I've always been a fan of the "Meet the..." videos Valve does for its Team Fortress 2 game. There are nine different character classes in the game and Valve has created short animated films to introduce each one. Recently they released "Meet the Medic":
While the Medic is quite enjoyable, my favorite "Meet the..." is the Spy:
Considering Valve released this game in 2007, and recently made it free to play forever, it is amazing they are still spending time and money to promote it with such well-made animations. Most studios "forget" about their game 6 months after the release and move on to the next thing, while Valve continues to please its fans with treats like these. Just one final "Meet the..." video to wait for now...
Showing posts with label game. Show all posts
Showing posts with label game. Show all posts
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Sonic youth(ful) nostalgia
This week I had not one, but two (unrelated) interactions brought upon my retention of frivolous Sonic the Hedgehog facts from my early 90's gaming days. That is twice as many frivolous-Sonic-fact-caused-interactions in the past week than I've had in the past 16 years! (but that other previous interaction is a post for another day)
The first interaction this week came from my meeting with a video game composer who worked on the Sonic games 18 years ago. A few months ago I read an article about a local art school. The article briefly mentioned the President of the school, Spencer Nielsen, composed music for Sega games. Upon looking him up, I realized not only did I know much of his music but he wrote the soundtrack for "Sonic CD" which was my favorite soundtrack of the Genesis era. I talked to my coworkers who previous worked at the art school and this week I finally got to meet Spencer.
The conversation was amazing and we discussed various topics, both old and new. As the meeting ended I finally was able to ask the question that bothered me for 18 years: "What were the voices saying"?
Sonic CD was the first CD based game I owned and also the first to have a "Red Book Audio" soundtrack which meant the music played from an audio portion of the CD as opposed to a synthesizer chip from inside the game cartridge or system. As such, the soundtrack used actual recorded instruments and vocals when most soundtracks of the era were rudimentary beeps and bops. To celebrate the occasion, I bought my first pair of speakers and plugged them into the Sega CD system to enjoy the game's music in glorious stereo. Hearing the music out of multiple sources allowed me to pinpoint various instruments, vocals, and tracks in each of the soundtrack's songs. And after playing a specific level a few times I noticed something odd: in the background of "Tidal Tempest" music I heard voices speaking.
(listen to the left track at 1:03- 1:06, headphones help]
Now, much like earlier generations thought they heard secret messages hidden in LPs, my 11 year-old self was sure I had stumbled upon a secret code that I could use to "cheat" in the game (infinite lives, level select, etc)! Games of this era were notorious for hiding cheat codes in the least-expected places of the game for players to find (which incidentally is was led me to my second encounter detailed below). Unfortunately, I couldn't tell what the voices were saying so I had no idea how to use the "code". I listened to the music over and over and eventually, as in months later, gave up and moved on to the next game. But I never forgot the "code" and the question of "what the voices said" stuck in the back of my mind in the "will likely never know" folder. That is, until I met the composer of the song.
Eighteen years later, Occam's Razor had taken hold and I assumed the voices were from a conversation unintentionally picked up on mic. But I still wanted to ask the composer just in case... Spencer did not know of the voices I mentioned and assured me there was no way a conversation was accidentally recorded. But upon sending him my digitized copy of the song he conceded that was exactly what it was and was surprised anyone could hear it (no one had noticed it up until now). He also gave me a personalized signed copy of one of his out-of-print CDs; not for finding the "secret code" but just because is an overall awesome guy!
And so my Sonic-knowledge-event ended for the week, or so I thought.
As mentioned above, games of the 80's and 90's hid secret codes in the least expected places to reward "superfans" who found them (and to allow programmers to use them to skip to various levels in the game to bug test). Many games also offered a special menu for players to listen to every piece of music in the game, which sometimes numbered over 100. And Sonic 2 is notorious for hiding its codes in the "music test" option. If players listened to track 19, then 65, then 9, and then 17 a special sound occurred which allowed the player to select any level from the game (the numbers are actually the birthday of the director of the game - 9/17/1965). Other combinations of track order playback opened up other secrets, but this was the most famous.
So this week while reading one of my favorite webcomics, Sam and Fuzzy, a throwaway line caught my attention. One character yelled a computer command, "Command Code 1965917", which caused all the robots in the scene to attack the heroes. My guess is most people "read" the first two numbers of the sequence then glossed over them to the next word with the understanding that is was just a string of numbers. But for some reason the numbers stuck in the back of my mind and when I read them again the memories of selecting any level I wanted in Sonic 2 came flooding back. So I e-mailed the artist to point out his hidden geekery (another Sonic "superfan") and a few days later he posted my e-mail and his reply on his website.
I'm not sure I have many more frivolous-Sonic-facts left that could lead me to intersting interactions, but you never know what the future holds...
The first interaction this week came from my meeting with a video game composer who worked on the Sonic games 18 years ago. A few months ago I read an article about a local art school. The article briefly mentioned the President of the school, Spencer Nielsen, composed music for Sega games. Upon looking him up, I realized not only did I know much of his music but he wrote the soundtrack for "Sonic CD" which was my favorite soundtrack of the Genesis era. I talked to my coworkers who previous worked at the art school and this week I finally got to meet Spencer.
The conversation was amazing and we discussed various topics, both old and new. As the meeting ended I finally was able to ask the question that bothered me for 18 years: "What were the voices saying"?
Sonic CD was the first CD based game I owned and also the first to have a "Red Book Audio" soundtrack which meant the music played from an audio portion of the CD as opposed to a synthesizer chip from inside the game cartridge or system. As such, the soundtrack used actual recorded instruments and vocals when most soundtracks of the era were rudimentary beeps and bops. To celebrate the occasion, I bought my first pair of speakers and plugged them into the Sega CD system to enjoy the game's music in glorious stereo. Hearing the music out of multiple sources allowed me to pinpoint various instruments, vocals, and tracks in each of the soundtrack's songs. And after playing a specific level a few times I noticed something odd: in the background of "Tidal Tempest" music I heard voices speaking.
(listen to the left track at 1:03- 1:06, headphones help]
Now, much like earlier generations thought they heard secret messages hidden in LPs, my 11 year-old self was sure I had stumbled upon a secret code that I could use to "cheat" in the game (infinite lives, level select, etc)! Games of this era were notorious for hiding cheat codes in the least-expected places of the game for players to find (which incidentally is was led me to my second encounter detailed below). Unfortunately, I couldn't tell what the voices were saying so I had no idea how to use the "code". I listened to the music over and over and eventually, as in months later, gave up and moved on to the next game. But I never forgot the "code" and the question of "what the voices said" stuck in the back of my mind in the "will likely never know" folder. That is, until I met the composer of the song.
Eighteen years later, Occam's Razor had taken hold and I assumed the voices were from a conversation unintentionally picked up on mic. But I still wanted to ask the composer just in case... Spencer did not know of the voices I mentioned and assured me there was no way a conversation was accidentally recorded. But upon sending him my digitized copy of the song he conceded that was exactly what it was and was surprised anyone could hear it (no one had noticed it up until now). He also gave me a personalized signed copy of one of his out-of-print CDs; not for finding the "secret code" but just because is an overall awesome guy!
And so my Sonic-knowledge-event ended for the week, or so I thought.
