If you’re like me, you probably use pretty much anything and everything as a distraction to keep from doing important things like working, eating, and working. This can range from looking up a single piece of trivia on IMDB (and eventually awakening several hours later in an alleyway in Mexico with no recollection of how you got there but the sudden confidence that you can beat all your friends at Scene-It), to making Becky and Meagan repeatedly fight each other to the death in Soulcalibur IV. Well now you can add yet another distraction to the reasons why neither of us is a successful millionaire: The Music of Video Games.
YouTube user garudoh has created an ongoing retrospective series that mixes two of my three favourite things—speed runs and videogame music—creating the quintessential peanut butter and jelly of nostalgia. In fact, combining these two great things is almost unbearably awesome. It would be like if you told me there was a show where Stacy Keibler had pillow fights with other supermodels in their lingerie: I think the world would just implode under the colossal weight of that much awesome. But nevertheless, here it is.
Some people may have the unfortunate distinction of being too young or too poor to have played these games back in the day, so in a way TMoVG can serve as your own personal DeLorean to a time when the synthesizers were bumping, the pixels were jumping, and the games were mind-breakingly difficult (I still have bite marks in my own arm from trying to complete World 8 in the original Super Mario Bros. as a four-year old). For everyone else, it is a truly nostalgic stroll through many of the greatest soundtracks and moments in the history of videogames. Some of my personal favourites are Ecco the Dolphin, Sword of Vermillion, Outrun, Sonic CD, Mega Man 2, Super Metroid, Batman Returns, Zelda II: The Adventures of Link, Dark Wizard, and the other 300 or so that are already up.
Do check it out and leave garudoh some comment/feedback love for all his hard work. Also, he is taking requests for anything he may not have gotten to yet so let’s try and get Bonk’s Adventure and Panzer Dragoon ZWEII on that piece ASAP!
August 5th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I know you! Thanks for the post, as if I don’t already spend WAY to much time hunting down video game music. At least you did all the hard work for me!
Also, Elektra would totaly win. Just so you know.
August 5th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Um… Emma has this one COVERED! Sorry Elektra. Emma would know your moves before you even make them.
Great post William. You know how much we all love VGM here at GEN~
August 5th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Remember, Elektra can focus and see things before they happen also. That, and she has two stabby things in her hands. PWND!!!
August 5th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Think again! Stabby things don’t work on diamond skin.
PWNED! :p
August 5th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
touche…I call this one a tie!
August 5th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Agree to disagree!
I should also add that Aladdin is one of my favourites as well, in case Tommy reads this. =)
August 5th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
suck up. :p
August 6th, 2008 at 3:02 am
All these pink and pastel colors are really making me dizzy. I totally deserve some freebies now… >.>
August 6th, 2008 at 4:02 am
I made a Zatanna Vs. White Queen, and a Danger Girl Vs. Aphrodite IX as well. Those seem like better matches…
So, how about that music of videogames?
August 6th, 2008 at 5:53 am
I think Elektra and Emma Frost could team up to crush Daredevil and Wolverine
August 6th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Ohhh, this is awesome! Yay nostalgia.
(And I’m a sucker for the music of Link II. Absolutely love that game.)
August 6th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Thanks to Mr. Haley and Garudoh’s wonderbox of music, I find that I’m actually working MORE…
…I’m just doing it in superspeed and I tend to glow while I do. I’m not sure what that’s about.
But thank you, WH, for the hysterical blog that’s ALSO actually useful.
August 6th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
No, thank YOU Gam3rs. Your check is in the mail…
It’s interesting to see in the Youtube comments how much people liked games that I thought I was the only person who ever played them… ever (such as Mega Race and Dark Wizard).
August 7th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Nice article. I totally need to spend more time creating characters like that in Soul Cal.
Unfortunately, the element of “time” in games has never been much of a joyous experience for me. Granted, I can appreciate a good speed run like everyone else, but if when it actually comes to “timed” games, count me out. I just hate the pressure of time.
August 7th, 2008 at 4:01 am
So you won’t be getting 200/200 in Braid anytime soon then?
August 7th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Heya, I’m that guy who’s making all these musical videos. Hopefully some of you checked out a few vids and enjoyed the trip down memory lane. A big thanks goes to William for the write-up, it’s really great to get my efforts recognized and is most definitely appreciated.
Oh, and I have a Bonk video prepared on my drive, but it’s for Bonk’s… Revenge. Is that good enough Billy? As for Panzer Dragoon Zwei, that’s on my list for sure my friend.
