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!

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

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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!

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

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VGM Arrangements – PA148

Today we have Nick Marinelli joining us, former head of MAGFest and longtime VGM aficionado. The focus of the show is on the development and history of the VGM community, from its awkward adolescence to the large and growing movement that it is today, which we are very happy to be a part of.

Nick brings to us a selection of arrangements, covers and remixes of the most tried and true classics, with some dating back over 20 years. While we don’t always “play the hits” on the show, we love them all the same and their influence on VGM is undeniable. It’s a huge reason why many joined the community and why we started the show in the first place. If you’ve been around VGM as long as we have, this will be a walk down memory lane. Join us as we talk about our shared memories of being in the VGM community over the past few decades.

Nick also runs Video Games in Concert, an organization that represents and books artists for live VGM performances as well as educational outreach. If you’re interested in booking some of Nick’s artists check it out for your home, venue or company party. Email Nick [at] gamemusic [dot] rocks for more info.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:42:37 — 141.2MB)

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HG101 with Xerxes – PA147

On today’s episode we’re joined by Rob aka Xerxes of Hardcore Gaming 101’s “Top 47k Games” podcast. We talk about his background, how the podcast is made, the excellent resource Hardcore Gaming 101, along with our usual jovial banter. Rob brings us a selection of fantastic deep cuts of early to mid 90s Japanese VGM used in the show, most of which are intro and ending tunes. It’s a really fun show and as always we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Shout out to our friend Norm aka @normallyretro for lending his voice to the HG101 Golf Remix and the main Top 47k Games theme song. Dogs Bower!

Also a big thanks to Dee Liteyears for providing the delightful episode artwork! Follow them on Twitter @DeeLiteyears. Dogs Bower (and Bubsy)!

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:49:44 — 150.9MB)

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Heart Heat Girls – PA146

Heart Heat Girls is a lightly adult-oriented Japanese adventure game released for the PC-98 in December of 1993 by the company Panda House under their Cat’s Pro label. Heart Heat Girls or H.H.G. is set in a futuristic world where humans and androids are at war. A specialized police force known as ACP (“Anti Criminal-cyborg Police”) is tasked with eliminating them. The game begins with two young police officers named Angelica and Apple receiving an S.O.S. about an attack from a mysterious cyborg and arrive to the crime scene to find no survivors. Joined by their friend and colleague detective Keith Bailey, they set out to investigate the case. Despite the name, the game focuses more heavily on the narrative and setting as opposed to lewd content. The gameplay is fairly conventional with light interactions like “Talk” or “Examine” to move the plot along.

The music of H.H.G. was written by Muse and the mysterious Panda, owner of the game development studio Panda House and its subsidiary labels Cat’s Pro and Melody, all companies largely associated with making adult games for the Japanese PC market. Little is known in the English speaking world about Panda and Muse, however they both worked on audio for the company Cocktail Soft, another adult games label.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:41 — 87.7MB)

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VGMTogether – March 12-14

Support the video game music community,
attend VGMTogether online March 12-14!

 

 

Event details
Friday March 12 at 2pm EST –
Sunday March 14 at 10pm EST

VGMTogether featuring 40+ nerdy and video game music artists and 20+ panels of game related topics

The event is free and will be streamed on Twitch and VRChat with conversation on Discord

vgmtogether.com

Music: twitch.tv/vgmtogether
Panels: twitch.tv/vgmtogether2