As mentioned above, games of the 80's and 90's hid secret codes in the least expected places to reward "superfans" who found them (and to allow programmers to use them to skip to various levels in the game to bug test). Many games also offered a special menu for players to listen to every piece of music in the game, which sometimes numbered over 100. And Sonic 2 is notorious for hiding its codes in the "music test" option. If players listened to track 19, then 65, then 9, and then 17 a special sound occurred which allowed the player to select any level from the game (the numbers are actually the birthday of the director of the game - 9/17/1965). Other combinations of track order playback opened up other secrets, but this was the most famous.
So this week while reading one of my favorite webcomics, Sam and Fuzzy, a throwaway line caught my attention. One character yelled a computer command, "Command Code 1965917", which caused all the robots in the scene to attack the heroes. My guess is most people "read" the first two numbers of the sequence then glossed over them to the next word with the understanding that is was just a string of numbers. But for some reason the numbers stuck in the back of my mind and when I read them again the memories of selecting any level I wanted in Sonic 2 came flooding back. So I e-mailed the artist to point out his hidden geekery (another Sonic "superfan") and a few days later he posted my e-mail and his reply on his website.
I'm not sure I have many more frivolous-Sonic-facts left that could lead me to intersting interactions, but you never know what the future holds...
Monday, September 6, 2010
Glee-fully Looking Back at Children in Eternity
Welcome to another pseudo-Jay's Playlist! Today's topic is about confused familiarity with new musical themes.
The other day I was watching the first few episodes of the show "Glee" and heard a theme I recognized. As two characters (who are destined to be together as the season progresses) begin shyly flirting with each other a simple, beautiful piano theme plays in the background. Each time I heard it I racked my brain trying to determine where I heard it from. A quick Google search brought up the song "Looking Back" by Kerry Muzzey: (beginning with the theme used 0:56)
While the mystery of the song title was solved, a new one presented itself: I had never heard of the piece before, so why was it so familiar? How could I hum the upcoming notes to the piece even before I had even heard them the first time?
The answer came when a began listening to my "favorites" playlist with all my top ranked singles. One of my favorite pieces from 1996 suddenly called up emotional Glee scenes in my mind as it played:
Soon after that, my Final Fantasy piano playlist began, and it happened again:
It is amazing how a simple melody pattern can appear so often in my emotional favorites list, and in roughly the same key no less. "Looking Back" and "Eternity" both use the B-flat, A, F to B-Flat, A, E-flat pattern (Eternity pulls the e-flat from the baseline though while the treble still plays the F), and Children does the same pattern but with A-flat as the starting note.
Upon hearing this many people may call it plagiarism, but really it is just a coincidence. In the end, there is a finite number of melodic combinations of the 12 chromatic notes, so the same combination is bound to appear in numerous pieces. Malcom Gladwell addresses this in his essay on "Plagiarism":
The other day I was watching the first few episodes of the show "Glee" and heard a theme I recognized. As two characters (who are destined to be together as the season progresses) begin shyly flirting with each other a simple, beautiful piano theme plays in the background. Each time I heard it I racked my brain trying to determine where I heard it from. A quick Google search brought up the song "Looking Back" by Kerry Muzzey: (beginning with the theme used 0:56)
While the mystery of the song title was solved, a new one presented itself: I had never heard of the piece before, so why was it so familiar? How could I hum the upcoming notes to the piece even before I had even heard them the first time?
The answer came when a began listening to my "favorites" playlist with all my top ranked singles. One of my favorite pieces from 1996 suddenly called up emotional Glee scenes in my mind as it played:
Soon after that, my Final Fantasy piano playlist began, and it happened again:
It is amazing how a simple melody pattern can appear so often in my emotional favorites list, and in roughly the same key no less. "Looking Back" and "Eternity" both use the B-flat, A, F to B-Flat, A, E-flat pattern (Eternity pulls the e-flat from the baseline though while the treble still plays the F), and Children does the same pattern but with A-flat as the starting note.
Upon hearing this many people may call it plagiarism, but really it is just a coincidence. In the end, there is a finite number of melodic combinations of the 12 chromatic notes, so the same combination is bound to appear in numerous pieces. Malcom Gladwell addresses this in his essay on "Plagiarism":
In this case, it doesn't matter whether the composers knew they were "copying" each other, the end result is the same: three beautiful, emotional themes. So the next time I hear a new theme that sounds familiar, I should listen to my "favorites" playlist as I may have discovered yet another pattern that emotionally resonates with me.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Civilization Medley
One of the first concerts I attended after moving to SF was the newly established "Video Games Live", a concert comprised of arranged video game music that would never come anywhere near my previous hometown in Arkansas. The organizer (and host) of the concert was a man named Tommy Tallarico, a video game composer who released CDs of his work in the early 90's which also happened to the be the first CDs I ever owned. I had kept in touch with him over the years (he's very responsive to his fans) and got to meet him at the VGL concert. Sadly I haven't been able to see the concert again the few times it has been in the area, but luckily they recently filmed the concert and are playing it on PBS. One of my favorite pieces (and from a game I had never played before) is now available online:
No offense to the soloist on the right (who performs the piece at all the concerts) but the soloist on the left (who performed the original piece included in the game) just steals the show, especially at 3:35.
Interesting fact: The lyrics to this song, "Baba Yetu" are actually The Lord's Prayer sung in Swahili. This must have come as quite a surprise to the people in Dubai (a predominantly Muslim city) who set up an entire tourist attraction around this song.
No offense to the soloist on the right (who performs the piece at all the concerts) but the soloist on the left (who performed the original piece included in the game) just steals the show, especially at 3:35.
Interesting fact: The lyrics to this song, "Baba Yetu" are actually The Lord's Prayer sung in Swahili. This must have come as quite a surprise to the people in Dubai (a predominantly Muslim city) who set up an entire tourist attraction around this song.
Friday, July 9, 2010
How games keep you playing
I recently read an interesting (and somewhat humorous) article about how the game industry keeps players involved to the point of addiction. Their closing paragraph really nailed it:
Which hits a lot of the points I mentioned earlier this year:
This phenomenon is new, no generation has gone through this before, and no MMO has been around long enough, or been ubiquitous enough, to change social behavior on such as scale. Malcolm Gladwell, author of some of my favorite books Outliers, Blink, and What the Dog Saw (currently reading), states that in order to be happy at work people need:
On a side note, one game company is trying to use these addictive methods for good by creating "Epic Win", a game where you level up your character not by fighting monsters but by completing your daily chores in real life. You want to earn a better sword to fight? Do the dishes and take out the garbage. Need more gold to buy better armor? Finish your homework. Need more strength to beat the boss? Go to the gym and work out:
Sure you can lie and say you did the chore instead of actually doing it, but then the game loses the "Connection Between Effort & Reward" aspect and players will quit playing. If it takes no effort other than lying to level up the game is no fun, therefore the true gamers will actually complete these actions (or move on to something else).
Kudos to this company for at least trying to make a difference.
The danger lies in the fact that these games have become so incredibly efficient at delivering the sense of accomplishment that people used to get from their education or career. We're not saying gaming will ruin the world, or that gaming addiction will be a scourge on youth the way crack ruined the inner cities in the 90s. But we may wind up with a generation of dudes working at Starbucks when they had the brains and talent for so much more. They're dissatisfied with their lives because they wasted their 20s playing video games, and will escape their dissatisfaction by playing more video games. Rinse, repeat.
Which hits a lot of the points I mentioned earlier this year:
The sad thing is due to the nature of competition, both within the medium and against the other mediums, each source of entertainment is coming up with new ways to retain the interest of the viewer and prevent them from living a life beyond. In the case of video games, when I first started playing most games could be be finished in an hour or less and since there were only a relatively few games you could play all the new "good ones" over a weekend and move on with your life. But now if a game is less than 10 hours long, or does not include a multiplayer competition (which never ends), the game receives lower scores in reviews and will sell less copies. And there are many "good games" released every month, so many that there is no way you will be able to play them all (or get good enough in the multiplayer to truly enjoy it).
