Episodes
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Sue Kasper, it's a name you might know by memory but if you grew up PC gaming in the 90s you're definitely familiar with her work. Sue was the lead composer on SimFarm and the international sensation SimCity 2000! Both games were developed by Maxis, a studio known for producing simulation games since the 80s including SimCity, The Sims, Spore and many others.
Sue's eclectic tunes have been ingrained in the hearts and minds of simulation game players the world over, and there's no doubt that her work on SimCity 2000 inspired a great many other composers trying to capture that iconic simulation game sound. She's a lifelong musician and guitarist that's been playing gigs in a number of bands around California since the 70s. While we weren't able to speak to Sue directly on mic, we had an excellent conversation with Michelle sitting in as proxy for Sue to answer our collective questions about her work on SimCity 2K and SimFarm. It was a ton of fun hearing her experiences rocking out, and her work with companies like Maxis, Guitar Player magazine, and Avid/Digidesign.
Music composed by Sue Kasper unless otherwise stated
0:00:00 Dawn of City (Sim City 2000)
0:06:44 Dancing Megalopolis
0:11:06 The SIM Magic: Experience Mode
0:15:04 Skycrapers
0:22:00 Tax & Money
0:28:35 (Excerpts) Tax & Money, Work Work Work! [with MIDI transcription issues]
0:31:18 Title Theme (Sim Farm)
0:34:13 Dead Farm / Debt Farm
0:39:15 Home Improvement (aka COWMAN)
0:41:53 Work Work Work (Sim City 2000)
0:48:25 Ultimate City
0:52:50 Key of Success
1:01:35 (Bedding) General Farm
1:04:12 Work Work Work!
Composed by Sue Kasper
Arranged by Ryuichi Katsumata for Sim-Melody from SimCity 2000
Other things mentioned:
MAGWest 2024 (Sep 27-29)
MAGWest 2023 - George Sanger Pool Party set
ROCKRGRL Magazine wiki
Bonus link: Small World - Juliet Slip tribute video
All songs using Roland SC-55, thank you to Valley Bell for providing the stellar recordings! -
Pixelated Audio is back for the third annual Masters of VGM (@MastersofVGM), which happens every June. Various podcasts come together to highlight game composers with the theme this year focusing on the amazing women in the industry. We decided to take a more narrow focus on some of the lesser known composers at Capcom and picked 4 to talk about today going from the company's earliest days through the 2000s.
Check out some of the other participating shows in Masters of VGM and discover some new VGM podcast favorites! As always, we hope you enjoy the show!
Track List:
00:00 Main Theme - SonSon (Arcade, 1984) by Ayako Mori
03:56 Stage 1 & 2 - Ghosts 'n Goblins / Makaimura (Arcade, 1985) by Ayako Mori
07:24 Stage 3 - Trojan / Tatakai no Banka (Arcade, 1986) by Ayako Mori
10:44 Crystal Snail - Mega Man X2 (SNES, 1994) by Yuki Iwai
15:17 City Zone B ~ Night - Tech Romancer (Arcade, 1998) by Yuki Iwai
20:48 Tenguman - Rockman & Forte / Mega Man & Bass (SNES, 1998) by Akari Kaida
32:40 No!! - Tricky Sliders / Trick'N Snowboarder (PS1, 1999) by Akari Kaida
36:14 Blast Speed (Blast Man's Stage) - Mega Man Battle Network 6 (GBA, 2005) by Yoshino Aoki
41:12 Now Study! (Libra Scales' Stage) - Mega Man Star Force (DS, 2006) by Yoshino Aoki
48:28 Kaze yo Tsutaete (Game version) ~ROLL Special Ending~ - Rockman Battle & Chase (PS1, 1997)
composition and arrangement by Yoshinori Ono and performance by Yoshino Aoki
Other links
Ayako Mori - Capcom Wiki
Yuki Iwai - Capcom Wiki
Akari Kaida - Capcom Wiki, Wikipedia
Yoshino Aoki - Capcom Wiki, Wikipedia -
Missing episodes?
