Liontamer Posted September 21, 2024 Posted September 21, 2024 Artist Name: 744 Rad Racer (Highway Star, in Japan) was the first video game I ever played. It's kind of mediocre these days, but I remember sitting on the floor playing it at my grandparents' house on the NES there, hooked up to a massive projection TV (this would have been in 1990 or 1991 when I wasn't even old enough to have started attending school) and "the car game" was my favorite one of the games that were there. Essentially Rad Racer started my lifelong passion for video games, and especially video game music! The three toggle-able tracks in this game have been ear worms throughout my entire life. Gameplaywise, it doesn't hold up all that well anymore, but it's incredibly important to me. It was important to Squaresoft, too, because it was in dire financial straits at the time, and throwing things at the wall to see what stuck; I believe the next game they made after Rad Racer was a little-known RPG called Final Fantasy... About twelve years later, I was introduced to Homestar Runner. I was obsessed. I sent no less than 30 emails to Strong Bad. I played all the games, I watched all the toons, it was a great time. The sheer amount of one-liners my family, friends and I still use today, that originated from Strong Bad emails... Anyway, it all still holds up tremendously well, and is still funny while being generally wholesome. In particular there was a Strong Bad email titled japanese cartoon in which Strong Bad envisions an anime version of himself, named "Stinkoman" (the name having originated in a prior SBemail called "island") essentially fusing himself with the concept of Mega Man, with a hint of Astro Boy, living in future year 20X6. At the end of the cartoon are fake credits (ripped from The Legend of Zelda) over top of a Roland GS MIDI version of the first track theme from Rad Racer, Sunset Coastline. The Bros. Chaps even added lyrics, which are "Challenge and fighting and fighting the challenge tonight" repeating. So now this personally important video game to me was inextricably associated in my mind with Stinkoman. A lot of people never realized the song was from anything else. Also, this remix gave me a reason to once again peruse the Homestar Runner wiki (which is reportedly the best wiki on the Internet, according to Cybershell.) I spent a few hours getting lost there instead of doing important things I should have been doing instead. I am not Clever Dan. I deleted like 14 separate other references to Homestar Runner that were taking up space in this description. It was a bit problematic. Do you know the times? Eh, Steve! Obvious exits are NORTH, SOUTH, and DENNIS. You jumped over some of my buses! Hot diggity danish. Fhqwhgads. I freakin' hate Sibbie. Pfargtl. Steve Duncan. A book of matches. Everything is fine, nothing is ruined. Ebil flindas. Douglas. I remember learning that in school. No loafing. I hope Larry doesn't have to look those all up. Thanks once again for your consideration. See you later nice time, - Ben Games & Sources Rad Racer (Highway Star in Japan) - "Sunset Coastline" by Nobuo Uematsu I have used voice grabs from the following homestarrunner.com Strong Bad email cartoons: "cheat talk," "japanese cartoon," "monument," rampage," "time capsule," "techno," and "your friends" (most SBemails have all-lowercase titles, officially.) If you're not familiar, Mike and Matt Chapman (aka The Brothers Chaps) created h*r and did most of the voicing and animation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8nXy7e3yNI "cheat talk" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KqF9G_DQls "japanese cartoon" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsdo4JjisAA "monument" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3DpZ7bDNIA "rampage" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSn4e1lLVpA "time capsule" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwZwkk7q25I "techno" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NNztP5H97s "your friends"
prophetik music Posted September 26, 2024 Posted September 26, 2024 this is a great original track! i have never heard of this. opens with a super chippy fm bass and kick. lots of fun filtered stuff initially until the main body comes in at 0:30. the mix has a ton of space in it - lots of open air, which is a fun reference to the game and original's title - and the super heavy sidechaining into the drums contribute to that as well. the B theme comes in the keys soon after, and gets a little funky with it. there's a transitional section at 1:42 and then a break with some voiceover sfx at 1:52 for a bit. after the break, the band gets back together for some slap bass and melody at 2:06. there's a neat solo break section on the keys before one more melodic recap and it's done. this is great! instant head-bobber. if i had to complain about anything, i wouldn't have minded hearing more melodic transformation over the course of the song, but overall this is well-realized and a fun adaptation of a really awesome original. nice work. YES
Hemophiliac Posted January 10 Posted January 10 It's really cool that this is a non-Final Fantasy Uematsu source. This is a lot of fun, and people will dig it! Honestly was indifferent to the Homestar Runner clips, they didn't add or take away anything for me. Big sound right off the bat, right after some Homestar Runner clips and slick chips bring us in. There's noticeable pumping from side-chained compression and it's just on the border of being too much. I'd prefer slightly more transparency from the side-chaining, but this is done as effect to help create groove in the track. Hearing the release from the side-chaining on the bass is most evident during 1:44-1:52. During this short bridge it feels too much, but I can overlook it because it's just a short moment. The genre adaption is cool, and I'm grooving. There could have been more melodic embellishment and interpretation but there's plenty of other variation and style to make this your own. YES
Liontamer Posted January 12 Author Posted January 12 Ha, nice lil' pump going on once the source melody came in at :32. Bass also sounds great! Chorus at 1:11 felt like it should have been clearer and not had the pumping, but those are just personal taste things. Wasn't digging the directionless feeling from 1:36-1:52, but it was short. Love this piece; you clearly had fun with it, and there's so much personality added to this rendition of it through the slower tempo, honorific sound design, and copious voice clips. I'm a Homestar Runner fan from way back, so anything with the Brothers Chaps in it has my seal of approval. :-D Great change of pace from 744! YES
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