Hobocop

Wow, cobalt is that your real birthday in your profile? What a coincidence. And sorry about getting the artists mixed up. This project's been through a lot over the last 3+ years...

This track will be tttttttttttttttttttterrific.

Wow, that's a great picture. Is there anywhere to see the rest, or can you say which Pokemon were drawn at least? You mean cobalt, right?

It's not a new idea by any means (that more people play games than sports), and a lot of us can say that we already knew this. But to dismiss it as completely useless is somewhat missing the point, if you ask me. While many of us may claim that we've known this all along, this is an empirically based study, and while that doesn't necessarily correlate to fact, it does provide tangible evidence of something we have assumed already (as mentioned). This may not be news to you, but it is for some. This study wasn't for me or for you. It was for those that aren't into games and who don't see this coming. It, like most surveys, is probably also very political, and, like most surveys, the funding for it would most likely indicate the bias from which it originated. Also, this is just a news posting on a site, the statistics chosen for it were most likely not the study in its entirety. Anyway, the way the author of this news article reported the findings is obviously not the most effective. I think that's one of the problems, but the findings themselves are quite interesting, especially the one indicating that gamers are more active. Then again, it makes me wonder about the sampling frame...

This survey isn't an isolated footnote, as much of game studies literature is beginning to report the same kind of information. While the analysis of this survey merely suggests that gamers are social, many have claimed that gamers are MORE social than nongamers. In particular, Beck and Wade discuss this in their book: http://www.e-learningguru.com/books/gotgame.pdf It's a great book, I would recommend it, although it's obviously highly controversial and susceptible to individual beliefs. They also claim that gamers are better business people (better problem solvers, highly experienced at taking calculated risks, results driven etc). Anyway, in the interest of not sounding like an advertisement I'll stop talking about the book. Thanks for that link, though, it's always very interesting seeing new studies and surveys such as these.

The Donkey Kong Country series. Sure, a lot of games tried to complement the thematic nature of their stages with reciprically topical soundtracks, but this series was among the best (if not the best) in doing so. Every time I hear the music, my mind drowns my attention in the visual aspects of the stage. But since I figured I was biased (having played the games, and their having a big influence on me) in my judgments, I played the music to some friends who had never played the game. I asked what kind of environment the music conjured up, and I was actually pretty surprised how accurate a lot of the responses and descriptions were (you know you're a nerd when...) That being said, I think most game music succeeds (to an extent) in recreating the visual aura of the location in which they are played. To me, it's actually one of the prerequisites and even expectations of game music. I think that's one of the unique aspects that game music brings that other styles or contexts don't subscribe to (at least, not nearly as much). Even classical songs can be adapted to a game to recreate the atmosphere in one way or another (Parodius being one of my favourite examples). Also Super Mario Galaxy. Edit: I just realized that I didn't talk too much about specific tracks! Sorry (almost any in those games would be good, though... I don't think you have to look very far for what you're searching)

I also didn't write which is my 'favourite' but that's because I can't really decide. Even if I did write one, I think the selection might be trivial, as my "favourite" is often highly dependent on the circumstances during listening. I find that most songs on this site convey certain atmospheric overtones and it is sometimes difficult for me to listen to some songs in different contexts (I don't know exactly why; maybe due to the melodic emphasis or thematic nature of video game music?). Anyway, I too find the selection of questions interesting. I am not a student of Music, so I can't fully understand why these questions were chosen. I would probably find it interesting to see the final result as well, so hopefully that becomes available upon completion. I also plan to write an MA thesis on the industry so I would certainly like to see how this precedent shapes up. Good luck!

Thank you SO much. It's only been like what... six years since the last one.

Well, this isn't necessarily true. You can just shrink or lose your current power up, or lose coins etc. Which can make it really difficult if you have to end the stage as the highest possible version of your character, or have accumulated a certain amount of coins or rings.

Sorry for asking, but I'm just wondering whether is this out of your own curiousity, or is it part of a larger project? Either way, you wrote you might do it bi-weekly or monthly, but it might be better to go for a shorter time interval, and/or to centralize your subsequent questions somewhere.

D. There's usually a potential to avoid one hit deaths (, but, since you wrote "unavoidable" enemies, I hate them most because by definition I have no choice in succeeding to avoid them. I remember quite a few in Sonic and the Secret Rings. I hated that game.

Thanks a lot for sharing that. As much as I enjoyed the song before, it's so much better to get a visual perspective of the creators' intentions and mindsets. The video also brought back memories of long forgotten courses, and I can only hope there will be more of this sort of thing some day. Thanks again!

I'm rather programming illiterate, yet want to work in the industry somehow. So... I wrote several academic papers on the industry during my BA, and used one of them to get accepted into a Communication MA program. My hope is that I can weasel my way through the corporate ladder of an organization that deals with games in one aspect or another, or to use the next two years of my MA program as a sort of pre-study for Law. I will then utilize what I learn in this and transfer it to my law courses. I might want to be a video game lawyer specializing in patenting, copyrights, intellectual property etc. And if you think this is unprecedented, you're wrong. Anyway, the point in me saying this is that there are many options available for working in the industry, and a game design degree may end up being trivial in a continuously evolving post-fordist electronics industry. Each year, these degrees can only hope to teach a skeleton of what will be required in only a few years time after you obtain the degree, and as a few of my friends found out the hard way, there is absolutely no job security. Maybe look towards newly emerging fields withing the games industry; for example, there is much talk that as the industry keeps growing, and game budgets begin to reach parity with major motion pictures, newer subdivisions of work (such as authoring video game narratives) will be more in-demand.