...
The biggest game currently, World of Warcraft, literally never ends. The game keeps expanding and gathering more subscribers (around 11 million currently) who pay $15 a month to live in a simulated fantasy world. The game makes more in a month than most movies make in their entire worldwide theatrical runs. The game is fun and, in a way, social. But unlike a book or a movie it will never end; there is always another task to do or goal to "accomplish". So the generation who grew up playing 1 hour games to completion get pulled into the game and never leave.
This change from short term game completion to long-term obsession happened so gradually that many players in their 20's and 30's don't realize what has happened and are just doing what they have always done. There is no older generation who experienced this, screwed up, and are warning others to avoid it. We are the first to do this and suddenly the ill effects of this entertainment cycle are becoming more apparent to us. And it takes people like Brian to reach out to those around them and say "hey, this isn't actually good! Slow down and look what life we've missed!"
This phenomenon is new, no generation has gone through this before, and no MMO has been around long enough, or been ubiquitous enough, to change social behavior on such as scale. Malcolm Gladwell, author of some of my favorite books Outliers, Blink, and What the Dog Saw (currently reading), states that in order to be happy at work people need:
And instead of working harder at their job or studies in order to improve their positions and achieve these work qualities, the players spend time in virtual worlds to gain the same satisfaction (being in a recession doesn't help much either, since it is harder and harder to find satisfactory jobs even if you do work hard to earn them). Again, this is so new that no one knows what effect it will have on future generations but it will be interesting to watch.
- Autonomy. You get a role in deciding what you do every day. Even if you might not always get decide exactly what you do, you can choose how to get it done.
- Complexity. It must be an intellectually stimulating challenge. As the book states, it should “engage both your mind and imagination.”
- Connection Between Effort & Reward. The harder you work, the greater your income or recognition (at least eventually).
On a side note, one game company is trying to use these addictive methods for good by creating "Epic Win", a game where you level up your character not by fighting monsters but by completing your daily chores in real life. You want to earn a better sword to fight? Do the dishes and take out the garbage. Need more gold to buy better armor? Finish your homework. Need more strength to beat the boss? Go to the gym and work out:
Sure you can lie and say you did the chore instead of actually doing it, but then the game loses the "Connection Between Effort & Reward" aspect and players will quit playing. If it takes no effort other than lying to level up the game is no fun, therefore the true gamers will actually complete these actions (or move on to something else).
Kudos to this company for at least trying to make a difference.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Why work in games?
Another of my articles has been released:
http://www.animationmentor.com/newsletter/0610/feature_special.html
It is amazing how much has changed over the past 15 years in both the game and CG animated movie industries. Today's video game version of Toy Story 3 likely uses more advanced models and has more polygons than the original movie did in 1995 (and that took 13 hours to render each frame, unlike games which render 60 frames a second). Read on!
This is also a continuation of my first article based on my time at GDC. I had a final game article to finish the trilogy as well, but its going on the backburner as we ramp up for Siggraph!
http://www.animationmentor.com/newsletter/0610/feature_special.html
It is amazing how much has changed over the past 15 years in both the game and CG animated movie industries. Today's video game version of Toy Story 3 likely uses more advanced models and has more polygons than the original movie did in 1995 (and that took 13 hours to render each frame, unlike games which render 60 frames a second). Read on!
This is also a continuation of my first article based on my time at GDC. I had a final game article to finish the trilogy as well, but its going on the backburner as we ramp up for Siggraph!
Friday, May 7, 2010
Jay's Playlist: The OneUps
Welcome to my playlist, where I discuss the music which is currently entertaining me. Below you will find a video, press play to begin the song and then read my feelings on the album.
Today's music is selections from the video game band The OneUps
As I've said numerous times before, one of my favorite genres is soundtracks. One of my favorite sub-genre of soundtracks is game soundtracks. And my favorite sub-genre of game soundtracks is orchestral/band/piano arrangements. The OneUps is a band comprised of people I've been following since 2000. While their instrumentation (sax, guitars, trumpet, violin, etc) leads to more "jazzy" arrangements, the band tends to avoid that description when defining their genre.
I first heard the name "The OneUps" on a collaborative CD of fan arranged Final Fantasy music and loved the bossa nova performance of Costa del Sol. It was soon after that I learned the band was based out of Fayetteville, Arkansas (and one of my high school band rivals played trumpet for them) which blew my mind!
I couldn't believe it: one of the top video game bands was based just a few hours away from me. This was during the a time when the vast majority of game bands were either based in Japan or at least the west coast. A few years later my next door neighbor (who I used to jam with playing FF arrangements on the piano while he played guitar) during high school joined the band and has been their lead guitarist ever since. As such, I keep up with the band as much as possible and see them perform live whenever they hit the San Fran area:
And if that connection wasn't odd enough, a few months ago I went a party here in California at my current neighbor's house and met another connection to the band. My Cali neighbor had a friend visiting who she met in Florida but he currently lives in Fayetteville, AR. When his phone went off and played Final Fantasy music I mentioned the OneUps and he said he knew them personally and was soon joining them. Sure enough, the next concert I went to he was now a part of the band. Just to make this clear as mud: My current neighbor in California has a friend she met in Florida who now lives in Arkansas and just joined my favorite video game band which includes my Arkansas high school neighbor who I used to perform video game music with. Small world...
When the band was last here I also had a chance to take some photos for them:
Today's music is selections from the video game band The OneUps
As I've said numerous times before, one of my favorite genres is soundtracks. One of my favorite sub-genre of soundtracks is game soundtracks. And my favorite sub-genre of game soundtracks is orchestral/band/piano arrangements. The OneUps is a band comprised of people I've been following since 2000. While their instrumentation (sax, guitars, trumpet, violin, etc) leads to more "jazzy" arrangements, the band tends to avoid that description when defining their genre.
I first heard the name "The OneUps" on a collaborative CD of fan arranged Final Fantasy music and loved the bossa nova performance of Costa del Sol. It was soon after that I learned the band was based out of Fayetteville, Arkansas (and one of my high school band rivals played trumpet for them) which blew my mind!
I couldn't believe it: one of the top video game bands was based just a few hours away from me. This was during the a time when the vast majority of game bands were either based in Japan or at least the west coast. A few years later my next door neighbor (who I used to jam with playing FF arrangements on the piano while he played guitar) during high school joined the band and has been their lead guitarist ever since. As such, I keep up with the band as much as possible and see them perform live whenever they hit the San Fran area:
And if that connection wasn't odd enough, a few months ago I went a party here in California at my current neighbor's house and met another connection to the band. My Cali neighbor had a friend visiting who she met in Florida but he currently lives in Fayetteville, AR. When his phone went off and played Final Fantasy music I mentioned the OneUps and he said he knew them personally and was soon joining them. Sure enough, the next concert I went to he was now a part of the band. Just to make this clear as mud: My current neighbor in California has a friend she met in Florida who now lives in Arkansas and just joined my favorite video game band which includes my Arkansas high school neighbor who I used to perform video game music with. Small world...
