Well patrons, this week we're meeting up in an old locale that's undergone some modern renovations. As we all adjust our perspective we'll reflect on the slower pace of the past and imagine a future in which we still have to wait around for things. Could a transcontinental network of Game Boy Link Cables have existed if technology had progressed differently? Will a social schism develop along individual preferences for instant or delayed gratification? And how do YOU feel about dollar store items that cost more than a dollar? Consider all this and more as you de Blob your walls with Josh, Emily, Haju... and of course, regulars like you.
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| This episode was made possible by: | ||
| Game | Track Title | Composer(s) |
| Cosmic Star Heroine | Viridian Shades | HyperDuck SoundWorks |
| Phantasy Star II | Restoration | Tokuhiko Uwabo |
| Faceball 2000 | Cyberscape | David Whittaker |
| Animorphs: Shattered Reality | The Sea | Chuck E. Meyers, Tommy Hopkins |
| Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion | Field 1 | Alberto José González |
| ESPN Final Round Golf 2002 | Track 28 | Unknown |
...and listeners like YOU.
Hey guys,
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy I was able to get a track in an episode again after all these weeks! (I'm not complaining, I know you guys have a truckload of suggestions waiting in the wings).
To answer your question, I got all those games as a gift, it was so long ago, I don't remember how much it would have costed. I did get some great deals recently, I found a copy of Elemental Gearbolt for $1 at a Goodwill near me. I also I found complete copies of Soul Blade, Tekken 2, Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition and Alien Trilogy at a flea market for a crazy good deal too!
Emily, I'm glad to hear that you also read the Animorphs books as well! After I got the game, I found a copy of the first book in the series in the shelf of the 4th Grade classroom I was in. Once the semester ended, they were clearing out the shelves and were giving away the books. I took the Animorphs book naturally and took it home. I was really mesmerized by the flip-book transformations on the comer of the books! It's probably in my house somewhere.
I feel like a lot of the game music that resonates with me are ones that I've heard through my childhood that would live deep in my mind (The Sampler 3 Track from episode 68 is one of those tracks).
Thanks for bring another episode of pure joy. I'll be sure to keep drumming along in that marching band!
-Electricboogaloo
And Josh,
DeleteI'd recommend trying to get the Phantasy Star Collection for GBA at some point as a loose cart doesn't cost a whole lot online these days. It has the first three games in the series and they seem to run pretty well considering the different hardware and screen resolution. Thankfully, It doesn't seem to have the save issue the Sega Forever release has right now!
Review video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=459O1cOe6jI
-Electricboogaloo
This is the perfect way and I believe that you will be able to find the perfect thing for you and make things happen in more proper way.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you picked "The Sea" this week as the recent PixelTunes Radio played a track from another SingleTrac developed PSone game, Twisted Metal, also by those same composers! I guess the planets were aligning this week huh?
ReplyDelete-Electricboogaloo
About the missing saves conversation; I will never forget the saving in the old Pokémon games where if you accidentally turned your game off or the battery died while your game was saving it would make the entire save file completely unusable! This actually happened with a lot of games like some that would corrupt entire memory cards on the PSOne. It was always such a brutal depressing disaster but was just something we had to deal with at the time.
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to mention, without spoiling too much, that there is a villain in Undertale who will kinda break the fourth wall and threaten to delete or mess with your save file. Just another reason why I love that game soo much.
Yeah, let me tell you a sad story about saves. Recently, I decided to fire up Pokemon Yellow on Super Game Boy for SNES (the latter of which was being finicky lately) After I saved it, I put it away for a while. When I booted the cartridge again, the save was just gone. Six and a half hours disappears without a trace. I was devastated! I don't know if the battery was starting to go out or if the Super Game Boy cartridge decided to mess up while it was saving, but now I have to start my Pokemon journey all over again. I have to get a new battery soon though.
Delete-Electricboogaloo
Yea I didn't even know gameboy cartridges had batteries until a couple years ago. It makes preserving and buying games that actually work a little difficult.
