Category: video games

Chiptunes that Bury Deep into Your Cranium and Stay There

Never figured it out, still awesome after all these years

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who spent countless hours on weeknights and weekends in front of their televisions as a kid playing Nintendo that to this day I find myself humming bits and pieces of game soundtracks.  Despite the limited ability of the old NES music designers managed to squeeze out of it, with the help of additional soundchips in cartridges, some astonishingly catchy music. Furthermore, despite all the technological advances these old catchy tunes remain the bedrock on which new music for old franchises are built upon. That tune that plays whenever Link gets a new item in the Legend of Zelda? There from the very beginning! Mario’s theme? Yup. Vampire Killer? Check! The music might be tweaked, reworked, remixed, and molded but behind it all you still find these iconic, simple ditties.

Ditties that have been firmly lodged in my head for over 20 years at this point! Here are the ones I find myself humming in elevators most often! Not all of these are from the NES but the majority are. (Click the images to listen to the songs.)  It shouldn’t come as a surprise that many of the tunes showcased here are from games that I go back to play over and over again. How else do you think they became automatic responses for me?

Wicked from Castlevania 1 Stage 3
Bubbleman's Theme from Megaman 2
Wily's Stage 1 from Megaman 2
Frog's theme from Chrono Trigger
Bloody Tears from Castlevania 2: Simon's Curse
Overworld theme from Super Mario Bros. 2
Opening Theme to Shadowgate
Stage 3 theme from Metal Storm
Kraid's Lair from Metroid
Act 4, Part 2 theme from Ninja Gaiden

There are some more quite a few more (like Terra’s theme from Final Fantasy VI, or the second stage music from Shinobi 3)… This is enough to get you started though! Youtube is a great resource as are quality fan sites (think The Castlevania Dungeon) If you want even more chiptunes and don’t care if they’re from video games check out 8-bit Peoples.

So, folks what are your favorites pieces of 8-bit and 16-bit music? Please let me know in the comments! I’m always looking for great tunes as well as great games that come with them!

Viriax is Classic Shmup Fun

I’ve never considered myself to be very good at shmups. In spite of that I have always enjoyed them. From my first experience with the genre in an arcade on an old Galaga machine to bringing that experience home with Gradius and Lifeforce. After the 8-bit era I stopped focusing on the genre; I think I played Gradius 3 but such staples as R-Type were unknown to me, I had no experience of the 32-bit era of shmups at all…

I was away from the genre for so long that when I got back into it people were talking about Ikaruga, a fiendishly (to me) difficult bullet hell shmup that I enjoy playing but am under no illusions as to my abilities with it. Shmups have changed, as everything does, and the genre has left me behind. I’m okay with that, I’ve got a lot of others things to distract me and when I do want to shoot tiny things flying in patterns I still have the classics…

And, Viriax.

Viriax is a free shmup with retro stylings and unique game play by the same guy who made Hydorah (another great free shmup.) The game is a vertical scrolling shooter in which you control a single virus as it infects a host. The quirk comes from the fact that you can only,in all circumstances but one, attack enemies from behind, requiring you to maneuver past them before destroying them.

The game has only six levels but the difficulty ramps up quickly. I’m still stuck on the third. Since the levels are procedurally generated and it takes highscores to unlock later levels  going back is rewarding.

Finally, I want to mention the chiptune music by Gryzor87. I’m a big fan of chiptune music: it always reminds me of happy childhood times and I’m genuinely impressed by the depth and range of emotion chiptune artists can create with their limited “palette.” The Viriax soundtrack is ominous and oppressive, fitting emotions for the material, while retaining a catchiness that keeps them firmly lodged in my head. I can’t get enough of the music for the Heart level of the game.

Anyway, if you are looking for some classic inspired shmup fun Viriax is a smart choice!

It’s Dangerous to Go Alone! Give This to Help Japan!

The above animation can be yours as a program or screensaver for either Macs or Windows if you give absolutely anything to the Americares Foundation which is raising money right now to help those caught in the on-going disaster in Japan.

This is a really nice piece of pixel art and you can proudly show it off on your desktop and do something nice for those in need!

via Ted Martens’ Blog

 

Video Games I Just Can’t Quit

I don't have Photoshop, so shut-up

Despite the fact that I have a backlog of video games that is, let me check… At least in the double digits (I haven’t updated it in awhile) I find myself returning to the same stable of games again and again.

Am I the only person who does this? I’m guessing not, going by all the videos, forum threads, and websites dedicated to old video games; how to find them, how to play them, how to beat them, how to exploit  them, and on and on. (I even indulge in this myself. Click on that ‘Let’s Play’ tab at the very top of the page to see.)

I like to think that this is more than blind nostalgia operating. That there are very good objective, quantifiable reasons why I play Megaman 2, Castlevania, or King’s Quest IV time after time and year after year. The problem of course is that games, as works of art, are notoriously difficult to objectively quantify or qualify. The hobby does have widely held corpus of “great” games, but the list is highly mutable and it has been argued contain sgames that are present merely for their age. Furthermore, what qualifies a game as “great?” The criteria available to use is nigh endless and contradictory.

I’m no ludologist (and I don’t have the time, energy, or inclination to pretend to be an amateur one ) so I’m not going to attempt creating a list of the various components of games that qualify them as “greats.” I’m sure if I could isolate said components they would not match up with others’ lists anyway.

Sometimes it is merely the presence of the ineffable that defines greatness, I suppose…

Here’s my list of games I just can’t, and wouldn’t want to, quit (in no order):

  • King’s Quest IV
  • Super Metroid
  • Castlevania
  • X-COM: UFO Defense
  • Megaman 2
  • Contra
  • Space Quest III
  • Super Mario Bros. 3
  • Ape Escape
  • Chrono Trigger
  • Tenchu
  • Final Fantasy

Do you find yourself going back to a set of “knowns” time and time again? Regardless of how many new “unknowns” you might have and want to consume? If so, please share them below in the comments and why you think it is you keep going back to them!

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