Oh, hi there. My name's Zen. I make stuff with pixels, Game Boys and ancient spirit magick. I come here to blog about art, airships, bleeps, bloops and other swell things. I think we're going to get along just fine.
For a long time, Square Enix’s fan-pleasing music label has catered almost exclusively to Japanese and European audiences. This was all fine and good if you lived in those territories, but left North American videogame music aficionados to suffer hefty import taxes and eBay bidding wars in order to acquire Square’s precious catalog of original music soundtracks. But with their newest album, ‘Love SQ,’ Square is finally showing us Yankees some love by not only agreeing to sell the album in North American territories, but also generously (and perhaps accidently) releasing it early via the U.S. iTunes Store.
The album, which features re-arranged music from classic Squaresoft games like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI and Secret of Mana was originally slated for release on November 25th. But as observed by OSV, the album has appeared more than a day early as a digital download on the U.S. iTunes Music Store. Better yet, Square is giving away the whole shebang for a mere $9.90. Some highlights include an 8-bit Famicom remix of Frog’s theme from Chrono Trigger, a synth-tastic electro rendition of the music from Romancing SaGa and a driving piano medley of ‘final boss’ music from the Final Fantasy series, featuring ‘Dancing Mad,’ ‘Battle at the Big Bridge’ and ‘One-Winged Angel.’
The album is digital-only, and you can download it from iTunes right now. No word yet on a physical release, but knowing Square’s penchant for elegant packaging, I wouldn’t doubt they have something planned for the Square Enix compilation series.
It looks like my inside sources were correct — My journalistic allies from Destructoid have acquired two 3-day passes to Blip Festival 2009, and they are giving them away to one lucky individual who can eloquently and passionately describe their favorite chipmusic song. Just find a link to your #1 chip jam and post it in the comments here, along with a short explanation. Here’s mine:
I heard this live at MAGFest two years ago and it’s pretty much what made me decide to start making music. Virt creates some of the most catchy, stylized and compositionally rich chipmusic out there, and I know close to a dozen people that have completely changed their opinions on chipmusic after listening to ‘FX3’, myself included. The things this man does with a NES soundchip are the stuff of legends.
Layered counter-melodies - Dynamic drum solos - Soaring, jazzy leads… Until a few years ago, these were things I would never expect to hear from decades-old videogame hardware. Hearing Virt’s music not only challenged my perception of the hardware’s technical limitations, it introduced me to a whole new world where seemingly soulless pulsewaves could be transmogrified into screaming guitars, singing saxophones or melancholy violins. The raw talent and bold innovation that exudes from the people in this scene will never cease to amaze me.
My daily gadget loadout, organized into a neat little pile. It’s pretty weird to see them all stacked up like that. Not to mention realizing that I rarely leave the house without all of these gizmos on my person. I stacked them in size order, which ironically enough also happens to be ‘age order’ too. Go figure.
From top to bottom:
HTC Droid Eris
iPod Touch 8GB, 1st Gen (w/ black case)
Nintendo DS Lite +R4 homebrew cart
Nintendo Game Boy (DMG-01) + homebrew USB cart
What kind of electronic arsenal do you guys carry around every day? What does it look like?
New York’s Blip Festival is bringing us one heck of a lineup this year. But if you’re new to 8-bit music (or even if you aren’t), you might be feeling a bit lost at this point. Just who are these talented weirdos making all this rad music and visual art with Game Boys and Nintendos and Commodores? Well, Blip Festival’s official Blip Blog (brought to you by TCTD) gives you the answers you seek with BlipTalk, a series of artist profiles aimed at giving you a look into the minds of Blip Festival’s performers. So far, we’ve been treated to interviews with musicians Disasterpeace and RainbowDragonEyes, as well as visual artists Jean Y. Kim and Julian from The C-Men.
And since some would argue that reading words is going out of style, you can also hear samples of the artists by visiting Blip Festival’s new page on Band Camp. Or just hit play on the neat-o applet that I’ve conveniently provided for you below.
As always keep checking here for Blip Festival updates, and go buy your gosh-darn tickets if you haven’t already.
Okay, so I still don’t have cool fire magicks, but I did turn 24 years old today. That’s kind of neat, I guess. Level 23 was pretty rough. I had random encounters with Game Boy-stealing street thugs, evil Scottish interior designers, crooked police officers and extreme poverty. But I also did some cool stuff too: I got a new apartment in Brooklyn, started a blog, wrote some music (which I’ll get around to recording & releasing eventually) and even got myself a job that isn’t deplorable.
It’s pretty overwhelming to consider that all of this happened in a year’s time, and thinking about it makes me especially grateful to the people who have shown interest in the stuff I make/do. My friends in the Destructoid community have been especially encouraging. Going to Seattle for PAX this past September opened my eyes to the fact that — *gasp* — people actually care about my work! There was nothing more encouraging to me as a creative person than having all these fine folks (whom I barely know) tell me enthusiastically that they read all of my blog posts, or that they enjoy my humble (and embarrassingly paltry) offering of Game Boy music. You guys are the real reason I continually force myself to stay awake after long days of work: Because I know that you’re out there, listening.
So, in short: Thanks for reading.
In long, THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANKKKKKKSSS!