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Pixelated Audio is back from a wonderful weekend at VGMCon in Minnesota! Gene was slated to represent us but along the way drummed up a party including Pernell from Rhythm and Pixels, Carlos from Heroes Three, and Thomas Kresge head of the Game Brass (check out their new album Barrel Brassed)!When in Minnesota do as the Minnesotans do, as the saying goes. We had a fun time talking about all manner of VGM related to the Midwest; the region itself, games about the area and made there, as well as composers from the area.Getting more specific we cover pinball and edutainment in some level of depth before the panel devolves into talking about Shrek, cheese, and endless trips cross country. It's a fun journey through a diverse range of VGM and we hope you enjoy the show we put together. Pardon the noise in the background, it was the best we could do with a portable recorder.Track list 0:00:00 (Bedding) "The Creek" WolfQuest (Minnesota Zoo & Eduweb 2007) by Tim Buzza, additional music by Ben Woolman 0:14:52 (Excerpt) Suzanne Ciani Creates the Soundtrack for a Pinball Machine YouTube 0:15:51 (Excerpt) Xenon gameplay (Bally 1980) all audio by Suzanne Ciani (video courtesy of London Pinball) 0:18:19 "Main Theme" Pin-Bot (Williams 1986) by Chris Granner 0:22:24 "Speak Softly, Love" feat. Slash from The Godfather Pinball (Jersey Jack Pinball 2023) by Thomas Kresge 0:26:38 "New York City (Action)" X-Men Legends (Raven Software 2004) by Rik Schaffer 0:33:34 "Title Theme" Oregon Trail Deluxe (MECC 1993) by Lon Koenig and Larry Phenow 0:36:47 "Gimme Mo' Torque" Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense (DC version, 1999 Luxoflux) by Christian A. Salyer, Eric Klein, Javier Marquez 0:40:26 "Tracking Trouble" Puzzle Agent (Telltale Games 2010) by Disasterpeace / Richard Vreeland) 0:47:04 "Granny Cream's Hot Butter Ice Cream" Hypnospace Outlaw (Tendershoot 2019) by Hot Dad / Erik Helwig / "Chowder Man" 0:49:11 "Kitchen Music" I Am Bread (Bossa Studios 2014) by Black Heron (Leo Chilcott and Murugan Thiruchelvam) 0:54:48 "Protector's Enclave" Neverwinter (Cryptic Studios 2013) by Kevin Manthei 0:58:44 “Let's Break Physics (Main Theme)” Unstable Scientific (Studio Castle Soodalkov TBD) by Super Marcato Bros 1:04:29 "Exploration" WolfQuest by Tim Buzza 1:21:09 "The Creek" WolfQuest by Tim BuzzaAdditional things mentioned during the talk Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) The Story of The Oregon Trail - Gaming Historian YouTube Trailheads: The Oregon Trail’s Origins - Twin Cities PBS Ben Hanson travels the roguelike Oregon Trail - Video Game History Foundation R. Philip Bouchard (lead designer of the 1985 Oregon Trail) Personal website | died-of-dysentery.com | Died of Dysentery book, history of the game Minnesota things! Level with Emily Reese podcast home | PA episode with Emily VGMCon Games Done Quick Other things mentioned Airport CEO - game | soundtrack Fight'N Rage - game | soundtrack SML Podcast
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Kamen Rider Agito & Kuuga Wild Battle [仮面ライダーアギト＆クウガ ワイルドバトル] is a 2001 game for the Sega Pico developed by Arc System Works and published by Bandai. It is based on the Kamen Rider superhero license property which started in the 1970s.
To keep it brief, the Sega Pico is less a console and more a children's toy. Imagine the guts of a Sega Genesis / Mega Drive (minus the FM) stuffed into a colorful laptop / digital storybook for pre-school age children. For the Sega Pico, Kamen Rider is surprisingly involved and game-like compared to most of the educational software the system was built for. It features a basic 1-on-1 fighting game, a racing game, and a lightgun style shooting game.
On the audio hardware side, the Pico contains the Sega Master System's SN76489 (3 square waves, 1 noise channel) and a sample channel used mostly for voice clips. Unfortunately we don't have information on the composer / arranger for the Pico version, but some of the tracks are based on the original Kamen Rider music composed by Toshihiko Sahashi. It's an unexpectedly cool soundtrack for an obscure system even by VGM standards, and we hope you enjoy it!
Based on original compositions by Toshihiko Sahashi, no credits available for the Pico arrangement
00:07 Title Screen
04:02 Agito Page
10:19 Character Select
14:51 Battle BGM
21:27 Agito Game
23:09 Kuuga Page
28:24 Kuuga Game
Thanks to marklincadet of VGMRips for creating the pack! -
Ultimate Brain Games is a board game collection released for PS1 in 2003 developed by cosmigo and published by Telegames. There's not much to say about the board games themselves; things like dominoes, chess, backgammon and the like, but the soundtrack written by Zbigniew Siatecki is great! Cosmigo was a very small German developer responsible for a ton of board and card game collections from around 2000 to 2015. They still exist today, mostly as the developer on a pixel art graphic software called "Pro Motion".Zbigniew Siatecki's story is a somewhat familiar one around this timeframe. He's a Polish musician and graphic artist that got his start in the demoscene in the 90s / early 2000s (working under the pseudonym Siatek) whose music made its way into a few games from 2003-2007. Since his work on Ultimate Brain Games, and the related soundtracks for Ultimate Card Games and Solitaire Overload, he's mostly moved onto 3D graphics working on titles like Hard Reset, Shadow Warrior 1 & 2 (the 2010s series), Dark Souls: Remastered, and Cyberpunk 2077. His music is warm and nostalgic with all of the charming turn of the millennium demoscene vibes you can handle. While we couldn't get him on the show, we're still big fans of his work and we hope everyone enjoys it as much as we do.All songs composed by Zbigniew Siatecki 00:00 Alice - Ultimate Brain Games (PS1) 03:51 Twilight 15:51 Blossom Time 23:04 Maya 31:40 Winter Morning - Ultimate Card Games (GBA) 36:37 Winter Morning (Excerpt) - Solitaire Overload (DS) 38:31 Dolphin Play - Solitaire Overload (DS) 41:59 Dolphin Play (Excerpt) - Ultimate Card Games (GBA) 48:02 "i love you" filename Syfonia.it also Starlight in Ultimate Brain Games (PS1)
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GunMaster is a December 1994 arcade exclusive game developed by Metro Corporation. It's a single or two-player boss rush action game that's part fighting game and part platformer; think a dash of Gunstar Heroes with a Neo Geo art style. The game uses a well-established combo of soundchips: the OKIM6295 for 4 channels of ADPCM and the YM2151 for 8 channels of FM audio.Metro Corporation was best known in the 90s for their Bust a Groove / Bust a Move series. More recently they've been a contract developer for Nintendo working on several Pokemon games and the Switch re-release of the Another Code / Trace Memory games.The soundtrack was composed by a trio under the pseudonyms Famishin, MAZ, and Shadow although our information about them is limited. What we do know is that Famishin continues to work in the game industry with their company Yuzusoft, with game releases as recently as 2022. MAZ was last seen as composer for Metro Corporation's PS1 game BursTrick: Wake Boarding!!, and Shadow is as elusive as Totsukurzwell (from our show on Dangerous Seed). As always, we hope you enjoy this boss music heavy soundtrack.All songs composed by Famishin, MAZ, and Shadow 00:00 Opening 01:52 Soldier Ore, Aries 09:39 Pearl, Onyx & Gemini 13:09 Leo 20:02 Turquoise 22:50 Tourmaline, Virgo 24:56 Aquarius, Taurus 28:11 Cancer, Red Amber 30:55 Capricornus 40:48 Queen Dia 45:45 EndingThanks to 2ch-H of VGMRips for creating the pack!
