Mazedude

It was either Rygar or Karate Champ for NES. I remember saving up my allowance, $5 per week, so that when I had enough we could go to Toys R Us and I'd pick out a game. Rygar was awesome. However, some of my purchases made this way were not so awesome. Like Deadly Towers. Or the Adventures of Bayou Billy. But, I'll say this - after buying those with my own money, I was determined to beat them. To date I've beaten Rygar probably 20 times. Deadly Towers... once. Bayou Billy... once. Agreed, great topic.

Man, now you're making me feel old. Although, yes, I still listen to some of the classic tracker tunes from the 90s, and occasionally will craft an homage to 'em. Nice to know there are still some folks out there who "get it." And for those who don't, they get to taste the good ol' days in a new way. (Loved your recent collab with Wave btw!)

Lovely and haunting. Fantastic job with the woodwinds; I like me a good pitch bend and an exotic flair, and you managed to capture both. Percussion and piano merge well to craft a bed under the melodies, and I especially like the understated yet deliberate low piano notes. I guess my only complaint would be that in terms of chord progression and song structure, it doesn't vary as much as I'd like, but hey, that has to do with the source material, so no worries there. All in all, great job.

Say, thanks! I hope you like the game; would be happy to pass on any comments or feedback to the developers. It was actually Austin Wintory who kinda inspired me to pursue this. He spoke at MAGFest a couple years back and said something along the lines of "it's not that hard to find game developers these days. There are so many indie projects all over the place. So if you want to be considered for the music, just reach out. Keep reaching out. Eventually someone will bite." And, that's what happened. I had the whole "I want to compose a soundtrack" itch, and like, within a week, I booked this one. It took a very long time to finish and really there was very little money involved, but hey, achievement unlocked.

Thanks Jay! I appreciate the feedback. Are you saying "gritty" in a good way, or a bad way...? Those are primarily square waves, plugged into the tracker, along with some triangle and sine and white noise. Post-processing was extremely minimal. I wasn't going for a well-produced chiptune album deal, rather, showcasing the simplicity of the drafts that then evolved into something bigger. No reverb or EQ added, etc.

Hey everyone! I'm happy to share that as of today, my name is officially attached as "composer," not "remixer," to a 100% original game soundtrack. It's an indie game, but still, I had a blast stepping into RPG mode and crafting the various map themes, battle music, castle, shop, and church tunes... lots of good stuff. I'd like to invite you to give it a listen, and let me know what you think! (Also check out the game, it's out on Steam and actually pretty challenging.) https://mazedude.bandcamp.com/album/mazequest-2-original-soundtrack For your listening pleasure, the album also includes several bonus tracks that didn't actually make it to the game, and, a whole bunch of chiptune concept pieces. I'm not a keyboard player, so drafting in 8-bit seemed like a time-friendly way to present thematic ideas without getting hung up on samples and such. Have fun comparing the chiptunes to the final orchestrated pieces; some are very close, and some changed a bit during the orchestration. Enjoy!

Just bought it on Bandcamp. Congrats man.

I actually wrote an e-mail to DJP about the site crash. I was very concerned.

Huge nostalgia for me is Battletoads in Battlemaniacs. Have yet to finish a remix for it yet, but still... Couple years back I actually had a chance to meet and hang out with David Wise at MAGFest. And, it totally slipped my mind at the time that I'd remixed work of his from Slalom, Wizards & Warriors, DKC2, DKC3... ah well. The way he puts it, he doesn't really remember a lot of that really early work anyways, heh.

Hey all; just wanted to share some pretty cool news, for everyone here who didn't see the buzz on Facebook. This past Friday, my hometown of Syracuse held their annual "Syracuse Area Music Awards," also known as the SAMMYS. Local artists were celebrated per albums released during the previous year. Considering my remix project of American Pixels was launched last January, and I crafted it in Syracuse, I was nominated. I'm blessed to be able to announce that I actually won the award for "Best Electronica," and was able to use the platform to showcase the world of video game remixing (and game music in general) to a whole new audience! It was awesome to be honored where I grew up, but it was doubly cool to take game music to a place that typically focuses on rock, jazz, and folk, ya know? It was a fun night.