When the band was last here I also had a chance to take some photos for them:
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Super Mario Crossover
If you are a child of the 80's you may remember the many fun games on the Nintendo: Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Contra, Megaman, Castlevania, etc. But did you ever wonder what would happen if the characters of those games ever swapped places? Well someone did, and the result of that experiment is Super Mario Crossover:
http://supermariocrossover.com/
The flash game (you can play it in the link above) is the entire game of Super Mario Bros. for the NES. But now instead of playing only as Mario and you can choose from a roster of other characters complete with their own signature moves from their games. While the levels remain the same, the sound effects and music will change depending on the character you play as. And yes, all the moves of the characters remain the same. Suddenly, I realize Mario came ill-prepared to the Mushroom kingdom with his only way of killing enemies consisting of jumping on them or (if he was lucky) shooting a small fireball at him. Instead, he needed to bring a large spread machine gun (like Bill from Contra) or an arm cannon like Megaman and Samus.
Let's hope this begins a new trend of playable game crossovers beyond the videos previously shown.
http://supermariocrossover.com/
The flash game (you can play it in the link above) is the entire game of Super Mario Bros. for the NES. But now instead of playing only as Mario and you can choose from a roster of other characters complete with their own signature moves from their games. While the levels remain the same, the sound effects and music will change depending on the character you play as. And yes, all the moves of the characters remain the same. Suddenly, I realize Mario came ill-prepared to the Mushroom kingdom with his only way of killing enemies consisting of jumping on them or (if he was lucky) shooting a small fireball at him. Instead, he needed to bring a large spread machine gun (like Bill from Contra) or an arm cannon like Megaman and Samus.
Let's hope this begins a new trend of playable game crossovers beyond the videos previously shown.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Modern Vintage
I sense a new trend...
Check out these two ads to see it:
Man, the 80's had some weird commercials, didn't they? These ads bring back some awesome memories of these toys...
Or do they?
Well if they do, they aren't real toy memories. Because these two "80's" ads were created for products that came out in 2010! Lots-o-Huggin Bear is another used toy at the daycare in Toy Story 3 (and he briefly appeared in Up too), and Mega Man 10 is a new game created for nostalgic gamers which looks and plays like 80's entries of the franchise.
The creators of these ads recreated the 80's feel perfectly. The ads come complete with recorded vhs distortion, cheesy soundtracks, 80's apparel, and fake sitcom closers found on many 80's series. Gotta love the creativity, and determination, of these ad agencies!
Bonus: Lotso has a Japanese counterpart it seems...
I didn't watch much Japanese television ads as a child but I assume they weren't too far from this.
Check out these two ads to see it:
Man, the 80's had some weird commercials, didn't they? These ads bring back some awesome memories of these toys...
Or do they?
Well if they do, they aren't real toy memories. Because these two "80's" ads were created for products that came out in 2010! Lots-o-Huggin Bear is another used toy at the daycare in Toy Story 3 (and he briefly appeared in Up too), and Mega Man 10 is a new game created for nostalgic gamers which looks and plays like 80's entries of the franchise.
The creators of these ads recreated the 80's feel perfectly. The ads come complete with recorded vhs distortion, cheesy soundtracks, 80's apparel, and fake sitcom closers found on many 80's series. Gotta love the creativity, and determination, of these ad agencies!
Bonus: Lotso has a Japanese counterpart it seems...
I didn't watch much Japanese television ads as a child but I assume they weren't too far from this.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Jay's Playlist: JigginJonT
Welcome to my playlist, where I discuss the music which is currently entertaining me. Below you will find a video, press play to begin the song and then read my feelings on the album.
Today's music is arrangements by JigginJonT:
As I've said numerous times before, one of my favorite genres is soundtracks. One of my favorite sub-genre of soundtracks is game soundtracks. And my favorite sub-genre of game soundtracks is orchestral/band/piano arrangements. Surprisingly, the genre of arranged video game music is actually quite large (at least bigger than you would expect), and even more surprising is how many well made fan arrangements/performances of game soundtracks exist. Talented musicians. who also love video game, will write, record, and upload their arrangements for everyone to hear; and with Youtube and OCremix it is easier to get attention for your arrangement.
One of the first fan-made performances that blew me away was "Live from the Yggdrasil" by the jazz pianist Jon Titterington (aka "JigginJonT"). The complex jazz single stuck with me from the moment I heard it, and it is one of the very few pieces to survive my (now retired) 72-hour test: I would start playing the song on Friday morning and if I was not sick of it by Monday morning then I knew it was a wonderful piece.
Beyond being a talented pianist, JonT found success in his arrangements by choosing video game pieces that were lesser known and making them his own. At the time (and today still), most fan arrangements were of pieces that were either the game's main theme, an overused-cliche theme, or the game's few piano/guitar only themes which were easy to recreate. Yet Jon chose pieces that if I hadn't been told the game I probably wouldn't have recognized, even after playing the games (although sometimes a decade had passed since playing them). He then adds his favorite style of the time to the piece (there is some definite Vince Guraldi in the above piece) and by the end of the arrangement he has made the theme his own.
Below you will find the original themes for the two pieces listed above and can see how much Jon changed, yet retained, in his arrangements.
Today's music is arrangements by JigginJonT:
As I've said numerous times before, one of my favorite genres is soundtracks. One of my favorite sub-genre of soundtracks is game soundtracks. And my favorite sub-genre of game soundtracks is orchestral/band/piano arrangements. Surprisingly, the genre of arranged video game music is actually quite large (at least bigger than you would expect), and even more surprising is how many well made fan arrangements/performances of game soundtracks exist. Talented musicians. who also love video game, will write, record, and upload their arrangements for everyone to hear; and with Youtube and OCremix it is easier to get attention for your arrangement.
One of the first fan-made performances that blew me away was "Live from the Yggdrasil" by the jazz pianist Jon Titterington (aka "JigginJonT"). The complex jazz single stuck with me from the moment I heard it, and it is one of the very few pieces to survive my (now retired) 72-hour test: I would start playing the song on Friday morning and if I was not sick of it by Monday morning then I knew it was a wonderful piece.
Beyond being a talented pianist, JonT found success in his arrangements by choosing video game pieces that were lesser known and making them his own. At the time (and today still), most fan arrangements were of pieces that were either the game's main theme, an overused-cliche theme, or the game's few piano/guitar only themes which were easy to recreate. Yet Jon chose pieces that if I hadn't been told the game I probably wouldn't have recognized, even after playing the games (although sometimes a decade had passed since playing them). He then adds his favorite style of the time to the piece (there is some definite Vince Guraldi in the above piece) and by the end of the arrangement he has made the theme his own.
Below you will find the original themes for the two pieces listed above and can see how much Jon changed, yet retained, in his arrangements.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Jay's Playlist: Retro Remix Revue
Welcome to my playlist, where I discuss the music which is currently entertaining me. Below you will find a video, press play to begin the song and then read my feelings on the album.
Today's album is Retro Remix Revue:
Retro Remix Revue consists of two audio engineers who remix classic video game music while keeping the original sounds as much as possible. I love new arrangements of video game music, especially if they are orchestral/piano/guitars, but typically I stay away from "remix" version as most of the time "remixing" is another way of saying "let's add heavy beats and random techno noises and occasionally throw the in original theme". I've heard remixes of songs where the artists literally played the original theme for 15 seconds and spent the other 4 minutes doing their own thing with no relation to the source material. Retro Remix Revue is not one of those remix albums.
Retro Remix Revue keeps the original tone of the piece as much as possible and uses better (yet similar) instruments in each of the remixes. Once the theme is played the main instrument will usually begin an extended solo which gives the remixes more of a "live band" feel to them. Essentially these remixes are the original songs being performed on higher class instruments at a jazz club.
