video game music – NewRetroWave – Stay Retro! | Live The 80's Dream!

Swordfall debuts ‘Nobody Knows Nobody Fears’

Robin Ono — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 16:23:21 +0000

From ashes, he has risen once again. Swordfall’s debut marks the return and a new beginning for the French producer formerly known as Yx, whose trilogy of releases caught our attention back in 2017. Nobody Knows Nobody Fears pushes Yx’s sound into radically new territory. Swordfall fuses elements of Darkwave and Symphonic extreme metal, coated in dark fantasy and cosmic horror.

Swordfall ‘Nobody Knows Nobody Fears’ is out now via Bandcamp and Spotify.

OSC’s ‘Deuce’ EPs brings back Tennis BGM nostalgia

Robin Ono — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 14:11:14 +0000

Following up on their tribute to City-pop Yume No Machi, Brighton-based producer Opus Science Collective has returned with an equally refreshing angle to croon your senses to sweet surrender. As the title suggests, Deuce is an EP focused on the bright, punchy sounds of Tennis Videogame soundtracks. It’s funky, colorful, and long enough to leave you yearning for another set.

Thankfully, the EP’s release coincides with that of a Vapor Edition and Remix album featuring Caspro, Bart Graft, Eyeliner , Xennon and Donor Lens (featured below).

Wether it is for its original tracks or its equally impressive alternate versions, Deuce is a grand slam that you simply shouldn’t miss.

OSC ‘Deuce’, ‘Deuce : The Remixes’ and ‘Deuce: Vapor Edition’ are out via Bandcamp and Spotify via TimeSlave Recordings.

Editor’s Choice: Genesis Jams (Part I)

bryan.eddy@newretrowave.com — Sun, 30 Aug 2015 10:58:33 +0000

I can tell you folks about title after title, three times a month, or I can try to entertain you and shake it up a bit. This will be the first of an “Editor’s Choice” series of articles, where I focus on a category or aspect of classic gaming and give it the spotlight. I often use social media to discuss the subjects with others before sitting down to write; if you want to throw me suggestions,, look for me on the retro gaming related pages on Facebook. I’d like especially to give a shout out to Hidden Sound Test, for giving me so much feedback the other day. I got a lot of good suggestions, but I plan to do more than one article on Genesis music, so don’t worry!

Sleek 90s styling. The console of the future is (was) now.

The Sega Genesis. Outside of North America, it was known as the Mega Drive. Released in 1988 in Japan, the system didn’t make it here to the West until a year or two later (depending where you lived). It overlapped and competed heavily with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and there are still devoted partisans for each system who maintain their console is the superior.

One thing the Genesis had the SNES beat on, hands down, was music. The Sega Genesis had not one but two chips devoted to music and sound; the Yamaha YM2612 FM Synthesizer did most of the heavy lifting, while the Texas Instruments SN76489 Programmable Sound chip rounded out instrument and sound effect selection. The result was a rich, sophisticated sound system that was still undeniably FM synthesis – crunchy and groovy.

I have chosen, in no particular order or rank, five tracks that I consider to be examples of the versatility of the Genesis sound suite.

#1: Gaiares Stage 1 Music

I have always loved spaceship shooters, and Gaiares is a solid one. Challenging and fast, it keeps you glued to the action. This theme is a great way to start the game, with a daring and upbeat feel to it. You fly into the void knowing you have what it takes to win the day. The entire game is full of vibrant tunes, but this one has always stood out for me. It’s intrepid, and even a little hopeful. I especially like the marimba-type instrument on the breakdowns.

#2: Warsong Title Screen/Player Phase 4 Music

Warsong (also known as Langrisser) is a strategy based game that I’ll admit to knowing only a bit about; I’ve only seen gameplay, and my local rental place never had it when I was growing up. However, a collector friend fired it up while we were hanging out one afternoon and I was enchanted by this track. It’s suitably mighty and medieval, but the crying horn synths and big drum arrangement lend it an aura of emotional turmoil. This is a very charged piece of music, which is fitting for a dramatic wargame like this.

#3: Sonic 2: Chemical Plant Zone Music

I’ve got a lot of love for the first 3 Sonic games. I’m not terribly good at them, but my good buddy Dan is. You can sit Dan down in front of a Sonic game and he’ll put it in its place. Dan loves this track, and so do I. It’s electric. It’s got that growling, dirty FM crunch with a laser-like high end and a stainless steel beat. It’s so 90s it can’t even contain itself. I have supplied the extended version because you’ll want to listen to it for a while.

