm unsure on terminology)--like what comes in at the start and end of Hydrocity (exactly at 1:27 & 3:23)? It sounds odd, but I can't tell if that's because of the effect you're after, or simply the actual quality of the MP3. KF

Some teas should still be fine. Most herbal teas (rooibos, chamomile, etc.) don't contain caffeine, tannin, or a few of the other common ingredients in black and/or green tea--caffeine is the main reason for it being a diuretic, no? Regardless, everything is secondary to just giving your voice a rest. I just listened to a couple of your [DragonAvenger's] songs... I'd hate to hear your singing voice give out! I hope it gets better. KF

Personally, I'd really like to hear a 100% a capella track on this album. KF

Thanks for the clarification. Makes a ton of sense now. This sounds really similar to what I hear a lot of [visual] artists say, particularly at anime conventions. Most that I know find it plenty more rewarding to do their own thing, create their own characters and style, etc. But, you sell a lot more prints of fanart than originals. Doing fanart might not be awful, but it does detract from what you'd rather be doing (i.e., your own style). KF

Actually, yes, I do. But I'm not a musician, and so this isn't a thread about my job. Teaching kids music sounds kind of rewarding, actually, which is why I'm puzzled by your description of that kind of a set-up as being soulless. KF

One question: what's 'soul-less' about that? To me, it seems about the same as having a day job, only your day job involves something music-related. KF

I see where the criticism about it being too liberal came from; I can't place where the original Green Hill theme comes in except for a few of the more obvious parts (though admittedly it's been ages since I played Sonic 1). But I'm not finicky, and you can't deny that it is a pretty smooth piece. One more thing... That 4-second silence in the beginning still puzzles me. Why wasn't it just cropped off? It didn't sound intentional... KF