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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Expansion Pack XXIX: T&E Golf with Hammock – PA168

KVGM’s host Hammock joins us once again in this expansion pack to talk about the many lovely tunes produced for T&E Soft golf games over the years. We also have the voice of another special guest from 1995’s hit game Pebble Beach Golf Links, arguably the crown jewel of T&E golf games.

Kick back, relax and and enjoy an Arnold Palmtree in the golf clubhouse along with some relaxing tunes. If you like what you hear, check out more from KVGM – The Last Wave on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher, on Twitter at @kvgmradio, on YouTube, or online at kvgmradio.com

Show notes and track list

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:35 — 76.5MB)

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Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade’s Revenge – PA167

The hotly anticipated Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade’s Revenge is here for your listening pleasure! The game saw several releases between 1992-1994 on the SNES, Genesis, Game Boy and Game Gear. It was developed by UK games company Software Creations Ltd., published by LJN on Nintendo systems and by Acclaim subsidiary Flying Edge on Sega systems. It’s a bad game where you control 5 different characters: Spider-Man, Storm, Wolverine, Cyclops and Gambit in a gauntlet of tedious stages with great music (except Wolverine).

The soundtrack was originally composed by brothers Geoff Follin and Tim Follin, no strangers to writing amazing soundtracks for mediocre games, many of them for Software Creations throughout the 80s and 90s. The arrangements for other systems were done by “Sound Images” on Genesis, John Loose on Game Boy, and Alastair (Allister) Brimble on Game Gear. We’ve disliked the game for almost 30 years but we hope you enjoy the music!

Show notes and track list

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:04 — 98.8MB)

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LIVE: MAGWest 2022 with 8-bit Music Theory – PA166

Another year another MAGWest, we’re back in person this year exploring the depths of what makes ‘water music’ with a legend of VGM analysis, 8-bit Music Theory! We put him through the paces as we goof off in our usual Pixelated Audio style. First we ‘get to the bottom’ of what makes water music sound so wet with some examples and audience commentary, followed by a silly but fun quiz!

Check out 8-bit Music Theory’s YouTube channel. 8bmt is a music theory expert, drummer, pianist, and all around nice guy who was so kind to join us on the panel!

Thanks also to special audience appearances by friends and previous PA guests:

Apologies about the audio quality, but that’s live baby! We still hope you enjoy the show as much we did!

Show notes and track list

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:12:38 — 107.4MB)

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MIDI Spotlight: Mime – PA165

Trying out a new format today with MIDI Spotlight starting on a PC98 title called Mime, published and developed by Studio Twinkle and composed by Hiroaki Sano. For a while now, VGMRips stalwart ValleyBell has graciously streamed music to our Discord channel featuring somewhat less common MIDI versions of the soundtracks on authentic hardware. We wanted to share his work more broadly with our audience and we hope you enjoy it. Due to timing it’s Bryan solo today, but it’s a lightweight radio program style show, light on commentary and heavy on music. If you like the format let us know!

Mime was composed by Hiraoki Sano, an MVP of adult-oriented video games and anime. He’s composed some great soundtracks to Japanese PC games like Division Guardian: Twinkle Star, Mirage 2, and one of the earliest English translated adult themed games, Knights of Xentar (for you old school DOS afficionados)! He’s typically associated with FM soundtracks, but like many composers of the mid-90s wrote a number of MIDI compatible soundtracks like this one.

Dedicated listeners may also remember Studio Twinkle‘s most famous game Grounseed. The music in it is so good you owe it to yourself to listen. Today’s game Mime is a first person dungeon crawler released in September of 1995 for the PC-98. The story is a fairly straightforward tale of restoring the balance of the four elements, once guarded by four kingdoms. It features a handful of adult scenes, typical of Japanese PC games of the era.

More music by Hiroaki Sano, Studio Twinkle and many others is available at VGMRips. Thanks again ValleyBell for providing us with the stream.

Show notes and track list

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:52:14 — 146.2MB)

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