DeleteAlso my tracking down of games from my childhood usually involves me listening to either this podcast or LMH, getting smacked in the face with nostalgia by remembering a game I used to play, and then typing keywords or gameplay describing said game into google because I almost never remember some of these obscure names. I of course then listen to the entire soundtrack while opening the nostalgia flood gates and letting the memories flow through. Finally, I then send over some of the songs that I think you guys would enjoy. 😁
ReplyDeleteWanna hear the saddest story about saves? JUST THIS LAST WEEKEND, I was watching my oldest son Yoshimitsu play Mother 3. We both have a save file on the game; I had made it a chapter or two from the end, and he's still in the second chapter of the game.
ReplyDeleteAs you know, Josh, you get to name your characters at the beginning. I named my characters after my dad and siblings(which made the game particularly moving) and my son named his characters after me and his siblings. My son was having trouble with a particular dungeon, so I guided him to a frog to save. I was particularly paranoid about him saving over my game, so I insisted he hand me the DS Lite so I could save it. HOWEVER, he was at the point in the game where he was playing as the father(who had my name), so I SAVED OVER MY OWN GAME
!
!
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Please cry for me, because I have no tears left to cry.
(VIRTUAL HUG)
Delete-Electricboogaloo
That is...man. No words.
DeleteOK, I have to be completely honest, I took it really well. It happened when I was on an awesome vacation, and I was just sitting and spending time with my friends and family, plus I was hovering over my son..... totally not going to have a tirade about it.
DeleteIt does, however, really lower my chances of going through the game again. You guys have no idea how hard it is for me to find time to play games, especially long and drawn out quests. I literally average about an hour or two a month.
Man Nemo, although I feel your acute pain, in a way you and Yoshimitsu are mirroring the video game experience of switching between the character scenarios of father and son in real life.
DeleteIn other words, you got 80% of the way through, but now your hopes of finishing the game rest entirely on Yoshimitsu's shoulders as he makes his way toward the point where your scenario was effectively put on hold.
When he gets there you will both proceed forward into new territory and experience the end together, entirely because of your combined efforts... just like in an actual RPG.
Wow, I'm actually pretty excited to see that out! Thanks, Keyglyph!
DeleteOh yeah: to comment on Sword & Sworcery, it TOTALLY follows the real lunar cycle; when we have a full moon, it's a full moon in the game. So Josh, you have to enter the world of dreams during the full moon, half moon, and lunar eclipse.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you can go to the moon grotto and change the cycle of the moon temporarily, which sends the dream world into a paradox. I was able to cheat the moon cycles by doing that, but it won't let you do that for every cycle, or for every piece of the Trigon, or something. I still haven't wrapped my mind around that part.
I want to believe that re-imagining the world with GameBoy technology could become the next Steampunk.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a long time since this episode came out, but I never quite got into a rhythm of listening to episodes when you were making them, while my phone automatically downloaded quite a few, and I've finally been catching up in the last week or so to clear space on my phone (because it seems a crime to just delete them unlistened if I have them!). But at one point in this episode I heard something that I absolutely had to contribute a response to.
ReplyDeleteAs you prefaced the Faceball 2000 track, I had a guess as to what the discrepancy would be. When you played the alternative version, my guess was borne out completely. You see, I became familiar with the game Loopz in the '90s on a couple of bootleg x-in-1 cartridges one of my classmates had, and I enjoyed David Whittaker's soundtrack (to the point that I transcribed its Tune A in Noteworthy Composer and submitted a MIDI to vgmusic.com found here). So when I heard it emulated, I was unpleasantly surprised to hear the beepy ostinato (which contributed to a "Love My Way" by The Psychedelic Furs vibe I got from the track) turned into these low bloops. The Commodore 64 version also has the ostinato in a low octave (which actually works for me in that context due to how the C64 sounds), so I assume that that's what Whittaker tried to achieve on the Game Boy, but for whatever reason the actual Game Boy hardware turns it into beeps three octaves above the crunchy bass part he probably composed. I'm guessing that the same thing happens with this track. (Incidentally, the bassy version, with the sound I believe David Whittaker intended, sounds better to me, but to be fair, I fell in love with Loopz's music years before I knew the GB hardware might be rendering it in unexpected ways.)