VG Frequency

We think you need to. For the past two years, we’ve been attending this event called MAGFest (that is, the Music and Gaming Festival). Short of knocking on djpretzel’s, zircon’s or my (Liontamer’s) door, this will be one of the best chances to not only meet us, the crew behind OC ReMix, but also to meet a whole ton of OC ReMixers. Not only that, but you’ll get to spend New Year’s weekend with us and party it up. This will be the seventh time they’ve thrown this shindig!

If you’re at all into video games and music, this will be the place to be this upcoming year. There’s so many fun things to do, you’ll wonder where your weekend went! Video game composers like Howard Drossin (with several Sonic titles to his credit) and Jake “virt” Kaufman (Contra 4 and TMNT on the DS) will be around. And Friday and Saturday nights are filled with concerts from video game bands! The Advantage, Minibosses, and NESkimos have all performed there in the past. This year’s lineup of bands will be out soon, including some familiar names from OCR.

The best part is that even after all of that, you haven’t even experienced half of the event! You can hit the video room and watch game movies and cartoons, buy stuff from the people in the marketplace, go to video game panels and discussions (including our own OC ReMix bash), or just play games the whole time. There’s over 10,000 square feet of just console, PC, and even arcade games, and it doesn’t close AT ALL during the entire duration of the event. If you want to play Rock Band on a stage for hours on end with José the Bronx Rican, you can! Or if you wanna challenge James Rolfe, the Angry Video Game Nerd, go ahead and call him OUT!

Here’s what me and some other folks had to say about last year’s MAGFest:
* http://www.vgfrequency.com/magfest-6-from-alexandria-va-13-day-1-report/
* http://www.destructoid.com/magfest-vi-highlights-65679.phtml
* http://revver.com/video/625357/magfest-vi/
* http://www.megatonik.com/2007/12/18/we-rock-hard-we-play-hard-magfest-cometh/
* http://gamemusic4all.blogspot.com/2008/01/magfest-vi-wrapup.html

Now that you want to go, lemme mention the important stuff:
- It’s in Alexandria, VA, in a 5-star Hilton, which is a quick ride from DC (Reagan National Airport).
- It’s Thursday-Sunday, Jan 1-4, 2009. If you’re not free on New Year’s Day, you can come Friday and not miss too much.
- Like many good things, it costs money. But $40 isn’t too bad for all weekend!

And here are a few links for you:
* Their site: http://magfest.org/
* The info on the hotel and directions: http://magfest.org/info/
* The preregistration page: http://courtwright.org/magfest/preregistration

Preregister for MAGFest soon to make sure you’re there! Their hotel is already accepting room reservations, and they even got the rates down for us that aren’t so lucky in the money department. It’s only $99 a night to stay at the hotel MAGFest is in, and come on, it looks like the Citadel! Split it with a few friends and that price goes down VERY fast. If you’re already sold on it, call them up and reserve a room at 703-845-1010 any time of day (they’re a hotel, ya know).

Let them know MAGFest and OC ReMix sent you (and make sure to be at the OC ReMix panel), and we’ll see you there!

Larry “Liontamer” Oji
Head Submissions Evaluator, OverClocked ReMix
Creator, VG Frequency
http://www.ocremix.org
http://www.vgfrequency.com

About Aksys Games
Based in Torrance, California, Aksys Games is a third party licensee of Nintendo of America. More information on Aksys Games can be found online at aksysgames.com.

For Immediate Release
April 1st, 2008
Contact: Tyberius H. Guenley, (suzumebachi@gmail.com)

BELEN, NM–ReMix:ThaSauce, in cooperation with Dupaszef, LLC, is proud to present Super Mario Land 2: Tremendous Achievement. Super Mario Land 2: Tremendous Achievement is an achievement unlocked in video game music remixing. Such a great achievement to have been achieved is truly an achievement in itself. Super Mario Land 2: Tremendous Achievement is the remixing community’s first official Super Mario Land 2 remix project, an honorable achievement. Also an achievement, is the incredible talent involved in this achievement. Greatly achieved artists, such as:

• Beatdrop
• injury
• Children of the Washing Machine
• that Mexican guy
• Emmanuel Samuelson IV, Esq.
• MC TOAD
• OverCoat
• that Swedish guy
• OverCoat

This achievement is available to the public at:

http://remix.thasauce.net/sml2/

Downloading of this achievement is free on the condition that you share this achievement with your unachieving friends. After downloading this achievement, users are allowed to select songs from this collection of achievement and listen to them. The act of listening to these songs is an achievement all on its own. Tell your friends. And your mother. Ty Guenley, ThaSauce Admin, ReMixer, Forum Troll, IRC Troll, World of Warcraft Player, Haver of Basic Skills, Project Director for Super Mario Land 2: Tremendous Achievement (http://remix.thasauce.net/sml2/), and Generally Standup Guy, writes:

“This is totally a crowning achievement. Not unlike the crowning of a newborn child, or like the King of Canada or something.”

Founded in 1979, Dupaszef, LLC is a company.

Cool stuff seeing Andrew “Hope Fails” Luers improve his game. The artist also known as OA took home the gold Zelda trophy for the latest Dwelling of Duels competition, focused on the Kirby franchise.

Hope Fails‘ first place track “Puffball Promenade” tackled Kirby’s Dream Land 2 from the Game Boy. He’s really come a ways from earlier material in his game arrangement career, so it’s really nice to see that growth validated with the win here.