Nerd Throne of the Day: 7-foot-tall armchair built from hundreds of old-school Famicom (Nintendo) cartridges, on display at the legendary Super Potato video game store in Akihabara Electric Town, Tokyo.
Not only does this month’s Pulsewave show fall on my birthday, it’s also bringing together two of my favorite chip-related musical acts. New York dreamboats Anamanaguchi and Baltimore electropopper Talk To Animals will be joined by unnanounced mystery guests at The Tank next Friday, November 20th. Live visuals will be graciously provided by Paris, outpt and noteNdo.
11/20/09 Pulsewave at The Tank 354 W 45th St (between 8th & 9th Ave) New York, NY 9PM $10 All Ages
I know, I know… I’ve said before that I’m vehemently opposed to the common practice of using adjectives as nouns, especially in the title of a blog post. But there’s only one videogaming event out there that causes me to neglect my own journalistic standards, and that’s Washington D.C.’s Music and Gaming Festival.
Since we last spoke on the matter, two more guests have been scheduled to make an appearance at the 4-day gaming fest this coming January:
Sid Meier, legendary creator of countless eponymous computer simulation games such as Civilization and Alpha Centauri will be in the house to share his knowledge of game design with MAGFest attendees. He’s also prepared to rock out in MAGFest’s JamSpace room at a moment’s notice.
And here’s one for the kids — Jon St John, the voice of the great Duke Nukem himself, will also be attending this year’s MAGFest, more than likely to kick ass and chew bubblegum. (NOTE: In the event that Jon St. John runs out of gum, MAGFest can not take responsibility for any excessive ass-kicking that may occur).
As if that wasn’t cool enough, four moremusical acts have also been announced:
The OneUps - Some of the best fusion/funk/jazz video game arrangements you’ve ever heard in your life.
Select Start - Six piece orchestra from Florida. Don’t let that flute fool you, these guys know how to PARTY.
The Megas - These brave musicians will journey all the way from california to personally deliver us a message from Dr. Light.
Entertainment System - These guys suck. Just kidding — they’re a $*@#ing awesome metal powerhouse from Baltimore.
So, there’s six more reasons to register for this amazing event. But don’t worry, I’ll be sure to give you plenty more as the event draws closer. Check MAGFest.org for a full list of all the people and happenings that you can look forward to at MAGFest 8.
Philadelphia’s premiere chipmusic showcase 8static returns to Studio 34 tomorrow night with one heck of a lineup:
From New York City, the bardic melodies of glomag will rock your soul and warm your heart. And they’ll probably make you want to dance too.
Philly’s own Animal Style returns to the stage once more. Armed with a guitar, keyboards and a hacked Sega Genesis, Animal Style’s music is a chiptune tour de force that will literally melt your brain. Literally. (Please bring a reflective head covering to prevent actual brain-melting)
And finally, chipmusic legend and recent Data Beez performer Trash80 is bringing some West Coast style so fresh that it might help Philadelphia forget about losing the World Series this year. HEY-OOOO! (Just kidding, I don’t actually care about Baseball)
All of this will be accompanied by live visuals courtesy of Dan Winckler and enso.
Come early for Open Mic and an OpenEmu workshop, presented by Dan Winckler.
(EDIT: Fixed the lineup — Animal Style will be playing, not Cheap Dinosaurs. No complaints here!)
8static 0C 11.14.09 @Studio 34 4522 Baltimore Ave Philadelphia, PA 7PM $5 w/flyer, $8 without ALL AGES
Things are getting dicey in the indie games community this week. Spearheaded by fans and developers from TIGsource, the close-knit community has undertaken a parodic protest in opposition to Edge Games president Tim Langdell’s continued attempts to have games containing the word ‘edge’ taken down from Apple’s iPhone App Store. But instead of the usual online petitions and angry blog posts, the indie devs have gone several steps further: They’re calling Langdell out by changing the titles of their own games to include the word ‘edge,’ and in the process, instigating a large-scale public mockery of the CEO’s repeated transgressions against game developers.
Within just a few short days, the sardonic protest has achieved meme status, attracting hordes of notable sympathizers to its cause. As of yesterday, Canabalt and Eliss, two of the most popular games on the iPhone App Store were renamed ‘Canabedge’ and ‘Edgeliss’ by their respective developers. Polytron’s 2D/3D platformer Fez is now called ‘Fedge.‘ Even Capybara’s adorable and addictive puzzle game Critter Crunch is being re-branded as ‘Critter Credge.’
Needless to say, the whole debacle is generating an amazing sense of solidarity amongst members of the indie dev community. If you’re feeling lost on this whole issue, TIGSource has a pretty extensive article that explains the long history of Langdell’s incessant trademark bullying. We can only hope that after all of this public humiliation, Langdell will finally come to his senses and leave his parasitic ways behind.
Oh, hi there. My name's Zen. 
![tiff:
thedailywhat:
Nerd Throne of the Day: 7-foot-tall armchair built from hundreds of old-school Famicom (Nintendo) cartridges, on display at the legendary Super Potato video game store in Akihabara Electric Town, Tokyo.
[via.]](http://18.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksoevplkQX1qan7qzo1_500.jpg)
