Greatest Driver – PA154

We’re back with an episode covering Greatest Driver, a 2D Formula 1 racer for the MSX2 released in 1988. The game was produced by T&E Soft, a developer and publisher primarily known for golf games in the 90s, Red Alarm for the Virtual Boy and the Hydlide series. Composers Kazunori Hasegawa and Shigeru Tomita bring us some fun jams, especially the intro and ending tunes. Most of the music is using the OPLL / YM2413 FM chip with a few brief detours into other areas. It’s a short show and we hope you enjoy the music!

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:15 — 36.2MB)

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

Pac-Man CE DX – PA153

Today’s source of great music is the Pac-Man Championship Edition series. This is an audio companion to HG101’s Top47k Games: Episode 420 where we were invited to review Pac-Man CE DX+ with Xerxes and Bobinator!

Bandai Namco‘s Pac-Man has been a mainstay for over 40 years and this is Pac-Man with a twist. You have your ghosts, your pellets and your maze, but now the maze is split in half and it’s a frantic time attack with some excellent tunes to support up to 10 minutes of play at a time. The original Championship Edition launched in 2007, CE DX in 2010, the CE DX+ DLC in 2013, and the NES remake in 2020. We don’t cover CE 2 from 2016 but check that one out for some great music as well. The tunes are long and dance-y and we hope you enjoy them!

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:04:43 — 89.1MB)

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

Sega System 16 Baseball – PA152

We’re taking you out to the ball game in this short and fun episode covering music from 3 Sega System 16 baseball games: Major League, Super League and Excite League. It’s late 80s baseball from Japanese arcades, so it’s 2D sprites, digitized samples and YM2151 FM patches all the way down. No composers confirmed but Tohru Nakabayashi, Hiroshi Kawaguchi and Katsuhiro Hayashi are the prime suspects. We hope you enjoy the music!

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:10 — 44.2MB)

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

F-1 Super Battle – PA151

F-1 Super Battle is a racing game from 1994 for Jaleco’s Mega System 32 arcade board. It’s notable features are that it still features sprite graphics fairly late for an arcade game, and the upright arcade cabinet is a somewhat unusual egg shape. No composer information in this mini episode, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the music!

  • Special thanks to GTheGuardian for the original rip on VGMRips
  • Check out the weird egg shaped arcade cabinet at arcade-museum.com

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:58 — 29.0MB)

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

Street Cleaner with Jesse Bishop – PA150

Street Cleaner: The Video Game released for PC and Switch in 2021 is a classic 2D side-scroller inspired by NES action games like Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania and Sunsoft’s Batman. It was developed by Creaky Lantern Games, an indie game studio run by Jesse Bishop and Brooks Bishop (no relation). It is a very real game based on the fictional Street Cleaner 80s revenge film(s) on which Jesse based his artist name. In the game you take the role of Jack Slade whose mission is to clean up the mean streets of San Diego with your trusty bat and gun.

Today’s guest is Jesse, better known as Street Cleaner, a synthwave artist and video game music composer. Jesse has been producing synthwave for over a decade and in recent years his work has appeared in a number of games. Some of his projects include Wasteland 3, Hypergun, Exception and he recently had a track on Chex Quest HD! We had an absolute blast talking with Jesse about the game, the Street Cleaner project, Creaky Lantern Games, and life in general. As always, we hope you enjoy the show as much as we did!

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:46:28 — 146.4MB)

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

Tom Salta – PA149

Today’s special guest is Tom Salta, a hugely talented and accomplished artist and producer. He’s worked in film, TV, ads and games for over 30 years and has produced with legends like Bobby Brown, Cher and Peter Gabriel. He’s spent the last 20 years working in games including Cold Fear and Red Steel and some of the world’s largest franchises like Tom Clancy, Just Dance, Prince of Persia, Halo, Killer Instinct, Wolfenstein and PUBG.

Join us as we chat with Tom about his game music career over the past 20 years, from his breakout tracks to more recent hits. He’s a stylistic chameleon and no two tracks sound alike, so you’re in for a treat! A big thanks to our previous guest Nick Marinelli of VGIC for connecting us with Tom Salta!

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:21:06 — 111.5MB)

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS