EC2151

Tommy Tallarico's work on the Sega-CD Terminator game. Good stuff, man. Taking to the Air Future Shock Cybertek (this one is really wild!) I think it's some of Tommy Tallarico's best work, myself. While some of my pals maintain that Matt Furniss' work on the Sega Genesis Terminator game is better (and don't get me wrong, it's good), this is total 90s goodness.

Definitely some interesting stories abound in this topic. I've been playing the piano since age 6, and around that time I started to make up my own melodies. Ol' Ludwig von Beethoven was my idol back then, and I wanted to become the next him. (look how that turned out D: ) Started taking lessons at age 8 from a teacher who taught me until I was a senior in high-school. It kind of always amazed me back then that my peers playing piano or other instruments had no ambitions to compose music. Really, in my mind, it was that if you played an instrument, you naturally lent yourself towards composing your own pieces. I still kind of think that, but I guess I can see why someone is content with just performance. However, ever since I was a little kid, one of my dreams was to be a big-time composer (now I'm a history major, ha ha), and later in life that morphed into becoming a video-game composer. Man, before DAWs I just wrote music down on sheet paper (hell sometimes I DREW the sheet paper!). I got a program (or rather, my computer savvy brother got a program) that let me compose with a little bit of limitations (couldn't for the life of me get percussion in there) and I thought i was in heaven. Of course that program bugged out on my old PC from 1999. Also, when I discovered OCR one of my bucket-list ambitions was to become a posted mixer on this site. Still waiting to hear on that one. For a long time I put off composition (though I regularly still came up with new pieces for the piano), until more and more I became convinced that I needed to get the old music out of my head so as to allow new songs to come to form (because I had cataloged and remembered about every single song I've ever written from about age 6 in my head, and it was getting pretty crowded in there, not to mention the constant playing to remember them all). On another forum I went to roughly 1.5-2 years ago, someone gave me the link to a pirated copy of FL Studio 7, which I made many many bad songs with. They are painful to listen to. Last year though I decided that I should go "legit" and bought the producer edition of FL9, and bought actual sound libraries. Of course, my lappy just died a while back, meaning I'm trying to figure out how to get FL9 working on my computer (it's not working anymore... I think I might have to uninstall it and get FL10... but I don't want FL10!)- but all the same, it more or less marks the time where I started to get all super-serious about my hobby. Of course, I was always super-serious about it. Speaking of trackers, as of late, i've been heavily into making tracker music, with (in order): TFM Music Maker, VGM Music Maker, FamiTracker, Beepola, and Synder (haven't figured out Vortex Tracker 2 yet). Because I love a good chiptune (despite not being good at making them).

naked anime chicks oh my Oh that crazy Japan. I did also order (on top of R-Types) R-Type Delta, so I think I'm more or less set on R-Type games for now.

Koopas and Kefka is a mix you should check out, if you want some organ love. (at least, I think that's the name). I agree- some nice big, booming organ mixes would be quite thrilling. Perhaps some Bach-esque studies or fugues centered around a particular theme from a game? Possibilities abound! Though I will say, having taken a hand at counterpoint before, it is THE most difficult thing to do in music. At least to my ears.

The problem, as the video points out, is that developers keep on thinking that we care more about their poorly-written stories (even the best VG stories are merely VG stories... nothing all that great- like pulp fiction or dime novels at best)... This is HUGELY evident in today's so-called "indie" games, with their terrible scripts and pretensions that often mask a weak game-engine with a boring world design (but no man, you don't get it! This game is deep!). And of course this is the case in big-name titles as well, like Metroid Other M and Final Fantasy XIII.

Would have liked it more without the teeny bit of reverb you had on it. Of course if you wanted some legit reverb you would have the lead track going, and have a second track at much lower volume going at like, 1/16th beat after the lead track, which produces a really awesome effect with 8bit chiptunes. But that's my quibble. All in all not bad and highly listenable.

which is why Fallout 1 and 2 are far better RPGs and far more replayable (the fact that they are much shorter helps that too- Fallout 1 is great for just "let's fuck around" plays). Fallout 3 is an ok game, but it is not exactly a good Fallout game.

That poster is still in my basement, though I never had StarFox. Played the death out of StarFox 64 though. It was like a ritual growing up- once a week, you had to beat StarFox 64. That was the minimum. I think one of the nice things about Retro (for the most part) is that they know that you don't need to bog your game down with a lot of boring stupid cutscenes to get a story across. That's been the mistake of every post-64 StarFox, is putting in a story like we gave a shit. Of course, it wasn't really their fault in Adventures (which sucks by the way), but then they had to run with that crap in Assault (which was below-average) and Command (which just sucked).

Ha ha, I'd get Radiant Silvergun for the Saturn, except that people selling it have this queer notion that the game is worth well over $150 dollars. Though I did download that Crimson Clover game and i must say it is quite fun. Like DonPachi and RayForce rolled into one.

While a StarTropics by Retro would be amazing it wouldn't be that feasibly marketable since, as far as I can recall, no one bought StarTropics let alone its sequel Zoda's Revenge.