Hearing these tunes played again after almost 2 decades reminds me of how much game music has progressed technologically, yet how effective and simple game music was in the early 90's. Even with the updated instruments, the themes still resonate as simply as they did when they were created by computers that were "dumber" than the computers found in today's watches or coffee makers.
Today's album is Retro Remix Revue:
Retro Remix Revue consists of two audio engineers who remix classic video game music while keeping the original sounds as much as possible. I love new arrangements of video game music, especially if they are orchestral/piano/guitars, but typically I stay away from "remix" version as most of the time "remixing" is another way of saying "let's add heavy beats and random techno noises and occasionally throw the in original theme". I've heard remixes of songs where the artists literally played the original theme for 15 seconds and spent the other 4 minutes doing their own thing with no relation to the source material. Retro Remix Revue is not one of those remix albums.
Retro Remix Revue keeps the original tone of the piece as much as possible and uses better (yet similar) instruments in each of the remixes. Once the theme is played the main instrument will usually begin an extended solo which gives the remixes more of a "live band" feel to them. Essentially these remixes are the original songs being performed on higher class instruments at a jazz club.
Hearing these tunes played again after almost 2 decades reminds me of how much game music has progressed technologically, yet how effective and simple game music was in the early 90's. Even with the updated instruments, the themes still resonate as simply as they did when they were created by computers that were "dumber" than the computers found in today's watches or coffee makers.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Kevin Butler is a genius
I love the new Playstation commercials with (fictional)executive Kevin Butler. Kevin, complete with odd job title, answers questions from random people curious about a new game. While his game descriptions are to be expected, his witty remarks to the questions are what make these commercials work best. Here are a few of my favorites:
He even attacks the Wii (with its rudimetary controller movement) and Microsoft's Project Natal (which has you point your fingers to simulate controllers to catch balls and shoot people) in this one:
You can watch the others here:
He even attacks the Wii (with its rudimetary controller movement) and Microsoft's Project Natal (which has you point your fingers to simulate controllers to catch balls and shoot people) in this one:
You can watch the others here:
Monday, March 15, 2010
GDC!
This year I had the opportunity to attend the Game Developers Conference for work. One of my purposes included gathering material to write an article on why more animators should attend GDC (the article goes live in April, I will post it then) but I also went to meet many cool people and, of course, check out the newest games! From being slaughtered in StarCraft 2, to testing the Playstation Move, to playing Super Stardust in actual 3D, to hanging out with awesome Animation Mentor people, to learning the new Maya 2011 tools, to meeting Steve Wiebe at dinner, to meeting with people from Valve/Naughty Dog/Insomniac/Blizzard, to having Tim Schafer sit across from me at a party, I had an absolute blast at the the conference and have memories to last a lifetime! Here are the photos, my full detailed report will be published at the beginning of April!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Penny Arcade live!
I began reading the webcomic Penny Arcade back in 2000 before anyone really knew what a webcomic was. Back then no one thought that you could make a living drawing comics for a website (or newspapers for that matter). The people who drew the comics did it because they loved the art and were passionate about the subjects they drew. And not too surprisingly, a number of webcomics were based on video games, a topic which tended to be popular among college (art) students who generally had the most free time and internet savvy to create the comics.
A select few of the comics stood out over the years and soon the modest video game comic with a few thousand readers grew to a few million and became a very profitable enterprise. This week, the creators of Penny Arcade are celebrating the release of their 11 1/2 year anniversary book. They have a knack for celebrating the inane, even their book titles having nothing to do with the actual contents of the book and are nothing more than a reason to create a funny, genre-satire phrase ("Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings", "Birds are weird", "Attack of the Bacon Robots", "The Curse of the Mummy's Gold", etc). They began their book release with a tour which stopped close to my home, so I decided to visit the artists who made me laugh over the last 10 years.
The amazing part of their "presentation" was that they were exactly who they started out as: down-to-earth geeks who love what their do. Talking to them felt no different than talking to a group of gamers about the cool new game or geek collectors item. Even though their company now employs 10 people full-time, raises millions of dollars for charity each year, and hosts some of the largest gaming conventions in the world, these guys acted no different than the fans sitting in front of them. And all of their success is based on their weekly action of drawing characters who enact a funny punchline within 3 panels.
And did I mention they were hilarious?
The entire presentation was a no-holds-barred Q&A session that went to some pretty weird places. People in the audience asked whatever was on their mind and these guys would comment on it. A few of the stand out moments included:
A select few of the comics stood out over the years and soon the modest video game comic with a few thousand readers grew to a few million and became a very profitable enterprise. This week, the creators of Penny Arcade are celebrating the release of their 11 1/2 year anniversary book. They have a knack for celebrating the inane, even their book titles having nothing to do with the actual contents of the book and are nothing more than a reason to create a funny, genre-satire phrase ("Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings", "Birds are weird", "Attack of the Bacon Robots", "The Curse of the Mummy's Gold", etc). They began their book release with a tour which stopped close to my home, so I decided to visit the artists who made me laugh over the last 10 years.
The amazing part of their "presentation" was that they were exactly who they started out as: down-to-earth geeks who love what their do. Talking to them felt no different than talking to a group of gamers about the cool new game or geek collectors item. Even though their company now employs 10 people full-time, raises millions of dollars for charity each year, and hosts some of the largest gaming conventions in the world, these guys acted no different than the fans sitting in front of them. And all of their success is based on their weekly action of drawing characters who enact a funny punchline within 3 panels.And did I mention they were hilarious?
The entire presentation was a no-holds-barred Q&A session that went to some pretty weird places. People in the audience asked whatever was on their mind and these guys would comment on it. A few of the stand out moments included:
- When asked how they continue to make time for games even after having young children they jokingly replied that it was definitely difficult, but if a new, must-play game came out it was nice that their kids didn't know how to read a clock: they could put their kids in their lap, look at a clock and make that knowing, fatherly nod that says it is "bed time" even if it was 2 hours until bed time. Suddenly they had two hours to play!
- One girl asked how she could "please"
her gamer boyfriend (maybe she meant it to be more innocent than it came out, who knows). They were too embarrassed to announce on the loud speaker the answer, so one of them began singing a sea shanty (yes, an actual 19th century shanty) while the other took off the mic, ran to her chair, and whispered in her ear. Who knows what he said, but she was embarrassed and laughed afterwords, and then both guys gave her a big thumbs up and congratulatory nod. - When asked how someone who is borderline OCD would be able to get a tattoo, they replied to find the largest tattoo artist possible and have him place his hand on your chest as being obsessive compulsive really doesn't mean much when a sumo wrestler wants you to stay in one place. They then showed off the Pac-Man tattoos and described the 400 behemoth who held them in place.
Friday, February 19, 2010
"The Only Thing I Know"
This video is all too familiar:
The creator/animator of this video, Brian, is going through a lot of the same thought processes and actions that I went through a year ago (which led to the creation of this blog). While he focuses mostly on video games, especially online multiplayer games, I also felt the same way about TV shows and any other form of entertainment which in the end "provide no lasting value". I agree the "Nintendo generation" is in danger of getting lost in the line between entertainment and reality. Living the life of a computer avatar, or living a life vicariously through "reality" TV, is not really living at all. There are so many forms of entertainment now that one could spend their entire life sitting in front of flashing rectangles and never realize what they are missing. Be it video games, TV shows, internet websites or a combination of them (Farmville, Youtube, the Tester, etc.), people spend far too many hours on activities which will provide no substance for them in long run. And entertainment has gotten so good at creating new "realities" that people don't care to enjoy the one true reality around them.