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Gigandes (ギガンデス) is an arcade game developed by East Technology in 1989 and released in February of 1990. It's a horizontal shmup in the style of R-Type featuring all of the bio-mechanical tropes common to the era. It was designed for the Taito X System hardware which used a YM2610, the same audio configuration used in the Neo Geo, and was composed by Akira Inoue and Takaro Nozaki.
East Technology was a small developer based in Shinjuku that mostly worked on arcade games. The company was founded in 1987 and operated until around the mid-1990s. East Technology only produced around 10 games; their most notable were Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone published by Technos, and Operation Wolf 3 and Silent Dragon published by Taito.
The soundtrack to Gigandes is eccentric and in some ways ahead of its time. Full of weird and off-putting samples, the tonal whiplash is at times abrasive and at others catchy, but always compelling. Relative unknowns Akira Inoue and Takaro Nozaki put together a one-of-a-kind soundtrack that is worth the time to explore and we hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did.
All songs composed by Akira Inoue and Takaro Nozaki
00:00 Brain Dump (Stage Start)
00:10 Speshul Atak Younit (Chapter 1: Round-37 Takes Off!)
06:23 Climax Without Foreplay (Chapter 2: The Rival Arrives)
09:04 Propagandasm (Stage 2 Boss)
14:27 Populism Answer (Chapter 3: Mesopotamian Nightmare)
17:37 Behold! This Face (Stage 3 Boss)
23:36 New Order (Chapter 4: Save the Colony Part 1)
27:21 Vertigo Factory (Chapter 5: Save the Colony Part 2)
33:09 Aquarium Island (Chapter 6: Showdown at Tatarajima)
36:14 Fight Fire with Fire (Stage 6 Boss)
41:40 It Ain't a Plot (Chapter 7: The Underground Kingdom of Larzan)
45:15 5-Count (Last Chapter: Sleep Quietly, My Friend)
49:12 Unused 4
52:29 Exposure Over (Last Boss)
54:49 Loving as Much as a Wound That Heals (Name Entry 1)
59:07 The Warrior and the Official (Name Entry 2)
59:46 5.67 Billion Years of Solitude (Game Over)
Thanks to The Golden Horse of VGMRips for the pack! -
We’ve got a really fun soundtrack to dive into this episode from a Jaleco arcade title released in 1989 called Plus Alpha, composed by Tsukasa Tawada.
It’s an overhead shooter similar to Twinbee, Raiden, or 1942 and was re-released on the Nintendo Switch in 2020 under the Arcade Archives series published by HAMSTER Corporation.
This is one of Tsukasa Tawada's earliest soundtracks, a composer still active in the 2020s with work on Pokemon and Harvest Moon titles. He brings lots of variety in this soundtrack, which is a ton of fun and also hits all the marks for an awesome arcade experience.
Tracklist:
All tracks composed by Tsukasa Tawada
00:04 Triumphal Return Overture (Title)
03:26 Wind Dancer (Stage 1 Wind Country)
08:25 Into Blue (Stage 2 Sea Colony)
09:39 Bird Island (Stage 3 Flower Town)
14:20 Sun Colors (Stage 4 Snow Country)
16:08 Last Heart (Stage 5 Sand City)
19:54 Neo Baroque (Stage 7 Eden)
21:11 Boss Stage
22:06 Harmonica for Peace (Unused)
26:47 Ending Theme
Thanks to ctr from VGMRips for creating the pack! -
In this latest mini episode we're talking about Solstice: The Quest for the Staff of Demnos, a childhood favorite on the NES composed by Tim Follin.
Solstice released on the NES in the US and UK in mid 1990. It was developed by Software Creations and published by various companies in different regions. It's a challenging isometric puzzle platformer in the vein of games like Knight Lore and Lumo. Solstice only released on NES, but it did have a sequel on the SNES called Equinox.
Tim Follin is a VGM composer that hardly needs an introduction. Master of VGM folk and prog rock and putting way more effort into game soundtracks than they usually deserved, Tim worked on games like Bionic Commando and Ghouls'n Ghosts for C64, Plok for SNES, Ecco the Dolphin for Dreamcast and a tons more games. More recently he's moved into game development with games like Contradiction: Spot the Liar.