August 7th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Bonk’s Revenge was actually a better game, I’m sure the music is pretty much the same. It’s definitely been a while since the good old days of TG-16 playing Keith Courage, Klax, Splatterhouse, and Chew Man Fu. That console was so far ahead of its time…
August 8th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
It’s been a while since I made the Bonk video, but I recall checking out the first two games and thinking that Revenge has some better tunes. I guess we’ll see when it gets posted.
Personally, I had a TG-16 for a brief period when I was younger (50 Canadian bucks at RadioShack), but I have to admit, I didn’t play much of it except for Keith Courage, Bonk and Hit the Ice (hey, I *am* Canadian). It was only years later that I realized how awesome a console the PC Engine was. To this day, I still rock out to Lords of Thunder every now and then.
August 8th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Aside from the improved palette of colors and overall excellence in the quality of the visuals, the games just didn’t feel like the stuff you would normally get on the Nintendo or the Genesis.
Sure there were side-scrollers and pinball games, but I don’t remember any pinball games on the Super Nintendo where you continually break open a womans face to reveal a demon underneath. It was all just really weird, and I loved it.
I could close my eyes and randomly pick any of the games for the TG-16 that would make better XBLA titles than shovelware like Ticket to Ride.
August 9th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I’d keep my eyes open for the pick and choose a properly translated version of Snatcher on the PCE-CD. Sure, it’s a pretty big game, but we got Symphony of the Night, so a man can dream, right?
And although it’s a different console, I’m still waiting for Policenauts… At this rate, I think it would just be quicker to learn Japanese.
August 9th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Supposedly Suda and Kojima are collaborating on a new Snatcher game. I think with this retro craze going on across all three consoles, anytime an old game gets a this-gen installment it should be accompanied by a port of the original version.
I know most developers are strapped as it is, but in a perfect world…
August 10th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Aw, Blue Hawaiian!
I haven’t seen you since your last post at the Toid from like a year ago. I thought the EA midgets had gotten you!!! LOL
I miss your writing, it was always sarcastic and witty without needing to fall back on the same dick and fart jokes that everyone else seemingly did.
So is this your new home? It’s a little pinker than I expected for you!! =P What happened to the magazines?
Hi Garudo, awesome, AWESOME work so far! Im not very far in but boy do I love me some old-school Nintendo! Kid Icarus, Metroid, and Star Fox FTW!! How long do these take you to make?
August 10th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Billy - Holy crap dude. You used the words Kojima, Suda and ‘new Snatcher’ in the same sentence, thus blowing my mind. After hearing way back when that MGS3 was supposedly Kojima’s last effort in the series, I remember thinking ‘man I hope he goes back to Snatcher.’ I, and several other fans, have been waiting a looooong time for this one. With Suda in the picture, I’m officially stoked. If the game never happens, I’m blaming you personally Billy.
LnlyCmpnCbe88 - Thanks! Glad you’re enjoying some of my stuff, it can get pretty obscure later on in the series. It takes me about an hour to put each vid together, give or take, so I guess the man-hours are really adding up on the channel. I’m having fun going slowly through the history of gaming, and hopefully most of my viewers are as well. Thanks again for the nice comment.
August 10th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
haha i love it! i dont usually leave comments but i did want to say that i think its awesome youre spreading the word on garudohs mission. i came across the project a little while ago and i think its definitely important to support these guys. especially when you add a sense of humor to the whole thing. keep it up!
August 11th, 2008 at 3:03 am
Aw, my one fan has found me! It is quite pink, isn’t it? But the mags are still going well, I just felt compelled to write a blog about Garudoh’s work because I enjoy it so much, and knew others would too.
Garudoh - I think officially the Snatcher project is only in the rumor stages, but then Konami is also still telling people that Metal Gear Solid 4 isn’t coming to the 360…
August 11th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
The only thing that worries me about a Snatcher revival is that most of its fame is grounded in its cult status, so I’m not so sure if it’s really an attractive product when it comes to the benjamins. Sure, it would have Kojima’s name on it, but I wonder if that would be enough.
Unless… Instead of giving it the obvious title of Snatcher 2, they named it ‘By the creator of MGS’. I think it has a nice ring to it, like the ka-ching sound of a cash register.
August 11th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Kojima could stamp his name on a next-gen version of mad cow disease and it would sell like McDonald’s… even moreso if it was on the Wii…
August 12th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Kojima’s Wii Mad Cow still sounds more interesting to me than a Castlevania fighting game. Order of Ecclesia looks pretty good though, I gotta give them that, yet I still dream of a console metroidvania in HD with better artwork. Something that looks like Guilty Gear or Odin Sphere, but plays like Symphony of the Night. Sadly, that kind of thinking is probably too old-school these days to ever actually materialize.
