Memories Associated With OCR

[Darth Lime]

Anyone have fond memories of listening to OCRemixes?

Back in 2004/2005, I would go on 2 or 3 hour long walks around my apartment complex. On my mp3 player was OCRemixes. Zelda, Mega Man, Mario, etc. And as I walked and listened, I would think about stuff. So whenever I hear those remixes again, those memories pop up and I can't help but smile.

Please share your memories, if any.

[Schwaltzvald]

In my Minidisc player (Yes I was one of THOSE that held off the ipod craze) and had cassettes for Zelda, Castlevania, Megaman ect playing while I cleaned house, went to class, simply making visits. Always would have a pair of earphones on and scoff at those that still kept to their cd players; which I still do as I wag my mp3player at them as they fumble with their puffy cd case and battery collection.

When I listen to them however I would be reminded of the simpler times where I'm comfy and relaxing as I reach from one place to another.

[TheSnowStorm]

This was about three years ago when I first learned about OC Remix:

During a rest after practicing with the St. Louis Public School's orchestra at the St. Louis Fox Theater, a friend of mines lend me his MP3 player with "Green Amnesia" (Chrono Trigger's 1000 A.D. remix.) While I gave myself a tour of the Fox Theater, I was amazed by how people would take the time to arrange video game music.

I remember it now, looking over the theater's balcony while Green Amnesia played in my ears, being introduced to OC Remix.

[Darth Lime]

Another time was when I was a Freshman in high school. I would just sit at my computer, look up stuff on Kingdom Hearts and listen to remixes. I still have the same desk from those times.

Ooh! Also when I got the Mega Man Anniversary Collection for Playstation 2. I was blown away by the differences and talent of those remixers.

[Zombie]

I remember the first remix i ever downloaded.

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00966/

I LOVED it. I was freaking out about this site. Tons of free videogame music? It was bliss.

Also, I don't think i will ever forget ◕◡◕.

[OverCoat]

OCR was the thing that kept me sane during my one year at boarding school back in 2001. I found K Praslowicz's Shadow remix on Napster and followed the link and here I am :3

I also remember how devastated I was during the remixer exodus but it turns out all that was for nothing anyway!

[Monobrow]

I associate much pain and agony with OCR lulz

[Sinewav]

Ah, a nostalgia thread on a site pretty much dedicated to nostalgia. Very clever indeed.

This place is so ingrained as part of my identity, that at this point it would be nigh impossible to list all of my fond OCR memories. Not all of these are directly related to the music, but they're all memorable parts of my amazing OCR experience so far.

• I remember the first time I actually listened to an remix from here. My friend (Captain Grunty, Mr. Monday, Heir Montag, etc., if anyone remembers him from back in the UnMod days) had kLuTz' 600 A.D. in Piano playing in the background on his Xanga site (friggin' leecher...) I had just finished Chrono Trigger for the first time, and I fell in love with the remix. Funny, because I had been lurking the forums here for at least 2 years prior, but I had never listened to any of the songs. I have no idea what I was thinking. I was young and stupid.
  
• The third mix I ever downloaded (second was kLuTz' other Chrono Trigger song, Town Life in Piano) was Children of the Monkey Machine's "Ruined World (Eternal Derelict)". I must have listened to that song a hundred times before I actually listened to it without falling asleep. I mean that as a huge compliment, because I was battling massive insomnia at the time, and it was the only thing outside of medication that would make me relax.
  
• The there's the "EA Remix" april fools joke. I pretty much spent my entire day on here as GenDisc degenerated into it's own version of UnMod. Even the people in on the joke started seriously freaking out when Neil L. Shapiro (an actual attorney for EA games) supposedly sent a C&D order to the site for mocking EA. Everyone (or at least all the people who had been formerly trolling the ones who didn't get the joke) started frantically trying to figure out if the C&D was real or not. I then promptly changed my account name (against the advice of Mythril Nazgul) to Neil L. Shapiro, and confirmed that the C&D was indeed real. Everyone went back to screwing around and the thread eventually degenerated into a heated debate about the superiority of pancakes vs. waffles. For the next few months, I was the designated Commander-in-Cheif of the National Waffle Association (complete with a badass NWA sig and, like, 4 members).
  
• Staying up til 4am laughing like an idiot at the cockbee thread. I literally was laughing so hard that I got a headache worse than any hangover I've ever had.
  