For more info about the illustrator of the box art, check out Michael Winterbauer's website.
Tracklist:
All tracks composed by Tim Follin
00:05 Title Screen
06:47 Introduction
07:10 Main Theme
18:50 Game Over
19:00 Credit ~ Continue
26:22 Ending
Thanks to Gnome from VGMRips for creating the pack! -
In this bite-sized installment we're exploring the soundtrack from Bomb Jack on the Nintendo GameBoy composed by the legendary DMG DJ, Alberto José González.
Bomb Jack released on the Game Boy in the UK in 1992 and Sweden in 1993. Adapted to the handheld by Bit Managers and New Frontier; published by Infogrames. Bomb Jack has had dozens of ports derived from the Tehkan Arcade game from 1984. CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 16, 64, Amiga, PC88, SG1000, ZX Spectrum, and even things like Java ME.
Alberto José González is a Spanish video game graphic artist, music composer, designer, and pretty much everything else. Notable games from French publisher Infogrames helped shed light on his early career and eventually helped found Bit Managers and later Abylight.
Twitter | YouTube | SoundCloud
Tracklist:
All tracks composed by Alberto José González unless otherwise stated
00:03 Bomb Order Bonus
02:05 Title Screen
12:18 Stage BGM
14:58 Name Entry 2 (ARC) - originally composed by Tsukasa Masuko
19:09 Game Over (The Last Sigh)
Thanks to The789Guy for the Gameboy pack and 2ch-H for the Arcade pack over at VGMRips! -
Another titan of the game industry, George "The Fat Man" Sanger, joins us live at MAGWest! George has done so much to shape the course of game audio in America that the best we can hope for is scratching the surface with this post. During his career he's worked on numerous games, alongside his legendary group of cowboy composers under the moniker "Team Fat" which consisted of himself, Dave Govett, Joe McDermott and K. Weston Phelan.
A short list of projects that George and Team Fat worked on: Thin Ice for Intellivision, Maniac Mansion and Rad Gravity for NES, Zombies Ate My Neighbors on SNES, a litany of computer games including Loom, The 7th Guest, The 11th Hour, Wing Commander I and II, Ultima Underworld, Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon, Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo, Pajama Sam 3, and many other games. He's done work for so many companies it'll be faster to just link to his Wikipedia or Mobygames pages.
His influence in PC game music is especially strong. He's created think tanks and collaborated with audio companies which led to the adoption of hardware like the MT-32, General MIDI, and even redbook audio as data on CD-ROM games like the 7th Guest. In the 1990s, he was also one of the first to bring American VGM composers together through "Project Barbecue", an early precursor to events like GameSoundCon, MAGWest and others.
We loved every minute of talking with George and hearing his hilarious stories; from his humble beginnings, to his lengthy career and accomplishments, to his work with Team Fat. He is a larger than life character in a suit and cowboy hat and we wouldn't have it any other way.
If you haven't got your fill of George yet, check out a few more things:
Team Fat Bandcamp page - buy some of their classic albums!
George's website - Learn more about the man himself
And a few plugs from George for good measure
The 7th Guest VR
Soups On - Remade music from 7th Guest and 11th Hour in a 4 vinyl set (fully funded Kickstarter)
Pixelated Audio and the Fat Man
Music composed by George Sanger or other members of Team Fat (Dave Govett, Joe McDermott, K. Weston Phelan) unless otherwise stated
0:00:00 (Bedding) Swing Commander (Rec Room) ver 1.7 - Wing Commander Remastered (MT-32) - Dave Govett and George Sanger
0:05:39 Surfin on Thin Ice - Intellivision Lives! (GC)
Based on "Carnival of the Penguins" for the 1983/1986 Intellivision game "Thin Ice" - George Sanger
0:13:49 (Excerpt) Main Music - Capture the Flag (Atari 8-bit)
0:15:08 (Excerpt) Surfin on Thin Ice (Live) - Intellivision Lives! (GC)
0:18:02 Planet Theme - Rad Gravity (NES)
0:22:19 Title Theme - Rad Gravity (NES)
0:23:31 Go Get 'Em! - Wing Commander Remastered (MT-32) - Dave Govett and George Sanger
0:26:22 (Excerpt) Main Theme - Loom (MT-32)
Based on "Pas de trois - Intrada" originally by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, transcribed by George Sanger and Gary Hammond
0:27:32 Main Theme - SSN-21 Seawolf (MT-32)
0:34:33 Putt in Tunisia - Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon Remastered
0:48:28 Bedspread - The 7th Guest Remastered
0:54:00 I R Sam or Sam's House - Pajama Sam 3 Remastered
1:01:51 Train: The Lost Puzzle Piece (Unused) - The 7th Guest Remastered
1:06:57 Zombie Panic - Zombies Ate My Neighbors (SNES) - Joe McDermott and George Sanger
1:18:13 Dave's Theme - Maniac Mansion (NES) - David Hayes and David Warhol
1:21:53 Welcome to the Zoo (Final) - Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo Remastered - George Sanger and Team Fat -
Today we're joined by composer g3ntlebreeze for a unique behind the scenes look at his work on Castle in the Clouds, a Castlevania-inspired hentai game (NSFW - not safe for work). The game was developed by Libra Heart and pixel-teishoku and published by Critical Bliss. Castle in the Clouds is a 2D pixel art platformer released on Steam in 2021 with lovingly crafted art and an incredible soundtrack. This "hornyvania" puts you in control of bounty hunter Lily on her quest to defeat hordes of monsters and maybe get a little something extra.
