Game Scores: Power Blade (NES)

This soundtrack is yet another one that I located over at FFShrine and since it was an NES game that wasn't released by either Square or Enix (before they joined forces), Power Blade never received an official soundtrack release.

Power Blade for the NES is a game that came out in 1991 from developer Natsume and publisher Taito.  Now, Power Blade is a game that I played once, probably during the summer of 1991 and never heard anything from any of my friends about it.  I may have talked about it after coming back from vacation, but aside from Nintendo Power # 23, I don't recall hearing anything else about the game from anyone, which is a bit of a shame because Power Blade was a decent enough game.  The gameplay was similar enough to Mega Man and Castlevania along with Contra-esque elements to be comfortable with the controls, but different enough from each of the aforementioned games to be enjoyable and still feel new.  Imagine controlling Bill "Mad Dog" Rizer through Dracula's castle with Cut Man's ability permanently equipped, but with upgrades.  That was Power Blade.

What also helped Power Blade feel even more familiar was the fact that the music was composed by Kinuyo Yamashita.  What's that?  You don't recognize her name?  Maybe you'll recognize her from one of her other alias', James Banana.  Yeah, I thought that'd ring a bell.  Yamashita did an interview back in 2009 where she talked a little bit about composing for Power Blade as well as another interview in 2010 where Power Blade is briefly brought up.  It's a decent enough read if you choose to do so.

Now, for why you're still here reading my drivel: the music!  Power Blade is a solid soundtrack for a science fiction, dystopian action/adventure game where you have to save society by restoring a worldwide computer system (the internet?) that has been taken over by aliens.  So how do you write music for that kind of a set up?  Like this!

You can just feel Castlevania and Mega Man pulsing through the music from the first stage.  Although Kinuyo Yamashita didn't write music for the Mega Man series until Mega Man X3 in 1995, it's very obvious why they went with Yamashita although surprising that they didn't seek her out sooner.

What I've found with a lot of the music for the stages is that they're not manic.  There isn't a sense that you have a set amount of time to finish the stage (i.e. a timer a la Super Mario Bros.or the first Castlevania).  The music is paced, as I've alluded to before, similar to that of Mega Man.  The theme to Sector 2, I feel perfectly illustrates that sense of running along rolling hills amidst a dystopian planet held hostage by Aliens.

Lastly, the music from Sector 5 is another wonderful example of NES era music that would sound fantastic performed by an 80s tribute hair metal band with talent.

Really, the whole soundtrack, which comprises 15 tracks of music and two incidental tracks for when you complete a stage and when you run out of lives.  Power Blade has a solid 20 minutes of music (including repeats) and while it definitely feels like it came out of 1991, this is what nostalgia sounds like, even if you've never heard it before.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Thank You

Monthly Update: December 2013

Yes, I know that I've missed two Friday posts in-a-row and no to both the questions I already asked on your behalf.  1) No, this was not on purpose.  Thanksgiving got in the way of when I usually do my Friday writing plus Thursday 28th was my only day off from work last week; as in I worked Sun - Wed and Fri through today.  2) No, this is not becoming "a thing" as the hep kids like to say.

Monday, Monday, Monday!  Monday Night Football?  Nope, I'll be at work and since the 49ers already won this week, I don't think that I'll care.  I'll probably still steal a glance if any of the residents have it on, which they probably will.

On the video games front, I finally got back to Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together which I restarted back in February and haven't played since April.  With any luck, I'll come out with a First Impression before the end of the year, but I realize I've been saying that since April, but there you have it, another statement of intent.

On the 3/DS, I've gotten back to Infinite Space.  Sort of.  I am currently stuck on a battle that I previously mentioned.  It may be time that I resort to GameFAQs for help on how to defeat this particular boss.  It's a beast that, at least at this point in time, looks unsurmountable, which can be a bit of a mood-killer if you've already invested over 20 hours into a game.  So that may have to happen.