• Wearing my OverClocked ReMix T-shirt and having people give me funny looks as they asked "What's an OverLocked Remix?" Grrr.... idiots can't even read.
  
• The "MICHAEL JACKSON IS INNOCENT" fad threads. I kinda miss UnMod, even though I largely agree with the decision to delete it.
  
• Actually crying the first time I heard Jill singing in "Journey's End". I'm a sap. I know. I've never even played FFX, but it's still one of my favorite remixes... no, favorite songs... pretty much of all time.
  
• Getting a totally different, but equally awesome reaction the first time I heard sixto playing guitar for Steppo's "Passing of the Blue Crown" on #ocrwip (zircon had not yet entered the fray at this point). I think that WIP converted me to a prophesying, tongues-speaking Pentecostal, because it felt like I lost all bodily control and I became a conduit for the Holy Spirit to totally rock out on air guitar. To this day I cannot listen to that song sitting still.
  
• Feeling like I was the only person who didn't like the sidebar, but didn't feel like making a big fuss over it.
  
• Back in highschool, I went to a church camp with Mr. Monday. Now few people here know this, but that man is a helluva dancer... and he's got so much charisma oozing out of him that literally everything he puts his mind to is both extremely good and extremely funny. So early one evening, we got a bunch of disco lights, strobes, etc. and he worked up a pretty decent sized crowd dancing to a bunch of tunes on a mix CD he made. His biggest two hits? Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, and Triforce Majeure by Disco Dan.
  
• Playing "Music of My Groin" and "Niggaz 4 Life" for the first time to all of my extremely white, nerdy friends. The two songs have since become part of our groups "Official Soundtrack" which includes other songs like Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up", the Pokemon and Sailor Moon themes (back to back), and the entire Hot Fuzz soundtrack. We once nearly got shot blasting "Niggaz 4 Life" with the windows down while driving around a ghetto area of Cincinnati on our way to a roleplaying game store.
  
• Long nights on #ocremix chatting and listening to various radio streams like VGFreq and whatever Beatdrop calls his show.
  
• Crossing my arms, grinning like and idiot, and telling my parents "Nice Work" at the end of my graduation speech.
  
• I had taken piano and guitar lessons earlier in life, but OC Remix actually inspired me to take my music seriously. Because of the influence of people on this site, I actually went to college to study music. Although I'm on a short hiatus while working on an Associates degree in recording and filmmaking at another college, I intend to eventually finish out a Bachelor's in Music Composition. Thank you OCR, for dooming me to never making any real money for the rest of my life.
  
• Learning to be less judgemental by meeting nekofrog IRL after years of thinking he was probably the biggest dick on the planet. That title has been passed on to Atomic Dog. Nekofrog is actually one of the coolest people I've met in a long time.
  
• And of course an awesome Louisville meetup. This entailed a +10 hour roadtrip with ifirit + nekofrog + nekofrog's gf, staying at totally bitchin' hotel, seeing a fantastic performance of VGL, and nearly choking on our food at Steak 'n' Shake trying to get to our first viewing of The Dark Knight on time.
  
• EDIT: One more... being ridiculously obsessive compulsive about my posts and spending countless hours making dozens of minor edits to their wording (can you guess why I added this one?). I'm glad the forums stopped showing how many edits have been made to a post when we switched to the new boards. If I posted a fraction as much as I made unnecessary edits, my postcount would be astronomical.

tl;dr I know, I know... but that's just what I could think of off the top of my head. I love this place so much. Any time I start to get annoyed with the drama or djp makes a decision I disagree with, I just look back at all of these awesome memories and remember that none of them ever would have happened if it weren't for some amazing people volunteering their time and money with absolutely nothing in return.

This was about three years ago when I first learned about OC Remix:

During a rest after practicing with the St. Louis Public School's orchestra at the St. Louis Fox Theater, a friend of mines lend me his MP3 player with "Green Amnesia" (Chrono Trigger's 1000 A.D. remix.) While I gave myself a tour of the Fox Theater, I was amazed by how people would take the time to arrange video game music.

I remember it now, looking over the theater's balcony while Green Amnesia played in my ears, being introduced to OC Remix.

Dude... That's an awesome way to be introduced to OCR. I'm jealous.

10char... lolololololol

[Alexis]

Not really a very old memory but I'll share anyways.