Critical Bliss is a rapidly growing developer/publisher that focuses on international releases of raunchy, fun, and unique erotic games that started around 2016. Libra Heart is a developer best known for their work on this game as well as the "Succubus" series, with additional help on Castle in the Clouds from pixel-teishoku.
g3ntlebreeze mixes together sultry sounds, nostalgic chiptune vibes, jazz and some truly wicked solos in this and other erotic games. He's worked on Tower & Sword of Succubus, Midnight Castle Succubus, Avaria: Chains of Lust and many other games that are best looked up with safe search on. We had a great time chatting about his musical background, composing for h-games, and some of the games and VGM composers that continue to inspire us. As always, we hope you enjoy the show!
For more amazing music from g3ntlebreeze check out the following links:
carrd.io | Bandcamp | Soundcloud | Spotify | YouTube | Twitter
Track List:
All songs composed by g3ntlebreeze unless otherwise stated
0:00:00 Title
0:05:12 Lily's Theme
0:13:27 Water Cave
0:21:57 Ghost Ship
0:25:16 (excerpt) Picture of a Ghost Ship
from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PCE-CD) composed by Keizo Nakamura
0:32:52 Ice Cave
0:39:13 Desert (Dunes)
0:47:20 Hell
0:53:55 Heaven
1:06:21 Final Area
1:11:53 Boss 2
1:15:16 Final Boss
1:27:09 Ending
For more adult games with great VGM mentioned on the show, check out some of our past episodes:
47 - Grounseed
66 - Hole Chaser with Masahiro Kajihara
119 - Eve Burst Error
146 - Heart Heat Girls
165 - Mime
169 - Expansion Pack XXX - Adult VGM with Hammock -
Pixelated Audio is back for the second annual Masters of VGM (@MastersofVGM), an event every June where podcasts come together to highlight some game music composers, either personal favorites or some that deserve a bit more attention. The event was created by bedroth, host of Very Good Music and BGMania podcasts. Check out some of the other participating shows in Masters of VGM and see what people are up to, or discover some new VGM podcast favorites!
We picked a selection of 8 more VGM Masters, all of them amazing women composers, covering a mix of music from the 80s to today.
Track List:
0:00:00 Ruins - Brandish (PC-98) by Mieko Ishikawa
0:09:25 Goodbye, Adol (Unused track) - Ys II (PC-88) by Mieko Ishikawa
0:15:35 Centaur Man - Mega Man 6 (NES) by Yuko Takehara
0:18:19 Charlie's Theme - X-Men vs. Street Fighter (ARC) by Yuko Takehara
0:24:37 Shoo-Bee-Doo Hullabaloo - Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS4/PS5/Win) by Winifred Phillips
0:33:30 Area 4 - Planet Ocean (Aquabomber) - Bomberman World (PS1) by Jun Chikuma
0:41:02 Imminent Defeat - Neo Nectaris (TGCD) by Jun Chikuma
0:44:10 Main Theme - Assassin's Creed Origins (Various) by Sarah Schachner
0:53:34 Versus Oz - Sword of Etheria / OZ (PS2) by Michiru Yamane
0:57:37 Haunted Manor - Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom (Various) by Michiru Yamane
1:02:16 Fighting Chance - Dicey Dungeons (Various) by Chipzel
1:07:43 Authority - Octahedron (Various) by Chipzel
1:15:39 Welcome to Moonglow Bay - Moonglow Bay (Various) by Lena Raine
1:22:01 Exhale - Celeste (Various) by Lena Raine
Other links
Mieko Ishikawa - VGMPF wiki
Yuko Takehara - Capcom DB fansite
Winifred Phillips - Website, NPR interview transcript
Jun Chikuma - Les Archives, Midas Touch (Bandcamp albums)
Sarah Schachner - Website
Michiru Yamane - Website
Chipzel - Bandcamp
Lena Raine - Bandcamp -
We're joined today by Emily Reese; Minnesota Public Radio newscaster, VGM podcast legend and co-creator of the Level with Emily Reese and Top Score podcasts with Sam Keenan.
She is a trumpet player, and studied music education and jazz studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder and received her master’s degree in Music Theory from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Emily is an avid gamer (RPGs and FPS games are a favorite), and a lover of music with jazz and classical in particular.
Today's show began as an interview with Emily but quickly turned into the three of us talking shop about the inner workings of creating the best possible podcast. All the discussion of audio editing and interview planning you can handle, as well as some career highlights from the trio. It's not our typical show format, but we had a great time talking with a fellow podcast host and kindred spirit.
Emily started her radio career in 2005 and began working at Minnesota Public Radio in 2008, where she and Sam created Top Score in 2011. Top Score was one of the earliest and most prominent video game music podcasts which featured interviews with some of the most famous composers in the industry. It ushered in an era of mainstream game music appreciation, as well as being a huge inspiration to many aspiring VGM podcasters including us here at Pixelated Audio! After Top Score ended in 2015, Emily and Sam created a new podcast to carry the torch, Level with Emily Reese, which focuses on broader game audio topics including composers, sound designers, voiceover actors and performers. Her vast musical and audio knowledge make Emily's interviews with composers and audio professionals some of the most in-depth around.