That's very sad but true. Solution: Get Free Radical to help make it. Their games are usually for older demographics anyway, but more importantly, it is undeniably obvious that most of them are still obsessed with monkeys (although I guess it is technically true that most of them probably joined Rare after the DKC series...) But then it just hit me. They would probably do to Donkey Kong what Sonic Team did to Shadow. So... nevermind.

You make some really good points, and yes times have changed... but it's not like the DKC series only appeals to the minority. Remember, DKC almost sold 10 million copies, which is still more than each Halo game. It's also a game that didn't enjoy such expansive markets that exist today, so although Halo's numbers will increase, the comparison isn't merely academic. source http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php

Hmm, I've had a lot of people look down on my music. I guess most people here listen to a combination of vg music and the more typical stuff, but I overwhelmingly listen to the former. More recently, when I started going out with my girlfriend a few months ago, she hated everything about games, thinking that they are a waste of time, and the fact that they are so central to my life almost jeopordized "us" ever even happening. One day on a trip to Washington state, I showed her the minigames in New Super Mario Bros., and now we sometimes play video games literally all day. The point in this little story is that people change, and I feel it is important for us as patrons of sites like this one to not get discouraged when we hear negative things being said, and to introduce people to the medium and its branching components. Eventually people will come around. That being said, however, I still haven't been successful in convincing her about game music. She just doesn't like music without words, and game music isn't really saturated with that stuff yet. She did, however, admit that the songs from Donkey Business had better beats than the originals, and she DID like "Toxic Caves" from Sonic Spinball, so you never know.

I can go on all day about what DKC meant (and still means) to me, so I hope that I won't get too carried away. But generally, I know that the three games helped make me who I am today... but before people start assuming the worst, I mean that the series played a huge part in helping me decide that I wanted to pursue game studies, and has aided in my decision to pursue work in the industry when I get all my schooling done in a few years (no matter how unconventional the means may be). Unlike most, I don't hate DKC3, I still really like it, and at one point it was actually my favourite. I think it's just hated on because people didn't like the theme that was somewhat pervasive throughout (it was obviously a lot brighter and bouncier than 2). But since all of this has been said already, I'll get to the point. Probably the main thing I look for in most of my games is the environments and the atmosphere that is created. I think that the DKC series has the best variety and quality of engaging environments of any game, and while yes, the graphics (both technical and artistic) played a huge part in this, so did the music (as all of us here know). I've been listening to the soundtracks almost every day for the last seven or eight years, and it just goes to show the longetivity of the series' music (why haven't they added DKC music to Video Games Live already?). DKC2 has my favourite soundtrack ever, and only Super Mario Galaxy has come close since (obviously, in my opinion). More recently, SSBB ruined the representation of the DKC series within the framework of the DK universe... it's almost non-existant, and whoever green-lighted that sucks big time. But since 2D platformers are having a bit of a resurgence, and experiencing greater success again (Sonic Rush, NSMB), hopefully we will get DKC 4, which is 11 years overdue at this point (DKC was a yearly thing for a while... so when 1997 ended without one I was pretty upset to say the least).

Those are all great, but to me the most unfortunately under-represented song from that game is probably Lockjaw's Locker. I remember a WIP from years ago (perhaps even more than one), but nothing even remotely close to being called "finished." Also, the mini-boss music. At least we all have the project to look forward to, as has been mentioned. Edit: ds is trash - is there anything I'm missing in terms of these songs? You seem to have things covered

I actually think I remember this song. I could have sworn I still had it, but I can only find TO's Pokemon centre mix. Maybe its floating around somewhere with a wrong name. Or maybe it's on one of my old CDs.

Meteorology is great. I wanted to do atmospheric sciences at one point but realized that I hated the hard sciences. Nevertheless, the courses are really fun. I'm hopefully going to be doing an MA in communication this fall. I've been accepted by the department but am awaiting confirmation by the senate of graduate studies or something. Anyway, the best part is I got in on the basis of ludology (or "game studies" - check wikipedia if you want to know more). Obviously, as a gamer, I'm really excited about it, since I get to study this stuff for two years. I actually considered making a thread about video games and academic work a while ago, to see if anyone was interested in it, but I recall making a thread about narrative in gaming a few years ago which bombed. After the MA I'm hoping to get into law and follow this guy's path: http://www.davis.ca/en/lawyer/Chris-Bennett Hmm, yeah that's probably about it. Edit: why do you guys get until April My application was due in January...

So happy to see that this thing is still splashing around. Those first few months were some punny times. Feels like it's been years since then (I mean... oh, right). Heh, I still remember the days when we were brainstorming names for this. Sick mind I had Anyway you guys picked some of the best themes. Sorry for the aside, I'm still really looking forward to this.

Why would you want to corrupt perfectly good video game remixes... sigh, nevermind. Seems like this topic always comes up... you people are weird.

Can't wait for some batting practice against those karts... but where are the MK items? As long as they don't put in those stupid dirtbikes or whatever from the Wii version, I'll be happy. Edit: I think I'm also going to have some fun planting motion sensing bombs and traps on the kart route, I'm gonna be the first one to discover all the ways to blow up those shy guys =O

This has been the best update all month, at least for me. A lot of screens, know how the menu looks, some Pokemon songs were revealed (no surprises though...), and that Ice Climbers song is definitely one of my favourites in this game so far. Nice!

Wait, they still show Slamball? I haven't seen it for years, and I regularly check the channel... Anyway, I was trying to get excited about this for about a week, but after watching the first five minutes, I decided it would be more fun to do my project on the production of Mexican tomatoes. And I would bet good money that it actually was.