The History of Video Game Music: The 8 Bit Era

It should be noted that if you want to learn about video game music, a quick skim through a wikipedia page will tell you most of everything you could ever hope or need to know.  This series is me going through my favorite tunes, artists, and look into a culture you may have never knew existed.  Still, I do want to relate some history and the 8 bit era is where it all begins.

So, arcade video games became popular in the 1970's.  The movie Tron (1982) starts off in arcade where these games became popular.  There aren't too many notable games that had some memorable music from this time.  The best music seen before the rise of the Nintendo Entertainment System is seen in the Tetris main theme.

Yeah, it get's repetitive.  But for the time it made the most of the synthesizers that it could.  In fact, everything from the 8 bit era--this would be before the release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis--made the most of the limited technology of it's time.

Music from video games during this time, from 1984 to about 1990 or so, was catchy but only laid a foundation for the culture that came later.

Koji Kondo, Nobuo Uematsu, and The NES

Some real star players in video game music first got their work on the Nintendo Entertainment System.  Koji Kondo, a senior student at the Osaka Univeristy of Arts, was the first person hired by Nintendo to write musical compositions for their games.  This is the man behind the main theme for Punch-Out! Mario Brothers, and The Legend of Zelda.

The other talented composer that emerged from this time is none other then Nobuo Uematsu!  Nobuo Uematsu worked with Squaresoft, now known as Square Enix, for most of his professional career.  His work is best known on the Final Fantasy Series

 

There were a lot of other talented musicians at this time but these are the works I wanted to point out.  Things really kicked off when the Super Nintendo was released.  Stay tuned for future posts on video game music!

-Stephen

The Anime I like

So in the past couple weeks I’ve felt that all I’ve done on Mormon Geeks is rant. First it was me ripping into TV shows I can’t stand, and then I had a hissy fit over the Kingdom Hearts franchise. I thought I’d talk about something I actually like for a change-well sort of.

Truth be told there isn’t a lot of Anime I like. I think most of the art and character designs are cool, but I just don’t understand the Japanese obsession with watching lovesick teenagers act like idiots, or why every plotline requires an entire Reader’s Digest devoted to it just to explain the convoluted thing. Though there are some Anime that I have seen that I have honestly enjoyed and wouldn’t mind seeing again, and here they are.

Fullmetal Alchemist

I love everything about this show. It follows two brothers, Ed and Al, in their quest to atone for a horrible mistake they made, tampering with the forces of nature to try and resurrect their deceased mother. The process lost Al his body, forcing his brother to use a special kind of magic called alchemy to bind his soul in a suit of armor. Ed came out losing an arm and a leg, which had to be replaced with a type of Steampunk prosthetics. They have adventures and use their special alchemy abilities to help others as they search for a way to restore themselves. The interaction between the brothers is so true it reminds me of my little brother every time I watch it. They banter, bicker, argue and annoy each other. I especially like it when Al gets caught hiding kittens in his chest cavity. It’s just such a little kid thing to do, and to see this giant suit of armor do it is hysterical. Definitely a must for anyone who’s ever had a little brother.

Cowboy Bebop

If Anime tried to make its own version of Firefly, I think Cowboy Bebop would be its attempt. The show is about Spike, a bounty hunter and his ragtag crew as they search the solar system for bounties they can get rich off of. They go undercover, perform covert ops, and when it all comes down to it perform awesome chase scenes to get their quarry. Bebop doesn’t really have a big overarching storyline, or even a message, which is surprising for Anime, it’s just this big space adventure. A warning though: The character Faye Valentine (explain to me the reason so many women in Anime are named Valentine? Jill Valentine, Mai Valentine… It’s ridiculous) is one of those disproportioned Jessica Rabbit-type characters, and while the show is clean she still dresses like she buys her clothes from Baby Gap.