If I wasn't so slammed this week, I'd put something together. Sorry; between the job, the family, church events, and a side music gig (with tight deadlines, but it's really cool, more info to come later), my hands are full. Hopefully you get some last minute love coming your way though!

Wow! I doubt I have time to participate, unfortunately, but I'm thrilled to see Maniac Mansion getting some love. This is a great theme, lots of nostalgia for me. I spent so many hours playing this game, really loved that there were multiple ways to beat it. (And not to make this about me, but I did offer up two Maniac Mansion remixes on American Pixels, ya know, https://mazedude.bandcamp.com/album/american-pixels, nudge nudge wink wink. Maybe I should get one of them on OCR, eh?) In some long lost Overclocked After Dark podcast, I also spoke at length about how this soundtrack needs more remixing. That said, I'm really looking forward to hearing the outcome of this!

Not sure if this tidbit of advice will help, but here's how I finished American Pixels. That was a 5+ year project, tons of excitement at the front-end, and then it turned into... work. And here's the problem, I have a family and a full-time job, so I kept hitting the snag where I'd work all day, spend time with the family, have a pocket of free time at night, and then... not have any energy left. That, or there'd be this sense of "yay, I have time to work on music... and oh no, I feel obligated to work on that project and I'm really not in the mood..." So, that happened over and over, and occasionally I'd have a magic day off (holiday, whatever) where I'd get a wonderful 4 hours in a row to myself... and during those moments, I could tap into the creative juices and get it going again... but man, those little magical windows were rare. Like, once every few months rare. It got really frustrating seeing an album inch to completion in those sporadic bursts. The answer for me: wake up earlier. I'd set my alarm for 4:30am, be in my studio by 5am, and get in a solid hour, hour and a half every morning. My brain wasn't yet tired from the day job, I was rested and fresh, and the stuff that seemed like work before now seemed fun again. And, it actually helped my happiness level, so even though I was sleepy, I was giddy at work considering the progress I made in the early morning hours. And then I just had to ride and chase that feeling until things were done. It was tough to get started, but then it became strangely addicting.

Semi-interested. I miss hanging out with you guys, and at MAGFest (every three years or so when I get to go) I feel like my hangout time with OCR folks is divided up amongst hanging out with other groups of peeps, so it's never as in-depth as it should be. My availability is quite limited, but keep me in the loop regardless, maybe it'll work out where I can get away for a few days.

Sure, I give consent too. The above is well written and you guys have supported me in the past too, so, it's all good. Go for it.

It's a bit crazy, isn't it? Last time I met up with a djpretzel we both had that moment of "let's see, we've known each other... how many years now? OVER 15?!" A few of us insane ones from back then are still puttering and releasing new tracks too, and I'm one of 'em, so I guess on behalf of the OCR veterans... you're welcome. The really awesome part is how many guys from this community have gone on to become actual game composers and are now making a living doing it. I'm not personally among those ranks - I found I'm a much better remixer than a composer - but just look at Big Giant Circles, Zircon... in fact right now I'm checking out the preview to Wilbert Roget's Call of Duty WW2 soundtrack! It's a cool feeling, being proud of your friends and their accomplishments. It's certainly an awesome community for that.

