Pixelated Audio

Pixelated Audio is back from another VGMCon in Minnesota, this time about space! Joining Gene once again from last year are Pernell from Rhythm and Pixels and Carlos from Heroes Three! We did a similar panel last year; we take a broad theme and make it educational, and then use it as an excuse to cram in all sorts of VGM examples. We had some tech issues and lost some of the recording but we were able to rescue it with a more laid back "part 2" we recorded in the hotel room as a way to fill in gaps and riff for a while. Prepare for launch on this massive double episode clocking in at almost 2 hours! We discuss space, its influence on games and computing, and a wide range of games that have a direct or sometimes tenuous link to space. We've got a ton of music this episode so we hope you enjoy it. Pardon the noise in the background, it was the best we could do with a portable recorder. If you'd like to follow along with our slides that we used during the talk, feel free to click through. If the presentation doesn't show up below, click here. Track list 0:00:00 (Bedding) Map Screen - Mass Effect (Various, 2007) - Sam Hulick 0:06:15 (Excerpt) introduction to "From Here to Infinity" narrated by Patrick Stewart 0:09:42 Intro Cutscene - Frontier: Elite II (Amiga, 1993) - David Lowe 0:27:18 Hyperspace - Star Control II (PC, 1992) - Riku Nuottajärvi 0:31:57 Alpine Start - Star Trek: New Worlds (PC, 2000) - Jeremy Soule, Inon Zur 0:35:19 Main Theme - Space Engineers (PC, 2019) - Karel Antonín 0:41:11 Happy Daymare - Xexex (Arcade, 1991) - Konami Kukeiha Club Motoaki Furukawa (Carol Queen) Hidenori Maezawa (Michael Oldriver) Satoko Miyawaki (Rosetta Stone) Akiko Hashimoto (Shanghai Manmos) 0:45:13 Space Port -Juggernaut- - X-Men: Children of the Atom (Arcade, 1994) Takayuki Iwai (ANACHEY··TAKAPON··) [main composer on track] Shun Nishigaki (SYUN Nishigaki) Hideki Okugawa (HIDEKI OK) Isao Abe (Isao ··oyaji··Ave) 0:47:44 Hydra (Stage 1) - Gradius IV (Arcade, 1999) - Konami Kukeiha Club Atsuki Watanabe (Atsuki) Harumi Ueko 0:52:09 Pretty G - GuitarFreaks / DrumMania (Arcade, 2000) - Zonlu (Sunday Records) 0:57:17 Space - Chō Jikū Yōsai Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie (SFC, 1993) - Noboru Yamane 1:04:48 I Want to See the Starlight (Jolyne Kujo's Theme) - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle (PS3, 2013) - Chikayo Fukuda 1:11:50 UFO Ending - Silent Hill (PS1, 1999) - Akira Yamaoka 1:18:06 (Bedding) World 2 (Moon) - Treasure Master (NES, 1991) - Tim Follin 1:20:00 (Bedding) Team Selection - Blades of Steel (NES, 1988) Shinya Sakamoto (S. Sakamoto) Kazuki Muraoka (K. Muraoka) Atsushi Fujio (A. Fujio) Kiyohiro Sada (K. Sada) 1:21:30 (Bedding) Item Acquisition - Super Metroid (SNES, 1994) - Kenji Yamamoto 1:21:42 (Bedding) Welcome to Chessmaster - The Chessmaster (SNES, 1991) - Peter Stone 1:22:24 (Bedding) Item Acquisition - Metroid Fusion (GBA, 2002) - Minako Hamano, Akira Fujiwara 1:22:41 (Bedding) Title Theme - Sorry! / Aggravation / Scrabble Junior (GBA, 2005) - Mark Cooksey (possibly) 1:23:46 (Bedding) Course Clear (Out of This Dimension) - Star Fox (SNES, 1993) - Hajime Hirasawa 1:24:11 (Bedding) Title Theme - PGA Tour Golf (SNES, 1992) - Rob Hubbard 1:24:50 Title Theme - PGA Tour Golf (Genesis, 1991) - Rob Hubbard 1:28:53 (Bedding) Deep Core - Phalanx (SNES, 1991) - S. Yamaguchi 1:29:32 (Bedding) Dr. Wright - SimCity (SNES, 1991) - Soyo Oka 1:34:12 (Bedding) Title Theme - Space Shuttle Project (NES, 1991) - Scott Marshall 1:34:39 (Bedding) Round 1 – Remlia Castle - Astyanax (NES, 1989) - Toshiko Tasaki 1:37:18 (Excerpt) pre-launch voice clips - Space Shuttle Project (NES, 1991) - voiced by David Crane 1:45:29 Ball Launch + Main Play 2 - Star Trek 25th Anniversary (Pinball, 1991) - Brian Schmidt 1:47:52 The Moon - Ducktales Remastered (Various, 2013) - Jake Kaufman, originally by Hiroshige Tonomura 1:53:59 Victory (Ending Medley) - Space Quest III: Pirates of Pestulon (PC, 1989) - Bob Siebenberg Additional things mentioned during the talk Rhythm and Pixels VGM podcast with Pernell Heroes Three Asian cinema podcast with Carlos The Bruce Lees of Fighting Games - VGMCON Panel 2025 The Game Brass - Thomas Kresge From Here to Infinity: The Ultimate Voyage (1995) documentary narrated by Patrick Stewart Moffett Field / NASA Ames SpaceBar Cape Canaveral / Kennedy Space Center Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha, WI Arcades mentioned: Galloping Ghost in Brookfield, IL Timeline Arcade in York, PA The Break (aka 8 on the Break) in Dunellen, NJ GiGO (formerly Sega arcade) in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan Blue Ghost Arcade in Woodstock, GA Wild Weasel’s Golf Shrine Astronaut ice cream Dippin' Dots Moon Mice aka Armadillos