If you'd like to hear more, check out Level with Emily Reese, which currently has over 200 episodes and releases on an almost weekly cadence. The show can be found on their website, on YouTube, on your favorite podcast platform, or on their Patreon page.
To learn more about Emily and Sam's other projects, check out their company page Joon Media.
Track List:
0:00:03 "Towhee Grove" Oxenfree - by scntfc
0:14:49 "Welcome Home" The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human - by Karl Flodin
0:29:23 "Star Forge" Straylight - Rob Kovacs
0:44:11 "Lauren Winter's Theme" Heavy Rain - by Normand Corbeil
1:08:32 "Anka" Signs of the Sojourner - by Steve Pardo -
How do you do justice describing Brian Schmidt's contribution to gaming? His impact on the global trajectory of games has been immense. There's no doubt in our minds that Brian is one of the most important figures in videogame history, and we couldn't be more honored to have him joining us on the show. This next paragraph is only a portion of what Brian has been up to for the last 35 years or so.
Brian Schmidt began his career in games at Williams around 1987. He soon began working on music and sound programming on iconic pinball games like Swords of Fury and Black Knight 2000, as well as the infamous arcade game NARC. He later went freelance and worked on mechanical and redemption games, dozens of licensed pinball games like Data East's Batman and many for Sega. Fun fact: the 1991 Batman pinball game was the first to use Brian's BSMT2000 hardware board designed for sample playback which went on to see use in pinball games for around 10 years. He then went to Electronic Arts and did sound for a ton of console games like Crüe Ball, Desert Strike, Mutant League Football and a variety of sports games. He contracted with QSound to work on 3D imaging in stereo sound and helped create the hardware used for in a number of games, including many Capcom CPS2 arcade machines. Eventually he moved onto Microsoft where he created the audio architecture for the Xbox and Xbox 360, as well as creating the OG Xbox startup sound. In 2009 he created GameSoundCon, the premier conference for industry professionals to learn how to write and implement music for games. He has been the current president of Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) for over a decade, an network of audio professionals based around growing the influence and legitimacy of video game music globally. G.A.N.G. along with many other groups paved the way for the recent acceptance of videogame music as a Grammy category. He's currently the audio director and composer for Digital Dreams Entertainment's recent games Mutant Football League 1 and 2, spiritual successors to the EA games he worked on all those years ago.
We had the privilege of talking with Brian about his entire career in games from the very beginning to the present. We cover tons of FM music, pinball, NARC, the Pixies, QSound, EA Games, the Xbox, and his current work on Mutant Football League. This is definitely an episode to catch and we are absolutely thrilled to share it with everyone. If you'd like to learn more about Brian, check out Brian Schmidt Studios where you can see his game credits among many other things.
Track List:
All tracks composed by Brian Schmidt unless otherwise stated
0:00:02 Space Station - Main Theme (Pinball - 1987)
0:06:25 Swords of Fury - Pre-launch, Main Theme, Ball Lock, Two Ball Lock (Pinball - 1988)
0:13:05 (Excerpt) "Lionman vs. Balrog" Swords of Fury cover by Stemage
0:26:58 Black Knight 2000 - Main Theme (Pinball - 1989) co-composed with Steve Ritchie
0:37:42 Black Knight 2000 - Multi-ball composed by Dan Forden
0:39:23 NARC - The Stick (aka K.R.A.K. Street) (Arcade - 1988)
0:46:23 (Excerpt) "Theme From Narc" cover by the Pixies
0:48:22 Batman - Main Theme (Pinball - 1991)
0:55:09 Checkpoint - Jazz (Pinball - 1991)
0:58:11 Checkpoint - Classical
0:59:39 Checkpoint - Rap
1:01:13 (Bedding) Checkpoint - Soul
1:04:56 (Excerpt) "Virtual Haircut" binaural audio demo by QSound
1:07:03 Crüe Ball - Stage 6 (Genesis - 1992)
1:10:59 Desert Strike - Main Theme (Genesis - 1992)
1:13:43 Madden 95 - Halftime (SNES - 1994)
1:19:14 Madden 97 - Menu (PS1 - 1996)
1:21:08 NBA Live 97 - Song 3 (Genesis - 1996)
1:28:23 Xbox startup sound (Xbox - 2001)
1:46:16 Mutant Football League - Cold Steel and Ice (Various - 2017)
Big thanks to ctr for his work on QSound support and ValleyBell for help with Checkpoint/Batman audio dumps. Appreciate it! -
Today we're joined by composer and graphics artist Robert Vroemisse for Angelic Warrior DEVA, a modern indie game for the MSX2 released in 2020. Together we talk about the game, the development process, Team DEVA and gaming in the Dutch MSX scene.
Angelic Warrior DEVA is a fast-paced, tough as nails action RPG for the MSX2 created by Team DEVA; made up of Robert Vroemisse (pronounced "Fru-miss-uh") on graphics and most music, John Hassink another MSX scene legend on additional music, and Bart van Velzen the mad lad behind the coding of the project.