August 12th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Castlevania Judgement is reasonably decent, but like every other Wii game it has the depth of a Slip N’ Slide and graphics that only a Gamecube owner could love.
I asked the current producer of the Castlevania series if he planned on releasing any of the handheld titles like Aria of Sorrow or Order of Ecclesia for the XBLA after the immense success of Symphony of the Night, but sadly it seems he’d prefer to milk the DS a bit longer rather than expand his horizons.
On the other hand, depending on the success of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Udon may go to work on a remake of one of the Darkstalkers games. I’m still holding out for an XBLA Power Stone and port of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, but Capcom is playing all that pretty close to the chest.
Conversely, if Mega Man 9 does well (which it will, considering it probably cost 1/100th of the price of Bionic Commando: Rearmed to create), you will definitely see a reemergence of retro, pixelated games. A step backwards in my opinion, I’d much rather have a handful of retro games with Odin Sphere style HD graphics than a million pixelated, “purposely glitchy” titles that will sell for the same price, which is what is actually going to happen.
August 13th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Why is it that everytime I watch a speedrun video, I end up on youtube for several hours sifting through the mass of speedruns until I somehow black out and wake up hours later without a kidney?
Thank you William for enabling me to waste a morning that I could have spent with my family, or working, or ending world hunger. Who wants to do shiz like that anyway.
Why is it that no one ever includes the Beavis and Butthead games to their list of favorite retro games?
Beavis and Butthead > Zelda 2
Also, coc… I mean… nice article.
August 13th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Wait, didn’t someone offer in the comments of another thread to give up his kidney in exchange for money?!
Who was that? Ricky? Druidblue? I forget.
Pfft, Zelda 2 so kicks ass. ;D
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Zelda 2 > my soul.
Hey Garudoh, do you have any Ikaruga in your bag of tricks?
I hope I’m not gonna be labeled as a n00b for asking this, but who the hell is Zatana and how could she possibly be as cool as Elektra?
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Whoa. I am not giving up my kidneys for money. Hell no. Not me Steph. LOL
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:58 am
Zatana = DC
Elektra = Marvel
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:16 am
Ikaruga, yes please… I think it’s time to jump a generation to Sega Saturn games, at least!
@Lnly- My history and thoughts on the comic industry are another post altogether, but basically I have been extremely selective with my comic reading due to the FACT that most of it is shit. And by most, I mean 999 out of 1000 are undeniable, 5-month old baby ass. Basically, when Turner died about 50% of good comic art went with him.
My point being that I am actually not a very good authority on all things comics, so I too do not know very much about Zahana nor have I followed any story arcs from Marvel or DC since pre-Image.
However, someone else asked me about Emma Frost and Elektra as well, but I think Becky and Meagan would be better suited at dropping some knowledge. Last time I read an X-Men comic with White Queen in it was the highly overrated Joss Whedon run where she was apparently dating Cyclops and Colossus came back from the dead. Don’t even get me started!
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Yeah, I’ll be doing an Ikaruga video for sure, although it’ll probably be a while until I get to Dreamcast games.
I’ve been wanting to make the jump to 32-bit titles for quite some time now, but before that happened, I figured I should try and thoroughly finish up the 16-bit era.
Right now, it’s ‘arcade month’ on the channel, but after that, I’ll clear up my list and post some user requests and some pretty obscure OST’s. Hell, before I began this project, I had no idea there was a PCE-CD version of Strider and River City Ransom, but damn it, both have fantastic soundtracks that I can’t ignore. Stuff like that will likely end this part of the project.
That said, I’m aiming for entry #400 to be the first 32-bit game I feature. It’s a slow-moving affair, I know, but it’s probably the only one that ensures that I keep my sanity in the process.
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:26 pm
I know I’m probably the only person, but I always kind of liked Knuckles Chaotix for the 32X and Sewer Shark for the Sega CD (one track in particular). Does that still count as 16-bit?
AND, since the Jaguar was technically 16-bit, I remember the Bruce Lee game had some amazing tunes. Probably the best thing about that entire console was that game’s soundtrack.
August 24th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Well, somebody here certainly didn’t learn to do. the. math. Guess I’ll have to check out that Bruce Lee game though, would be a nice novelty to have at least one Jaguar game.