Castlevania: Bloodlines: Sinking Old Sanctuary (Stage 2) Music

Any fool knows that the Castlevania series has some of the most divine music of any video game franchise in history. When coupled with the depth of the Genesis’s instrumentation, this resulted in a set of masterwork tracks by composer Michiru Yamane (who would go on to write more fantastic music for Symphony of the Night). This track is somber but dynamic, well-suited to the ponderous yet lethal aquatic theme of the level. There is a soft beauty to the melody line, and there is a mellow ghostliness on the lead synths while they keep pace with warm low-end arpeggios.

Toe Jam & Earl: The Big Earl Bump

Except for Sonic, no one was as cool on the Genesis as Toe Jam & Earl. The lost alien rappers also had great taste in tunes… and my favorite from the game is this twangy bop-fest. It’s really groovy, but it’s undeniably cartoonish. This is song for walking , which Toe Jam & Earl do a lot of. When I learned to play bass guitar, the first style I learned was jazz. I love the plucked sound and the snappy lines. The bass really shines through on this one.

In the near future, I will revisit the glorious music of the Sega Genesis with five more picks. Stay tuned, and thanks for all the feedback!

See you in a few days for another game review, Retro Gamers!

NewRetroGaming Interview – Crossing Souls Promises Nostalgia

Joey Edsall — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 14:51:00 +0000

Crossing Souls is an independent and retro-inspired video game currently looking for funding on Kickstarter. You can check out the trailer for the game on the Kickstarter page or on YouTube. Does the song in the trailer sound familiar? Yep, that’s Timecop1983! He is going to be contributing the soundtrack to the game. I had the chance to interview the Crossing Souls team.

We should probably start with the most basic question. What is Crossing Souls: An Adventure Between Life and Death?

Crossing Souls is an Action Adventure with an orthogonal 2D view with an 80s looking style, slightly similar to classics like The Legend of Zelda or the most recent indie game Hyper Light Drifter.

We’ll be able to control five different characters, each one has different abilities and weapons, which will have to be mixed in order to overcome all the challenges that are waiting for them: exploration, hundreds of NPC from different epochs, solving puzzles, looking for treasures and fighting against enemies.

The game will have plenty of references to films, TV shows and video games that marked an epoch in our childhood. We will look for an emotive touch that make the player remember those titles. Because it’s mainly based in the 80s, the “easter-eggs” will be related with audiovisual content of the decade, but we will also find references to more recent pieces.

How did the Crossing Souls team come together?

We were three friends who wanted to make something different. There are not too many jobs in Spain right now so we talked about starting up our own company. That was more than two years ago and since then, we have completed all kinds of jobs like websites, mobile apps and games but a year ago we decided we just wanted to make games so… here we are!

Which old-school video games served as inspiration for Crossing Souls?

Our main inspiration are Zelda games, mostly A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. We LOVE that games and we would like to make an adventure similar to them.

We also are taking some inspiration from a French game that we love, a classic gem that unfortunately, many people don’t know: Little Big Adventure 2. If you haven’t played it yet, you’ll find it on GOG so run and buy it!!

Which modern video games inspired Crossing Souls?

We love indie games and they were the reason why we are making games, so we should say: Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery (although we love every game that come from Capy Games 😀 ), Paradise Lost: First Contact, Gods Will Be Watching and Hyper Light Drifter!!

We love Timecop1983. How did teaming up with him come about?

Hahah we love him too!! We think it just was our destiny! We love synthpop music and we listen to a lot of Soundcloud playlists while we’re working. One day, “Childhood Memories” came up and we fell in love with it.

Instantly, we sent him an email asking him to collaborate with us as we need some tracks in our Kickstarter video. He agreed and made “Mercury” which is one of the awesome tracks we use in our video. We knew people would love his music so we asked him to create the entire OST of the game. We’re really lucky for having him with us. Crossing Souls wouldn’t be the same without his wonderful music!

What step in designing a video game would you say is the most difficult?

As a good and rich plot is one of the most important steps for us while designing a video game, we believe that the process of looking for a set of fun mechanics and fit them with the plot in order to create what we call a “game” can be the most difficult and frustrating part of all.

Related tasks with development itself like pixelating, animating or programming can be a little tough sometimes but we really love that part as we’re creating what we really want 🙂

What aspects of gameplay are you most excited for players to experience?