I have Gradius III and IV on the PS2, and I'm honestly not a fan (I've also played Gradius 1). Maybe it's because I'm a bitch and find Gradius 3 way too hard, but all the Gradius games, it's like you can never sit back and enjoy the game, because it never stops trying to kill you in all sorts of mean-spirited ways. It's always trying to pull a fast one with enemies coming from behind you or that fucking damn bubble level (to use an example in 3). In say, Darius Gaiden, or in other shooters, you get a moment to take in the atmosphere, but not so in the Gradius games. Maybe some people like that but it's too much for me. I'd much prefer a Darius or RayForce or some other Taito shooter at least to Gradius. Though since i like treasure and G.Rev, I would like to get my hands on Gradius V. But I can never find a copy cheap enough. Speaking of CAVE and localization, I really wish more G.Rev games came out stateside. They're made up of all the people that made Taito matter back in the 90s, and like, they only have two games released here, one on XBLA and the other on the 360 called Senko no Ronde. Has anyone played Strania: The Stella Machina? It looks really awesome- like an old Taito game made for today's world. Ha ha, Taito/G.Rev is where my inner shooter fanboy comes out.

a shmup is not doing its job if it only makes you want to play once. EDIT: And is it really possible to have a shooter these days that doesn't store some loli anime girl? Where are all the awesome space-ships? I'm just kind of sick of every modern shooter having to be about some loli witch or something fighting other loli witches. If you're going to do something like that at least do what and its did, and make the heroines these bad-ass anime babes!

Jamestown is a good, cheap shmup- 5 really fun levels, lots of difficulty options, and in general, really fun to play. I think it was like $5, though it might be $8 right now. Totally recommend it. I really want the new Darius game to finally hit arcades here in the States. I mean, not that there's an arcade nearby me... But all the same, this DariusBurst Another Chronicle: EX looks like it's a lot of fun. Mainly, I just want it released in the arcades so we can be one step closer to that sweet, sweet console port (I don't really want the bare-bones PSP port- too expensive, and not enough content). And I did order R-Types, and will probably be ordering R-Type Delta soon. Looking forward to it : )

I knew there had to be a thread about shmups somewhere on this forum. You don't have a site dedicated to video-games and populated with vgm-geeks without having a bunch shmup fans! I'll admit that my favorite series in shooters is the Darius series. It may not be as "hardcore" as Gradius or the like (and in all honestly I don't really like the Gradius games), but its zany style, pizazz, and fun enemies really make it enjoyable. Let's face it, it's all about the fish. Of course, the only games truly worth playing in the series are Darius Gaiden and G-Darius. Darius 2 is close, but it's way too unfair (at least the arcade/Saturn version)... I've heard that the PCE version (Super Darius 2) is the best, but lot of good that does us. But man, the music in all of those games is so good. My favorite OSTs for shooters are in the Darius games- someone should really do an arrange album for them around here! And as an aside, one of my proudest moments in the series was actually managing to 2-credit-clear Darius 1, a game that is pretty damn hard and unforgiving, let me tell you (especially since its entirely bullshit Instant-GameOver if you lose a credit to the final boss). It would have been a 1CC, but Fatty Glutton, that piece of shit piranha robot, always manages to eat up a fucking continue unless I keep myself purposefully underpowered. Hell I even saved the screencap of my accomplishment. --- I've been wanting to get into the R-Type games for a long time. I thought about getting R-Type Final, but the game looks a little boring to me (some of those last levels look kind of lame). I found a copy of R-Types on ebay for less than $20, and a copy of R-Type Delta for $30. Would those be worthwhile purchases to get me into the series? Supposedly, the best in the series is R-Type III, but I can get that any time on VC (I've played a little bit on emulation and it's all right- I'm just not very good at R-Type games though!). I'd get R-Type Dimensions, but my brother has his 360 with him and he hates shooters. Super R-Type would be better if it weren't for all the damn slow-down. That alone kind of makes it not worth playing in my opinion. It's really because of buying a Sega Saturn (and The Coop's helpful recommendations) and Darius Gaiden that I've gotten in to shmups (though I still hate Touhou and bullet-hell/danmaku shooters- they're so boring for me), and I almost kind of wish I was in to these games sooner. Lots of fun they are. I'm not particularly good at any of them (aside from maybe Galactic Attack since I've played and beat that one so many times), and I don't care about 1CCs too much (though sometimes I do try to get a good hi-score), but I love challenging games and crazy boss-fights, which is why this has snuggled up right next to my other favorite genre, the platformer.

Aren't the two unlockable characters Megaman Samus

I'm less excited for a KH game, but I am taken aback that it has been 10 damn years since the first Kingdom Hearts. Sheeesh. Though the new trailer of the Kid Icarus game looks swell. It looks like the type of stuff the 3DS should have launched with.