Speaking of consoles getting one game featured, Knuckles Chaotix is the only 32X game I’m touching. It’ll be near that 400 mark though.
Sewer Shark though… really? I think I’ll take your word on that one.
August 24th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
It’s certainly no Tides of Time, but it kept my ADD in check:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxs87Hb1cUE
As for the Jaguar, I guess the math is still up for debate, but this brilliant forum-goer (probably an Atari employee) makes an interesting argument:
“u all r dumb man did u know that the jag had a gpu that was called tom and jerry and it had 2 processors in it infact they were both 16bit each that makes 32bit u can still call atari and ask people itz not that hard a private person own`s this now i know cauz i own one and i had called
em i looked up there site as well but there games are expancive very expancive i mean about $42.00 each if u e-mail me i can get u there number and web site if u like the system was caled to be 64bit cauz the map texturing trust me i know i opened mines up and took a look lol man the thing is old but old is gold i still play it and love it i think about this like the rest of game systems ….. “
August 25th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Well thanks man, you just broke my brain.
For me, I though the math slogan was dumb and obnoxious, even as a kid. The only math that Atari ever thought me was that 16 x 4 = crap.
Is Phil Harrison still there? I still don’t get that one, probably never will.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Blue Hawaiian, do you happen to read any Luna Bros.?
Honestly, I like looking at comic art and character sketches more than actually reading comics these days, and there is some cool stuff for that DC chick so I was just interested in what’s so great about her…
August 26th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Gar - Phil Harrison recently resigned from a top position at Sony earlier this year to take over at Infogrames (the company that won’t admit its name is a typo) which technically is Atari now.
Maybe a Jaguar 512 is in the works?
Lnly - I’m never going to live that down am I? =)
Actually, Girls and Ultra are the only good comics I have read in years. I thought that might be a little obscure for some, but the Luna Bros. do something with the media that very few ever have. I hope they don’t burn out anytime soon. I’ve yet to catch The Sword, I usually wait until the run comes to an end before getting hooked on it…
It’s funny you should say that about the art, I’m the same way with a lot of comics and even videogames as well. This past Comic-Con I was looking at all of Michael Turners pencil work and seriously, that ish is frakkin amazing! But I was never especially intrigued by his stories.
September 1st, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Yeah, I knew about that, but that move still baffles me. I know it’s probably about money or family reasons, but still, going from Sony to Atari seems like a step back. I hoped that he would maybe turn it around, but so far we haven’t really heard from him. All I want is to see a Phil Harrison Atari speech. Let’s see him try to sell that lemon.
Anyway, Billy, gimme the skinny on TiP. I guess the main thing I’m curious about is if it’s different enough from the first one to warrant a purchase.
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:38 am
Who knows why people in powerful places do what they do?
As for Viva Pinata, since Microsoft was nice enough to send me a copy I guess I will give a little mini-review here, in the comment section of my month old post as they probably intended…
If you’re familiar with the Tycoon series (Zoo or Rollercoaster), it’s more like an expansion pack than a full-on sequel. As a matter of fact, many of the features added in TiP were originally announced for the original, like the online coop.
It’s basically the same exact game, with a very few tweaks (none of which are substantial), but a load of new pinatas (32) and some new items, toys, and plants, etc.
The problems of the first game have not been remedied, such as the limited size of the gardens and the fact that no matter how many you make, they are always in the same freaking environment. It suffers from the same pacing problems as well: you start out completely overwhelmed by announcements and new things, you can barely even move five pinometers before getting interrupted by the arrival of a new pinata or upgrade. Then after around level 20 or 30, you spend hours upon hours just trying to get a specific damn pinata to show up.
Despite its flaws, Viva Pinata has always been fundamentally very addicting, and this one has more of the same for a very nice price tag ($40 brand new), so although it’s not perhaps everything one would want in a sequel, it is definitely worth a purchase nonetheless.
Also, in case anyone actually reads our little conversations and was wondering if this game might be good for their children, it absolutely can be (especially thanks to the addition of Just For Fun mode) but at times I can’t believe how frustrating some of the romance minigames can get. I’m literally ranked number one on every single master romancer leaderboard I’ve attempted in passing, which is saying a lot considering everyone who has had this game was either someone at Rare or a games journalist.
Also, I still have to question the kind of morals a game about beating families of pinatas until they have sex with each other repeatedly instills in our youth. It might just be better to buy them Grand Theft Auto…
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Well, you touched on some things that were fairly important in my purchase decision, most notably the fact that the gardens are still small. That bugged the crap out of me when playing the first one, so right now I’m thinking I’ll wait a bit and probably pick it up somewhere down the road when there’s nothing good to play.
