Here we find ourselves on another Monday full of dreariness and possibly even despair. But push whatever ails you out of your mind for just a few minutes and enjoy another retrolicious remixed track from two people you’ve probably never heard of before in your life! Apple is the fine person to have rearranged the original composition from Blair Zuppicich. And, er, no… we’re not talking about that Apple. Oh no. Certainly there are no apps or music playing devices in this post, except for the cunning Flash wotsit through which you can enjoy the tune on YouTube, right below these very words…

Zolyx’s Game Music Monday #15: Apple – Cybernetix

If the image wasn’t enough of a clue, let me tell you that this comes from an old but excellently polished Amiga title called Cybernetix: The First Battle. I seem to remember it being similar to Transplant – another game with great music that someone really needs to remix – in that all you had to do was kill all of the aliens in each level. In this game, however, there is no nausea-inducing screen rotation, just good ol’ fashioned wraparound horizontal scrolling. Pretty standard fare for 1992, really, but packaged up and presented quite professionally by the author, Paul Andrews. Some credit should also go to Rodney Smith for the game’s artwork.

Where are they now, eh? I will leave you to ponder that thought until next week’s thrilling episode!

No, in fact the game I talk of is one of those rare few titles that spans multiple generations of gaming hardware – from the humble BBC Micro to the ill-fated Amiga CD32 – and at each step, has retained its crown as one of the most epic arcade adventures that was ever created. Do you believe you can procedurally generate a world big enough to easily support tens of hours of action-puzzle exploration, and give that world a complete Newtonian physics engine, all in just 64KB of memory? That is what programmers Peter Irvin and Jeremy Smith managed to do. Oh… and did I say yet how bloody fantastic the Amiga version intro music is?

Zolyx’s Game Music Monday #13: Henry Jackman – Exile

Yes, you can tell it’s 4-channel MOD music and it has rough edges, but like a Vulcan mind-meld, it also imprints the feel of the game into you using nothing more than a few seconds of instantly memorable synth pad harmony. I’m really glad I chose this music for today’s episode because until now, the MOD version of this had been sitting in my library under “unknown artist”. Now I can finally give Henry Jackman proper credit for composing and arranging this bit of the gaming memory that is Exile.

Back on to the normal schedule of proper GMMs, then. Although my pick for this week has already been featured by others, it’s for good reason – ’tis is a cracking set o’ notes if ever I did lay ears on such a thing…

Zolyx’s Game Music Monday #9: Lagerfeldt – R-Type (Doppelganger Summer Remix)

R-Type, the arcade scrolling shooter to which quite a lot of other scrolling shooters are compared, is quite challenging, and has a version on virtually every gaming platform there ever was. It also has some darn good music – for the Amiga version this came from Chris Huelsbeck. While the game was innovative for the time, it isn’t to everyone’s taste and some may even have not played it at all – but that’s no reason to stop yourself from enjoying this great remix from Lagerfeldt!

Yes, I know both of these tracks are the same tune, and you might wonder why. Well, simple really: They’re both so good that I couldn’t include one over the other, and since it’s a special occasion, I bundled them both into one feature so that you can decide for yourself which is your favourite.

Zolyx’s Game Music Monday #7: Halloween Ghouls ‘n Ghosts!

The original composer of this track was Tim Follin, a name that certainly ranks up there with the most respected 8-bit composers of all time. His work in games such as L.E.D. Storm, Black Lamp, and Bionic Commando – along with the two GnG games - is fondly remembered by many. Remixers Binster and Tim Forsyth have done well to preserve the classic feel with some modern flair.

Enjoy your Halloween and tune in next week!

The Bitmap Brothers game from which most people will know this track was a bit of a Marmite title. A lot of people loved it for the amazing gameplay but there were also those who thought it was just too difficult. I myself never did beat Gods, but I definitely enjoyed trying…

Zolyx’s Game Music Monday #3: daXX – Gods Intro (DaxxTRS Remix)

Richard Joseph made something pretty special when he adapted the original music by Nation XII. Daxx’s mix doesn’t mess it about – it simply waxes and buffs it up a bit without doing anything to ruin the beat. For me this is pretty much the perfect remix, and I was surprised to see that it didn’t appear to be on YouTube yet.

As always I hope it gives you a pleasant few minutes of listening to ease those Monday blues!

The track for today comes from Glyn R Brown, a talented remixer who has used his magic to create an impressive new version of the music found in Gordian Tomb. This was a game released for the Commodore 64 and Amiga, and the same music was used in a PC remake (which you can find as a project on the TDB Soft website). The music was originally composed by Thomas Detert.

Zolyx’s Game Music Monday #2: Glyn R Brown – Gordian Tomb Adventures

With a fantastic Aztec feel, it captures the feel of the game in a way that few remixes can. Hopefully you enjoy it as much as I do!

To get us kicked off I’m going to start with something that isn’t too obscure. If I say the name “Chris Hülsbeck”, you might think of The Great Giana Sisters, Apidya, or possibly R-Type – but for me personally, it’s his soundtracks for the classic run ‘n’ gun Turrican series that I think are the most awesome. Here, then, is Chris’s own Renewal mix of the main theme for Turrican II. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Zolyx’s Game Music Monday #1: Chris Huelsbeck – Turrican II Title (Renewal)

Credit also to ~MrDream from deviantART who created the fantastic artwork. Check out the full version and some of his other work here.

Although I have plenty of tracks to run this with over the coming months, you’re welcome to make suggestions of your own favourite remixes of gaming music – any platform will do as long as it’s reasonably “oldschool”…

Poing! PC version 1.0.1c features a few small aesthetic fixes but, far more importantly than that, also comes with 2 new levelsets (that’s a whole 16 new levels) contributed by Poing fans around the world.

You can get the goodies from the Poing! PC homepage. My most sincere apologies for the delay – happy Poinging!