As we anticipate next month’s competition, a Sci-Fi Games theme, be sure to get your DoD fill this month and download these tracks inspired by the pink poofer:

Hope Fails: Kirby’s Dreamland 2 (Gameboy) - Puffball Promenade
Musically Inspired, Jabo: Kirby Superstar - Thanks For The Help, Knuckle Joe!
foXdiE: Kirby’s Adventure - Roy G Ambivalence
Fourth Place - Scaredsim: Medley - Pink Like a Bubble Gum
Fifth Place (tie) - ionvortex: Kirby Superstar - Save Cabin Getaway
Fifth Place (tie) - thesamareaye: Kirby’s Adventure - Smooth Like Butter
Seventh Place - Corax, Zachariasmith, hodded: Kirby 64 - Baby Blue Toque
Eighth Place - Noise and a Beat: Kirby Superstar - Gourmet Race of a Thousand Flames
Ninth Place (tie) - Millenial Fairs: Kirby - Kirby’s Nightmare
Ninth Place (tie) - Shnabubula: Kirby’s Adventure - OMG U SUXX

KFSS Studios, creator of several of the first legally-released VGM fan arrangement albums in America (the Project Majestic Mix series), announced today that it’s closing its doors.

The label’s final, uncompleted project, was an ambient/chillout album, given catalog number KFSS-710 and planned for a two-disc release. The album, featuring both VGM arrangements and original compositions, would have contained material from Mustin, Daniel Baranowsky, Shawn “ABG” Overn, Jan van Valburg, Mazedude, Jonathan Geer, Chris Hülsbeck, Jan Zottmann, Fabian “Rapture” Del Priore and label owners Stephen & Jana Kennedy.

Since there’s only a short window of opportunity for the message posted by label owners Stephen & Jana Kennedy to be seen, we reprint their closing announcement in full: (more…)

OverClocked ReMix judge and director of the Final Fantasy VII tribute album Voices of the Lifestream (http://ff7.ocremix.org) Andrew “zircon” Aversa was recently voted the winner of SquareSound’s (www.squaresound.com) “A Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu” Arrangement Competition. The winning participant out of 53 entries with his Final Fantasy VI medley “Dirt Devil,” Aversa earned a combined score of 96.22%. zircon walked away with the grand prize of a limited edition promotional copy of Voices of the Lifestream, and two VIP tickets to the March 1, 2008 performance of Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy (www.ffdistantworlds.com), including the official concert program and limited edition CD, performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. The tickets to the Chicago concert include entrance to the exclusive meet-and-greet with Final Fantasy series composer Nobuo Uematsu following the performance.

Emerging as runner-up was Kenley Kristofferson, who runs the Into the Score podcast (www.intothescore.com) dedicated to the academic study of video game music, with his own Final Fantasy VI medley, “Hundreds of Voices (Swinging in Unison!).” All of the entries are available for download on SquareSound’s website, and Aversa’s winning piece was recently posted to OverClocked ReMix (www.ocremix.org).

Larry “Liontamer” Oji, OC ReMix’s head submissions evaluator and among the competition’s four judges, noted the prestige of what was at stake: “It was definitely a privilege to judge such an important competition from SquareSound, with a very meaningful first prize on the line. Having the opportunity to meet any composer in person, let alone Nobuo Uematsu, and express one’s fandom and thanks is something a lot of musicians in the community don’t have the good fortune to experience.”

zircon will be attending Distant Worlds with girlfriend and fellow OC ReMix judge Jillian “pixietricks” Goldin. Having created Voices of the Lifestream, Aversa hopes to present his awarded copy of the album to Uematsu in person: “Both Jill and myself are really excited to see Distant Worlds and meet Mr. Uematsu, even if only briefly. We’re huge fans of his music; between the two of us, we’ve remixed over a dozen of his compositions. I personally consider him to be my all-time favorite video game music composer. It will be a dream come true if I can personally hand him a copy of Voices of the Lifestream.”

Links:

*SquareSound: Andrew Aversa Wins Our Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu Arrangement Competition!
*SquareSound
*Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy
*Andrew “zircon” Aversa at OverClocked ReMix
*Kenley Kristofferson at Into the Score
*Larry “Liontamer” Oji at VG Frequency
*Jillian “pixietricks” Goldin at OverClocked ReMix
*Nobuo Uematsu (????) at OverClocked ReMix
*Voices of the Lifestream

Tim Maxwell of SquareSound has publicized the final set of prizes for the Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu Arrangement Competition, with the all-important tickets to Chicago’s upcoming performance of Distant Worlds hanging in the balance. Well, I’m helping to judge this bad boy, so let’s hope you’ve got what it takes:

The prize packages for the winners of the Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu Arrangement Competition have now been completely finalized. The grand prize isn’t changing obviously, but we finalized some other details. Here’s the rundown:

The grand prize winner will get:

• Two VIP tickets to the Distant Worlds concert in Chicago on March 1, 2008
• A free concert program
• A free Distant Worlds CD
• Entrance to the meet-and-greet with Nobuo Uematsu after the concert
• One copy of the OverClocked ReMix exclusive Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream CD set

The first runner-up will receive:

• A free Distant Worlds CD
• One copy of the OverClocked ReMix exclusive Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream CD set

The 3rd through 5th place finishers will receive:

• One copy of the OverClocked ReMix exclusive Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream CD set

In the event that the grand prize winner is unable to attend the concert, that person will receive a copy of the Distant Worlds CD hand-signed by Nobuo Uematsu. We will try to film the signing of this album for the winner, but we cannot guarantee this. In addition, this person will receive a $100 gift certificate from our store. The tickets will then be offered to runners-up in succession until we find a contestant that is able to attend the concert.

Once we determine who has won the tickets, we will arrange for them to be placed at the will-call window at the concert venue (the Rosemont Theater) for pickup prior to the show. Tickets may not be sold or transferred.

That about wraps things up! Today is the last day to submit arrangements for those who registered, and the winner should be announced within a week. Good luck everyone!