Happens to me every year. I smoke through the big releases of winter/fall, and when spring starts rolling around, I selectively pick anything I missed that seems fun. I’m sure at one point, I’ll go “oh yeeeah, the VP game” and be able to pick it up used for cheap.
Had they released this game a month ago, it probably would’ve had more of my attention. You’d think a game centered around gardening would be out in the summer, but somehow companies still stubbornly believe that sales only occur in the last three months of the year.
Which makes me wonder, was this tendency established in the 8-bit or 16-bit eras, or was it a product of the Playstation explosion over here? To be honest, I can’t really remember when the majority of titles were released when I was a kid. It felt like they were quality games all year round, but maybe that’s just rose-tinted glasses…
September 4th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Eventually I will need to post a new story here as this one has turned into a boys only club.
About VP, I think it is the perfect “nothing else to do” kinda game. I’m not sure about the olden days, but I do know there weren’t nearly as MANY games to release back then, so maybe they had to spread them out a bit more.
Now, a moment to rant about technology and inevitably trail off into customer service and AIDS, if you don’t mind. As you know, I’m quite swamped with magazine shizzle at the moment, including a stack of shitty new Wii games to review on top of everything else, and what should happen today? My laptop dies, and when I say die, I mean this 5-month old $1500 piece is DEAD. Everything I had on it, gone. Word documents, Firefox bookmarks (instead of reading articles, I just save them for later… meaning never), and about 300GB of hentai. Gone.
Sadly, this is not the first time by a long shot, as I have gone through about 10 laptops in the past 4 years, all with some fundamental error occurring within 1-5 months. That is not okay. I don’t even game on these bricks, I just use Microsoft Word, and Mozilla Firefox. How hard can that be to run properly without catching on fire and then imploding into yourself?
People are always talking about the 360’s RROD, but that bitch only costs $400 tops. A brand new laptop is easily over a $1 with little to none bells and whistles, and that should last you at least a single gaming generation (about 5 years, unless you’re 3D0…). What if you bought a brand new car, and a couple months later the tires fell off and the steering wheel became verbally abusive, for no reason at all? And the worst part is, HP and Dell and whoever else are always like “Oh, that happens all the time. Just send it in along with a $200 rapeage fee and we may or may not send you back a working computer in some period of time.” I once had my Xbox 360, 1-year old HDTV, and $5K desktop all die on me in the same week. Why can’t shit just work? I fucking hate technology, and I hate how we are forced to rely on things that can’t even do the simplest of the functions they were created for without crapping themselves and falling over dead.
Anyway, my new laptop is the shizzle, son! I’m going to send you pictures!
September 8th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Damn man, sounds like you had a shittier week than I did, so if nothing else, thanks for making me feel better, I guess?
My french buddies actually had a word to describe the computer curse that seemingly follows only certain people. I had “la pouasse” for many years during high school (hard drive failures was my thing), but then it magically transferred to my roommate when I hit college. He became the guy that couldn’t see anybody else on the network during those LAN weekends. I still remember him drunkingly saying “guys, come on, wait for me” while the rest of us were starting a new game of NHL. Fun times.
Anyway, hopefully you didn’t lose too much work with the laptop crash, get back at me when you have some time man. Peace!
September 9th, 2008 at 6:46 am
Sorry to hear about your lappy.
Just a note on Viva Pinata … the “ban” thing you can do now is really nice, and helps a lot with the garden space issue.
I love VP and I can’t say anything bad about it!
September 10th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
I love how this topic no longer has ANYTHING to do with video game music, whatsoever! I remember you once made a post about gamefaqs.com or something then argued over which Victoria’s Secret model was better for 100 comments! Good times…
But yeah, you need to post something new, this once-every-eight-months crap isn’t going to fly! Weird how no one else from this site comments here, maybe they just don’t love you like I do? =P
Oh yeah, and since I actually read you and Garudoh’s secret love letters all the way through, you should definitely send me that wildcard Roario I know you have!!
September 13th, 2008 at 3:43 am
GEN just posted an interview with the Luna Bros. Were we not just talking about them or what?
http://girlsentertainmentnetwork.com/comics/exclusive-gen-interview-with-the-luna-brothers-on-the-sword/
Anyway, your Roario has been sent and I’ll definitely have something new up soon…just as soon as I finish Tales of Vesperia! It’s been 50 comments without any mention of Adriana Lima (what WERE we talking about?!) so it’s definitely time!