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

Via the MAGFest 7 Facebook group, “Mr. MAGFest” Brendan Becker sent an important mailout on what to expect so far for next year’s MAGFest, set for January 1-4, 2009 in Alexandria, VA.

I’m actually attendee #3 this year. Not bad, considering that MAGFest pulls in thousands of people each year. Don’t be stupid. If you like gaming or music, or, dare I say, gaming AND music, you’d be foolish to miss out. Pre-register now to get in on the action. Here’s the deal from Brendan himself:

Hey gamer dudes and ladies,

Just wanted to give a heads up that tons of guests have confirmed their attendance for MAGFest 7, and you should too! Things are shaping up nicely, and we’re even at the same hotel this time!

This new years you can chill with people like game bands like Select Start and Armcannon, game video personalities like the Angry Video Game Nerd, X-Strike Studios, or PBC Productions, game musicians, programmers, and sound guys, and more. If that wasn’t enough, you’ll get two nights of game concerts in our usual style with tons of bands, and of course 24/7 gaming.

If you can’t make it for the first, don’t worry! None of the concerts are scheduled for Thursday — it’s our warmup day — so you won’t miss anything if you’re too hung over, have to work, or just can’t make it down until Friday. We do have some special stuff in the works for New Year’s Eve, though, so if you plan to come down early, you’re in for a few treats.

You can preregister on our website: http://magfest.org/

If you’re coming in a group or you’d like to sell as a dealer, the prereg page has all the info.

Be sure to check out our new gaming radio station, too! We’re playing tons of game music on shuffle out of our personal collections and we’ve linked some of the albums to our pals at http://vgmdb.net/ who have superb information on game-related CDs and music.

Game on!

Blue Dragon is an Xbox 360 game released on December 7, 2006, in Japan, and August 29, 2007, in the United States. The soundtrack, composed by Nobuo Uematsu, was released by Aniplex on December 13, 2006, in Japan.

A United States reprint will be released on March 25 by Sumthing Else Music Works, who publish a variety of different music, including the soundtracks to several Western games, like the Halo series, Gears of War, and Mass Effect. The album, which contains the same tracks as the Japanese release, is available for pre-order for $15.98 at Amazon.com.

Darius Remix was released on December 29, 2007. As I reported earlier, the album was published by SuperSweep in honor of the twentieth anniversary of Taito’s sound team, Zuntata. The album contains arrangements of Darius and Darius II, arranged by members of SuperSweep, the video game music and sound production company founded by Shinji Hosoe, and Basiscape, a similar company founded by Hitoshi Sakimoto.

Ayako Saso and Hosoe arranged a total of six of the thirteen tracks on the album, and while they were competently done, I felt that, given their talents and the source material, they really could’ve blown me away. As they are, the mixes just sound a bit phoned in, with pretty standard sounds and grooves. Still most certainly listenable, but not terribly notable.

Two of the more veteran members of Basiscape, Kimihiro Abe and Manabu Namiki, each turned in a solid arrangement. Abe’s cover of “MUSE VALLEY (Mercury Scene)” alternates light, jazzy sections featuring acoustic guitar and synths with more frenetic and driving sections, all on top of some excellent percussion and bass. Namiki’s “BOSS SCENE 7 (THE LAST BOSS)” starts off laid back, developing a lush texture, before switching lo-fi at the halfway point to very similar instrumentation to the original piece, except with additional lines and much more pumping energy.

What most impressed me were the tracks done by the young guns at Basiscape. The album contains Yoshimi Kudo’s first ever credited work at Basiscape, a sinister and slightly off-kilter arrangement of “BOSS SCENE 6 (IRON HAMMER)” which keeps the rhythm changing from start to finish. Azusa Chiba previously ported the music from After Burner II to the cellular phone with Kimihiro Abe, turned in a breezy arrangement of “Planet Blue (Earth Scene)” with EP, acoustic guitar, flute, and various upbeat synths.

The highlight of the album for me was the track by Noriyuki Kamikura, who has a few brief composition and arrangement credits under his belt. His most significant composition credit is Shijyou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi: Gekitou! Ragnarok Hachikengou, translatable as “Disciple of History’s Strongest, Kenichi: Fierce Battle! Ragnarok Eight Fist-Gods” and co-composed with Manabu Namiki. The game’s music is excellent, with funk and rock flavors, and Kamikura’s arrangement of “WAR OH! (Boss Scene 1)” would be right at home in the game, with cheesy brass blasts and sexy EP work.