The use of the DUAT stone of course! This is a mysterious stone that players will find earlier in the game and will be able to connect to the death plane and the thousands of souls that exist there, awaiting their trial to be able to finally rest in peace.

You will have to use it wisely to collect clues or solve some puzzles. Thanks to it, you will be able to interact with NPC from different times who can help you in your adventure. The character holding the Duat Stone will be the one we’ll be controlling in the dead zone and it’s the only one who can see the ghosts.

Besides, we really like the idea of controlling five different characters because it makes the game varied and players will have to mix the group abilities with the DUAT stone to overcome all the obstacles they will find along the adventure.

As the medium of video games matures, narrative becomes a focus as much as mechanics. How did the narrative of Crossing Souls come about?

The idea of Crossing Souls is born from the desperation of working in what you can, not in the things you want and it’s, undoubtedly, one of the best creative moments we ever had as indies. We sat down and thought what plot fascinated us more. Decide which gender it was going to be, the story and the background of your first game’s style is not an easy task. So it was time to look inside us, see what our concerns were and our strongest influences and pulling the thread out.

We basically found out that we missed being kids. In a moment that you’re planning your near future and your possible adult life you always look behind you and you remember what you were and you realize how things change over time. We missed those kind of adventures you used to see in films, where everything was possible and where any kid could become a hero living an unique adventure without stepping out from his town.

We think that epicness is somehow lost. We live more stressed and we don’t enjoy that “magic” anymore, as we call it. In current films more of the same happens. How many people think that Prometheus is not like Alien or that Super8 is far from the magic that E.T. or The Goonies had?

Is there any inspiration for Crossing Souls that isn’t a video game, such as films or music?

The game is very influenced by our entire childhood so we take inspiration from a lot of sources. Movies like E.T., The Goonies, Stand By Me, or Explorers are very important for us and we have very lovely memories from them so you can expect finding a lot of “easter eggs” in the game coming from them 🙂

We also want the players to remember their childhood while they are playing so we have included some cut scenes which are based on the 80s cartoon shows like TMNT, He-Man, Dungeons & Dragons, or Visionaries. We hope people enjoy watching them!

Gaming, and in particular indie gaming, has seemed to draw heavily from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras over the last five years. Why do you think that is?

Well, we believe that many people still miss the old classic video games. Those pixels had a special charm thats why many indie developers opt for that style. But it is also true that working with pixel is easier and simplifies the development of the game so it’s good for small studios that have few resources. You know, if you decide to make a 3D game you will need to know modeling, rigging, animation, illumination, etc… so the development will take ages! (or it would be really expensive)

If somebody was on the fence about contributing to the Crossing Souls Kickstarter, what would you tell them to convince them to support you?

Do you remember what you felt when you saw Michael J. Fox turning into the coolest werewolf ever? Or when Gary and Wyatt created the perfect woman with parts of a scanned magazine? When Elliot and his band of friends took off with their bikes? Or when you saw a DeLorean with a flux capacitor could travel in time? That was PURE MAGIC. The way the stories were told made you believe in them and you could step into the shoes of any character in a special manner.

With Crossing Souls the team wants to revive those childhood feelings. Those adventures that could happen to anyone. We want to develop a funny and profound game, with a great plot that can make the player remember those times with a bit of nostalgia: more than one has used a towel as a cape, a broomstick as a sword or have had a hidden cabin.

Help us to make this dream come true and we can make sure that you won’t regret it. You will live a great adventure filled with nostalgia that you will remember all your life!

You can support the release of Crossing Souls by contributing to the Kickstarter campaign.

– Joey Edsall

(@JoeyEdsall)

RETRO GAMING – Splatterhouse (Arcade, 1988)

bryan.eddy@newretrowave.com — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 15:00:00 +0000

I know Halloween’s come and gone, but the horror continues!
Once we started doing game reviews, Splatterhouse stood out in my sick little
mind as one that needed to grace this website’s pages. Released internationally
by Namco in November 1988, the arcade cult classic got attention (both positive
and negative, though some say there is no bad press) for its over-the top
themes of horror and gore. Some arcades (back when there were arcades) banned
it altogether by request of parent groups. In fact, when it was ported to the
Turbo Grafx 16 home system in 1990, the box came with a warning:

“The horrifying theme of this game may be
inappropriate for young children… and cowards.”

Without further ado,
let us jump in to one of the 1980s’ most shocking and controversial bits of
gaming gibbitude.

