Blog → Nobuooo October '09 - Highest Voted Items

It's time again for a rundown of the highest voted and most read news stories on videogame music posted to the Nobuooo website.

October 2009 saw continued coverage of the Tokyo Game Show and Persona Live in Velvet Room concert in Japan. Original soundtrack albums for Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Tekken 6 were announced. It was a good month for chip music as well, with debuts for Chiptuned Rockman, Wanna Hld Yr Handheld, and the Bit.Trip Beat soundtrack.

News

Muramasa soundtrack announced

Basiscape will be publishing an original soundtrack album for Muramasa on December 16 in Japan. The three-CD item will include an art booklet and original cover illustration, which is now viewable online. Sound producer for the game score is Hitoshi Sakimoto, composer on Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6329

Persona Music, Live in Shinjuku - An Audio Report

Gamasutra visits Persona Music Live at Wel City, Tokyo, a concert of live performances featuring vocal themes from Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei Persona 1, 3 and 4. Participating artists include sound producer Shoji Meguro and vocalists Yumi Kawamura and Shihoco Hirata.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6343

The Sound Of Tokyo - TGS 2009 Game Audio Report

This report offers some impressions from the designers participating in the event. Square Enix Music department director Soushi Yoshida provides an outline of the fourth volume of their annual music sampler, while sound director Ippo Yamada, who last year composed for Mega Man 9, introduces his new game arrangement compilation Chiptuned Rockman.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6260

Sense Of Wonder Night 2009 Showcases Indie Game Goodness

This year's TGS Sense of Wonder Night included such creative audio-based entries as "His and Her Disconnected Conversations," which has the player connect halves of discussions between romantically involved couples, and Transcend, a music action game where you avoid enemies by tapping in time to the beat.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6266

Chiptuned, 1UP's Game Music Blog

Jeremy Parish has launched a new blog on 1UP called Chiptuned, which will cater exclusively to content on videogame music. The blog's introduction is also being preceded by a Retronauts podcast game music episode.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6321

Super Sweep publishing Tekken 6 soundtrack

This December Super Sweep will be publishing an original soundtrack album for the fighting game Tekken 6. The game by Namco Bandai is being released on October 29 on XBox 360 and Playstation 3 in Japan. The album will retail for 3,675 yen.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6342

Gamasutra Feature: Beyond The Button Press

LucasArts' Jesse Harlin takes a look at what new audio control possibilities technology has brought us, in this article recently published in Game Developer magazine on the subject of what opportunities exist for games that innovate using audio.

Nobuooo September '09 - Highest Voted Items

Here is a selection from among the highest voted and most read news stories on videogame music posted to the Nobuooo website during the month of September 2009. A busy month for videogame music news, September witnessed the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle and the Tokyo Game Show in Chiba, Japan.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6282

Video

Rockin' in the Bleep World - Musicians on Chiptuning Mega Man

Chiptuned Rockman is a compilation of twenty tracks remixing music from the Mega Man games in the style of 8-bit chip music. In this interview Inti Creates sound director Ippo Yamada explains arriving at the idea of Chiptuned Rockman, together with participants Ryo Kawakami, Akari Kaida, Manabu Namiki and Hiroki Isogai.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6331

Piacon (Piano x Computer Game) promo video

Uematsu's Dog Ear Records label has posted a promotional video previewing their upcoming album of retro game theme piano arrangements, entitled Piacon. The music is performed by Keita Egusa, whose previous offering Kalaycilar was published by the company. The album is due out November 25.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6298

Twilight Princess Kakariko theme on iPhone ocarina app

GoNintendo has come across a YouTube video depicting the Kakariko village theme from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess performed by guitar and virtual ocarina. The latter is an interesting iPhone application, demonstrated in the movie. Original music is by series composer Koji Kondo.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6300

Transcend video from Sense of Wonder Night

Watch Fishbeat's Zach Aikman showing off Transcend at the Tokyo Game Show's SOWN. The game is an evolution of the IGF Student game-winning Synaesthete which is currently in development with Xbox Live Arcade. In the title, you have to avoid enemies and attack them by tapping in time to the beat, creating a music action game.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6309

Podcasts

Into the Score 28 - Into Aquarian Waters

Episode 28 of the "Into the Score" podcast (the only podcast solely devoted to the in-depth study of video game music!) is devoted to Bit Blot's 2007 release of "Aquaria" with a score by Alec Holowka... who is on the show! We look at storytelling in games and discuss the evolutionary nature of the game's score!

http://nobuooo.com/item/6293

Releases

Gaijin Games Selling Bit.Trip Beat Soundtrack

The soundtrack album to Gaijin Games' first rhythm-based WiiWare title Bit.Trip Beat is currently available to purchase and download from CDBaby. Plans are to have the Bit.Trip Beat soundtrack for sale through Amazon, iTunes, eMusic, and other services on October 27th.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6326

Don't Stop Believin' (8-bit Journey Cover)

