Episode #11: Richard Westall – Arkanoid (Title Screen)
http://youtu.be/5FmhC-2TcR0

You’d think that with there being so many different mixes of the unmistakable Arkanoid title screen theme that it would be easy to find one that was good whilst also being a bit out of the ordinary. Not so, to my ear! Well-known UK remixer Infamous came close with one of his versions but, at the end of the day, I plumped for one of the oldest listed versions by Richard Westall. The original music was, of course, by Martin Galway. If you think my choice of mix is a little boring, well… you’re wrong, of course, but perhaps this week’s offering might be more to your liking…

Episode #12: Mixer – Nemesis the Warlock
http://youtu.be/3YarfFg87G0

Mentioning one musical legend in this post isn’t enough for me. It’s time to double the awesome – so how about a saxaphonistic re-imagination one of Rob Hubbard‘s compositions? The tune was one he made for the computer adaptation of 2000AD’s comic book character, Nemesis the Warlock. In a strangely effective tangent to the comic’s style, artist Mixer decided to jazz it up – with real jazz. I think it works surprisingly well. Treat your ears for a few minutes and see if you don’t agree.

Happy listening – until next time!

Zolyx’s Game Music Monday #10: J Krafft – IK Hamburg Extravaganza RMX

Today’s arranger, J Krafft, takes one of Rob Hubbard‘s iconic songs from International Karate and changes it into a softer, more ambient mix that is perfect to just chill and unwind with. The vocal samples are a nice touch and don’t sound gimmicky as such additions often can.

Click play and tune out! Hope you enjoy and I’ll see you same time next week.

It’s hard to talk about music in the 8-bit era without dropping the name of Rob Hubbard into the mix somewhere. He created so many legendary pieces of music that it’s hard to avoid addressing him as “High Grand Musical Master” or, more simply, “God”. There are hundreds of remixes of his compositions and it’s sad but fair to say that the larger portion of them aren’t very good. I hope you will share my opinion that this particular track doesn’t fall into that category…

Zolyx’s Game Music Monday #4: OJ Oscillation – Master of Magic (Medieval Cover)

The game itself, Master of Magic, is completely unrelated to Simtex‘s Civ-like creation that you may be thinking of. Published by Mastertronic back in 1985, should you find yourself in possession of a suitable emulator and game image, I would recommend trying it! Oh, and if you do, I really wasn’t joking about the graph paper… well, unless you enjoy being hopelessly lost, in which case, no need to worry about it.

this handy site

Some titles there were already familiar to me, like Chaos Funk and its excellent sequel  Chaos Groove by Richard Phipps. Out of all of the remakes that have appeared over the years, these are probably the finest and stick closest to the original with some nice 2D graphics upgrades, plenty of configuration options and some chuckle-inducing sound effects. I also found another, Duncan Timiney‘s Ataxia II, sporting a trendy isometric view, a 3D landscape and whizz-bang particle effects. I highly recommend checking them both out if you have a passing interesting for hotseat multiplayer strategy battles!

That said, though, there’s one other project which I’ll be keeping a close eye on…

Archaos, by Lewis “SEPTiMUS” Lane, aims to provide the holy grail: cross-platform multiplayer Chaos over the ‘net! Nowhere will be safe from the war of wizards should this happen. Its flash-based predecessor, Chaos Enhanced, isn’t configurable can be configured and played through this page after a recent addition – thanks Lewis! – and although it was apparently created only as a prototype, it still looks most tasty. Give it a spin straight from your browser, and follow the development of Archaos on the  rotates.org blog.

Breaking news! IT’S BACK!
RGCD #5 is now available!

And with it comes a spifftastic and star-studded selection of reviews, articles and extras covering a year’s worth of retro gaming. You thought it was dead, didn’t you? I’ll admit that I was thinking the same at one stage. Fortunately it is not so! James Monkman and his band of merry men have come up with the goods and, after some turbulent times, the mag should hopefully be back on a regular update schedule again.

Thrustburst is the featured game (though if I had my way it would’ve undoubtably been Qwak instead), with reviews of Rana Remake, Noitu Love 2, 3D Starstrike, Self Destruct and Rom Check Fail amongst the many PC titles you can read up about.

In the authentic “modern retro” corner there’s Sirius, Loops of Zen, Sub Hunter, Animal Party, Wizard of Wor (for the Speccy!), Plutos and the trip-off-the-tongue Crocodingus in Cube Island to name but a mere few.

This just scratches the surface! Honestly, there’s more stuff in it than I could cover in a week of posting – 45 articles and over 47,000 words, to be exact – so get your browser over to the RGCD homepage to download your copy today for a right proper blast from the past.

Oh, and if you look carefully, you’ll see some of this mysterious “writing work” that I was on about the other week, since yours truly is now a RGCD contributer. It was indeed a very cool thing to be given the chance to write for one of my favourite retro mags. Why James wanted to involve a nutter like me we’ll never know… I suspect it may be best not to wonder too much on that

Anyhow – happy reading, ’til next issue!