symphony of 8 bits (updated)
<< Dec 19, 2004 @ 05:13 >>
Holy shit. This website has MP3's of remixes of like every video game theme music you could imagine! I really have a very special place in my heart for video game music. I'm contemplating calling in sick just so I can download these all night long. Right now I'm listening to Dragon Warrior's "Hail to the Throne." Great game, great song. More later.
Update:
I often used to say that I believed 50 years from now, 100 years from now, Trent Reznor was among the few musicians of the late 20th century who would be remembered as being hugely influential and talented. That's still probably my opinion, but the more of these video game remixes I listen to, the more I realise that the Japanese 8-bit composers who worked on these scores are INCREDIBLY talented to have been able to produce such perfection on the limited sound chip that was inside the NES. Their songs will stick with me forever. In some ways, their music made the experience for me-- although the as-of-yet unsurpased gameplay that made up for the blocky graphics I now love has as much to do with it as anything.
Koichi Sugiyama, of ENIX in 1986, I salute you for your work on Dragon Warrior. Nobuo Uematsu, of SquareSoft in 1987, I commend you for your work on what we here in American call Final Fantasy. The list goes on, but I haven't gotten into the M's for Mario or the Z's for Zelda yet. These men produced masterpieces.
Reader Comments...
December 19, 2004 @ 17:10:24
xopl (#001)
hmmm... I just realised updating this broke the old permalink. Good thing this is just my shitty blog that nobody cares about. Lesson learned for future reference.
May 15, 2005 @ 15:06:52
xopl (#001)
sith33 pointed out that the iTunes store now has ALL of the original Final Fantasy music available as albums by Nobuo Uematsu! Rad as hell. There are also rock mixes by The Black Mages. Their version of the Matoya's Cave music is very well done.
Re-reading my post above, I wasn't as explicit as I would have liked. I really do think that the 8-bit composers of Nintendo were one of the biggest musical influences on today's indi artists. I hear bits of it in their music, especially the likes of The Postal Service and Mates of State, but the list goes on.
May 16, 2005 @ 03:33:17
Christy (monster)
Wow, I didn't know you ever played Final Fantasy... Or did I?
May 16, 2005 @ 04:13:23
xopl (#001)
I beat FFI (usa) sophomore year of college.
May 16, 2005 @ 15:20:38
Christy (monster)
Insert joke about how you managed to graduate college here.
Did you play with a controller or did you just use your keyboard? Did you ever play the other ones? FF3 (USA) is my favorite, but FF2 (USA for SNES) is usually given as the best of the series.
May 16, 2005 @ 15:23:50
xopl (#001)
I started to play one of our two copies (one is sith33's) of FFII (I wanted to play them in order afterall) but I got distracted by something (it might have been beating Super Mario World or starting a game of Zelda 64 which I also didn't finish. I did beat Super Mario World though. Awesome game. I also beat Dragon Warrior, Zelda I, Zelda 3, and maybe something else... can't remember... during college.)
September 20, 2005 @ 09:28:38
xopl (#001)
Dear guy who found my site by searching for 'trent reznor mario world,'
I have heard the alleged mp3 with NIN playing the mario "cave music." That's all I know.
August 18, 2007 @ 17:24:35
xopl (#001)
It should be noted that I've come to realise that Nobuo Uematsu borrowed heavily from "Flight of the Bumblebee" in his "Dungeon" music for FF1, and he borrowed heavily from the first movement of Op. 75 by Antonín Dvo?ák for his "Castle Cornelia" music.