The sad thing is due to the nature of competition, both within the medium and against the other mediums, each source of entertainment is coming up with new ways to retain the interest of the viewer and prevent them from living a life beyond. In the case of video games, when I first started playing most games could be be finished in an hour or less and since there were only a relatively few games you could play all the new "good ones" over a weekend and move on with your life. But now if a game is less than 10 hours long, or does not include a multiplayer competition (which never ends), the game receives lower scores in reviews and will sell less copies. And there are many "good games" released every month, so many that there is no way you will be able to play them all (or get good enough in the multiplayer to truly enjoy it).
Other mediums are the same way. There are more TV channels than ever, and most shows are now story arc based so if you watch one episode you have to watch every season. In the past, most TV episodes were bite-size stand-alone stories. Now, sitcoms like "How I Met Your Mother" and the Office or dramas like 24, Dexter, and Battlestar Galactica have season long arcs that progress in every episode (so don't miss one)! And "reality" shows actually allow you to watch other people living out their "real" lives so you don't have to! Every show is trying to keep you hooked, and there are so many good shows that you don't have the time to watch them all. But we try anyways.
At least TV shows end at some point, usually a 22 minute session over 13-22 weeks. The biggest game currently, World of Warcraft, literally never ends. The game keeps expanding and gathering more subscribers (around 11 million currently) who pay $15 a month to live in a simulated fantasy world. The game makes more in a month than most movies make in their entire worldwide theatrical runs. The game is fun and, in a way, social. But unlike a book or a movie it will never end; there is always another task to do or goal to "accomplish". So the generation who grew up playing 1 hour games to completion get pulled into the game and never leave. (Not that this is the game/tv creators' fault, the viewers should be the ones who manage their time better).
This change from short term game completion to long-term obsession happened so gradually that many players in their 20's and 30's don't realize what has happened and are just doing what they have always done. There is no older generation who experienced this, screwed up, and are warning others to avoid it. We are the first to do this and suddenly the ill effects of this entertainment cycle are becoming more apparent to us. And it takes people like Brian to reach out to those around them and say "hey, this isn't actually good! Slow down and look what life we've missed!"
Let's hope people start listening to him before it is too late.
As for me, this blog is a small portion of proof that there is life beyond entertainment. As shown in my retrospectives, in the 7 months since I severely limited my TV and games I read more books, ran more miles, cooked more "fancy" meals, animated more videos, learned more guitar, and wrote more blog/journal posts than I did in my previous 27 years. Who knows what I will do in the next 7 months (or 28 years)?
The creator/animator of this video, Brian, is going through a lot of the same thought processes and actions that I went through a year ago (which led to the creation of this blog). While he focuses mostly on video games, especially online multiplayer games, I also felt the same way about TV shows and any other form of entertainment which in the end "provide no lasting value". I agree the "Nintendo generation" is in danger of getting lost in the line between entertainment and reality. Living the life of a computer avatar, or living a life vicariously through "reality" TV, is not really living at all. There are so many forms of entertainment now that one could spend their entire life sitting in front of flashing rectangles and never realize what they are missing. Be it video games, TV shows, internet websites or a combination of them (Farmville, Youtube, the Tester, etc.), people spend far too many hours on activities which will provide no substance for them in long run. And entertainment has gotten so good at creating new "realities" that people don't care to enjoy the one true reality around them.
The sad thing is due to the nature of competition, both within the medium and against the other mediums, each source of entertainment is coming up with new ways to retain the interest of the viewer and prevent them from living a life beyond. In the case of video games, when I first started playing most games could be be finished in an hour or less and since there were only a relatively few games you could play all the new "good ones" over a weekend and move on with your life. But now if a game is less than 10 hours long, or does not include a multiplayer competition (which never ends), the game receives lower scores in reviews and will sell less copies. And there are many "good games" released every month, so many that there is no way you will be able to play them all (or get good enough in the multiplayer to truly enjoy it).
Other mediums are the same way. There are more TV channels than ever, and most shows are now story arc based so if you watch one episode you have to watch every season. In the past, most TV episodes were bite-size stand-alone stories. Now, sitcoms like "How I Met Your Mother" and the Office or dramas like 24, Dexter, and Battlestar Galactica have season long arcs that progress in every episode (so don't miss one)! And "reality" shows actually allow you to watch other people living out their "real" lives so you don't have to! Every show is trying to keep you hooked, and there are so many good shows that you don't have the time to watch them all. But we try anyways.
At least TV shows end at some point, usually a 22 minute session over 13-22 weeks. The biggest game currently, World of Warcraft, literally never ends. The game keeps expanding and gathering more subscribers (around 11 million currently) who pay $15 a month to live in a simulated fantasy world. The game makes more in a month than most movies make in their entire worldwide theatrical runs. The game is fun and, in a way, social. But unlike a book or a movie it will never end; there is always another task to do or goal to "accomplish". So the generation who grew up playing 1 hour games to completion get pulled into the game and never leave. (Not that this is the game/tv creators' fault, the viewers should be the ones who manage their time better).
This change from short term game completion to long-term obsession happened so gradually that many players in their 20's and 30's don't realize what has happened and are just doing what they have always done. There is no older generation who experienced this, screwed up, and are warning others to avoid it. We are the first to do this and suddenly the ill effects of this entertainment cycle are becoming more apparent to us. And it takes people like Brian to reach out to those around them and say "hey, this isn't actually good! Slow down and look what life we've missed!"
Let's hope people start listening to him before it is too late.
As for me, this blog is a small portion of proof that there is life beyond entertainment. As shown in my retrospectives, in the 7 months since I severely limited my TV and games I read more books, ran more miles, cooked more "fancy" meals, animated more videos, learned more guitar, and wrote more blog/journal posts than I did in my previous 27 years. Who knows what I will do in the next 7 months (or 28 years)?
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Descendant of Shinobi (guitar)
Time for another guitar recording!
I saw a video of this arrangement of a Final Fantasy VII theme about 2 years ago and fell in love with it. At the time I hadn't played in the guitar in about 10 years but this video was enough to get me excited about picking it up again. I spent months learning the piece (and re-learning the guitar) until it sounded decent. Once I "finished" it I began to look for more songs to build my repetoire, but those will have to wait to be posted another day...
This theme is also one of my favorites regardless of the instrument. I also enjoy playing the piano version, although it is difficult enough where if I don't practice it each week I will lose it.
And the original from the 1997 game:
I saw a video of this arrangement of a Final Fantasy VII theme about 2 years ago and fell in love with it. At the time I hadn't played in the guitar in about 10 years but this video was enough to get me excited about picking it up again. I spent months learning the piece (and re-learning the guitar) until it sounded decent. Once I "finished" it I began to look for more songs to build my repetoire, but those will have to wait to be posted another day...
This theme is also one of my favorites regardless of the instrument. I also enjoy playing the piano version, although it is difficult enough where if I don't practice it each week I will lose it.
And the original from the 1997 game:
Monday, December 14, 2009
Jay's playlist: Carol of the Final Fantasy Belles
Welcome to my playlist, where I discuss the music which is currently entertaining me. Below you will find a video, press play to begin the song and then read my feelings on the album.
This playlist is a little narcissistic since I'm the one who arranged and performed the piece, but since it is the only (recorded) piece with those qualities I'm not too worried about posting it. "Carol of the Final Fantasy Belles" is a piano arrangement which mixes Final Fantasy themes (usually the heroines/belles' themes) with Carol of the Bells and the orchestral theme to the (relatively) obscure game Parasite Eve.