Robert Vroemisse who typically works on graphics is the main composer out of necessity but what a killer job he did. The soundtrack is absolutely jam packed with amazing music written for the combo of MSX-AUDIO (OPL1) and MSX-MUSIC (OPLL) and we couldn't be happier to talk with Robert about it.
For more info about Robert check out his MSX.org profile. For the soundtrack to DEVA itself, you can listen to it on Robert's YouTube, on VGMRips, or for download on MSX.org.
For more music by John Hassink, check out his YouTube channel
To purchase Angelic Warrior DEVA, either email Team DEVA frantically for a physical copy or buy it digitally here.
Tadahiro Nitta's album Coordimates with cover art by Robert
Track List:
All songs composed by Robert Vroemisse unless otherwise stated
0:00:00 Title Screen
0:00:29 DEVA Audio Test Menu
0:11:33 Area I - VR testing facility
0:22:00 Introduction Demo II
0:27:01 Area II - Sky Aquaducts
0:35:56 Boss Theme
0:41:53 Area III - Geyser Plains - by John Hassink
0:46:12 Area IV - Plasma Factory
0:53:53 Area VII - Construction Site
0:59:11 (Excerpt) Construction Site rearranged
1:03:42 Area VIII - Death Zone - by John Hassink
1:12:32 Mid Demo II
1:15:58 Area X - Arctic Mines
1:24:39 Shop Theme (Neutral)
1:28:11 Shop Theme (Bad)
1:29:23 Shop Theme (Good)
1:36:09 End Demo II
1:40:27 Game Over -
We're back with another stellar euro platformer, this time in the form of Wolfchild, developed by Core Design. Your father Kal Morrow, expert in genetic research and creation of human-animal hybrids, has been kidnapped and the rest of your family was brutally murdered by the terrorist organization CHIMERA. You take control of his surviving son Saul to exact revenge against CHIMERA and their leader Karl Draxx.
Core Design is best known for their work on the first few Tomb Raider games, as well as other games like Rick Dangerous, Jaguar XJ220 and the Fighting Force series.
Simon Phipps, one of the early members of core and a lead graphic designer on Wolfchild published a great article on his website which is where we gathered a lot of the information for this episode. He talks about the origin of the game, the inspiration for its design (Strider, Island of Dr. Moreau, etc) and some notes about animation and the various releases.
Music this time around is handled by Martin Iveson on the original Amiga, Atari ST and later reimagined Mega CD version, with the Genesis, Game Gear and Master System covered by Pixelated Audio veteran Matt Furniss, and down porting duties from the Mega CD to SNES by Steve Collett. There's more good music than you can shake a stick at across the 7 different platforms and we hope you enjoy it!
Track List:
0:00:00 Stage Select (Mega CD)
0:02:08 Title (Amiga)
0:10:11 Title (Atari ST)
0:15:33 Title (Genesis)
0:24:05 Wolfship (Amiga)
0:29:15 Wolfship (Genesis)
0:33:22 (excerpt) Wolfship (Mega CD)
0:33:48 (excerpt) Wolfship (SNES)
0:34:10 (Bedding) Wolfship (Mega CD)
0:35:23 Jungle (Amiga)
0:42:04 Jungle (Genesis)
0:47:23 Jungle (Mega CD)
0:54:36 Temple (Amiga)
0:59:03 Temple (Genesis)
1:02:19 Temple (SNES)
1:05:59 Stage 4 - Chimera Base (Genesis)
1:08:25 Final Stage - Chimera Base (Amiga)
1:12:41 Final Stage - Inner Core (Mega CD)
1:17:09 Ending (Game Gear)
1:19:23 Ending (Mega CD)
1:23:01 Ending (Amiga)
Wolfchild
Amiga, Atari ST (1992) Mega CD (1993) Composed by Martin Iveson
Sega Genesis, Game Gear, Master System (1993) Re-arranged by Matt Furniss
SNES (1993) Adapted from Mega CD by Steve Collett -
Today we're joined by industry legend Neil Biggin in an absolutely massive show! Neil regales us with hilarious stories as we cover a wide range of his electronic music during his time at Gremlin Graphics from about 1992-1996. He walks us through some memories of landmark events during the 16 and 32-bit eras: the launch of the CD32, the first days of the Playstation, and being at a company with one of the world's first motion capture studios.
Neil Biggin began his career with Zool 2 on Amiga, and continued with games like the CD32 versions of Zool 1 and 2 and Top Gear 2, Top Gear 3000, the Actua (or VR) sports games, Loaded, Re-Loaded, a number of FIFA games from 1997-2000, and music porting duties for the Desert/Jungle Strike games. His earliest works are teeming with the lovely sounds of Rave and House music, but as his sound progresses he gets deeper into other genres like Metal, Jungle, Drum and Bass and much more. Whether you're new to his work or an old fan, Neil's music continues to sound great to this day.
Neil is also in the process of re-releasing much of his music. Check out his Spotify as more gradually starts appearing over the coming months. He's also working on the latest iteration of the Amiga Immortal album series where Amiga legends like himself, Barry Leitch and many others come together to remaster their own works for modern audiences.
Neil's Links:
Spotify | SoundCloud | Twitter
The kooky song that Neil was thinking of was indeed Martian Hop by the Ran-Dells, a kitsch classic that's still pretty entertaining today.
Track List:
All tracks composed by Neil Biggin unless otherwise stated. Tracks marked with a * indicate previews, newly released tracks or exclusive unreleased material shared from Neil.