How forgetful I am sometimes. I talked about all the fun I had scoring the Dwelling of Duels competition on day 1 of MAGFest 6. I even talked about the craziness of Paragon’s traditional announcement of the placings at the top of day 4, right after the conclusion of the concerts. But I never posted the official results! I’m gonna quote myself from my MAGFest thoughts on the listening party before the results below. Be sure to be there at the top of next month to find our the results of the new competition theme, the Kirby series:

Dwelling of Duels capped off my night, as I hung around with the most die-hard of die-hards for the over 6-hour listening party voting on entries of this month DoD Free Month. The 11+ minute Secret of Mana arrangement “Let Me Tell You a Secret” had everyone laughing hard after a long night of listening. Hopefully my personal favorite, Splatterhouse “TERRORMASK”, has an impressive showing; I gave it all the support I could with my only 6 point vote of the night, the most points that can be given to any track as part of a voter’s 50 point spread.

musicalman: Metal Gear - Snake’s Revenge
norg: Ducktales - Harden the Duck Up
Danimal Cannon and Chris Dlugosz: Contra 4 - “Let’s Attack Aggressively!”
Fourth Place: ansgaros: Final Fantasy 6 - Kefka Gets Decisive
Fifth Place (tie): Kidd Cabbage: Super Metroid - Fuzzy Green Feeling
Fifth Place (tie): virt: Splatterhouse - TERRORMASK
Seventh Place: Ryan8Bit: Wizards & Warriors, Gauntlet - Kuros Shot the Food
Eighth Place: Snappleman: SET PHASERS TO ^___^ (In Loving Memory of Chavez)
Ninth Place: xoc: Conker’s Bad Fur Day (N64) - Straight Windy
Tenth Place: dasaten: Secret of Mana - Let Me Tell You a Secret
Eleventh Place: MusicallyInspired: Duke Nukem series - Grabbag Mega-Mix
Twelfth Place (tie): CarboHydroM: PopN Twinbee - Ground Split
Twelfth Place (tie): Hope Fails: Salamander 2 - mmmbop
Fourteenth Place (tie): strefig: Bucky O’Hare - Bring Them to the Righteous
Fourteenth Place (tie): SuprMelO: Chrono Trigger - Sambacross Time
Sixteenth Place: JigginJonT: Final Fantasy 6 - A Day in the Life of a Gambler
Seventeenth Place: Millenial Fairs: Chrono Trigger - Robo’s Theme
Eighteenth Place: Scaredsim: Castlevania 3 - Ding dong, au quatrième top il sera 20 heures
Nineteenth Place (tie): Daniel Alm: Gremlins 2 - Gizmo Caca!
Nineteenth Place (tie): Dennis: Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - Crunch Time
Nineteenth Place (tie): rauze: Mega Man 4 - Man & Machine
Twenty-second Place: Hale-Bopp: Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker - Two Tales
Twenty-third Place (tie): pingosimon: Final Fantasy 6 - Kids Run Through the City
Twenty-third Place (tie): XMark: Contra - Assault on Galuga (Contra: The Movie: The Soundtrack)
Twenty-fifth Place: chunkstyle: Monty on the Run (C64) - Avogadro’s Ostinato
Twenty-sixth Place (tie): thesamareaye: Final Fantasy 3 - Oceans Abound
Twenty-sixth Place (tie): Vegeroth: Breath of Fire - The Fire Came from Within
Twenty-eighth Place: Naz: Chrono Trigger - Dreams of a Black Wind
Twenty-ninth Place (tie): Corax and Zachariasmith: Jazz Jackrabbit - Templum Testudine
Twenty-ninth Place (tie): Hydrasphere: Tetris - Tetrismatik
Twenty-ninth Place (tie): Josiah Tobin: Uniracers - The Fastest Wheel in the Uni-Verse
Twenty-ninth Place (tie): Patrick_Like_Static: Ducktales - Bless Me Bagpipes: Green Cheese!
Thirty-third Place: Cetera: Nightmare on Elm Street - Elm Street
Thirty-fourth Place: zangderak: Street Fighter Alpha - Jaguar Tooth
Thirty-fifth Place (tie): DZX: Final Fantasy 7 - Reunion
Thirty-fifth Place (tie): Skulletmaster: Mega Man 7 - Blue Rock Bloodletting Tyme
Thirty-fifth Place (tie): tibone: Pyscho Pinball - I’ll Jackpot into your squirrel if that’s what it takes
Thirty-eighth Place (tie): Six-Stringed Flamberge: Everyday Shooter (PS3) - Surreal Heartbreak
Thirty-eighth Place (tie): Mr. N: The Sims - Cloud Construction
Thirty-eighth Place (tie): ShinerCCC: Final Fantasy Legend 1, 2, 3 - The Legend of the Glass Sword
Forty-first Place: Nario: Final Fantasy - Crystal Warriors
Forty-second Place (tie): Amaranthine Skies: Magician - Magical Funk
Forty-second Place (tie): bjkmenu: Popful Mail (Sega CD) - Muttonhead is a Nuts Cracker
Forty-fourth Place: Paragon: Dark Cloud 2, Suikoden 2 - Two Fountainheads
Forty-fifth Place: Bobby Winston?!, Baraka: Phenoix Wright: Ace Attorney - Wright #51
Forty-sixth Place: Pancho: Final Fantasy 9 - staggering saiyan. . .err. . .genome

After missing Day 2, I was definitely ready to get back on the horse for MAGFest. OC ReMix had its panel that day, so of course I represented my homebase. Along with djpretzel and myself, fellow judges zircon, pixietricks, Big Giant Circles and CHz were on board the panel presentation that day for an impressive show of staff power.

Rather than going through our traditional presentation for the uninitiated, we were in front of a crowd where the major majority of people were already familiar with OverClocked ReMix. This year, we highlighted all the important developments at OCR for 2007, including Voices of the Lifestream, attending Video Games Live, the debut of the Content Policy, revising the Submission Standards and Instructions and developing translations of our most important information for several languages. OCR’s latest album project, Radical Dreamers: Thieves of Fate, released during MAGFest itself, was given a preview to the audience by director Brad “the prophet of mephisto” Burr, to an excellent reception.

