MindWanderer

AGDQ and Jason Covenant's recent fantastic one-hour compo entries brought an idea to mind. What if a bunch of the best and fastest remixers in the community got together to do a speed remix marathon and streamed it for charity, similar to AGDQ? Give each person an hour, two hours, probably no more than 3 hours, up to them, and let the donors vote with their dollars on the game, source, or style. And maybe to bring it a little closer to home, split the donations 30/70 between OCR and a popular charity (cancer or whatever). I don't know if it's legal or kosher to set aside a small amount to reimburse travel expenses. I have no experience with these sorts of things, but I thought I'd throw it out there. I imagine the proceeds would depend more on getting the word out than anything else, but if were even 1% as successful as AGDQ that'd be $15k.

Me too, but then I never expected Nintendo to release official support for fan mods. If things like Kaizo Mario can result in Mario Maker, then maybe Street Fighter x Mega Man (which Capcom hosts on their own site) plus Mario Maker will make Capcom think a fan creation kit is a good idea. Stranger things have happened. Never gonna happen. Even an American company wouldn't get that personal. A Japanese one, no chance in hell. Or other gritty 3D action game... like Resident Evil or Monster Hunter. Which are doing quite well. Exactly. There's no winning scenario here. Make a game that pleases the fans but won't impress most folks who've played any of the other, what, 30 pure platformers in the series, and won't make much money? Or use the name to make something totally different, alienating the fans of the classic games, but still being restricted by the series concepts?(I personally think there's room for a dark cyberpunk Mega Man take, a la the Protomen and the Megas's interpretations, but I'm not sure how well that would fly. Maybe a movie someday.) Not sure how making more entries in several tired old franchises is any more safe than making more entries in an even older, more tired franchise. Konami at least tries to innovate as much as possible with each new Metal Gear and Castlevania game, and they actually do try to launch new IP's pretty frequently (though they only bring them to the US when they do well). I think more likely the exact opposite. If people are willing to spend $10-$15 each on, say, a million copies (which would make it more than 3 times as successful as Shovel Knight), then Capcom will be even more firmly inclined to leave retro platformers of this nature to the indie league and keep their AAA hands off.

I question those numbers. They're counting downloads of current titles, but not of older ones like Mega Man. I also don't believe that Ghosts 'n' Goblins for the NES outsold Mega Man 2. Dino Crisis, Dino Crisis 2, and Commando are also bizarrely high.Mega Man 2 is also probably one of the most highly pirated/emulated games out there, FWIW. Retro games just aren't a cash cow for a AAA studio. Supporting Mega Man peripherally--homages and cameos in other games, official support of remix artists and fan projects, not getting in the way of deliberate clones like Mighty No. 9--is a good way to go. It acknowledges the fans and maintains good will while not sinking development money into financial stinkers and diluting the brand even further. Better this than Sonic Boom. Maybe if Mario Maker is successful they'll reconsider Mega Man Universe.

Please note that the rules have been streamlined to make it easier for me to keep running this on a continuous basis, and to lower the barrier for entering and participating. Sorry this overlaps so much with MnP this time, but I made promises. Since I don't have to wait for source selection, I should be able to run a strict 3-week schedule.

Season 3, Episode 1: Arise From Your Grave! RMWtS (now RWS by popular decree) is back! To celebrate, this round is about those who refuse to die. As your primary source, please choose the theme of a character, boss, place, etc. that makes an unexpected return after being thought gone for good. About ReMixing With the Stars ReMixing With the Stars is intended to give beginning remixers some support, encouragement, and mentoring in their quest to become great, and as a sidenote, to become posted remixers. Beginners are mentored by experienced remixers to push their abilities to new heights and submit collaborative works according to the theme of the month. Who's a "Star" and who's a "Novice?" There are no fixed rules on this. Originally, RWS treated anyone with an OCR mixpost as a "Star" and anyone else as a "Novice." Later it evolved so that anyone could elect to be a Star, but posted remixers couldn't be Novices. The reason was because a lot of really good remixers expressed a lack of confidence in their abilities and didn't feel they were good enough to mentor someone else, but RWS gets a lot more Novice than Star signups. Now anyone can sign up as either, but please be honest with yourself. If you have several direct posts to OCR, you're probably in a better position to give help than receive it. If you have a giant bowl of Wooden Spoons from PRC and mostly only win by default, the reverse is probably true. But if you feel that you're pretty good and your OCR submissions just get NO'ed due to minor nitpicks, go ahead and sign up as a Star if you want. If you have been posted but each submission takes you months and multiple resubmits, feel free to sign up as a Novice. Or not, it's your choice. If you're on the fence, bear in mind that being a Star is a much smaller time commitment. One caveat: This should not be your first attempt at creating music in a DAW. The Stars' job is to provide mixing, production, and arrangement advice. It's not to teach you how to choose or install a DAW, load VST's, work with a MIDI piano roll, arm your microphone, etc. If that's where you are right now, try PRC or MnP as a first compo. Rules Enrollment/Pairings: Stars: Sign up by posting in this thread that you're available. Mention any time restrictions or or other limitations you might have, or if you have any particular strengths you'd like to offer (playing a live instrument is a great one). Novices: If one or more Stars have signed up, just post to claim one! First come, first served. I encourage Novices to rotate between multiple Stars to get different learning experiences and perspectives, but if the same people keep signing up week after week, repeat pairings are fine. If there aren't any unclaimed Stars, feel free to post to say that you'd like one. [*]Mixes: The Novice must be the primary remixer. Stars can contribute by giving advice, performing with a live instrument or vocals, and with production, including sample quality, balance, and minor arrangement adjustments to fix timing or dissonance issues. If you don't use the same DAW, you can exchange MIDIs or rendered stems. The Star may also contribute a short solo segment arranged entirely by them. No one other than the Novice and Star may help in any substantial way. [*]Submissions: All entries must be submitted to ThaSauce by the deadline. Check the ThaSauce page for the exact amount of remaining time (the image in my sig should also be correct). Give credit to your partner in the submission description. File sizes cannot exceed 20MB. If you have trouble uploading the file or getting a ThaSauce account working, post a link to your mix in this thread and I'll get it on there. If this is your first ThaSauce compo entry, don't do it at the last minute! [*]Voting: Use the ThaSauce page to vote. Entrants (Novices or Stars) may not vote for themselves, but your mix gets a bonus first-place vote if you vote. Support your partner by voting! The deadline is on the ThaSauce page (or in my sig, once voting has started). Previous Episodes Season 1 Compilation Season 2 Compilation [thread=40611]Pilot Episode: "Beginnings"[/thread] [thread=41556]Season 1, Episode 1: "Spooky!"[/thread] [thread=41864]Season 1, Episode 2: "Origins of Home Gaming"[/thread] [thread=42143]Season 1, Episode 3: Special "You Can Never Have Too Much Mega Man" edition[/thread] [thread=42485]Season 1, Episode 4: "Yesteryear"[/thread] [thread=42797]Season 1, Episode 5: "Ultra-Modern"[/thread] [thread=43124]Season 1 Finale: "Touched by a Star"[/thread] [thread=43437]Season 2, Episode 1: "Country Road"[/thread] [thread=43702]Season 2, Episode 2: "Tropical Vacation!"[/thread] [thread=45320]Season 2, Episode 3: Special "Wish on This!" edition[/thread] [thread=45909]Season 2, Episode 4: "The Need for Speed!"[/thread] [thread=46454]Season 2, Episode 5: "Pacifism"[/thread] [thread=46676]Season 2 Finale: "Rising Stars"[/thread]