“WAR OH! (Boss Scene 1)”
Composed by Hisayoshi Ogura
Arranged by Noriyuki Kamikura

The album is still freshly purchasable at VGM World. As part of Basiscape, which has scored such recent games as Odin Sphere and Final Fantasy XII, Kudo, Chiba, and Kamikura will certainly get more work in the future, and I look forward to more work by them.

Fan label OneUp Studios is eBaying a bundle of nearly every release they’ve ever been involved in to support Child’s Play this year with 100% of the winning bid money.

The current bid is only a little over US$202, a steal for 12 albums, many of them both rare and out-of-print, plus some shirts and sheet music. A pretty sweet deal if you can get it, even Music 4 Games is noting it.

eBay lists the auction as closing on Dec-12-07 19:56:11 PST. Just mentioning it here in the event that someone collects VGM albums and/or thinks they can grab this huge bundle at a pretty good price. Do it for the chilluns!

From the auction, linkage provided by me to further promote your laziness [read: help you size up what you’re potentially getting]:

In support of Penny Arcade’s amazing, gamer-centric charity, Child’s Play, video game music label OneUp Studios is auctioning off a collection of albums representing the entire span of its music history. This includes 12 albums (14 discs) of music, two limited editions T-Shirts, and sheet music. Here is a detailed list of the contents:

Project Majestic Mix - A Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu (Gold Edition) #1426 of 1500
Project Majestic Mix - A Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu (Silver Edition) #0036 of 3000
Project Majestic Mix in association with OneUp Studios Present SQUAREDANCE Limited Edition #52 of 1000
Project Majestic Mix in association with OneUp Studios Present SQUAREDANCE Standard Edition
OneUp Studios Presents Time & Space - A Tribute to Yasunori Mitsuda (Green Version)
OneUp Studios Presents Time & Space - A Tribute to Yasunori Mitsuda (Blue Version)
OneUp Studios The Very Best of SEGA
Xenogears Light | an arranged album
The OneUps - Volume 1
Dale North & Mustin present More Than Mario
Final Fanboy - Prelude
Earthworm Jim Anthology
Adult XL OneUp Studios T-Shirt (only 15 were made)
Small Womens Raglan The OneUps Shirt - Mushroom Style (only 30 were made)
“Broken Mirror” Sheet Music from Xenogears Light | an arranged album

I mentioned last month that there is a Mega Man 1-6 rock arrange album coming out in the beginning of December. Well, since then, there have been a few developments that I haven’t reported because they happened during a phase where I just didn’t feel like writing anything (but I’m back now!): the tracklist was released, and a second arrangement album was announced, this time with “techno” arrangements.

The tracklist for the second album was announced as well recently, so let’s check ‘em out.

20th Anniversary Rock Man 1~6 Rock Arrange Ver.
KDSD-00173
Release date: December 5, 2007
Arrangement: Tohru Iwao (Guilty Gear guitarist)
[official site]

1. Boss mix medley
2. Cutman mix
3. Metalman mix
4. Dr.Wily 1 (Rockman2) mix
5. Shadowman mix
6. Get a Weapon (Rockman3)mix
7. Dr.Cossack 2 mix
8. Dr.wily (Rockman5) mix
9. Yamatoman mix
10. Tomahawkman mix
11. Title mix medley
12. Cutman (Original, Short Ver.)
13. Metalman (Original, Short Ver.)
14. Dr.Wily 1 (Original, Short Ver.)
15. Shadowman (Original, Short Ver.)
16. Get a Weapon (Original, Short Ver.)
17. Dr.Cossack 2 (Original, Short Ver.)
18. Dr.wily (Original, Short Ver.)
19. Yamatoman (Original, Short Ver.)
20. Tomahawkman (Original, Short Ver.)