My passion for playing the piano began in 1999 when I discovered sheet music for a video game piece from the game series Final Fantasy called "Tina" (or "Terra", depending on the Japanese translation). As the years went on I learned many other pieces from Final Fantasy and my other favorite composers, and when sheet music did not exist I created it.
By 2003 I had a nice repertoire of video game/George Winston/movie theme arrangements and I began noticing common themes in my favorite pieces. A few days each week I would experiment playing one piece and immediately transitioning to the next. Eventually this practice led to improvising the different the piano arrangements in one hour long mega mix each time I sat at the piano. Since it was my Senior year in college and I knew I would no longer have the opportunity to play the piano once I departed for California I decided to record myself playing my "mega mix" to archive my experiments long after I lost the ability the play at that level. The condensed version of this recording became "Carol of the Final Fantasy Belles".
My inspiration for the piece primarily comes from the piano arrangements of Tina by Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy VI Piano Collections), Carol of the Bells by George Winston (December), Parasite Eve theme Orchestral by Yoko Shimomura (Parasite Eve OST), and Carol of the Bells by Mark Hayes (a professional piano book). Also included are brief themes from Rydia (Final Fantasy IV), Mambo de Chocobo (Final Fantasy V), Aerith and Tifa (Final Fantasy VII), The Extreme (Final Fantasy VIII), Vamo alla Flamenco (Final Fantasy IX), and To Zanarkand (Final Fantasy X). During my time at Pixar the following year (while going through severe piano withdrawals) I created a nifty logo in the Ratatouille art style and wrote out sheet music which included a snippet of Eternity from Final Fantasy X-2 (don't ask).
One of these days I will own a piano again (I did purchase a weighted keyboard but it just wasn't the same) at which point I will begin my mixes again. One of my biggest disappointments is not being able to perform this piece at this level any longer. There was a time I was working with the (now mainstream) video game concert producers to perform this for a Christmas concert but, alas, I couldn't reach the performance level necessary. Martin Leung I am not. But I will always have this recording to bring me Christmas (Final Fantasy) joy each year.
Bonus Song
The following pieces are the original inspiration to Carol of the Final Fantasy Belles:
Parasite Eve theme orchestral
Carol of the Bells (George Winston)
Tina (Final Fantasy VI piano collections)
Finally, the video the inspired me to post this:
I did a search for new Carol of the Bells arrangements and games and, low and behold, one of the search returns was of a guy still playing my piece 4 years after I released it. Seeing him actually pressing the keys to perform this (and skipping some of the more difficult sections) reminds me of how crazy I really was back then. This arrangement is not easy.
This playlist is a little narcissistic since I'm the one who arranged and performed the piece, but since it is the only (recorded) piece with those qualities I'm not too worried about posting it. "Carol of the Final Fantasy Belles" is a piano arrangement which mixes Final Fantasy themes (usually the heroines/belles' themes) with Carol of the Bells and the orchestral theme to the (relatively) obscure game Parasite Eve.
My passion for playing the piano began in 1999 when I discovered sheet music for a video game piece from the game series Final Fantasy called "Tina" (or "Terra", depending on the Japanese translation). As the years went on I learned many other pieces from Final Fantasy and my other favorite composers, and when sheet music did not exist I created it.
By 2003 I had a nice repertoire of video game/George Winston/movie theme arrangements and I began noticing common themes in my favorite pieces. A few days each week I would experiment playing one piece and immediately transitioning to the next. Eventually this practice led to improvising the different the piano arrangements in one hour long mega mix each time I sat at the piano. Since it was my Senior year in college and I knew I would no longer have the opportunity to play the piano once I departed for California I decided to record myself playing my "mega mix" to archive my experiments long after I lost the ability the play at that level. The condensed version of this recording became "Carol of the Final Fantasy Belles".
My inspiration for the piece primarily comes from the piano arrangements of Tina by Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy VI Piano Collections), Carol of the Bells by George Winston (December), Parasite Eve theme Orchestral by Yoko Shimomura (Parasite Eve OST), and Carol of the Bells by Mark Hayes (a professional piano book). Also included are brief themes from Rydia (Final Fantasy IV), Mambo de Chocobo (Final Fantasy V), Aerith and Tifa (Final Fantasy VII), The Extreme (Final Fantasy VIII), Vamo alla Flamenco (Final Fantasy IX), and To Zanarkand (Final Fantasy X). During my time at Pixar the following year (while going through severe piano withdrawals) I created a nifty logo in the Ratatouille art style and wrote out sheet music which included a snippet of Eternity from Final Fantasy X-2 (don't ask).
One of these days I will own a piano again (I did purchase a weighted keyboard but it just wasn't the same) at which point I will begin my mixes again. One of my biggest disappointments is not being able to perform this piece at this level any longer. There was a time I was working with the (now mainstream) video game concert producers to perform this for a Christmas concert but, alas, I couldn't reach the performance level necessary. Martin Leung I am not. But I will always have this recording to bring me Christmas (Final Fantasy) joy each year.
Bonus Song
The following pieces are the original inspiration to Carol of the Final Fantasy Belles:
Parasite Eve theme orchestral
Carol of the Bells (George Winston)
Tina (Final Fantasy VI piano collections)
Finally, the video the inspired me to post this:
I did a search for new Carol of the Bells arrangements and games and, low and behold, one of the search returns was of a guy still playing my piece 4 years after I released it. Seeing him actually pressing the keys to perform this (and skipping some of the more difficult sections) reminds me of how crazy I really was back then. This arrangement is not easy.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Chocobo Collection Achieved!
One unwritten rule of being a geek is you have to collect something different. Anyone can collect mainstream comics, trading cards, stamps, pogs, pokemon, etc., but it takes a special collection of obscure "they actually make that?" items to truly show one's geekiness. And 9 years after beginning my collection I have finally completed it...
As mentioned many times before, one of my favorite game series is Final Fantasy and my first game in that series was Final Fantasy 7. When Square released FF7 in 1997 the game was huge. As with any new installment in a hot franchise, soon Final Fantasy 7 merchandise of all sorts appeared in various outlets.
Final Fantasy 7 included a mini-game called "Chocobo Racing and Breeding". Chocobos (cho - co - bo) are essentially giant chickens used as mounts to travel the world. Like horses, in the mini-game you train your chocobo by racing it and feeding it special grains. Then you breed your trained chocobo with another chocobo with differing skills and, with a little luck, you hatch a different colored chocobo with a new set of stronger skills. Beginning with the generic yellow chocobo, you progressively train and breed your chocobos up the color ladder (green, blue, black) until you reach the ultimate color of gold chocobo. (There was also a fat chocobo that occasionally appeared but he wasn't raceable, he just sat on enemies to assist you).
As geeky as it is to collect plush animals of video game characters, that alone wasn't geeky enough to earn my geek cred (lots of movies and cartoons have plushes after all, just visit Disneyland). No, to make this collection truly geeky it needed more obscure qualities. And these chocobos fit the bill: a. they were only released in Japan (foreign); they were a limited release in 1997 (old and rare); and they could not be purchased in stores, they were only released in "ufo catcher" toy crane machines in arcades (hard to find). That's right: I collect colored chicken video game plushes only found inside rare toy crane machines from Japanese arcades in 1997. Bam, instant geek! Woohoo!