Our show takes us back in time to the pleasant summer vibes of Malibu Bikini Volleyball, a no-frill sports game released in 1993 for the underdog Atari Lynx handheld, developed by Hand Made Software and composed by Paul Tonge. Hand Made Software was a boutique first- (or second-) party game developer that produced original games exclusively for the Lynx and Jaguar from about 1990 to 1995, with a handful of previously unreleased games making their way out in the early 2000s. While this game is a pretty self explanatory late-era volleyball game for the Lynx, the music is definitely worth checking out. English composer Paul Tonge is a multi-talented musician, sound designer, sound driver developer, game producer and music director that worked from the late 80s to the early 2000s, starting on the C64 and Amiga and eventually retiring from games around the GBA era. He worked on games such as: Tinhead, The Tick, George Foreman for Real, and Samurai Jack: The Amulet of Time as well as working on a number of sound drivers across multiple console generations. It's a leisurely episode where we finally take the time for a deeper dive on Lynx sound and graphics hardware. We also cover Paul's work with "Sound Images", his joint audio production company with composer Tony Williams, and Paul's eventual work with Software Creations, the British software developer that was a powerhouse of game audio talent in the 90s even if their games were just alright. In any case, sit back and enjoy this early 90s mixtape of beachy volleyball tunes! Composed by: Paul Tonge Tracklist 0:00:00 Malibu Volleyball 0:07:55 Trout Shout 0:16:11 Bikini Beauty 0:22:09 Beach Boy Blues 0:33:36 Spike 0:42:37 On the Shoreline 0:48:29 Banana Volley 0:57:47 Beach Volley 1:04:59 SandOut 1:09:17 SkyBall 1:16:19 Winners

Today, we're looking back at Astyanax, an action platformer released for arcade and NES in 1989 and a game we both grew up playing. Sometimes referred to as "The Lord of King" or "The Astyanax", the original arcade game was developed by Aicom and published by Jaleco, with the NES version developed and published by Jaleco. Both versions share some similarities, like fighting hordes of mythological creatures, but the key difference for our show is they feature completely different soundtracks. We'll be focusing on the NES soundtrack written by Toshiko Tasaki with an occasional detour to the arcade original composed by Kiyoshi Yokoyama. Composed by: NES: Toshiko Tasaki Arcade: Kiyoshi Yokoyama Tracklist 0:00:00 - Opening Story (NES) 0:00:21 - Title (NES) 0:6:08 - Introduction / Round 5 Cutscene (NES) 0:9:22 - Round 1 - Remlia Castle (NES) 0:18:53 - Stage 1 - In the Forest (Arcade) 0:23:03 - Boss Intro + Boss Theme (NES) 0:25:32 - Round 2 - Redroad Forest (NES) 0:31:49 - Round 2 Cutscene (NES) 0:35:47 - Round 3 Cutscene (NES) 0:36:36 - Round 4 - Marshy Swamp (NES) 0:45:19 - Round 4 Cutscene (NES) 0:46:20 - Round 5 - Telugamn Bridge (NES) 0:48:51 - Round 5 Cutscene (NES) 0:50:11 - Round 1 Cutscene / Round 6 / Last Boss (NES) 0:53:49 - Stage 3 - On the Lake (Arcade) 0:58:38 - Ending (Arcade) 1:02:39 - (Bedding) Name Entry (Arcade) 1:04:27 - Ending Story + The End (NES)