Steam is almost through with their Autumn sale and I would like to admit that for the most part, I've been a good boy.  Conklederp told me to tell her if I wanted any games for Christmas and I said that there were some games that I had on my wishlist there that I'd been looking at, so I've been trying (trying really hard) not to buy anything.  Except I may have already bought a game or two.  But in mine own defence, they were both under $3 each.  I have to keep telling myself that unless I plan on playing the game that's on sale immediately, there really isn't a reason to buy it as it will be available at a cheaper price in the future when I am ready to play it.  Plus, I'm sure that in less than a month, there will be a Steam Christmas/New Years sale, so I'll have another week of restraint to look forward to.

A week or two ago, Salty Liver (Conklederp's friend from school whom I now work with) mentioned that she had bought Assassin's Creed II, which has now become a nagging seed for me.  For whatever reason, I've never been overly interested in that particular series.  Sure I looked at the games from afar, then a bit up close when two were released on the DS, but nothing more than that.  Then she brings up that AC2 is a lot of fun and before I knew what was going on, a seed was planted in my brain and I'm trying very hard not to water it.  I don't need another long series of open world games on top of all the games that I have yet to play.  And yet, I feel the Miracle Gro being put next to the watering can.  

Enough of clever metaphor, too meta for me. . .eh, eh!?

About a month or so ago, I decided that every December I would read Terry Pratchett's The Hogfather. When I first read it back in April, I quickly felt that not only did The Hogfather encapsulate everything that the Christmas season is supposed to be about (giving, helping people), but it also pointed out all the hypocrisy and blind-eye-turning that goes on during the end-of-the-year holidays.  This wasn't a revelation to me, but I just loved how Pratchett put everything together.  The only problem with starting this, is that I am currently reading six other books.  But that doesn't matter.  It's a great book and it shall be read again and if I still feel the same way after reading it a second time, it will be come an annual tradition.

Sticking with books, I picked up a copy of The Complete Lovecraft, which is a volume that you can buy for retail at a Barnes & Noble.  The reason the book was bought, was because, as far as I know, it is the only complete collection of fiction by H.P. Lovecraft.  Something very important however, is that there are two editions of the book.  The first edition is apparently full of misspellings, accidental corrections and typos.  The second edition has all of those errors corrected.  Now since the books are all individually wrapped in plastic, the only way to know which edition you're buying is by the color of the satin bookmark attached to the binding.  The first error filled edition has a yellow/gold color satin bookmark.  The second proofed edition has a purple bookmark.  Buy the book with the purple bookmark.  The only drawback to buying this and not, say, the edition from the Library of America, is that the book is not annotated.

Another tome that I recently purchased was The History of The Hobbit: One-Volume Edition.  I had previously heard about the two volume set, but since it wasn't part of Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle Earth series, I wasn't sure if it was "legit."  After seeing Richard Armitage (Thorin in The Hobbit trilogy of films) bring up these books and looking deeper into their existence, my fears were relieved and more so since the book arrived last week.  I'm looking forward to reading it, once I finish volume XII of the History of Middle Earth: The Peoples of Middle Earth, which is the last book in the series, published in 1996; a series that I began back, I think sometime in the early 2000's.

All of this is what December 2013 is looking to be.  It's honestly hard to believe that 2013 is almost over.  I have memories of January 2013 (just not all of the 1st though) and to be 12 months ahead of that, it's always an odd feeling.  Odd, yet familiar and slightly comforting.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental

Monthly Update: December

http://motherfuckingwebsite.com

Here is a funny link all about simple web design.  The last time I designed a website, it was in HTML 5, it was a Ryouga Hibiki Shrine on angelfire and was WAY too image intensive.  Granted, I was accessing with a 14.4k modem, but this taught me to design to my access speed.  I learned the basic lessons so hilariously described in the above link, and have occasionally remarked with incredulity at the super complicated websites of today.  Even though my access speed is now, something like 1000 times faster, website designers have managed to make things load almost as slow as the giant pile of P-chans that was my first website.  

Anyhow, that background helped make this silly link a lot funnier.  That and all the swearing.  Man, I'm surprised it took me this long to talk about Ranma 1/2 on this blog.

I just found out that Hiroo Isono, visual artist for the Seiken Densetsu series passed away this year.  Just about one year ago, I found out who he was, when I did cursory research for the Secret of Mana box art (possibly my favorite box art of all time).  His name has been very nearly the most popular search term bringing people to this blog.  And his art was really cool!

