I re-connected my old Sega Dreamcast today and tried out some of the old games. One that still holds up perfectly is REZ, originally released in 2001. What a great and addictive game that is. It plays like a psychedelic music video version of William Gibson’s vision of cyberspace. You are this polygon avatar that has to fly around in the matrix and watch out for various geometric constructions out to get you. All while digging the interactive techno music. It’s impossible playing this game and not moving your feet to the beat.
I got this in my feed a few weeks ago and boy does it look awesome. The PocketChip is like the Commodore 64 all over again, only more hipster and in 2016. Also it’s a lot cheaper than the C64 back in the day, only $49 intro price.
So what does it do? Well, games of course and there seems to be lots of them. And it comes with tools to create your own games or change the code of all existing. Also you can make chip tunes on it, and there’s a sequencer for creating more “professionally” sounding tunes. Click here for more resources on Pico-8 game development.
I also like the technical limitations of the device, as it says on their website: “The harsh limitations of Pico-8 are carefully chosen to be fun to work with (and) encourage small but expressive designs…”
Over 10 years ago I got this idea that I would make some new chip tunes, so I bought an old Nintendo Gameboy and a cartridge with an early version of Nanoloop.
(Had to look, it’s version 1.2.)
No new chip tunes were actually made but I did manage to use some of its crunchy sounds in a couple of my early dance music releases, like A brand new world. The noisy crunchy loop you hear in the intro was done on a Gameboy with Nanoloop 1.2, with some sampled congas put on top of it.
Anyhow, the latest version of that awesome little sequencer is now 2.7 and apparently there is another type of cartridge on the way called Nanoloop Mono.
It’s a three channel analog synthesizer cart for the original monochrome Gameboy models, and judging by the video it sounds pretty damn good. I might just get one of these and fire up the old beige boy one more time.
Hmm.. I should make a youtube video playing Nanoloop 1.2. There doesn’t seem to be many on the tube.
As some may or may not know I was pretty deeply involved in the so called Commodore 64 scene from around 1986 to 1990. I was the co-founder and musician/graphics guy of a Swedish demo and cracking group called XAKK. Rob Hubbard was one of my major inspirations for my music back then. Here is my personal top ten list of the best pieces of C64 music created by the one true SID-god, Rob Hubbard.
Edit: Actually there are 11 entries on the list since I originally forgot to include one of the best Hubbard tunes – Zoids.
11. Thing on a spring
This was one of the first games I played on the Commy. Even though the tune by Hubbard isn’t as good as the other ones in this list, it still holds a lot of sentimental value to me.
10. One man and his droid
This is another amazing high energy piece by Hubbard that makes you want to dance. It builds and builds with different variations on the same theme. There are some really crazy arpeggios in there.
9. International Karate
The game was great and I played it a lot back when it was released. The slow title tune by Hubbard borrows quite a lot from Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “Forbidden Colours” from the movie “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence”.
8. Thrust
Another one of the classics. The melody is almost melancholic. It has a really cool break with hypnotic noisy beats and a haunting melody. I played the game a bit when it was released. It was pretty decent for a budget game.
7. Spellbound
Another game that I never really played. The tune by Hubbard is a slow piece with hints of sadness and almost despair in some parts. Note how the melody always goes down, down. Masterly programmed.
6. The last V8
A simple and catchy melody. I like the way the background sounds melt together with the chords. It’s a tune that makes me happy. The game was easily forgotten but the music still holds to this day.
5. Lightforce
The game itself was a pretty standard vertical shooter but the music.. Atmospheric and epic. One of most toned down tunes from Hubbard. Still gives me the chills listening to it now, almost 30 years later.
4. Sanxion (Loader)
I remember I was totally blown away when I heard this piece of music for the first time. The intro was so unusual – building up for something, and then BAM, a complex bassline and an almost oriental sounding lead. A very avant garde game tune at the time.
3. Zoids
This track is actually based on “Ancestors” from the Synergy album Audion. I remember I bought the LP back in 86 or 87 and instantly recognized it. So Hubbard borrowed quite o lot at the time.. Still this is one of his best, powerful but with lots of feels, especially around the 2.00 mark. That melody gets me every time.
2. Commando
One of the best demonstrations of the, for the time, complex sounds that Rob Hubbard could squeeze out of the SID-chip. There are so many things happening in this track. I like how the melody and the arpeggio chords always match perfectly together, and how he throws in all these effect sounds here and there and still manages to keep everything working as a whole.
1. Delta
Delta is still considered by many to be one of the top five games ever released on the Commodore 64. Developed by Finish programmer Stavros Fasoulas, it had this killer title tune by Rob Hubbard. After so many years, this one still gets me all misty eyed. Such a simple but effective melody. Still the number one C64 tune for me.
So that was my top 10 list of the best Rob Hubbard tunes ever created. If you are interested in the music I created on the C64 in the 80s you can listen to it here.
Last year the demo No Sleep 2 (1987) by my old C64 group XAKK was chosen to be part of the exhibition Typemotion at ZKM at the Center for art and media in Karlsruhe Germany.
If you missed the exhibition you can catch it again and again since it’s a travelling exhibition. Next up will be in Vilnius, Lithuania and the National gallery of art, the branch of the Lithuanian art museum, between Oct 10 and Nov 9, 2014.