I'm student teaching high school strings right now, and a few students have stumbled upon the Shadow of the Colossus remix I did on viola a while back. I have a small fan club forming which is kind of fun and it's all thanks to OCR.

[Sinewav]

Not really a very old memory but I'll share anyways.

I'm student teaching high school strings right now, and a few students have stumbled upon the Shadow of the Colossus remix I did on viola a while back. I have a small fan club forming which is kind of fun and it's all thanks to OCR.

Heck yeah man, that's a great little tune you did there. You should see if you can get your highschool band or whatever to do a cover and post it on the boards for everyone to hear.

EDIT: Hahahaha Monobrow, I finally got the funny behind your sig. It has a monobrow. Rofl.

[Audity]

1. Some generic "Diablo - Final Fantasy" remix thing I heard on oth.net, and Napster, got me pumped to search for more video game remixes. (Upon reflection, I don't think that was even a game remix.) This lead to me hearing Impoetus as my first OCR besides Hyrulian. I had no idea what was going on but it sure was cool! Makes me realize that others can still experience music as awesome events.

2. In 2001/2002-ish, setting all I could on a discman, and lying on the floor with my legs going up the side of my brother's bed. I swear I heard songs that night that I'll never hear again, despite listening to all of them again later (but looking at the computer to see the names). Point being, it took me places. (Oh crap that was just my brain functioning oddly.)

3. 2002-ish again (might really be messing up these dates), brother playing Asheron's Call MMORPG with Disco Dan's 'Snake Man Get Down'. I remember it was one of the most unique songs I'd ever heard while it played through the beefy (for the time) system. It was another laying-on-the-floor moment. Scott Peeple's Punchout remix was similar, though I don't like that song anymore 'cuz of how the percussion sounds all repetitive.

4. virt.

Then there was this time I spun up the discman while I was doing physics homework ah wait that was VGMix.

[OverCoat]

Wearing my OverClocked ReMix T-shirt and having people give me funny looks as they asked "What's an OverLocked Remix?" Grrr.... idiots can't even read.

Everyone I know reads it as "Overlooked Remix"

and I tell them "Well, it's OverClocked, but there is an Overlooked Remix which is better"

[Sinewav]

Everyone I know reads it as "Overlooked Remix"

and I tell them "Well, it's OverClocked, but there is an Overlooked Remix which is better"

Truth. Overlooked is where all the songs that are too good for the OCR judges go.

But I went on there the other day, and it's dying. We need to come up with a plan to save it. I have some pretty fond memories of that site too.

[SoloGamer]

Everyone I know reads it as "Overlooked Remix"

and I tell them "Well, it's OverClocked, but there is an Overlooked Remix which is better"

One time I walked into a game store with my OCR shirt and the clerk asked me if I had heard of OLR.

Other OLR memories include driving a former judge insane and helping Nineko find pics that one time he screwed around with their database.

Not much in OCR memories though, other than posting too much for my own good in '05.

[Shadow Wolf]

Oh man, this site has been such a huge part of my life. Back in June 2002, I was all excited about Metroid Prime coming out that November. I was making a PowerPoint of all the screenshots, because I wanted to learn how to use PowerPoint too. I needed music. So I googled "Metroid MP3s" and this site popped up. I downloaded one mix, called Bluebase Incidental. It's not even posted here anymore if I remember correctly.

At any rate, I was intimidated by the sheer amount of the music here, so I didn't come back for awhile. But in October 13th, 2002, I got bored and came back. I downloaded a mix by Dave called Sunken Suite, and fell in love. Since then, I've been to this site literally every single day, and I've downloaded every single mix posted since mid 2003. There's too many awesome memories to count, even though I've never met any of you. It's been a hell of a ride.

[Bleck]

i liked earthbound

[yangfeili]

One of the first remixes I ever downloaded was "Feena Flow" from Ys (I also think it's one of the oldest mixes on the site). At the time, I was only vaguely familiar with the name, having seen Ys III occasionally pop up in Nintendo Power magazines from the early SNES era. Fast forward to today, and it's pretty much my absolute favorite series.

[SynthesizedStampede]

One of the fondest memories I have of OCRemix was that whole I, Mario project that was going on in the forums. It was probably the most involved I've been in the forums up until now and actually contributed concept art to the site. I also remember putting up a picture I drew for Halloween of a Boo clad in "pimp" clothes. So if anybody has it, please send it back to me! I can't find it anymore and my scanner's broken .