Links:
http://www.art-licensing.com/artists/Hiroo-Isono-Forests-and-Landscapes/biography.html
Official-seeming-site

http://www.realmofgaming.com/news/Hiroo-Isono-1945-2013/1811.html
brief eulogy

http://shinigamilist.com/2013/06/13/illustrator-hiroo-isono-passed-away/
another brief eulogy

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/hiroo-isono
lots and lots of art

I recently read an article arguing that the Mario Bros movie 'wasn't that bad.'  Well, I decided to finally watch it.  It's pretty bad, but it's a kids movie, afterall.  And they do a great job of putting in a bunch of game references in a movie that is, visually, radically different from the games.  Look out for snifits, fireballs, and an allusion to the last fight in Super Mario World.  And frankly, the acting is fantastic, Dennis Hopper, in particular. The sum total is a mediocre movie, not a terrible one. 

http://www.destructoid.com/why-the-super-mario-movie-is-an-underappreciated-masterpiece-29694.phtml

destructoid does a pretty good job of laying it out.

http://bottomlesswit.com/in-defense-of-the-super-mario-bros-movie/

this one's pretty good too, though I still don't think it's the one I read.

I'm between games, so nothing to talk about there.  I'm reading Haruki Murikami's book 'Wild Sheep Chase.'  I really like it.  The flow can be very strange, moving quick at times, slow at times, but I really like the lead character/narrator, and when this book is good, it's really good!  

The job search isn't going all that great, but it might help if I had any idea what I want to do with the rest of my life.  Except write for this blog.  Masters Degree?  Teach?  Desk Job?  Who knows.  Eventually I'm going to be tired of staying on couches, that's for sure.  Which reminds me, hey Jaconian and Conklederp...

Alright well, I hope I've wasted enough of your time.  Have a wonderful December!

-D

P.S.  Secret of Mana and the Mario Bros movie both came out in 1993.  But I wasn't making websites until '95, I think.

P.P.S. I almost forgot!  The Humble Story Bundle!  13 days left! Yeah, I bought it.  8 bucks.  I sometimes think I might like to talk about video games more than play them.  And this collection is just perfect for that tendency.  I'm pretty excited about it, but I wish they were physical copies, and not digital downloads.  Maybe if I owned a kindle I could split the difference, but alas, I do not.  

Game Design Idea: Narrative Walk Through : Statement of Purpose

So, as I mentioned before, I can't seem to crack into any of the supposed game design software I've seen on the internet and read in reviews and even have seen attributed to games that I like (Anodyne).  Yet, my mind persists in imagining what it would be like to design a game.  And I think this stuff makes for a great game design idea!

For example, I think it would be great to design a game, where the levels progress with programming milestones.   Like, the first screen is just a crappy looking block guy, moving around -- success!  Then the next screen maybe you can slash a sword!  And then by the third screen, maybe you can cut down a bush! Hooray!  Then there's an enemy.   And then, by then you might have the hang of it enough to have like, a whole series of screens, with a treasure box at the end, hooray!  

I imagine a narrator the whole time, describing the process of creation to the little character on screen.  The challenges, and progressions.  Creating a weird meta-fiction author dynamic.  Did I mention I love meta-fiction?  I've noticed this stuff is pretty big these days as well, with games like Thomas was Alone and the Stanley Parable Demo.  Also, with the regular use of the term 'meta' to describe things.  But being a fancy English major, I've been familiar with the term for some time.  

Specifically, I was introduced to meta-fiction with the book 'At Swim Two Birds' by Flann O'Brien (pen name Brian O'Nolan - meta!) .  It's a book about a guy who's writing a book.  Meta level 1.  Then the characters in that book decide they don't like what's going on in their story,  Meta Level 2, and they go to to the authors house to talk some sense into him.  Or some such thing.  It's a lot of fun, and very old, published in 1939.    

Further Meta ideas come from the 'fourth wall' concept in theater, whereas the actors aren't supposed to acknowledge the audience, and when they do so, they're breaking the 'fourth wall.'   I've always loved to play with that, though.

Of course, my idea of a video game about its own creation is silly for a couple reasons.  One is that I still don't actually know what the process is like.  I'm just guessing.  And whenever I read interviews with game creators, they always describe all sorts of things they weren't expecting.  So I expect that would happen to me too.  Expecting the unexpected, I'm so ready!