Highlighting upcoming developments for 2008, we’ve got some great stuff on the way. Our first live full orchestra arrangement from Wild ARMs is on the way, we’ve got our first mother-son ReMix collaboration as well from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. djp showed off his plans for swanky new composer pages that’ll show off a lot more information about the men and women who inspire the contributors to OCR, using Tim Follin to give the people a look at how composers are laid out with more information than ever; look for that to go live in the next few days. We also pimped some AMVs including clips of some of the Voices of the Lifestream AMV contest (soon to be judged so that we can get those swanky prizes out there) as well as the Spittin’ Narcissism fanvid by Psycosis91. Plenty of good stuff to promote, not even taking into account our bread and butter of posting creative, free ReMixes.

After a huge dinner with the OCR meetup group, it was time for the second and final night of concerts. Let’s go short and sweet: The moshing this year was definitely toned down a great deal compared to last year. Not that anyone was cracking down on it, there just wasn’t nearly as much this year as last. Let’s not also forget props to NO CARRIER and noteNdo for the NES-created visuals that adorned both nights of performances. You’ve got to see it to believe it, they were a nostalgic acid trip.

Powerglove was excellent. They always have an unbelievable amount of energy to their performances, including some badass costumes. I personally hate the Power Rangers theme, but when they played it for some brief non-VGM material, they definitely got the crowd going. I would have loved to have seen Chris Marchiel’s Guitar Hero synth in play, but was perfectly glad “settling” for some awesome material from Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man, including Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s “So Sexy Robotnik“!

I was legitimately worried that Select Start, in their first MAGFest performance, wouldn’t be as much of a draw with the crowd, who are used to rock and metal VG cover bands acts, but the masses turned out in a big way. We probably could have used some chairs during their set, since there was no reason to stand up for the whole thing. They put on a really classy performance. Frontman Austin Harley started off a little shaky with the opening solo on one track, but regrouped with a joke and was off to the races. The best part of the set had to be when the crowd exploded with whooping and applause to the end of the first track, which visibly took the entire sextet by surprise.

When I talked to violinist Elaine Li after the set along with Big Giant Circles, she confirmed that the group had never received that kind of reaction ever before in their history of live performances, and that it was great to be in an atmosphere where everyone already knows and respects game music, making it so much easier to get immersed in the performance. Indeed, hearing Metroid “Kraid’s Hideout”, Chrono Trigger “Theme of Frog’s” and Final Fantasy III “Eternal Wind” live was a big highlight. Along with Mustin and ktriton joining in for one song, the crew did a great job with their first MAGFest appearance, so hopefully they walked away already thinking about how to return next year.

This Place is Haunted played their final show with guitarist Michael Motorcycle, who’s leaving the band to begin medical school. Who would have pegged him for it? (We at VGF wish him the best of luck, to be sure.) The band’s set was a lot more of a balance between VGM and other retro material (The theme to Sanford and Son??? Let’s throw it on there!); I’ll admit I’m partial to VGM and would have appreciated more…exclusivity on that level. I mentioned to Shael Riley, who’s a big fan of the band, that This Place just has some impeccable chops. Both Michael Motorcycle and Epileptic Peat were playing some really involved runs and solos with just pro precision; it was quite a sight to behold being so close to the stage. Here’s hoping these bros regroup somehow so that they can keep putting out quality material, especially because they spotlight tons of otherwise obscure VGM to arrange.

Last but not least, the final band of the night was The Smash Bros. Running strong from their performance at the 2007 Final Fantasy XI Fan Festival, MAGFest’s house band took on a new flavor with ktriton replacing Shawn Phase on drums and doing an amazing job; there was definitely a great amout of synergy between him and the rest of the band. Before the set started, we were all instructed to listen to the noise playing over the speakers. A few of us thought it was rain SFX until a wonderful smell wafted across the concert hall. In between tracks, Pappy and Joe Cam were cooking bacon outside the hotel and feeding it to the crowd! Enhancing the experience was a microphone brought over to the pig meat so that the entire crowd could hear it sizzling. I was able to snag a full-sized strip of bacon in the first wave of free pork before the bros had to start cutting it up to offer it to everyone. Definitely a hilarious bonus, the crowd chanted “Bacon! Bacon!” with ferocity with every break. The eclectic VGM set of the Bros. (Ailsean, ktriton, Midee, norg, Prozax, Roy McClanahan & virt) included U.N. Squadron, Phoenix Wright, EarthBound and Contra 4 in easily the most diverse set of the festival. They need to record their shows via the mixing boards at MAG and sell, sell, sell.

Anyone who doubts whether or not they should attend MAGFest would become a believer if only to experience the greatness of even one night of the concerts, and that’s only one night out of four days. I’ll be back tomorrow to wrap up the rundown of my time at MAG.

After calling it quits with OverLooked ReMiX in 2005 with his seemingly first AND last OLR album project (Final Fantasy Mystic Quest: Misstik Kwest), Joe “Joe Cam” Cammisa has returned to OLR with his second album project there, SPLUNK!

What could combine zyko, virt, Zeratul, ktriton, Mazedude, and more bringers of earhurt? Only a truly awful game could bring the Cam and his posse back. Spelunker for the NES was that game. Joe and his way with words whet your appetite for the album:

Spelunker.

One of the shittiest games I can remember for the NES.

Seriously, you died if you fell like half the length of the size of your character’s sprite. It was pretty asstastic.

The music was pretty meh and repetitive as well, but the game has a name that is fun to say, so needless to say I felt it deserved to have an entire remix project devoted to it, but it’s not like it deserved a GOOD remix project, so OLR was the place to go.

If you want to know more about the album, visit the SPLUNK! page and educate yourself. The highlight of the album has gotta be Mustin’s already-legendary “You Just Fucking Died”. Yes, it’s barely been out and it’s already achieved that status. Now you’ve got no reason to ignore this gold. Go get it!

