lazygecko

Yeah, I was already making this some time in 2007, it was about 60% done but the HD with the project file died and only now did I muster the motivation to start working on it again from scratch. The source is really sparse, I had pretty much one riff and one lead melody to pull from, so I expanded it with a bunch of harmonies of my own. Drums haven't gotten much attention yet, more elaborate fills are needed, more rhythmic SFX which is typical for the genre, some timbres I want to change, and I can probably fit in another short breakdown somewhere if it feels appropriate. Not to mention that it needs a proper ending. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLcTyAMBC7k

Do I ever get tired of hearing this argument. This is nothing but nostalgia-goggles horsecrap. Focusing on pushing the graphics have been at the forefront since the dawn of the industry. You may look at the hardware as outdated now, but when they were new it was impressive as hell, and people focused on the new possibilities they could achieve, not what they couldn't do yet. The bloom and pixel-shaders of the 16-bit era were motion-capture ala Mortal Kombat, Mode7 or plastic pre-rendered 3D sprites. It's the same today. We just look at all this cool new stuff we can do, thinking we have nearly peaked, but if you get some actual perspective there's still a long, long way to go.

Sounds like a stock library sound edited and layered with something else.

I'd wager Deus Ex is already more of an RPG than Final Fantasy is.

They probably need a stronger foothold in the western market.

No, the main reason is they don't want the site melting down from my nerdrage when people will inevitably tag Techno on anything that has even a remotely electronic element to it.

WIP of Leaf Forest from Sonic Advance 2: http://www.speedyshare.com/774975347.html Slowed down the tempo and did some slight re-arrangement, toning down the electronica stuff and giving it a more classic style. Just imagine it's Sonic the Hedgehog 4 or something. VOPM gets kinda volatile (ie, crashes randomly) when I have many instances of it, so for this I'm using a temporary solution of FM7 loaded with old Yamaha banks. I'll replace them with proper patches once it's done.

It's Captain N's evil Sega twin.

Well, I wouldn't say it's not possible on the actual hardware. The only real touch-up is a bit of compression since VOPM is pretty quiet. They have 5 monophonic FM channels, 1 PCM sample channel and 4 PSG channels, which is precisely what the hardware specs allow. The sound is mostly inspired by Battle Mania Gaiginjou and which have similiar quality. Most of the Genesis' best-sounding titles were real obscurities and this is why so many people think that it was inherently inferior to the SNES soundchip.

This is just a little fun idea I had of re-sequencing SNES SPC music as Genesis/MD YM2612 music. I've finished the introduction stage and Blast Hornet. I might do more later, or move on to other SNES games. I used the VOPM VSTi, a 4op FM softsynth identical to the YM2612 chip, loaded with sound banks I ripped from various Genesis games, sampled the drums from Shinobi 3 and Mega Turrican. Used 3xOsc squarewaves and sampled white noise to simulate the 4 PSG channels. http://www.speedyshare.com/437823320.html http://www.speedyshare.com/194163169.html Here are the originals for reference:

This is a fun tune. Sounds like a demoscene module. I'm not sure how well-recieved the sparse production will be with OCR though, since this touches on the chiptune policy.

Screwed around casually with trackers since around 1996, started doing stuff "seriously" in 1999. I wrote stuff in trackers then mixed it in external tools. By 2001 I switched to Fruity Loops and stuck with it ever since. My growth technically has felt pretty stagnant since 2005. Some people like zircon started out much later than I did and have already surpassed my technical prowess IMO, so it's clearly not something set in stone. Though I've never been able to see myself sticking to one type of music and putting it out on a label. I suppose I lack that kind of focus. Like Jaxx, I'm just having fun and won't let the OCR guidelines dictate what I want to do with my remixes.

Something else than fighters would be nice. Like Strider,

The average Photoshop user probably isn't even scratching the surface when it comes to using it to its fullest potential. As such, GIMP works just fine.

I downloaded the titan pack from www.beyondunreal.com , I wouldn't know where to get it on Steam. UT3 Black is simply the full UT3 bundled with the pack.

The industry hates the used games market even more than piracy. This is what all the draconian DRM with limited installs has mainly been directed towards. There are completely free alternatives for pretty much all of the hobbies you listed.

Marvel has the "flexible" timeline, and DC (from what I know) jumbles things up every now and then with their Crisis events. AFAIK the only ongoing comic book character that ages in real-time would be Judge Dredd. The comic started some time in the 70's and he's well over 60 years old now I think.

The execution of OMD and BND was pretty damn awful, but now I think the comic is in a much better state than it has been in recent years.

Maximum Carnage had some pretty bad pacing problems, most stages just kept droning on and on with throwing the same shit at you making it unbearably repetitive. Pretty mediocre for a brawler. There are numerous good Spider-Man games. Aside from Spider-Man 2 and Ultimate Spider-Man, the one for Sega CD was great for its time (hasn't aged too well though), both PS1 games from Activision were quite solid as well. There was also a 2D arcade game from Sega which I haven't played.

This article pretty much confirms Microsoft is blocking a 360 release, because they want you to pay for it. They also wouldn't even let Epic release Gears of War maps for free. http://gamer.blorge.com/2009/03/05/microsoft-wants-you-to-pay-for-titan-pack-on-unreal-tournament-iii/

UT3 is dirt cheap today, goes for about 10 dollars in most places. It's also rumored to be the next Steam weekend deal to coincide with the patch. All the eye-gouging effects were a problem, but in the latest version the video settings have a lot more options to choose from. You can turn off the bloom while keeping everything else on max. I always find this a redundant argument for sequels. You're basically asking for a different game if you don't want Unreal Tournament to play like Unreal Tournament.

DLC on PC games seems mostly confined to Bethesda products and Games for Windows Live in general. Microsoft controls content through both GFWL and Xbox Live with an iron fist. Epic couldn't get Microsoft to authorize mod support for the 360 version of UT3, and the Titan Pack probably isn't showing up for the same reason. Guess it's hard to compete with price-tagged multiplayer maps if the fans can release their own maps for free.

Today a bigass patch 2.0 was released for Unreal Tournament 3. Among a plethora of small fixes it also improves the interface, integrates the game with Steam and adds achievements. After that there's a content pack which adds new maps, weapons and vehicles, player models and game modes. It all clocks in at around 1.2gb and you can download them here: http://www.beyondunreal.com/view_story.php?id=12558 It will also come out for the PS3 version in two weeks or so. Epic knows how it's done. I absolutely loathe this new era of DLC where companies expect you to pay for something as trivial as a few extra multiplayer maps. Had this been released by Microsoft or Activision they would probably have charged as much as a full price game for it.

It's been a while since I listened to Harmony of Dissonance. Is this Juste's theme? I liked this soundtrack and the game, unlike most people it seems. Anyway, I quite enjoy this. It sounds a bit barren, though it might be the production more than anything else. Maybe try adding some sustained strings in the background?