Anyway, I think the process would be to work on different concepts, enemies, items, procedures, etc.  And make careful note when something interesting happens.  Then, when I've got the hang of the whole programming thing, go back and fake it.  There's no need for my authentic practice screens to be in a game, just something resembling them.  Throw a kookie narrator with a british accent on the thing, and I'm set!  

Man, I love my own ideas!  And it's so much easier to write about them than to actually push them through my metaphorical loins, spank breath into them, cut their metaphorical umbilical chord, hold them close and feed them from my metaphorical teat!  I'm unemployed, and *still* that sounds like too much trouble!  Maybe it's the way I described it...  Actually, wait, this reminds me of the conclusion of the play "Slag" that I saw in college.  My girlfriend was one of the three principle actresses, and her character gets miraculously pregnant, but her character was insane, and it was actually just a food baby.  (Oh man, I am *such* an English Major.)

Anyway, I realize I spoiled the ending for you, which is a high crime, but don't worry - the enjoyment of that play came from the performances.  Three fantastic Actresses with really great chemistry.  The plot wasn't really very important, and I saw it more than once, I think.  It was performances like that that gave me a love of the theater.  And has subsequently fueled my curiosity about the connection between theater, film and video games.  Specifically around minimalism - I love how fantastic some performances are with minimal set design.  I can't help but wonder if a similar elegance can be applied to game design, programming and execution.

http://www.andysowards.com/blog/2012/70-epic-map-design/

When I was young, I wanted to create epic fantasy.  Nothing but.  Alright, maybe an occasional side-scroller.  But, the biggest piece of my creative pie was taken up with 50+ hour Role Playing Games.  And the reflexive version:  novelizations of already existing RPGs.  High Fantasy, Tolkein and Dungeons and Dragons ruled all.  And the bigger, longer and more epic, the better. It is still like a security blanket or a favorite stuffed toy.  I can go back there just by closing my eyes and relaxing.

However, in these days following the Box Office and Academy Award domination of the Lord of the Rings movie Trilogy,  it seems pretty damned clear to me that the High Fantasy World is covered.  You can't throw a stone without hitting a two to three hour epic something.  I missed riding that wave, and now I'm wonder when it will subside.  

These days, I am most interested in minimalism, in peeling back all of the glitz and the glamour and the huge set pieces, to find out what's in the core of genre, theater, creativity.  I want to take a chisel to the edifice of the modern High Fantasy Blockbuster and see if there isn't something beautiful underneath it all.  I believe that minimalism is more raw, and prompts the viewer to fill in the gaps with their own imagination.  More than that, it is much, much more inexpensive to produce.  And therefore can be done with a smaller team, which allows for much more creative control and input by the principle few.  And that serves my starving little creative ego, I think.  

Hmm, caffienne high is faltering.  love of my own ideas is waning.  autumn is passing into winter.  power down. boooooooop.  

-D


P.S. follow-up question:  does this need to be published?  Our blog quality standards aren't like, super-high or anything, yet I have a bunch of ideas that are important to me here, and I could maybe turn them into something real.  But if that's the case, what does it matter if I publish now or later?

P.P.S.  Mine the brainy gamer for theater-game connection.  I think he's really into that.

P.P.P.S  Interdisciplinary study called 'Performance Studies' at UCD, Berkeley.  Looks pretty darn close to what I'm looking at

P.P.P.P.S Adaptation and American Movie are both examples of movies about the making of movies.  Adaptation with much more creative license - and a big favorite of mine!

P.P.P.P.P.S. I think I'll just keep all these post-scripts.  Why not?  I'm feeling silly.  Also, I heard that there was a game that progresses through the history of RPGs.  That's sort of what I'm talking about, but not the same thing.

Where I've Been And What I Signed

I didn't make a post last Friday (11/22/2013) because I was doing something that I said I would not talk about.  As in LEGALLY cannot talk about.  There were a lot of words in a Non-Disclosure Agreement that I electronically signed, which is a legit/legal form of binding.  I also cannot say whom I was with as I think that would violate said NDA.  That being said, or not, I did the thing and now we're here, back in the real world.  Come to think of it, I should also be receiving something else unrelated in the mail that I said I wouldn't discuss or talk about and I sort of signed an NDA of sorts, so I won't be talking about that either.