OC ReMixer Joshua Morse is attempting to take OC ReMix someplace its never been before: genre classification. Initially dubbed OCR Genres, criticism by OCR regulars over strict genre classification of OC ReMixes led to Morse rechristening his initiative OCR Tags. The site aims to eventually sort through OverClocked ReMix’s vast library of music via user-submitted descriptors that can range from one to several tags. Morse laid out the plans for the site at the OC ReMix forums:

Hey all,

Lately I’ve been immersing myself in a number of web development projects. One of said projects includes something called OCR Tags. In short, I plan for it to be a supplemental website to OCR, providing a new way of searching for mixes: via genre. I’ve seen some demand for people wanting remixes to be categorized by genre, so here’s your chance!

I need your help! To explain, OCR Tags allows for users to tag their favorite remixes via genre and elements. I still have a quite a bit to work on, but you can check out the site right here. Users can register and start tagging immediately.

I’d also like to welcome any questions / comments anyone has as I’m trying to build up an FAQ for the website. So let me have it! 

On the heels of MAGFest 6 this new year, the much anticipated VGMix3 hyped from last year’s MAGFest was nowhere to be found. But Jake “virt” Kaufman and crew came up with a stopgap (its title lovingly inspired by the Metal Slug series) with VGMix X, unveiled earlier today.

Powered by the Jamroom software, the site is once again poised to house music while expanding its reach to include user blogs (among other currently unreleased features). virt mentioned that once VGMix3 is eventually finalized, the songs and reviews of VGMix2 & VGMix X will be integrated with the future incarnation of the site.

The server’s already been hammered throughout today by the activity, so you can tell the return of VGMix to hosting music has been big in the community already. With being said, don’t feel froggy about jumping back onboard VGMix!

More than 1,000 videogamers and videogame music enthusiasts will converge at the Hilton Mark Center at 5000 Seminary Road in Alexandria, Va., on January 3-6, 2008 for the sixth annual Music and Gaming Festival, a nonstop weekend of tournaments, concerts and workshops.

Three large rooms packed with videogames will be available free for all registrants at the festival, also known as MAGFest. In addition, video game tribute bands will perform rock, electronic, power-metal, and orchestral versions of popular game themes on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Unlike larger, more commercialized conventions, MAGFest aims for a laid-back atmosphere of fun.

“Our goal is to fuel the community of gaming and connect people with each other, whether they are industry leaders or casual gamers,” said Brendan Becker, 28, who runs the festival.

For starters, MAGFest will offer 24-hour access to virtually every kind of gaming – console, arcade, PC/LAN, or handheld. From the ancient Atari 2600 and the original Nintendo Entertainment System to the latest Wii, Xbox and Playstation consoles, all video game platforms will be available. Competitive types will be able to participate in dozens of tournaments for games such as Gears of War, Halo, Rock Band, Smash Brothers, and Wii Sports. Even tabletop gamers will have their space.

On the music side, Friday and Saturday night concerts will feature at least eight bands — with names such as The Advantage, Armcannon, and Powerglove — that specialize in videogame cover songs.

“We’ve become a videogame music mecca, of sorts,” Becker said. “It’s nothing short of awesome to watch all of these guys play on stage at MAGFest and see hundreds of gamers chant, rock, headbang, or sing along.”

Visual effects at the concert will be provided by No Carrier and noteNdo, who use modified Nintendo game consoles along with custom software and a technique known as “circuit bending” to project mind-twisting images on the wall behind the performers.

Two of this year’s musical acts defy the electro-rock stereotype and present classical treatments of videogame tunes. Select Start, a six-piece chamber ensemble which has been featured on National Public Radio, draws from a repertoire of more than 50 videogame theme arrangements. Daniel Brown, a solo pianist, will perform his arrangements of the soundtrack to Battletoads while the game is played on a large screen.

In addition to games and music, MAGFest will offer workshops by videogame artists, musicians and programmers, discussions on videogame culture, trivia and costume contests, dealer tables, an auction of videogame equipment, and a 24-hour video room featuring videogame-related movies and cartoons.

Other special guests include:

* “Stuttering Craig” Skistimas and “Handsome Tom” Hanley of ScrewAttack, which provides videogame content for MTV’s GameTrailers.com website
* James Rolfe, also known as the Angry Video Game Nerd, another regular on GameTrailers.com
* Brian Colin, CEO of Game Refuge, which has developed several humorous titles for Bally/Midway, others, and themselves
* Videogame-themed webcomic artists Applegeeks and Paradox Lost
* Jake “Virt” Kaufman, videogame music composer
* OverClocked ReMix, a site dedicated to fan-made arrangements of game tunes
* X-Strike Studios and Dark Maze Studios, two film groups that produce full-length feature films based on videogames
* Fargate Productions and Main Moon Productions, two more film groups who produce videogame-inspired projects and shorts
* Flavor Grenade Studios, a videogame design outfit headed by DJ Potatoe
* Robert Aldrich, who writes anime- and videogame-inspired stories
* Virtual Fools, a cadre of self-designated “videogame scholars” who offer academic critiques of videogames and surrounding culture

Registration for MAGFest is $35 in advance, and $40 at the door. Visit http://magfest.org/ for full registration information or http://magfest.org/section.php?8 for a complete, up-to-date list of guests.

After a lengthy nomination phase, the Gamingforce Forums kicked off its first ever “Best Doujin Contest” yesterday as 256 fan-made (a.k.a. “doujin,” a Japanese term) video game music arrangements are pitted against one another in community voting until only one track is left standing.

The contest is initially broken up into eight brackets, each bracket containing eight matchups with four arrangements in each matchup. To help weed out many of the outliers, the top two from each matchup will advance and the 128 remaining tracks will be randomly reseeded.

Doujin video game music from all over the world is represented in the contest with music from OverClocked ReMix, Remix.Kwed.Org, Dwelling of Duels, and dozens of other websites and album releases from North America, Europe and Japan. For a great chance at getting exposed to a ton of fan-made material you may not be familiar with, stopping by Gamingforce for this competition is an absolute must.