Chip music artist Kkrusty has uploaded an 8-bit cover of Journey's Don't Stop Believin' to 8bitcollective. You can easily imagine the tune would make for a great ending theme to an NES Sopranos game.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6339

.detuned Available Tomorrow on PSN for $2.99

.detuned is an experiment with the demoscene made by .theprodukkt of Germany. It is a user-driven music visualizer that allows you to create your own visual performance to accompany your favorite music tracks on the XMB, simply by using the SIXAXIS controller to manipulate and interact with objects within a scene. It also has its own music and a performance you can watch.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6306

8-Bit Operators • WANNA HLD YR HANDHELD, VOL. 1

Almost 2 full years in the making, the 8-Bit Operators’ “Wanna Hld Yr Handheld, Vol. 1” Beatles tribute focuses on the glorious avant-garde and electronic side of the Fab 4 with over 20 of the biggest international names in 8-bit chip music, all utilizing re-tooled, classic Game Boys, Ataris, Commodore 64s and Nintendo Entertainment Systems. Arrangements by 8 Bit Weapon with ComputeHer, Saskrotch, Anamanaguchi, bubblefish, GOTO80 and more.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6287

Plogue releases Chipsounds EP

New on Soundcloud, Plogue has released a collection of music demonstrating its new soft-synthesizer, which turns your VST/AU/RTAS host into a classic video game console. Chipsounds is intended to emulate more than eight vintage 8bit-era sound chips down to their idiosyncrasies. You can hear the results arrived at by 8 Bit Weapon, Computeher, Chupathingy and others.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6291

Amanita Posts Machinarium Soundtrack Preview

Czech studio Amanita Design has posted playable demos and a six-track sound preview for its upcoming PC/Mac game Machinarium, due out October 16th. You play as "a little robot who’s been thrown out to the scrap yard behind the city [that] must return and confront the Black Cap Brotherhood and save his robot-girl friend." Music is by Floex (Tomas Dvorak.)

http://nobuooo.com/item/6261

Interviews

Music in Machinarium - Floex's Organic Audio Artifice

The Czech musician Tomas Dvorak, who also goes by Floex, is the composer of Amanita Design's new game, Machinarium. Previously he composed for Samorost 2 and used audio from the game in the creation of an award-winning original soundtrack album. In this music interview the composer describes working with Amanita Design on his previous independent title along with the recent release, Machinarium.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6349

This Place is Haunted: Outrageous Interview!!

The craziest interview we've ever had the privilege of performing with one of the BEST video game bands out there today: This Place Is Haunted.
A heated debate breaks out about Ecco The Dolphin & Yo Noid, and so much hilariousness is involved. A can't miss!!

http://nobuooo.com/item/6302

Interview with Winifred Phillips

An insightful interview about how the Spore Hero soundtrack was made.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6288

Christopher Tin on Radio Free Gamer

This week on Radio Free Gamer, we will be joined by composer Christopher Tin to discuss how his work, "Baba Yetu", has impacted his career as well as the debut of his new album "Calling All Dawns!" The album is getting amazing press, so I'm really looking forward to this interview. Anyone who hasn't checked this out should definitely visit Christopher's site.

Of course, we'll also have some great, free video game music, the win and fail of the week, and more! Listen live at 7PM EST Wednesday, immediately following Average Joe Gamer here on 8bitx.com. This is going to be a good episode, so don't miss it!

http://nobuooo.com/item/6271

An Indie Game Composer Chat: Penny Arcade Edition

This indie music roundtable includes the participation of two Gamasutra writers and two composers of PAX 10 games: Vincent Diamante (Flower), Matthew Wasteland (Shadegrown Games/ Game Developer Magazine), Casey Muratori (Sushi Bar Samurai) and Soo Jeong Bae (Trino).

http://nobuooo.com/item/6301

8bit Weapon Interview on the 8bit Extravaganza

8bit Worlds Collide! The legendary chiptune artist Seth from 8bit Weapon calls into the 8bit Extravaganza and reveals some projects he's working on in the near future, and recents project he's completed!
Also we hear the studio come alive as Seth demonstrates the Apple Crate's rig in glorious 1bit!! Can't miss for chiptune fans!

http://nobuooo.com/item/6265

CoLD SToRAGE Audio Trip – Project Moonbounce 2009

Game composer CoLD SToRAGE, aka Tim Wright, offers details of his experience creating the multifaceted interstellar-themed album Project Moonbounce 2009. The discussion provides various insights into how embarking on original projects has helped fuel the creative process of the videogame composer behind Lemmings, Shadow of the Beast, and Wipeout.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6270

OCRemix Xenogears Interview and Preview Tracks!

Project director Avaris will join us on Radio Free Gamer this week to discuss the upcoming Xenogears project and give us some exclusive preview tracks! Join us live from 7-9PM EST at 8bitx.com or download the podcast, which will be posted later tonight.

http://nobuooo.com/item/6305

This concludes another month in videogame music news. Highlights of November will be online this time next month.