The Guardian Legend – PA174

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.

Show notes and track list

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:05:50 — 100.1MB)

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Super Mega Zero with DDRKirby – PA173

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:

Links to some of the other things mentioned

Show notes and track list

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:29:15 — 139.1MB)

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Uchuu Keibitai SDF – PA172

Kicking off the new year with a Famicom banger! Uchuu Keibitai SDF is a vertical shooter released by HAL Laboratory in 1990 for the Japanese market only. While the game leaves a bit to be desired, the soundtrack is great and definitely worth exploring. It was composed by HAL veterans, Jun Ishikawa (known for Kirby Super Star, Alcahest, and Hyper Zone) and Hideki Kanazashi (known for F1-Race, Mach Rider, Eggerland, Rollerball, and Adventures of Lolo). Great music and plenty of space babies to keep it interesting.

Show notes and track list

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:26 — 50.6MB)

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PC Music with WASD – PA171

Following up our last show on CANYON.MID, we’re joined by the artist that closed out the show, Austin Green. Austin is a guitarist and leader of the band WASD. We’re going all in on PC game music today with a mix of Austin’s favorites as well as PC game music covers from his recently released album Escape.

For more info about Austin and WASD, check out the following links:

Linktree | Bandcamp

Don’t forget to catch WASD live at MAGFest 2023

January 5-8, 2023 (Thursday to Sunday)

Show notes and track list

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:26:26 — 140.2MB)

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CANYON.MID with George Stone – PA170

Today we’re talking about one of early PC computing’s most iconic songs, “Trip Through the Grand Canyon” also known as “CANYON.MID” with none other than the composer himself, George Stone! We take a trip down memory lane and discuss how the song was written, how it ended up on millions of PCs around the world starting with Windows 3.0, and its status as a song that remains beloved to this day.

George Stone is a multi-talented jazz musician who has been active for over 35 years; he’s a performer, composer, arranger, and long-time professor at Cuesta College (Music, Recording Arts, Jazz performance/arrangement/composition). In addition to teaching and live performance, George recently did orchestration and arrangement for the 2022 film Amsterdam. After our interview, George was kind enough to send us a number of gifts that bring us joy: a signed PDF copy of CANYON.MID for Bryan and Gene to cherish (yes really), an unreleased MIDI from 1991 which we included in the show, the above charming side-by-side photo of George 30 years apart (1991 to 2021) as well as a screenshot showing some of the original musical cues he worked on way back when!

We checked our facts and sorry George, we forgot to credit you specifically in our talk at the Library of Congress, continuing the unfortunate trend (whoops). Hopefully this episode serves as a decent apology and as always, we hope our listeners enjoy the story and the music as much as we do!

Special thanks to virt (aka Jake Kaufman), “The Smash Brothers” and the band WASD for their lovely arrangements of the classic CANYON.MID

Show notes and track list

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:07 — 114.7MB)

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Expansion Pack XXX: Adult VGM with Hammock – PA169

We’re once again joined by our guest host from the last episode, KVGM host Hammock and his father figure Craig Stadler in this milestone show. It’s Expansion Pack XXX – Episode 169, covering the music from adult visual novels and adventure games. Hammock is an expert spelunker in the world of adult VGM jams and the numeric convergence was just too good to pass up. We’ve got a selection of tunes both sexy and unusual in this show, and we hope you enjoy it!

In other golf related news, happy belated 69th birthday to our guest Craig, and check out episode 69 – Neo Turf Masters with Takushi Hiyamuta.

If you like what you hear, check out more from Hammock on KVGM – The Last Wave on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher, on Twitter at @kvgmradio, on YouTube, or online at kvgmradio.com

For more amazing adult game VGM check out some of our past shows: Grounseed, Eve Burst Error, Hole Chaser, Heart Heat Girls, and Mime

Show notes and track list

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:04:43 — 148.2MB)

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