20th Anniversary Rock Man 1~6 Techno Arrange Ver.
KDSD-00174
Release date: December 19, 2007
Arrangement: Shinji Hosoe
[official site]

1. Stage Sellect mix medley
2. Elecman mix
3. Dr.Wily 1 (Rockman2)mix
4. Quickman mix
5. Airman mix
6. Heatman mix
7. Snakeman mix
8. Magnetman mix
9. Dr.Wily 2 (Rockman4)mix
10. Starman mix
11. Flameman mix
12. Elecman (Original, Short Ver.)
13. Dr.Wily 1 (Original, Short Ver.)
14. Quickman (Original, Short Ver.)
15. Airman (Original, Short Ver.)
16. Heatman (Original, Short Ver.)
17. Snakeman (Original, Short Ver.)
18. Magnetman (Original, Short Ver.)
19. Dr.Wily 2 (Original, Short Ver.)
20. Starman (Original, Short Ver.)
21. Flameman (Original, Short Ver.)

While it’s nice that both albums have the original tracks on them as well, I’m a bit disappointed because that’s space that could be used for more arrangements. Both albums are currently up for preorder on VGM World, as are the Mega Man 7 and 8 soundtracks that I also mentioned in my previous post.

On January 25, 1987, the first album containing music from Taito’s sound team, Zuntata, was released: Taito Game Music [28XA-110]. In honor of their twentieth anniversary, Super Sweep, a sound company formed in 2000 by Shinji Hosoe, will be releasing four albums:

• Arkanoid DS Audio Planet
  The soundtrack to the upcoming game Arkanoid DS, composed by Hosoe, Kemmei Adachi, Hirokazu Oshio, Mitsugu Suzuki, Lil’B, Takafumi Wada, and Ryu☆.
• Densha de Densha de GO!GO!GO! Revolution
  An album somehow related to Taito’s series of train simulation games, Densha de Go!
• Night Striker & Syvalion Perfect BOX
  A four-disc set containing the original soundtracks to Night Striker (composed by Masahiko “Mar.” Takaki) and Syvalion (composed by Yasuhisa “Yack.” Watanabe”), a disc of arrangements by Hosoe and Ayako Saso, and a DVD with gameplay footage.
• Darius Remix Album
  An arrangement album of music from the Darius series of shmups by Taito, composed by Hisayoshi “OGR” Ogura. The arrangements are by Hosoe, Saso, and others to be named later.

In addition, Zuntata has placed more than fifty of its older soundtracks onto the Japanese iTunes Music Store for purchase and download. Unfortunately, to make an account, you’ll need a credit card with a Japanese billing address, so you’re pretty much out of luck if you live in another country. That is, unless you buy a Japanese iTMS gift card. J-List provides these gift cards for $18/$35 for 1500¥/3000¥, or about a 35% markup, along with instructions on how to set up an account. If you can get a gift card for cheaper, cool beans, and the directions will still work.

I’m not going to list every single album, but you can find most, if not all of them, through these three links. Take the time to peruse thirty second samples of Zuntata and Taito’s history.

Alternate title: “Sales Pitch #2: Koichi Namiki”

Works featured in this post:

• Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu 2 (PlayStation)
• GuitarFreaks (PlayStation)
• Rail Chase (Arcade)
• Super Hang-On (Arcade)
• Thunder Blade (Arcade)

full list of works

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Koichi “Mickey” Namiki (who has also had the nickname “Pretty K.N”) is an oddly system-specific composer. He’s also old guard as far as video game composers go, starting in 1987 with the game Super Hang-On, which he composed with Katsuhiro “Funky K.H” Hayashi and Shigero “Recruit O” Ohwada. For eight years, he composed solely arcade games, mostly ones published by Sega.

“Winning Run”
Super Hang-On (Arcade)

“Type II (BGM2)”
Thunder Blade (Arcade)

The soundtracks to many of Namiki’s older games have the same style: they’re not the strongest in the melody department, but they have enough hooks to get through the song and just groove along. Rail Chase stands as the most notable exception with its almost adventure movie-style score.

“Stages 1 & 4″
Rail Chase (Arcade)

Starting with 3D Shooting Maker in 1996 and reaching until his most recent game credit, Akudaikan 2 in 2003, he composed solely for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 systems, with the exception of 2002’s Magides Fight for the Xbox. Even though he composed more games during this second time period, fewer of those games were released in the U.S. or even had soundtrack releases.

Namiki was a member of the S.S.T. Band, Sega’s official band composed partially of Sega composers who played rock arrangements of different songs from Sega games. He was one of two guitarists in the band (the other was Jouji Iijima, who composed the soundtracks to Galaxy Force II and Zero 4 Champ RR), and played for the full five years that the band was active. In some of his later compositions, Namiki wields his mighty axe.

