Pixelated Audio

Gyruss – PA116

Inspired by our talk at the Library of Congress, we have a shorter show covering the music of Gyruss over about 25 years of releases.

Gyruss was originally developed by Konami in 1983 with ports developed and published by many companies over its history. We even find the game showing up in a few unexpected places.

The original theme is based on J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor which is a fairly well known organ piece in the classical repertoire. You’ll hear a few different takes on the Bach piece as well as a few new compositions. We hope you enjoy the show!

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:16 — 64.6MB)

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Quartet with Norm – PA115

Today we’re joined by long time listener and friend to the show Norm as we cover the classic soundtrack of Quartet.

Originally developed and published by Sega in 1986, Quartet is a futuristic 4-player arcade platformer with elements borrowed from Gauntlet. Quartet only saw one major wave of releases in arcades and home consoles plus a Sega Ages rerelease, but it maintains a dedicated fanbase and the music composed by Katsuhiro Hayashi plays a big role.

Katsuhiro Hayashi, a.k.a. “Funky K.H” is a composer and former S.S.T. Band keyboardist with some impressive credits. In addition to Quartet, he worked on Super Hang-On, SDI, and Galaxy Force I/II in arcades, and many other console games over the years. Since 2005 he left the conventional games business to work mostly on pachinko games but his music has left a lasting impact.

Join us as we listen to the Arcade and Sega Master System versions of Quartet along with a few brief departures.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:30:34 — 132.4MB)

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PA Music Disk Vol. 4 – PA114

After a long break we’re back with another Music Disk volume for more FM synth.

This episode’s music comes from a disk titled Imagical Musion Depot Vol. 3 by the group Active Gamers, led by NT-3 for the PC-8801. The disk was released in 1996 and uses PMD ver3.9 (by KAJA). Get ready for another round of mostly originals from a slew of different musicians in a range of styles. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:20 — 79.7MB)

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Rackets & Rivals – PA113

After the Library of Congress we’re kicking off a new short episode format and making a return to the wellspring of great VGM with another sports title. This time we’re listening to the music of tennis game Rackets & Rivals released on the NES in 1993 only in… Europe?

Developed and published by Konami or more accurately their European subsidiary Palcom, Rackets & Rivals is an unremarkable late-era NES game with a brief but excellent soundtrack worthy of some attention. The range of Konami technical tricks is on full display here.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:48 — 23.3MB)

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LIVE: Library of Congress: A Brief History of Game Audio – PA112

We’re back from the Library of Congress and what a rare honor it was to be included in their inaugural weekend long event celebrating the music of games. Our talk, which you’ll hear today, covered the early history of video game audio with a few detours into film and pop culture for context.

In addition to our talk, we also got to speak on a panel discussion alongside composer Austin Wintory (Journey) and game designer Rami Ismail (Nuclear Throne) for the world premiere of Austin’s interactive piece Arrows. We also got to meet Winifred Phillips (Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation) after her talk on interactive game audio!

The Library of Congress was a wonderful experience; certainly one for the history books (quite literally) and we hope you enjoy our talk. Here’s a link to the video of the presentation.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:17:04 — 109.0MB)

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Expansion Pack XXIII: Hanging out in DC – PA111

We’re back from our break with a new episode, and this time we have an expansion pack with the many supportive friends and family members that joined us in Washington DC.

On the show we have Bryan, Gene and his wife representing Pixelated Audio, Ed and family members Logan and Myla of the VGMBassy, and Emily of Sound Test Roulette. Each person picked a song that holds a special place in their heart as we reminisce on our time over the weekend.

Though they couldn’t be with us for the recording, we were also joined over the weekend by Rob and Pernell of Rhythm and Pixels as well as perennial VGM stalwart Chris Murray.

Stay tuned for our recording from the Library of Congress in the next few weeks, or wait until it’s officially up in 3-4 months.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:12:51 — 102.8MB)

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