The beginning of a new month means another shot of Dwelling of Duels results, this time focusing on Enix (the precursor of even bigger heavyweight Square Enix). With Dragon Warrior, Terranigma, Soul Blazer and more, the company was well represented with its crop of entries.

Master Hatchet took home top honors in the live performance compo with “Union Alpha” an excellent arrangement from the all-too-rarely tackled Valkyrie Profile, while Scaredsim followed in second place with the Brain Lord/Illusion of Gaia combo mix “Will is the Lord,” featuring some good 8-bit style leads before segueing into more serene leads for the Gaia section. norg was, in my opinion, the story of the month with his 18+ minute evolving super-medley of Japanese-exclusive Famicom release Just Breed entitled “Abduction.” Ryan8bit and Hat helped round out the top finishers in a solid turnout.

Wanted to throw special props out to Hope Fails for the Terranigma arrangement “Afternoon Tea with SnappleMan’s Mom,” which finished tied for 8th place, not just for a funny title, but a great composition as well, which I didn’t feel got enough support. It could have sounded a bit more polished, but the execution was fairly strong and had some good orchestration ideas rarely heard in DoD.

You look like you could use a breakdown. Don’t forget to check out how DoD rings in 2008 when this month’s Free Month competition creation phase wraps up late on New Year’s Day:

M-H: Valkyrie Profile - Union Alpha
Scaredsim: Brainlord, Illusion of Gaia - Will is the Lord
norg: Just Breed (Famicom) - Abduction
Fourth Place: Ryan8bit: Dragon Warriors 2, 4 - Wayfaerer
Fifth Place (tie): Hat: Soul Blazer - Get to Town
Fifth Place (tie): Riders, Ranger-X, ShinerCCC: Brainlord - The Audio Dragon
Fifth Place (tie): thesamareaye, The S.P.O.B.: Star Ocean 3 - Red Leaves of Autumn
Eighth Place (tie): Hope Fails: Terranigma - Afternoon Tea with SnappleMan’s Mom
Eighth Place (tie): Hydrasphere: Terranigma - Just for a While
Eighth Place (tie): Josiah Tobin, XMark: Brainlord - Master Of The Platinum Site Of The Tower Of The Abell Civilization Ruins
Eleventh Place: Theo Confidor: Paladin’s Quest - Wielding a Holy Sword
Twelfth Place (tie): bjkmenu: Bust a Move - hiroshortykittyn
Twelfth Place (tie): Bucedric Nosnik Rionediamn: The 7Th Saga - The Runes Ruse

Earlier this week, Andrew “Merman” Fischer posted a review at Remix64 on the October 27 performance of legendary Commodore scene band Press Play on Tape. PPOT’s concert was part of the GameCity 2007 video games festival and took place in Nottingham, England at the MUSE nightclub across from GameCity’s venue of the Broadway Cinema & Media Centre.

Be sure to check out Merman’s in-depth comments and observations on the show. To entice those on the fence, here’s a look at PPOT’s setlist, provided below this nice shot of the band at the concert sporting their 8-bit ties:

• Commando
• Tiger Mission
• Phantom of the Asteroid
• Ghosts ‘N Goblins
• Arkanoid
• Comic Bakery
• Sacred Armour of Antiriad
• Pac-Man
• Out Run
• Hypaball/Mission AD
• Rambo
• “I’m a Pumpkin Man” (Cauldron II)
• The Human Race
• One Man and His Droid
• Das Gamer (Kraftwerk)
• Bubble Bobble
• PaRappa The Rapper 2: “Beard Burger Song”
• The Ultimate Showdown
• Monkey Island

Encore:

• Monty on the Run

OC ReMix judge and all-around swell coffee-and-cream stallion Larry “Liontamer” Oji (Editor’s note: When you write about yourself, you can make the description colorful too) interviewed on this past Sunday’s broadcast of Nitro Game Injection, episode #103, now available for download. Let’s drop the 3rd-person pretense so I can overview my appearance. Myself and the NGI duo, KyleJCrb & AkumuHau discussed:

*KyleJCrb: Did the vikings even know of Africa? I don’t think so. [laughs]
*Akumu’s English (!)
*My background in the community
*What I look for in a good VGM arrangement
*The stupidity of artists who react poorly to criticisms
*Criticisms of the VGMix review system
*How Akumu got involved in the VGM fan arrangement scene
*The burden of provide content to readers or listeners
*The origin of Akumu’s NSF Archive
*The Cheetahmen
*Criticisms of Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream
*Akumu hanging with Chris Hülsbeck and Arnie Roth at PLAY!
*The VG Frequency blog
*The worldwide depth of the VGM fan arrangement scene
*Criticisms of Dwelling of Duels
*Artists who refuse to arrange from game soundtrack they’re not nostalgic for
*Our own video game nostalgia; and
*What I want to see from the fan arrangement community in the future including pimpage for The OneUps, Minibosses and zircon

My appearance also features 4 tracks personally chosen for airplay by me, selections from ktriton & Christian Pacaud, Israfel, Tim Follin and S.S.H. Random: At the 136-minute mark, the word we were looking for was “refugee”. Also, you’re put on notice not to listen to the show at work. It’s not work-safe in the slightest. Tune into the recently resurrected show Sunday nights, 6PM EST.

With Halloween now nothing but a memory, the top of month means Dwelling of Duels results. Of course October spookiness goes well with VGM, as OneUp Studios already showed a few days ago, so what better way for DoD to work throughout the month than with Castlevania Month?