TWEWY is ok, though it's the type of game you'll play once and never really feel like playing again. As opposed to, say, the GBA/PSP versions of FF1 and FF2. Though it's fun while it lasts, and has some nice J-poppy music. However, if you want a more traditional RPG (and one that is short and fast-paced), I cannot recommend enough Final Fantasy Four Heroes of Light. I think it's the best FF game since FFX, myself. The animations aren't long, the job system is fun, and the game moves at a very brisk pace. After about the half-way point, all the enemies and monsters level up with you, more or less removing totally the need to grind (though it's got some of those obsessive-compulsive things that you'll be grinding for anyway). I was going to say you can't go wrong with Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission (and Metroid II, if you have your SP along), but it looks like you're covered on that front. I think DQIV is better than DQIX, and much faster (no long animations- lol, animations take usually less than 1 second), but it is a standard old RPG, so that might not be your thing. If you want time-wasters, though, there's always the Phoenix Wright games, the Layton games, and Hotel Dusk/Trace Memory. Puzzles, visual novels, and adventure games galore! Hotel Dusk's story is particularly good. Knights in the Nightmare is an underplayed gem of a game, it being a cross of FFT and Touhou, more or less. It's really hard to get in to, but once you go through all the tutorials and figure everything out, it's a fast-paced, yet strategic (and balls-hard) game, set around single set-piece battles. The game will take about 30 hours to complete, and i give it my highest recommendation, ha ha.

Introducing the nintendo 32x just insert it into your DS's GBA slot And it allows you to play Nintendo 32x3d games! Mario 32x is launching with the system as well! - I'm sure once by Christmas, all the nay-saying will have subsided, but it's a long way till Black Friday. On the plus side there's some really awesome DS games coming out! : D

oh lol it's real

There are, I believe, some game OSTs in which nothing can be added to the songs if you remix them. Like God Hand. The soundtrack is perfect, so why meddle with perfection? When i remix (or try to lol not a posted mixer), preserving the original spirit of the track is important. Kraid's theme doesn't need to be a sappy teen-love ballad with a 19-year-old vocalist struggling to belt out the lyrics. It doesn't need that. Some tracks, however, are so perfect in their construction that I can't conceive ANYONE doing ANYTHING to them without the new product being markedly inferior. Take, say, ADAM or Kimera II from G-Darius. You can't do anything with those songs because OGR did everything to them- they're perfect VGM, and within the game's context, they culminate an incredible audio experience. I think it'd be kind of taking away from his work if you tried to make some half-ass cover and pawn it off as a 'reinterpretation'. Like remixes of classical composers. 99.9% of the time, i just want to hear the originals. While I believe that by their nature remixes can't be "better" than the tracks they're based on, that doesn't mean you can't make a rockin' CT remix (Firecross, there's one. Or is it Cross of Fire?)- if it preserves the feel and energy of the original while giving it a new spin. This is a definition that I haven't really reasoned out completely yet but I am sure that none of you care anyhow ;o But back on topic: I don't ever want to remix anything that's been done a bajillion times before, or is just old hat. When I read djpretzel's call to remix unremixed tracks at the beginning of 2011, I thought that was a wonderful statement/call-to-arms - there's a lot of VGM that deserves more recognition and exposure (which OCR naturally gives). so in short -tracks that are all ready perfect -tracks that can not be added to in any way by remixing -stuff that has been covered and interpreted sufficiently so as to discourage my added meddling

Well, I think the GBA SP is the best handheld/gameboy ever, unless you're talking about the micro (which sucks). And my heart wants to say there's no way that can be real. It's like the marketing geniuses at 90s Sega infiltrated Nintendo and started suggesting all these laughably shitty ideas and they all nod their heads saying "Yes, hmm, yes, that sounds like a GREAT IDEA!"

Didn't they charge money for worthless Costumes in SF IV and SSFIV? Oh Capcom. You guys. The new songs should actually consist of nothing but Mike's Theme and Sagat's theme from Fighting Street with the volume cranked up to the max. Downloading this pack means that all of the original music files are replaced by these two themes.

I've been busy, so I've only listened through the thing thus far as a first over. First impressions: The tracks that really stand out are: the fantastic remix of the puppet-master/gentleman jim boss theme, maruyama's boss remix (both of them!), Stop the Gatekeeper, the ending credits remix, and that really excellent Tower of Puppet remix! : p But so far, it's really good stuff. Dark Demon: I think it's a little hard to make a metal band sing about toys and puppets and still sound threatening, but the song is nice in a cheesy sort of way. Oh, the golden room door remix took a really simple motif and really expanded on it in a fun and funky-fresh way... I liked that a lot more than I thought I would, considering the source! And I love the live performance (?) of Ballad for You. Along with Dark Demon, it was my favorite song in the game, and i'm glad it got an appropriate treatment. I'll post more thoughts as I have time to really give this a good listen... I still have Harmony of a Hunter to go through! It makes me quite proud to be part of a project with so many great tracks that do their sources justice while still being able to stand on their own.

The catch is that if you spend all your time trying to please fans you will end up pleasing no one. Like how people clamor for X9 with 16bit graphics, completely forgetting just how damned beautiful the animated graphics of X4 looked (the best in the entire X series).

I'm a little bit intimidated that my track is the second to last, but I'm downloading it right now (slow ass IE.... blech)... When I do I will definitely post some thoughts. I've been waiting to here the other people on this project forever now : D All the same, you really did a good lion's share of work getting this off the ground, mokram! You should be proud of yerself!