benprunty

Way back in like 2000 I was a huge fan of djpretzel's Mystery Videogame Theater on overclocked.org. I still think MVT is hilarious. On the sidebar of the site was a little picture of his webcomic character Pretzel with two turntables and the text, "OVERCLOCKED REMIX". It had to be good, right? I'm so glad I clicked on it. OC Remix became a huge inspiration for me and influenced all of my music from then on.

Really, like with Zelda, I want to see a complete, radical overhaul of the series and start from scratch. Look at what made the original great, and then try to make a new game as if none of the others existed. I feel like Shadow of the Colossus is inadvertently an example of this. The game feels as though the only game the designer had ever played was the original Zelda and he wanted to recreate that experience with modern hardware. That's what I want to see with Metroid.

I love this stuff. I wrote a similar article on the subject a while back: http://makeshiftmusician.blogspot.com/2008/02/importance-of-music-to-humankind.html In his book "This is Your Brain on Music", Daniel Levitin suggests that music evolved as a method for attracting potential mates; similar to, but obviously more complex than, say, peacock feathers. Several things correlate with this: 1. The love song, which, when written and performed well, has a powerful effect on those who listen to it. 2. The fact that being a musician takes intelligence, agility, coordination, social skills and patience, all of which have been important for human survival in the last 5 million years or so. 3. The absolutely incredible sexual attraction that rock stars have over everyone else. I'm not saying I believe that, but it is hard to ignore the fact that a rock star can pretty much choose whatever mate he or she wants. Anyone interested in the origins or purpose of music should first understand human origins in general. I recommend the famous Richard Leakey's "The Origin of Humankind".

When I was a teenager, I mostly only listened to electronic music and game soundtracks. When I went to college I stumbled onto latin jazz and loved it. Now I actively seek out new genres of music every six months or so. Recently I've been getting into modern funk, but I've added bluegrass, classic rock, old-timey folks and modern classical to my list of interests. I even wrote an article on the subject.

A couple of years ago I had a little Quake 3 LAN party with my buddies. Some of us had Macs, some PCs and some even had, *gulp*, Linux. It took us two hours just to get everyone's copy installed, patched and configured so we could all play together. Quake Live can have as many in-game advertisements as id wants. If it is not only free but requires almost zero set up time, then I can't even describe how great that is. To be able to just say "Hey everyone, bring your computer and we'll play Quake 3!" and have everyone just jump in with console-like ease is a boon. It's a great use of our modern technology and the fact that it is free just makes it perfect.

I don't know if you really need a whole kit to do it, but replacing the pin connector does work wonders. If you've ever replaced anything in your computer you can easily swap out a pin connector on your own without directions. It's also good, though not as essential, to get some electrical-connector cleaning solution and apply it to the pins of your cartridges with a q-tip.

A lot of things in King's Quest VI creeped me out, like the genie who kept showing up trying to get you to inadvertently kill yourself. He could always be identified by his glittering eyes. The zombies in the land of the dead were freaky too. If you touched them you would disintegrate, but because you had a goddamn adventure game point-and-click interface, it was impossible to guarantee that you wouldn't brush against them. So every move was nerve-wracking.

So, wanting to try and inject more funny into the Makeshift Musician, I made my first attempt at a humor article. It's not particularly insightful, but I think I succeeded at making it funny. It has only been tested on my close friends, however. What do you think? Check it out: 5 Reasons Why You Should be a Musician Instead of Working in IT Feel free to Digg it if you like it.

I've been looking for info on orchestral sample library, but I can't seem to find any definitive source on the internet, you know, with comparisons and such. I figured you guys would have a good idea and would like to share some information. What do you folks know about? Thanks. -Ben

I think Wind Waker was the pinnacle of the modern 3D Zeldas. I think after that one they should've simply looked at the original NES Zelda for inspiration and started from scratch, without ties to Ocarina of Time. Twilight Princess was way too much of a rehash of Ocarina for me. I couldn't even finish it. Anyway, as for the look, it was so perfectly implemented. Better than any other game. It wasn't plagued by the usual graphical problems that other games have, like polygon tearing and warping and there were very few clipping issues. After that, Twilight Princess looked buggy, muddy and unrefined. Twilight Princess was not a bad game, but Zelda and I have had a falling out after Wind Waker. I can't go back until I'm certain it will be a new game. Okay, done.

Thanks for the help guys! I'm using an Asus Eee pc, and it'll be a lot of fun to mess around with it.

Hey folks. I just got me a linux laptop and I was thinking it would be fun to put tracker or other composition type software on it. Well, not the act itself. Trying to put anything on linux isn't exactly fun. Anyway, you guys have any recommendations? Thanks. -Ben

I feel like the time spent making this game could've been spent making something more interesting and original. This thing will always be relegated to novelty status.

I'm happy that the Wii is finally finding some relevance for me now. Aside from Smash Bros, there wasn't a whole lot for me to get excited about. Now I play Dr. Mario Online all the time and I can't wait for all the Mega Man goodness. Bring it!

I'm going. I can't wait.