SnappleMan got the duke with a quick effort from Akumajo Dracula, “Thrashard in the Cave”. But don’t take MY word for it. Results! And don’t forget November’s new compo as Enix Month is underway: (more…)

On the flip side of the coin from a good game with bad music comes…a bad game with good music. Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft shed light on the new hotness in the Japanese VGM remixing scene: the soundtrack to the 1992 unreleased NES game Cheetahmen II. Ashcraft sets the scene:

Back in the early 1990’s, now defunct developer Active Enterprises manufactured 1,500 copies of its never released NES game Cheetahmen II. The dev hoped the three Cheetahmen (Apollo, Aries and Hercules) would be the company’s answer to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They weren’t. The sequel is bug infested and almost unplayable, but thankfully, the unsold copies were found in a warehouse for us to laugh and point at. According to a GameSpot review, there are enemies that can neither be killer or avoided. However, the soundtrack is SO GREAT!! Big thing on the Japanese internet right now is remixing that musical awesomeness.

A commentor at Kotaku asked if the artists of OC ReMix knew about this yet, which I can definitely say “no” to. It’s safe to say that they will soon.

Watching the in-game footage, I definitely found myself initially asking what was so good about Cheetahmen II’s music. The game being so awful, the music doesn’t really…enhance the experience. But I was soon to be sold on it. Though all of them would get the Form Rejection Letter if I ever encountered them in the OCR submissions inbox, some of the remixes in the article’s YouTube video collection do show off the clear potential of the theme through some bootleg sound upgrade mixes. It’d be interesting to see what other capable artists in OCR and elsewhere could cook up with Cheetahmen, given some actual talent. The last video, featuring 16-bit brass samples, made me wanna see DZComposer do something way, way better.

Lemme throw you this beginnerish techno mix to illustrate the potential. On a side note, it’s funny to me that some people believe that this is all we encourage or accept at OC ReMix. All the more reason to enjoy it:

Ari “Protricity” Asulin extended an offer yesterday to VGMix to provide preexisting, near fully-functional code based off of his site SongPortal and get VGMix3 up and running within a month.

Asulin recently reemerged in the VGM arrangement community, having submitted a Metal Slug 3 arrangement “Light ‘Em Up” to OC ReMix after a nearly three year absence, that departure having also been bitter and leading to Asulin seemingly making amends with VGMix. After reconciling with site founder Jake “virt” Kaufman in 2004 only to subsequently attack the site soon after and cause VGMix2’s closure, Protricity was amusingly dubbed by VGMix “He Who Shall Not Be Named”.

Protricity’s proposal having been made in response to a MetaFilter job posting from virt last month, Kaufman was polite in rejecting the offer, stating he likely wouldn’t hold a grudge forever while maintaining that Protricity was “someone who has been malicious in the past” and “not someone I can trust with something so important to me.”

Other coding offers have been turned down, including one from fellow community news hub ThaSauce. As of now, the VGMix 3.0 tentative ETA remains January 94, 2017.

Mustin has reassembled the Bad Dudes for OneUp Studios‘ new Halloween-themed EP, entitled Zombies Rocked My Neighbors. Let’s find out what’s up from the head Dude:

The Bad Dudes are back with another EP of some freaky business for you all. It’s Halloween and time to scare some kids. So we deliver unto you some scary tracks (and well, some not so scary tracks, but they rock anyway). Put them on your Haunted House playlists for the neighborhood kids or just freak out your friends by locking them in the closet for a few weeks, not feeding them, and making them listen to zyko. ouch. Enjoy this freaky business and we’ll deliver more sooner than later.

~m

Along with some scary uh…pumpkin-esque album art from Maximo Lorenzo, the tracklist from yesterday’s seven track release includes arrangements of several scary and otherwise trippy games that go bump in the night including Castlevania, Psychonauts & Silent Hill, as well as other soundtrack given the spooky treatment such as Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess courtesy of Diggi Dis, JigginJonT, Kaijin, ktriton, Mazedude, Mustin & zyko.

If your wallet is so inclined, the Dudes have a PayPal donate button on the album page you can hit in order to give them something they need a lot more than Halloween candy…or even worse, fruit. They don’t need no stinkin’ apples.

In an almost ironic follow-up to the madfiddler plagiarism situation a few days ago, OverClocked ReMix’s latest album, the Final Fantasy VII tribute Voices of the Lifestream, was plagiarized on October 9 by 22-year-old Tijuana, Baja California resident Israel Alcántar González, otherwise known as DjNeTisra.

In an October 10 blog post (in Spanish, and has since been deleted), González claimed 13 of Voices‘ tracks as a new album called Materia 2007, complete with new album cover. In an audacious facade, González fabricated reasons for creating the songs, attributing bLiNd & Leifo’s track “Fading Entity” as being inspired by the “plight of the planet” in the face of pollution and global warming. González also claimed that other remixes would follow “with a lot of dedication,” implying plans to gradually use other arrangements stolen from the 45-track album as new releases.

A fan from the Tijuana area who personally knew González had heard of the release of Materia 2007 and passed along the news to another friend, who instantly recognized the album as being stolen from OC ReMix and immediately notified site creator David “djpretzel” Lloyd, who then threw out a forum message condemning the artistic theft.

González was confronted that night via MSN chat by album contributor Juan “Sixto Sounds” Medrano, a Texan, a Spanish speaker and one of the victims of the plagiarism. After questioning González on whether he made the tracks himself and subsequently confronting him about the theft, González quickly closed the chat session.

OC ReMix Judge and Voices contributor Larry “Liontamer” Oji then flooded DjNeTisra’s blogs and art galleries with information about the plagiarism, resulting in access to those areas promptly being removed by González. Liontamer and Sixto then registered at a local website for LAN gaming, LAN Party Tijuana (where González is an administrator) and proceeded to post information of the theft on every forum where González did not have administrative access.

Within minutes, González, who is bilingual, acknowledged his theft of Voices of the Lifestream and apologized profusely for the plagiarism, hoping to stop the confrontation:

About the Album, i feel very very sry about that. I mean, Really sry making all those fake credits about me and my music.

i will put those tracks with his orignal composers in my blog so people can see that is your own work, not mine.