“Dream One”
Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu 2 (PlayStation)
vocals by Shoji Koganezawa

“J-STAFF”
GuitarFreaks (PlayStation)

I did mention in the first line of this post that this should be called “Sales Pitch #2,” so let’s get to that. Over the past couple of years, Sega’s Wave Master sound development studio has released soundtracks to classic Sega video games, such as the Monster World and OutRun series. They have also started the “SOUND!SHOCK SERIES” of albums, the first of which was released this month, SUPER HANG-ON 20th Anniversary Collection. In addition to the soundtracks of Hang-On and Super Hang-On (of which Namiki composed three tracks, including “Winning Run” above), the album also includes five new arrangements, one by Hiroshi “Hiro” Miyauchi and four by Namiki, all of which rock.

The second album in the series, Galaxy Force II & Thunder Blade Original Soundtrack, is set to be released on the 26th of this month. I mentioned Galaxy Force II and Jouji Iijima, its composer, earlier; its style of music is actually quite similar to Thunder Blade’s. This album will have another four arrangements by Miyauchi and Namiki. Both albums are available from VGM World, along with the ten disc Game Sound Legend Series Box 2 ~Platinum Box~, which contains the soundtrack to Bonanza Bros. and many, many more games.

Play-Asia.com has the GUITAR FREAKS 2nd MIX ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK, which consists mostly of tracks from GuitarFreaks 2nd Mix, but also has three tracks from the original GuitarFreaks, all written by Namiki, as well as extended versions of each. Also available is SEGACON: The Best of SEGA Game Music - Vol. 1, which also contains the soundtrack to Super Hang-On, as well as those of other older Sega games.

Finally, CDJapan might have a copy of Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu 2 ~Otoko Jinsei Yume Ichiro~ Original Soundtrack. (”Usually ships within 3-7 days” means that CDJapan doesn’t know if the distributor has any in stock, but if they do, it’ll take about 3-7 business days to ship.) The tracks are all vocal like the sample above, and there are four vocalists other than Shoji Koganezawa.

“Come on, CHz. What do you think you’re doing, dude? Everyone knows who S.S.H is. He’s that badass doujin remixer dude from Japan who slings the best guitar synths in the business and totally rocks out VGM covers. You can’t just talk about stuff that’s not original game material.”

That’s why we’re going to be talking about stuff that’s original game material!

Works featured in this post:

• Lost Child (PC)
• Sixty Nine 2 (PC)

full list of works

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ll just come clean and say that S.S.H’s original game compositions sound, well, just like all his other songs: thrashing guitars, smooth synth melodies, etc. The difference is that, instead of having nostalgia for his tracks to rest their laurels on, they stand fully on original material.

And, of course, they still completely rock. This is S.S.H we’re talking about, after all.

“Fly High”
Sixty Nine 2 (PC)

Of course, in regard to both his remixes and original pieces, not all of S.S.H’s tracks are synthrockin’, high-flying (see what I did there) power extravaganzas. For example, “Crying” on LOST CHILD ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK FROM S.S.H SIDE-A and “Into the Noize Ocean” on Sixty Nine 2 ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK FROM Saitama Saisyu Heiki are both slowly building tracks, “Crying” taking the rock ballad approach and “Into the Noize Ocean” featuring synth melodies, that only break out with guitaric ferocity after more than three minutes in. LOST CHILD ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK FROM S.S.H SIDE-B has the most variety, from the industrial-like “Amitto” to “Relieve,” a piano version of the vocal opening theme composed by Soshi Hosoi.

“Amitto”
Lost Child (PC)

Currently, both SIDE-B and Sixty Nine 2 are available for purchase at VGM World. If you’ve heard all of S.S.H’s tunes on his web site Live House S.S.H and desperately need more, or just want some music to rock out to, both of these albums would be well worth your time and money.

VGM World has also stocked SIDE-A in the past, but they are currently out of stock (although the “Buy Now” button, which usually disappears when an album is sold out, is still there, so maybe they really have some…?). LOSTCHILD ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK ALTERNATIVE SIDE-X was a bonus single packaged with the limited edition version of SIDE-B, and LOST CHILD ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK FROM S.S.H THE FINAL SIDE-Z was only packaged with the 2006 re-release of Lost Child, you will likely have to check eBay or elsewhere.