So what do I talk about on this glorious of Mondays before myself and the rest of the civilized Western god fearing world gives thanks for this plentiful land?!

Well, the Xbox One came out. . . at some point.  Friday?  It's pretty much the same situation that I typed about last week regarding the PS4.

What is it then that I can talk about?

Well (2x this post), there's this guy that I found out about through one of the few facebook ads  that I came across about 7-8 months back (I think it was from a facebook ad?, or maybe it was through Drunken Moogle?) that was relevant to me.  It was a guy (and his cat) who goes by the moniker Smooth McGroove.  He does acapella covers of video game music, all with himself (and occasionally his cat) in multiple frames with footage of the game in the center.  Like this:

He'lll post videos every so often.  Frequently enough that you wonder how long a session/song takes.  Regardless of those thoughts, the videos are pretty fun to watch.  That's the key though for me, the watching.  I've tried a couple of times to just "listen" to the songs without watching the video and they kind of loose their charm/appeal.  I start to feel like I'm listening to actual video game music and not someone singing acapella.  Which I guess is a testament to his abilities, but that's not always what I'm looking for.  One thing that I really like about Mr. McGroove, is that he doesn't do only the traditional covers you see video game cover bands do, such as "Bloody Tears" or "World Theme from Super Mario Bros."  Sure he does do those too, but he has also covered possibly less familiar songs such as the theme from Lavender Town from the first Pokemon and "Corridors of Time" from Chrono Trigger.  In short, the guy is good.

Happy Monday.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Buph-buh!

Stressing The Right Moves

cool box art

Today I was wondering about how complex computers are, from the ground up. And how, just to make a simple chess game, there are procedures upon procedures.  To get the display down, and then all the rules, all the if/then/else statements.  

Then I thought of a funny idea:  a computer chess game that does not have any of the rules programmed into it.  Really, it's just a simulator of a chess board.  So, the players have to be the ones to remove pieces when they are taken, or to call check, or to make sure the other is moving the pieces appropriately.  There's something I really like about this.  I guess it plays on my expectations of what a computer-game of chess would be, what the computer will handle and what I have to do myself.  It's a world simulator, with a chess board in it.  

This train of thought sprung, fully formed while pondering my frustrations working with game making software.  In this case, it's Flixel that's giving me trouble.  This is the program that Sean Hogan and Jonathan Kittaka of Anodyne used, and I left that game saying to myself:  I wanna make a zelda clone too!  I still do.  But boy, I couldn't even get started with Flixel.  It's like my adult onset ADHD kicks in, and I can't seem to follow the instructions.  Or, look for new, better, updated instructions.  Every game design software I use is just too complex.

This is also frustrating because I'm not a complete stranger to the world of programming.  In High School, some fifty years ago.. wait, no.  fifteen years ago, I took a computer programming class.  I loved it!  We used a program called Pascal, which was text-based, and later, Delphi, which had a graphical component.  Pascal was great, most of the terminology was intuitive, and Delphi was just Pascal with graphics!  

So, the first thing I did, of course, was to produce an RPG.  Well, a battle game anyway.  It was fun.  There was a party of four, (whom I named after the members of the band Pearl Jam) and they battled miscellaneous enemies.  Bats, goblins, kobolds and the like.  I think the menu options were 'fight' or 'special' and each character had a different special move.  Double strike, attack all -- stuff like that.  And they could gain experience and raise levels.  pretty entertaining.  I really liked programming.

In college, we had to use C++, and we didn't even have computers in our lecture hall.  We had to do it all at home.  I hated C++, found it to be not intuitive at all.  Perhaps I was spoiled by Pascal.  I also was out of the house for the first time and prone to... distraction.  Anyway, I switched to an English major at the end of that year, and the rest is, as they say, history. 

So, is it folly to think I could get back into programming?  I can't tell.  But I do miss it.  Most especially, I miss creating systems, and interlacing them.  I never pursued graphics, but I was really happy to make the numbers move around in fun ways.  To give input and receive an output.  And to come up with an idea, and work out how to execute it.  It's a really cool frame of mind, programming.