PLOT/THEME

In Splatterhouse, the player takes the role of Rick, a
parapsychology student who came to West Mansion seeking the great Dr. West.
Upon arriving, Rick and his lovely girlfriend Jennifer are waylaid by West
Mansion’s current inhabitants. Jennifer is of course carried off in what seems
like a predictable plot hinge; Rick awakens later to find that he has been
possessed by a mystical Terror Mask, which apparently provides him with the
power to fight the monsters inhabiting the mansion. Your mission as Rick is to
fight through the game to find Jennifer… or what has become of her, at the
least.

GAMEPLAY

As Rick, you wander through a mostly linear side-scrolling
environment, using punches and kicks as your basic attacks. It is clear that
Rick is barefoot; No sane man would walk barefoot in West Mansion. This is
because in addition to the malformed zombies and mutants, many hazards, from
acid vomit to spinning blades, grace the floors and walls of the mansion.
Weapons can be found and used along the way, everything from boards to
cleavers, axes and even shotguns in one stage. Most levels have a boss monster
of some kind, with a challenging but learnable pattern of behavior. Memorable
bosses include the poltergeist that hurls silverware at you and Biggy Man (that
is his actual name in all official documentation for the game), a meaty-thewed
baghead monstrosity with chainsaws for hands.

Biggy Man.

Splatterhouse is fun to play, but has a pretty high
difficulty curve; as with most side scrollers of the era, it pays to memorize
sequences and recognize patterns in order to avoid hazards. While most monsters
can be beaten to a pulp, some (like the chained up vomiting skeleton men)
simply function as traps and can’t be defeated, only bypassed.

If you are interested in seeing the gameplay in action for yourself, this is the best playthrough I’ve been able to find.

GRAPHICS

The visual aspect is what drew Splatterhouse most of its
positive and negative attention. Walls of melted flesh, vomiting mutants,
bloated corpses on nooses, and other horrors abound in pretty gruesome detail.
While thrilling to your average teen horror hound, parents and advocacy groups
took a dim view of the gore and horror themes. The game even pushed some other
boundaries; one of the bosses is an inverted cross surrounded by severed heads.

“Evil Cross,” one of the game’s more controversial elements.

Controversy aside, the game is graphically advanced for its
time and looks great. Animations are smooth and the detail on everything is as
it should be in a horror themed visual: nauseatingly real.

SOUND/MUSIC

While it’s rare to actually hear much of the music when
playing an arcade game in an actual arcade, the music is really good. The sound
comes out in 8 channel stereo, crisp and clear. Many of the sound effects
themselves are a bit cartoonish, but hey, it’s an arcade game. The sound still
adds, overall, to the spooky and lethal feel of the game. A rip of the soundtrack can be found here.

—

While it’s unlikely that you’ll find a working cabinet of
Splatterhouse anywhere but in private hands, the game was released for the
Wii’s Virtual Console in 2007. It was also ported to various home gaming
systems throughout 1989-1990, and spawned two notable sequels (for the
Genesis/Mega Drive) and a remake (for the Xbox 360). All are great games in
their own rights, but none made the impact the original did. The 80s was an era
that weighed morality against freedom constantly; this game is but one
interesting footnote of the era.

A dungeon full of chained-up, vomiting skeletons. Don’t step in the puke!

SPLAT! Hence the name, and all the fuss.

The first boss is just a bunch of these flesh-eating worms, chewing through rotten meat to get to your living flesh.

Special thanks to West Mansion Splatterhouse fanpage for reference material and some artwork.

Retro Gaming – Final Fantasy

Joey Edsall — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 22:30:00 +0000

I was seven years old when I was
first exposed to the world (metaworld?) of Final Fantasy. It was
a few days after Christmas of 1999 and my cousin had received Final Fantasy
VIII as a gift. Being seven in the presence of a teenager meant I had no right
to take a turn in his game, and it wasn’t even a game where you could take
turns. So I sat back and just enjoyed the cinematic experience of the game.
That moment had a profound impact on me and is what truly led me to identify as a
video game enthusiast for the better part of my formative years. The sheer
narrative scope of RPGs astounded me.

We here at NRW review music and films, and so I wanted to kick off a series
of video game reviews with a game whose name has grown to
weigh more than any contribution to the series. Final Fantasy received its name because it was believed that it
would be the last game Square would be able to release before declaring
bankruptcy. It was their “Final Fantasy”. Little did they know it would be a massive
success and create a massive series of unconnected but thematically similar
games and eventually give us this
masterpiece.