In this installment of Pixelated Audio, we're taking a stroll through the soundtrack of Blades of Steel. Originally, Konami released this fact-action hockey game in the arcades in 1987 but it really gained popularity a year later when it was converted to the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. However, most of us (at least your hosts) tend to forget that two sequels were released: NHL Blades of Steel '99 and NHL Blades of Steel 2000 which we’ve got some tunes from as well. Composed by: Arcade/NES: Shinya Sakamoto, Kazuki Muraoka, Atsushi Fujio, Kiyohira Sada GameBoy: Hidehiro Funauchi, Akiko Itou GameBoy Color: Matt Simmonds Nintendo 64: Kazuhiko Uehara (sound producer), Nobuyuki Akena (sound director), Takahito Uenishi (SFX), Mitsuteru Furukawa (Sound programmer) PlayStation: Kazumaru Yui, Norikazu Miura Tracklist 00:00:00 - Game Start / Warm Up (NES) 00:05:23 - Selection Theme (NES) 00:13:04 - Intermission (NES) 00:16:52 - Bonus Game Unused (NES) 00:17:26 - Bonus Game (Arcade) 00:18:16 - Won Finals (NES) 00:20:26 - Game End (NES) 00:21:50 - Team Selection (Arcade) 00:23:55 - Team Selection (Amiga) 00:25:26 - Game Start (DOS) 00:26:17 - Game Start (C64) 00:27:09 - BGM 1 (GB) 00:30:09 - BGM 2 (GB) 00:31:39 - BGM 3 (GB) 00:35:15 - BGM 8 (GB) 00:39:54 - BGM 1 (GBC) - NHL Blades of Steel 00:45:43 - BGM 2 (GBC) - NHL Blades of Steel 00:49:17 - BGM 4 (GBC) - NHL Blades of Steel 00:52:16 - Menu Music (N64) - NHL Blades of Steel 99 00:56:56 - BGM 3 (GBC) - NHL Blades of Steel 2000 01:00:23 -  BGM 4 (GBC) - NHL Blades of Steel 2000 01:02:26 - BGM 6 (GBC) - NHL Blades of Steel 2000 01:04:52 - Menu 3 (PSX) - NHL Blades of Steel 2000 01:08:34 - Menu 4 (PSX) - NHL Blades of Steel 2000 01:15:57 - Ending (NES)

With the holiday season upon us, Gene and several other friends visited Sacramento Gamers Expo where we met some awesome game developer legends like David Crane, Garry Kitchen and Ed Annunziata. Joining Gene is Michelle (the 'voice' of Sue Kasper), AJ of VGMPorium (also on our Persona show) and last but not least Brian Stewart, one of the biggest VGM fans you'll ever find. Join us as we look back at our experience at SGE playing games, attending panels and looking back at our gaming in 2024 more generally. Tracklist 00:00 (Bedding) Wizard Theme - Warriors of the Eternal Sun (GEN, 1992) - Paul Mudra, Frank Klepacki, Dwight Okahara 06:58 (Excerpt) Azcan Wander - Warriors of the Eternal Sun - Paul Mudra, Frank Klepacki, Dwight Okahara 07:14 (Excerpt) Azcan Wander - arrangement by "Gate House" 07:58 Swamp Combat - Warriors of the Eternal Sun (GEN, 1992) - Paul Mudra, Frank Klepacki, Dwight Okahara 16:15 Penetration - RayForce / Gunlock / Layer Section / Galactic Attack (ARC, 1994) - Tamayo Kawamoto 27:36 Gymhouse - Three Dirty Dwarves (SAT, 1996) - Attila Héger, Attila Dobos 38:49 John Whitgift - Astrologaster Dirty Dwarves (iOS, Switch, 2019) - Andrea Boccadoro Emily Dickens (Soprano) Ruth Kiang (Alto) Benedict Hymas, Robin Bailey (Tenor) Jimmy Holliday, Christopher Webb (Bass) 48:52 (Excerpt) "21 Concepts" from the album The Graduate by MC Lars 50:15 Spring (Wild Horseradish Jam) - Stardew Valley (Various, 2016) - ConcernedApe aka Eric Barone Links to other things mentioned Game developers and designers Audacity Games David Crane Garry Kitchen Ed Annunziata Brian Colin (IG) VGM albums Astrologaster Stardew Valley Artists and performers at Sac Gamers Expo MC Lars The Graduate album Mega Ran Lo(u)ser Scarecrow Scandals Alice Knows Karate Got Item  Websites Game Grooves Warriors of the Eternal Sun - Azcan Warrior by “Gate House” Hildregarde Von Blingen (Youtube)