So far, no acknowledgment of these actions or proper credit for the album has actually shown up on González’s blog. 60 minutes after the initial confrontation by Sixto, González finally deleted the stolen tracks, along with several folders worth of other tracks he had stolen credit for since mid-2006, including tracks from OC ReMix, VGMix and Anime Remix. Among many other artists, González had also been plagiarizing the work of Chris “goat” Gates, attempting to pass off most of goat’s discography as an album called “GOAT” in order to justify the music’s identification tags, even going so far as saying he would submit the works to both OC ReMix and VGMix in the future.

Based on further information from the Tijuana source, González claims he is a DJ and would hand out mix CDs of music he claimed as his own to girls in order to impress them, as well as frequenting Spanish anime fan forums under the DjNeTisra name to promote his stolen music. As early as 2005 González linked to OC ReMix and OCR webradio station Ormgas.com on his old blog.

***Editor’s note: We’re so tempted…

Kyle “KyleJCrb” Crouse has been busy with being a loyal Shizzy as well as project director of the upcoming Tales of Phantasia/Tales of Symphonia OC ReMix album Summoning of Spirits, but the one thing missing from his plate was his old webradio show Nitro Game Injection.

As of last Sunday however, Kyle and NGI has returned with 3 hours of VGM goodness. And now with twice the whiteness, with Norwegian firebrand Audun “AkumuHau” Sørlie joining the show as co-host. Akumu, who’s engaged to Dwelling of Duels/OC ReMix guitar god(ess) LuIzA and runs the authoritative Nintendo soundtrack destination Akumu’s NSF Archive, adds to the mix through his extensive knowledge of the Japanese doujin VGM arrangement scene as well as his own friendships throughout the VGM arrangement scene and demoscene.

One of the key features of the show remains the monthly Dwelling of Duels feature at the end of each month, as anonymous entries from the recently concluded creation phase of that month’s DoD are spotlighted. Fans and competition regulars frequently come by to listen to the show and get their point spreads ready to help determine the upcoming winners.

You can check out Nitro Game Injection every Sunday evening from 6-9PM EST by streaming http://kngi.servegame.com in your media player, and chat with the hosts and other listeners live via IRC at #ngi on the irc.esper.net server. Keep an eye on the Nitro Game Injection MySpace page for archived editions of each show as it makes its way to the masses.

With a new month having arrived, Dwelling of Duels has released the results for the latest competition. With the usual Free Month for every third competition, any and all games were free to arrange.

Lots of rock up for grabs, though take note of thesamareaye’s Metroid piano cover “The Rise of Samus Aran” taking 5th place. The top two spots were marked by lengthier pieces, always a good bet for a strong finish as long as the skills are present. QUICKSHOT secured 2nd place with a 7-minute Little Nemo medley, “Nemotherapy,” featuring an A-B-C layout of sorts with violin, rock, and piano to close things out. Meanwhile, Kidd Cabbage led the pack with “Unbridled Ambition” a near-16-minute adventure game epic from a trio of titles.

Castlevania Month is underway for the month of October, sure to be a huge draw as arguably the best game series for rock and metal arrangement in the history of video game music. Keep next month in mind as you check out September’s entries:

Kidd Cabbage: Wizards & Warriors, Dragon Warrior, Willow - Unbridled Ambition
QUICKSHOT: Little Nemo the Dream Master - Nemotherapy
TheoConfidor: Power Athlete (Genesis) - What a Run!
Fourth Place - Scaredsim: Ys IV: Mask of the Sun - This Mask is Burnt
Fifth Place - thesamareaye: Metroid - The Rise of Samus Aran
Sixth Place - Paragon: Final Fantasy 8, Ys 3 - Violins and Violence
Seventh Place (tie) - Hydrasphere: Sonic 2 - Run or Die (sonic 2 medley)
Seventh Place (tie) - Noise and a Beat: F-Zero - Quiet Town
Ninth Place (tie) - Melodies of Gaia: Lagoon (SNES) - Nasir, Champion of Light
Tenth Place - Nario: Chrono Cross - Time’s Scarred Up Pretty Bad
Eleventh Place (tie) - Six-Stringed Flamberge: Lightweight Ninja - Lightweight Warrior Project
Eleventh Place (tie) - tibone: Phantasy Star 1 - Motavia
Thirteenth Place (tie) - Cacomistle: R. C. Pro-Am - Remote Controlled Professional Amateurs
Thirteenth Place (tie) - DeathBySpoon: Super Metroid - Speed Run
Fifteenth Place - Rasgar: Makai Kingdom - Impenetrable Fortress
Sixteenth Place - Jade Puget: Guilty Gear X - Still in the Dark
Seventeenth Place - Burreonomicosis: Zombies Ate My Neighbors - zombies ate my…

Sometimes, if they’re very lucky, very talented, and/or very determined, a video game remixer goes on to actually compose the soundtrack to a video game. Probably the biggest example and success story of this is virt, who has scored quite a few games in his time, including the upcoming Contra 4, as reported earlier here. It is of course pretty killer when this happens.

Conversely, it’s also pretty cool when a professional VGM composer swings by some place like OverClocked ReMix and drops an arrangement like Jeremy Soule and The Fat Man have. Sure, it’s cool when composers show their support for amateur remixes by helping out with source credits, praising remixes of their works, and all that, but in my book, the highest honor the community has is when one of the very people it’s meant to honor joins it to honor someone else.

Allister Brimble is one of the hardest working VGM composers in the business. Since his start on the Amiga game Thunderbirds, Brimble has worked on more than 250 games spanning computer, console, and handheld platforms.

In 2002, Brimble arranged the main theme from the Rob Hubbard scored Commodore 64 game Lightforce with the remix “Lightforce 2002” over at Remix.Kwed.Org. In the past week, he’s released two other C64 remixes: “Arcade Classics,” a synthrock remix of the game from the same name scored by Hubbard as well, and “Green Beret Full Orch,” from the game Green Beret, composed by Martin Galway. Check out the works of another video game composer who’s entered the world of fan remixing.