0:00:00 Zool 2 - Mount Ices (Amiga)
0:08:09 (Bedding) Zool 2 - Bulberry Hill (Amiga)
0:12:38 Zool - Track 6 (CD32)
0:25:51 Top Gear 2 - Track 1 (CD32)
0:33:18 Top Gear 3000 - Track 2 (SNES)
0:40:15 (Bedding) Top Gear 3000 - Track 3 (SNES)
0:44:32 (Excerpt) Zool 2 - Bulberry Hill (Remaster)*
0:44:54 (Bedding) Desert Strike - Title (DOS - Adlib)
0:47:57 (Bedding) Jungle Strike - TItle (SNES)
0:50:07 Bedding) Jungle Strike - The Madman's Son (SNES)
0:51:00 (SFX) Jungle Strike (SNES)
0:51:43 Premier Manager 3 - Title (Amiga)
0:59:48 Loaded - Track 6 (PS1)
1:14:24 Zool 2 - Tooting Common (CD32), demo also used in Loaded as a hidden track
1:19:48 Actua Golf - Main Menu (SAT)
1:26:19 Actua Golf - Options (SAT)*
1:38:59 Re-Loaded - Purpid (PS1)
1:59:40 Shoot For Loot - Title Theme (Arcade)*
2:01:22 Shoot For Loot - Track 5 (Arcade)*
2:15:54 Hardcore 4x4 Flea's Dreams (PS1 - Unreleased OST)* -
Going back to the NES we get The Guardian Legend, a curiousity developed by Compile that is best described as Zelda plus Zanac. Originally released in 1988 for the NES, The Guardian Legend or "Guardic Gaiden" is the pseudo sequel to MSX game Guardic from 1986. While the developers insist there's no story links between the games, there's enough gameplay and music shared between the two that we decided to play a lot of Guardic music for comparison.
The music was composed by two individuals: Masatomo Miyamoto and Takeshi Santo. Masatomo Miyamoto worked with Compile from around 1985-1990 and soonafter left the game industry. Takeshi Santo worked as a sound programmer at Compile from 1987-1989 and then went off to found Sting where he's spent most of his career in a producer capacity.
The Guardian Legend (NES) - 1988 | Guardic (MSX) - 1986
Composed by Masatomo Miyamoto (both games) and Takeshi Santo (TGL only)
Track List:
0:00:04 Title Screen
0:03:16 Approaching NAJU
0:05:16 Boss Theme 1
0:06:58 Message Room
0:12:18 Main BGM (MSX)
0:14:05 NAJU Overworld
0:19:39 Empty Room
0:21:04 Title (MSX) | Password & Outer Space (NES)
0:23:19 Oceanic Area Overworld
0:24:20 Oceanic Area Corridor
0:25:29 Name Entry (MSX)
0:28:44 Boss Theme 2
0:30:27 Corridor Done (NES) | Stage Selection (MSX)
0:31:43 Randar (MSX) | Blue Randar Room (NES)
0:32:57 Forest Area Overworld
0:39:37 Forest Area Corridor
0:43:10 Stellar Area Overworld
0:44:13 Stellar Area Corridor
0:53:01 Organic Area Corridor
0:56:13 Wasteland Area Overworld
0:57:16 Wasteland Area Corridor
0:59:19 Boss (MSX) | Boss Theme 3 (NES)
1:00:48 Last Corridor
1:03:31 (Bedding) Ending (MSX)
1:04:02 Ending
The Guardian Legend (NES) - composed by Masatomo Miyamoto and Takeshi Santo
VGMrips credit to NewRisingSun
Guardic (MSX) - composed by Masatomo Miyamoto, sound programming by Takayuki Hirono
VGMrips credit to GTheGuardian -
Today we're joined by composer and indie game developer Timmie aka DDRKirby(ISQ) to talk about their music for Super Mega Zero, an awesome fast-paced puzzle platformer for PC and Switch. We also spend a good deal of time talking about DDRKirby's work in the indie game scene, as well as their upcoming game Rhythm Quest which sounds amazing.
Super Mega Zero was developed by Silkworm and Rogue Games and released in April of 2022, it's a mix of VVVVVV and Celeste, so fans of those games will feel right at home. Pick up your copy on Steam or Switch, you'll be glad you did!
DDRKirby has been involved in composition and indie game development for a long while and their signature "9-bit" style is on full display here. If you like what you hear, check out more from the links below:
Website | YouTube | Patreon
Bandcamp | Super Mega Zero OST
Rhythm Quest | Discord
Links to some of the other things mentioned
Kat Jia's website featuring her wonderful art
Cocoa Moss - DDRKirby and Kat's game studio
One Hour Compo (OHC) - The weekly music competition that DDRKirby has participated in for years
Ludum Dare - The game jam competition website
Episode Track List:
All music composed by DDRKirby(ISQ) from Super Mega Zero unless otherwise stated
0:00:05 Super Mega Zero
0:04:03 Cyclic Oscillations
0:12:28 Pursuit of Infinity
0:19:54 Irrational Space
0:30:27 I Love The Sky (arranged) - From Kiwis Can't Fly
0:41:07 Null Terminator
0:52:30 Tritonal Tribulations
1:04:05 Infinity
1:17:16 Midnight Marauder
1:27:41 Sequential Success - Show more