But more music related actually is when I discovered djpretzel's "GerudoInterlude" on the site. I thought the song was so awesome that I kept looping it over and over, and it was just so friggin' dope in my mind. I think I overplayed it then, and now I somewhat don't listen to it anymore, but everytime I hear it, I still think that song is awesome. Good times.

[joe_cam]

My greatest OCR related memories:

1.) My Wedding. It's not explicitly OCR related, but when you have The OneUps performing and people like Dale North, Shael Riley, and Ailsean in attendance (among others), it's a good memory and I wouldn't have met any of them without OCR. Dave, still wish you could've made it, even though I'm sure you wish you could stab me in the face.

2.) Walking into a game store and hearing them play Bound Together. I struck up conversation about the music asking where they found it and if they enjoyed it before telling them I was the guy responsible. They didn't believe me until I rapped my part in Da Black Market. The only time in my life I felt like an important person musically. Well, that and singing Katamari with the Smash Bros at MAGFest two years... and bacon.

[SwordBreaker]

Can't really remember how I stumbled upon OCR. It was around 2004 I believe. Don't even remember the first track I downloaded. That's just sad.

I do remember impressing my friends with one particular track, convincing them how so talented most of you remixers are. Zircon's "Monstrous Turtles" wowed them. They were like, "this track can easily fit in an epic game such as MGS." Seriously.

[Darth Lime]

Remember, this thread isn't on how you found OCR. Rather, its about your memories and how OCR plays a part in them.

For instance, when hear "Grand Valse Mario" from Super Mario World, I can't help but remember being in school in the library doing my homework to that song.

Another time was when I was frantically putting remixes onto my mp3 player before my came to pick me and my sister up to for the weekend, and at the same time downloading them, too. Then playing Pokemon while listening to them.

To be honest, OCR played an important role throughout my high school career.

[Kizyr]

I can't remember when I started listening to OCR, but I think it was around 2003-2004. I'd just download mixes from games that I knew, or soundtracks that I liked, and went from there. Though since I got an MP3 player last year, I just download everything and Random Play All.

In fact, OCR is the very reason that I got an MP3 player, so I could listen through everything on the site.

Anyway, there are only a few that come to mind immediately, but I'm sure there are more that'd be triggered once I listen to the right mixes again.

First, and the biggest one, is Reuben Kee's Ascension to Cosmo Canyon. When I moved out of my hometown to DC (after college), I didn't yet have a job or place to live lined up, so there was a bit of uncertainty with that move. Ascension to Cosmo Canyon was the first song I heard as I pulled out of the driveway, so I always associate that song with leaving home and setting up new roots elsewhere.

Also, I associate Russell Cox's To Zanarkand Once Again with first getting onto the interstate during that trip, for the same reason.

The last one that comes to mind is the first time I heard Jill's voice, in sephfire, GrayLightning, & pixietricks's Journey's End. That was more recent (2006, I think). But since my MP3-CD player was just set to random, I didn't know what the song was or even that it was from OCR at first--I kept looking through all the original soundtracks and other music folders.

I think I might have some memory associated with DCT & Just Us's Memories Frozen in Time... but I can't put my finger on what. KF

[Jillian Aversa]

For the past five years, my brother and I have been making OC ReMix playlists to listen to in our dearly departed car, which broke down a couple weeks ago. I couldn't even list all the songs we enjoyed over and over again, but they all tend to remind me of him. Driving and goofily singing along is like our special bonding time.

Then there's 'Lover Reef', which has some very special memories attached to it. Hanging out and making music with zircon, Shonen, Taucer, and D-Lux was some of the most fun I've ever had at a meetup. And of course... that's where I met Andy in person the first time! ^_~

[Archaon]

[edited by djp - irony!]

I love this community!

[SwordBreaker]

Then there's 'Lover Reef', which has some very special memories attached to it. Hanging out and making music with zircon, Shonen, Taucer, and D-Lux was some of the most fun I've ever had at a meetup. And of course... that's where I met Andy in person the first time! ^_~

Interesting story. Must be cool to look back at those days and wonder how all this started. To think a romantic song for OCR got you people together. Ironic, isn't it?