But Final Fantasy wasn’t always a
blend of science fiction and fantasy. The first installment of the series was
purely a fantasy JRPG. I played the PS1 port of the original NES game because
it is most faithful to the original. The first thing that comes to mind when I
think Final Fantasy is how
unrelentingly difficult it is. I’m not saying that later Final Fantasy games were
particularly easy, but none of the games I played (FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX,
FFX-2, Tactics, Tactics Advance, and Tactics A-2) feel so punishing as this original tale.

Before I move on to the actual
gameplay, I’d like to share with you the thoughts that went through my mind for the first hour of playtime:

“Gee, that Prelude song sure is
pretty sounding.”

“I get to name all four of them,
and they have nothing pre-established? Onward Fart and friends!”

“Nah, I don’t think I’ll need a
white mage.”

“This is a lot like tactics, but
with a worse story and battle mechanic.”

“I spy with my little eye a
damsel in distress (cough, Sarah, cough)”

“To quote the King, “If you bring
my daughter back safely, I will build a new bridge. I am counting on you.” Is
that the going rate of missing daughters these days?”

“Buying spells? What black magic
is this?!?! (see what I did there?)”

“Level grinding? Again?”

“Jesus, everything costs money.”

“First boss? That was a joke.”

“Thanks for the lute, princess.
This looks ambiguously useful for the future.”

The early portion of the game will
have you staying close to the nearest town and going back in after every couple
of battles to heal up at an inn or buy some more potions. Everything costs
money in this game, from full saving to learning magic. Random encounters can
be simple, like running into one horse (not a magical horse, it is literally
just a horse) or they can be as grueling as an eight
enemy encounter. It’s really difficult to figure out where is safe to walk and
where is not. From a design standpoint, this is a cost that was probably hard
to avoid.

The game is huge. The overworld rivals the scope of A Link to the Past (fellow Nintendo fanpeople, I’ve got a treat for
you at the end of the article). It only becomes more massive when you get the
boat and find yourself surrounded by water as far as you can see. It is nowhere near as linear as the series has become. To be fair,
the game becomes more manageable once you get your party to around level 20,
especially if you grind enough to do this early. The boss battles are never
particularly difficult. I’d say that moving through each dungeon and dealing
with the random encounters and noticeable LACK OF SAVE AND HEAL POINTS is much
tougher than the actual bosses.

You control four characters with no
exposition apart from some vague talk of a prophecy. They’re pretty vacant as
far as personality is concerned. Don’t expect any dialogue. You are allowed to
choose their jobs, which is an exciting amount of customization afforded
considering how old the game is. I chose a Warrior, Red Mage, Thief, and Black
Belt. I named the Black Belt Cid to ensure that I wouldn’t play a Final Fantasy
game without a Cid in it. These empty vessels don’t have much plot to work
with. Apart from an interesting / convoluted / nonsensical time travel related
twist, the story is really a “go fetch this for me” excuse.

The pixilated graphics of the game
are actually quite beautiful. This is primarily due to the vivid colors and all
around bright atmosphere. The world of the game feels hopeful, and the art
accompanies it perfectly. I’ve always said that old video game scores were so
memorable because of the limitations of the system. The original composers
could only have three sounds playing at once. This led to a greater focus on
melody. There is a reason a lot of these songs are so instantly recognizable. I
mean, just listen to “Prelude”. It’s downright moving.

I hope I don’t sound like I’m
badmouthing what has become one of the most influential games of its
generation. Once you get some experience under your belt (metaphorically and
literally, grind grind grind), the game becomes enjoyable, and actually highly
addictive. I found myself happy to be level grinding and saving up for new
swords or spells. The scenery is interesting enough that I found myself wanting
to genuinely explore for personal enjoyment. Talking to every NPC and
interacting with everything I could even led me to discovering a pretty
interesting Easter egg, especially considering how much of a Zelda fan I am.

If you are a fan of this series and
like the idea of game history or analyzing the medium as a whole, I definitely
recommend finding a way to play this game. You can enjoy it for what it is. The
NES and PS1 versions are, according to my research, notably more difficult than
subsequent ports. I loved playing this game, and wish I could have been alive
at the time of the game’s release and had that feeling like I was playing
something that would be huge. I’d love to continue the discussion on this. I’m
curious if any NRW readers/listeners played the game at the time of release.
What was that experience like? Did you enjoy it? And if you are like me and
played the game years after the fact, how did you like it? What party did you
complete it with?

– Joey Edsall