God damn that's tempting. Might be able to squeeze in a bit of time for this--it's an MnP and I've remixed this source before.

I was just about to post with that: http://ocremix.org/artist/4391/lazygecko

Box and Dropbox are just file storage... they shouldn't be transforming your files in any way. When you're playing them back on your computer, are you playing them in the same software before as after downloading? Your DAW may be playing them louder than Media Player etc.

Hey, that's cool that you tagged the ones that made it into mixposts, although especially in the case of "Charge!", the compo and final versions are significantly different.

That being said, nothing says that the lyrics you go with have to be anything like the original in cases like this.

Just updated all the links (old seasons and new). Enjoy! Also, watch this forum for Season 3, launching early next month!

Nice! Mad improvements over the original! That's a lot of hard work that really paid off. ReMixing With the Stars will be returning next month! Anyone who could use a leg up getting their mix quality up to this level, or is willing to help others do so, keep an eye out! (Oh, and I'm fixing all my old dead links now.)

You should poke Dale North to do some Diamonds In My Heart. Lunar: SSSC and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue have only one mix each. Legend of Mana has zero. Get 'em on the list!

Nice. Simple and effective use of the two sources. I'll be using this as something to make my own remixes like.

Idle question, since we just hit 3K remixes, and I noticed that some of the staff picks from The AV Club's interview were a bit lo-fi: Of the first 1000 ReMixes, about how many would you estimate would pass the panel if they were submitted today?

1) Rosalina 2) The King of All Cosmos 3) Purple Tentacle

Did you two coordinate those choices? They positively scream to be used together. I so wish I had time for remixing these days.

Sometimes I need to listen to a remix a few times, mull over whether to add it to my collection. This was not one of those times. Straight into my daily playlist. I even use it for A/B comparisons for my own electronic mixes. I still think the usage of Stone Man is too subtle for the context of the compo, but it's an awesome piece of music.

Main Finger chose him for the WCRG 2011. This one is offline, but Bundeslang should still have it somewhere.

Nice. I didn't know most of the sources, but lots of fun. I particularly liked the bassy PS1 boot. I wonder what the judges would say if someone submitted a remix based entirely on music from the consoles themselves, rather than any games? Could include the snail maze game built into the Sega Master System....

I did think the intro was too long, personally. I like the idea, but the Mega Man series just has too many games to make it work. Especially considering how short the remix source is and how little it's used. The initial saw is so simple and so exposed, and so far removed from the original, it sounds like someone just kind of screwing around on a keyboard they took out of the closet. It's just unpleasant. If you pretended this started at 1:08, it's not bad. An intro, a warmup, some solid beats. Not very recognizable as a remix (I hear the influence, but it's very liberal), but enjoyable. There are some fun house-style things you can do with a very short source to make it interesting but recognizable (risers, sweeps, etc.), play around with it.

As long as you don't directly sample any of the original soundtrack, and you aren't selling your remixes for money, you shouldn't have a problem. (And only Square Enix has a problem with the former.) Certainly just getting your remixes posted to OCR is perfectly fine.

Will should go ahead and make a remix for anterroir anyway. Remixes only take him, what, 20 minutes? An hour if he plans to send it to the panel?