Oh well. Whether or not I make a return to programming, you can be sure that I will write about it.  

hasta pasta,

-D

QWOP and proprioception

I recently heard a really cool episode of the radio show Radiolab.  If you don't know Radiolab, I recommend checking it out.  This episode on body-mind connection is as good a place to start as anywhere. The portion I'm referencing is a story on a man with a condition called proprioception.  His body is alienated from his mind - he has no sense of touch. This man has to teach himself to move without the use of the body-mind connection.  Has to teach himself how to make every single, minute movement of his body.  He has to do this using only visual feedback.  It took him a long while, but he got really good.  For more details, give the episode a listen.

Listening to this story reminded me of the game QWOP.  This is a game where you control the movements of a runner by pressing buttons to move his joints.  The results are hilarious, then frustrating, then hilarious, and so on and so forth.  The exercise in unplayability that is QWOP has always been an interesting experience, but catching this Radiolab episode really brought forth a real world example.  I can't help but wonder if QWOP resembles, even a little bit, this man's experience at moving his body without the sense of physical feedback we take for granted.

-D

Play QWOP

Play CLOP (the unicorn based sequel)

Listen to Radiolab episode 

Watch an actual successful run of QWOP!

All The Things Here Have Been Happening

So the Playstation 4 dropped um, some few days back.  I don't really know because I wasn't one of the umteen thousands that did pre-order one.  I also didn't pre-order an Xbox One either.  I don't think I've ever pre-ordered a system, ever.  I'm the guy who waits until a system is (typically) under $100 before I will buy it, although that didn't hold true when I bought the DS and 3DS; although I did have $125 worth of gift cards and such when I bought the 3DS.  Maybe I prefer to wait and see what kind of library a system is going to have before buying the operating system.  That being said, I will have nothing to add to news about the Playstation IV.

Desert Bus for Hope is on again and the people at LoadingReadyRun will be playing towards their goal of 139 consecutive hours.  Presently they're at 71 hours, so they still have two days 16 hours-ish left.  For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it a bunch of Canadians playing a game where you drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas Nevada (409 miles) at a max (only) speed of 45mph.  It's basically a hit-a-thon of sorts with all the proceeds going to Child's Play, a charity that is better described on their own site.

Earlier today I just finished watching everything that was on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Edition blu-ray.  Conklederp and I have been going through the two new Appendices discs (titled Appendices VII & VIII to coincide with the Appendix discs from the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings movies) and I finished the commentary this afternoon before heading off for work; you know, when I should have been writing this.  I come from the camp that liked what Peter Jackson and company did in The Hobbit.  I went in not expecting a play-by-play of the book as it is "based" off of J.R.R. Tolkien's work.  I personally don't mind that the movies are expanding on the events in The Hobbit that were referred to elsewhere (The Lord of the Rings and included appendices).  I also understand that while some things work in a book, such as Gandalf disappearing when the Dwarves are captured by the Goblins, when the audience would find it hard to believe, knowing what we already know about Gandalf and instead have him stalling the Elves in Rivendel and catching up with them later.  I could write a lot more about this film version of The Hobbit, but that became a post all of it's own and I rambled while trying to state that I enjoyed the movie, which I have already said.  Lastly though, I will say that in the 13 minutes of additional content added to the movie, are two songs, one by the Dwarves while in Rivendel and the other by the Great Goblin.  Basically, pretty much every question I had regarding decisions that deviated from The Hobbit book were answered in either the commentary (sadly of which there was only one, that being with Peter Jackson and Phillipa Boyens although they do do a great job, I would have liked there to have been more commentaries) or the nine hours of behind the scenes documentaries.  Basically, I'm very happy with the extended cut and the special features.

In other gaming related news, I'm heading back to Infinite Space after a bit of a frustrated hiatus at not being able to defeat a particular series of enemies culminating in a boss fight.  I'm going to need a bigger ship. . . and bigger guns. . . and bigger shields.  I also figured out a way around dwindling stats in Morrowind and the tactic there is called BUY ALL THE POTIONS!!!  I've also put Dead Island on hold for a bit, but that's really just Morrowind's fault and I will get back to Torchlight II, you know, when I'm no longer trying to save the world. . . again.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Nothing More To See