So very glad you like it! In a fun twist, this is what I got back from the original composer: -- "Thank you so much for taking the time and energy to do such a wonderful remix! I thoroughly enjoyed the new approach from start to finish. I am humbled and grateful that you honored one of my favorite compositions in such a beautiful way." ~ Aubrey Hodges, Quest for Glory IV Composer -- Very nice to know that in answering what seemed like one request, I actually honored multiple wishes all at once. Oh, and if anyone cares to read the extended write-up and listen to the reference/inspiration material, I have it now at http://www.mazedude.com/remixes/space-garden

I'd say... I wish he challenged us more. So much of the music was just too easy. When he threw some of the more complex John Williams stuff at us, I was a happy camper. The magical day he introduced unusual time signatures, I was blown away. 7/8 and 5/8 gypsy music, played by a high school band, now that was something special. I also got quickly bored with the old-timey Sousa material, the showtunes, the Wagner operatic stuff, and so on. Weaving movie music into the mix helped a lot; the high school band renditions of Jurassic Park and Star Wars were pretty cool. And I absolutely loved playing the Olympics theme. There's a piece floating around out there that I played in college that was really epic too, I believe it was called "Mutanza." Edit: aha, I found it, by James Curnow; perhaps a bit long and difficult for high school, but man, this was FUN to play:

Alright, so this is by no means an official sheet music release - in fact there are various bugs and errors in this PDF that were fixed on the fly during the album recording - but if you're just looking for more fun stuff to play and want to take a crack at my Skyrim arrangement, here it is. It'll be a bit odd and empty in places if you're playing it without the chiptune counterpoint, but have at it. http://www.mazedude.com/vg_remixes/Dragonborn_Piano_Concerto_v2.pdf Enjoy!

I wrote a piano + chiptune solo for my latest album; if you dig it, I probably wouldn't mind letting someone else take a crack at performing it. http://www.mazedude.com/remixes/dragonborn-concerto https://mazedude.bandcamp.com/track/dragonborn-concerto-from-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim Let me know what you think!

Well this is funny, I'm a regular at OCR but I'm only just finding this post... and interestingly enough, I have an obligation to deliver a Quest for Glory remix or two due to the "commission a remix" pledge level I offered during my Kickstarter campaign that also happened around this time last year. I have some choices of tracks to arrange, including: Erana's Peace (QFG1) Erana's Pool (QFG3) Erana's Garden (QFG4) @aubreyhodges, if you're reading this, is there a chance I could get MIDIs for just those tracks? That would save me some time trying to decipher these fairly long originals, heh. Shoot them over to production@mazedude.com if that's a possibility, and before long there will be even more American homages under my belt. (The Kickstarter was for my recent album release "American Pixels" in which American composers were honored by way of remix; more info here: http://www.mazedude.com/projects/american-pixels. In turn, the commission requests were all for tracks also developed by American composers, such as yourself.)

Hey all; just wanted to share that at long last, I have (once again) rebuilt Mazedude.com. I'd love it if you could take a peek, explore a bit, and let me know what you think. http://www.mazedude.com Some of the remix descriptions are a bit sparse (or missing), and I'm working on filling those in over time. Otherwise, I've brought back that nifty "compare to the original" feature that people liked from the old site, I've loaded the (available) descriptions with inspiration and reference material, and you can also play the entire American Pixels album through the site. Every track has its own URL, it's mobile-friendly... lots of good stuff. Oh, and as of last night I've also built a search engine into the platform. Check it out and share your thoughts, many thanks!

I do believe I'm one of the two recent builds, and yes, I'm loving the new system! Great work! You get my recommendation for sure.

Say... a question for y'all. I'm currently upgrading my home studio, getting some new gear in there, and I'm wondering... if I were to create a re-mastered version of The American Album (originally released in 2005), would there be any interest? Better mixing, maybe bring in some live instruments, etc.? I wouldn't want to pull a Lucas and re-make pieces of history that were fine the way they were... but then again, I could pull a Schafer and have fun simply presenting some material that hey, you enjoyed this years ago, now here it is again in HD. Btw here's the album if you want to give it a fresh listen: https://mazedude.bandcamp.com/album/the-american-album

I hear so many people complain about the Meat Circus; I didn't think it was all that bad. For me, it's more of a delayed-reaction "what the hell" response to The Adventures of Bayou Billy on NES. On one magical day in my childhood I tapped into the zone for that game, and beat it. Now, I go back, and I can barely get past level 1, all the while getting pissed as the alligators keep biting me. How did the younger me do it???