Blades of Steel – PA196


In this installment of Pixelated Audio, we’re taking a stroll through the soundtrack of Blades of Steel. Originally, Konami released this fact-action hockey game in the arcades in 1987 but it really gained popularity a year later when it was converted to the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. However, most of us (at least your hosts) tend to forget that two sequels were released: NHL Blades of Steel ’99 and NHL Blades of Steel 2000 which we’ve got some tunes from as well.

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Sac Gamers Expo 2024 – PA195

With the holiday season upon us, Gene and several other friends visited Sacramento Gamers Expo where we met some awesome game developer legends like David Crane, Garry Kitchen and Ed Annunziata. Joining Gene is Michelle (the ‘voice’ of Sue Kasper), AJ of VGMPorium (also on our Persona show) and last but not least Brian Stewart, one of the biggest VGM fans you’ll ever find. Join us as we look back at our experience at SGE playing games, attending panels and looking back at our gaming in 2024 more generally.

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Expansion Pack 31: Games we Played in 2024 – PA194

Bryan and Gene are back for a relaxed holiday episode where we take a look back at some of the great music we heard in games in 2024. As usual it’s an eclectic mix of genres and style, both in the games themselves and in the music.

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LIVE: MAGWest 2024 – Persona – PA193

Pixelated Audio is back from this year’s Persona themed MAGWest. In honor of the theme we threw together a quick show about the music of the mainline Persona games from Persona 1-5 with a little bit of early Megami Tensei history. We’re also joined by co-host and our good friend AJ aka “rayjkayj” of the VGMPorium podcast. It’s a light show with fun musical examples spanning the decades of the Persona series and we hope you enjoy it!

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SimCity 2000 and SimFarm – PA192

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.

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Masters of VGM 3: Women of Capcom – PA191

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!

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