After discovering these plushes existed in 2000 I began my search for them online. Of course the only way to find them (at least in Arkansas) at the time was on Japanese auction sites. Within months I found and purchased my first one, blue chocobo, in 2001. Through the years I kept up the search (although it did go on hiatus once I started having children save for an occasional eBay search here and there) online and at anime conventions and would come across one for sale (some were fake/knock-offs, booooo...). This week my last plush, a real black chocobo to replace my fake one, arrived and my collection is now complete after 9 years of searching!
Like Inigo Montoya, now that I am finished with my goal I really have no idea what to do next. I probably won't begin another collection anytime soon but who knows what new forms of geekery will be released in obscure locations over the next decade... Until then I am enjoying my chocobos and can't wait until my children are old enough to enjoy them and begin their own collections.
As mentioned many times before, one of my favorite game series is Final Fantasy and my first game in that series was Final Fantasy 7. When Square released FF7 in 1997 the game was huge. As with any new installment in a hot franchise, soon Final Fantasy 7 merchandise of all sorts appeared in various outlets.
As geeky as it is to collect plush animals of video game characters, that alone wasn't geeky enough to earn my geek cred (lots of movies and cartoons have plushes after all, just visit Disneyland). No, to make this collection truly geeky it needed more obscure qualities. And these chocobos fit the bill: a. they were only released in Japan (foreign); they were a limited release in 1997 (old and rare); and they could not be purchased in stores, they were only released in "ufo catcher" toy crane machines in arcades (hard to find). That's right: I collect colored chicken video game plushes only found inside rare toy crane machines from Japanese arcades in 1997. Bam, instant geek! Woohoo!
After discovering these plushes existed in 2000 I began my search for them online. Of course the only way to find them (at least in Arkansas) at the time was on Japanese auction sites. Within months I found and purchased my first one, blue chocobo, in 2001. Through the years I kept up the search (although it did go on hiatus once I started having children save for an occasional eBay search here and there) online and at anime conventions and would come across one for sale (some were fake/knock-offs, booooo...). This week my last plush, a real black chocobo to replace my fake one, arrived and my collection is now complete after 9 years of searching!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Jay's playlist: Skullmonkeys
Welcome to my playlist, where I discuss the music which is currently entertaining me. Below you will find a video, press play to begin the song and then read my feelings on the album.
Today's playlist is: Skullmonkeys (also Imaginarium: The Neverhood Chronicles)
Earlier this week I discussed animations from The Neverhood Chronicles. The animation in these games is quirky and humorous, but they wouldn't be as quirky or humorous without a soundtrack that was also quirky and humorous (okay, I'll stop now).
I enjoy the music to these games, it is just different. Mostly it is one guy (Terry S. Taylor) singing weird nonsensical words while accompanied by a guitar, electric piano, and drum set (and occasionally an organ and accordion). And once you think you've heard every noise his voice can make he changes the speed of it for an awesome (or not) "chipmunk" effect. Honestly, unlike other albums from my playlist, I can't listen to this one for very long but occasionally I get in the mood for goofy music and this is at the top of my list.
Some of his music actually uses lyrics but they still don't make much sense. Take this soundtrack from the Spanish-themed level "Castle de Los Muertos":
(no food makes an appearance in this level, it is just... weird)
Some of it makes you want to jump in a lake and swim...
Some of it makes you want to kill whoever created the "chipmunk effect"...
And some of it takes familiar schoolyard poems and adds a much needed chorus...
Bonus playlist:
This is one of the most literal "Bonus Room" songs I have ever heard (a game's bonus room is an extra level with no enemies that let's you collect money, coins, items, etc for extra points):
I'll never leave you...
Today's playlist is: Skullmonkeys (also Imaginarium: The Neverhood Chronicles)
Earlier this week I discussed animations from The Neverhood Chronicles. The animation in these games is quirky and humorous, but they wouldn't be as quirky or humorous without a soundtrack that was also quirky and humorous (okay, I'll stop now).
I enjoy the music to these games, it is just different. Mostly it is one guy (Terry S. Taylor) singing weird nonsensical words while accompanied by a guitar, electric piano, and drum set (and occasionally an organ and accordion). And once you think you've heard every noise his voice can make he changes the speed of it for an awesome (or not) "chipmunk" effect. Honestly, unlike other albums from my playlist, I can't listen to this one for very long but occasionally I get in the mood for goofy music and this is at the top of my list.
Some of his music actually uses lyrics but they still don't make much sense. Take this soundtrack from the Spanish-themed level "Castle de Los Muertos":
(no food makes an appearance in this level, it is just... weird)
Some of it makes you want to jump in a lake and swim...
Some of it makes you want to kill whoever created the "chipmunk effect"...
And some of it takes familiar schoolyard poems and adds a much needed chorus...
Bonus playlist:
This is one of the most literal "Bonus Room" songs I have ever heard (a game's bonus room is an extra level with no enemies that let's you collect money, coins, items, etc for extra points):
I'll never leave you...
Friday, October 23, 2009
Retro Watch: The Neverhood and Skullmonkeys
In the early-mid nineties, "point and click" adventure games ruled the PC genre world. These games consisted of static images with invisible "hot spots" over areas of the image that, when clicked using a mouse pointer, caused a pre-determined action to happen (usually demonstrated by a pre-recorded movie or another static image). Game designers flocked to the genre because they could create game graphics imagery that looked years ahead of its time. Instead of the relatively weak computer drawing the rudimentary graphics in real-time, designers could create their own art/animations in another medium and then have the computer play movies of the art/animations when the player clicked the correct area. In modern terms, it is the difference between clicking a play button to watch the movie "Up" or watching Maya render each scene of Up frame by frame based on your computer's graphical powers. The former is much quicker than the latter and does not rely (much) on your computer's graphics card power to create an amazing visual experience.
Quick history lesson aside, one of my favorite game series from the era is "The Neverhood Chornicles" created completely using stop motion clay figures.
(feel free to click on the links in the paragraphs below for more info these games, I will embed the more interesting videos in the post itself)
Creator Doug TenNapel has a style all to his own. He shares this style by creating an entire world (The Neverhood) using clay and letting the players explore it. If the player clicks the correct areas he is shown a short clip of the main character interacting with other clay figures as a part of an overall storyline. The main point of this post is not to relish in the gameplay of these games, but admire that, even in the absence of a game, these animations are very well done and still highly entertaining. The following movies from this game (and its sequel, "Skullmonkeys") are a few animation clips and not the actual gameplay of the game.
(just watch the first 2 minute clip, you can then watch pt 1 of the entire Skullmonkeys games a few videos below and finish the rest here)
Half a cheer for The Neverhood!
"Hip-hip, HOO!"
Quick history lesson aside, one of my favorite game series from the era is "The Neverhood Chornicles" created completely using stop motion clay figures.
(feel free to click on the links in the paragraphs below for more info these games, I will embed the more interesting videos in the post itself)
Creator Doug TenNapel has a style all to his own. He shares this style by creating an entire world (The Neverhood) using clay and letting the players explore it. If the player clicks the correct areas he is shown a short clip of the main character interacting with other clay figures as a part of an overall storyline. The main point of this post is not to relish in the gameplay of these games, but admire that, even in the absence of a game, these animations are very well done and still highly entertaining. The following movies from this game (and its sequel, "Skullmonkeys") are a few animation clips and not the actual gameplay of the game.
(just watch the first 2 minute clip, you can then watch pt 1 of the entire Skullmonkeys games a few videos below and finish the rest here)
Half a cheer for The Neverhood!
"Hip-hip, HOO!"
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