Rurouni Kenshin

Rounding off the list is probably my favorite of the three: Rurouni Kenshin. Taking place after the Japan Civil War at the turn of the century, it follows a legendary assassin known as the Battosai, or Man-Slayer. After a lifetime of killing though, the legendary warrior has decided to swear off killing forever, even going so far as to have a sword with the blade on the wrong side so that he can still perform his legendary techniques without killing anyone if he had to. The series focuses on him helping a failing dojo, while fighting off guys still ticked for what he did during the war. The action is amazing, Kenshin is hysterical and the emotion that goes on with this series will take your breath away.

So there’s some Anime that I actually love. Go ahead and let me know of some others that you think I might like, but just to save some time:

Evangelion: Pretentious and confusing. Hated every minute of it.

Yu-Gi-OH!: Incredibly obnoxious. Comic books were way better.

Dragonball Z: Hate the animation and the story I thought was stupid.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Okay but the story was kind of confusing.

Naruto: Main character makes me want to grind glass into my eyes.

One Piece: Please, I’m over the age of 10.

Digimon: First two seasons rocked, after that the show was just nonsense.

-JOE

The GenCon Chronicles: Part 2

Be forewarned: this post may contain many awesome pictures.

16 August 2012: Day 1

We all somehow managed to crawl out of beds, enjoy a breakfast put on by the hotel, and then get on the bus in time to get to the convention center.  There was a bit of standing in line so that we could get our GenCon coupon book (which ironically I never ended up using).  Then we set out to see what we could see!  My friends wanted to check out the vendor hall area first.  I didn't have anything planned until about noonish so we waited outside of the vendor hall.

It's not General Conference, but people waiting to get in the hall

After a bit of waiting, we all poured in.  And was I quite surprised at what to find in there!  First off, the room was huge!  And it was filled with a lot of little booth set by all sorts of vendors.  Companies were selling trading cards, shirts, miniatures, games, anime, etc.  Just about everything geeky that you could think of.  Sadly, I only took one picture of the awesomeness that was the vendor hall.

Warning, room is much bigger than it appears!

Ok, I did have a second picture, but it's of the ceiling!

Picture of the Gnome Games swag bag on the vendor hall carpet. Does that count as a third picture?

My first event of Gencon was a Planechase Limited game.  Planechase is a variant of the Magic the Gathering card game.  I've played before, but thought it would be fun to do it at GenCon.  I located the room that Wizards of the Coast (creators of Magic) were having the event in.  Needless to say, the room was huge!

See above warning!

As I wandered around, lo and behold but who was guarding one of the entrances to the room?  Jace!  Jace is a character from the Magic mythos.  I'm a bit of a fan boy, so I had to take some pictures of his statue.

His eyes are glowing! Squeeee!

I wish I had a cape like that.

I found a rather awesome poster/drape/thingy with Nicol Bolas on it (he's one of the 'big bad guys' in Magic).

Nicol Bolas will own the multiverse one day (or so he thinks)

 As I wandered around, I also found a Serra Angel ready to do battle with evil.

Is she running away from Bolas, or is it a strategic retreat?

Stylish angels

Turns out Wizards was sharing their room with many other card games.  I heard that Legend of the Five Rings and Yu-Gi-Oh were also there, and many more that I didn't look into.

I'm thinking the guy in the bottom right might be Brandon Sanderson!

 Overall, playing Planechase wasn't exactly a lot of fun.  I was expecting that we would be building our own decks from some booster packs.  Instead, they handed us all some of the pre-built decks and we played with those.  I ended up with the red/green deck.  I discovered that the deck could pull off one or two awesome moves, and then it would get steamrolled by other decks that had a bit more staying power.  Although it was awesome to have a 1/1 creature become a 31/31 at one point.  I said that my had a rough childhood, so he had to eat a lot to become stronger.

My shiny new Gencon dice! Also, that is a 16.

 My second event of the day was learning to make sushi.  That was a lot of fun!  The rice they used was incredibly sticky, and left my hands feeling funny.  Here are some pictures of my attempts to make sushi.  It didn't turn out very pretty, but it tasted great!

Pristine, before I got my hands on it.

Sushi anyone?

Before cutting the roll.

It's a veggie roll!

My 'masterpiece'

 In the evening, it decided to rain.  Some friends and I braved the rain to go to a 'Steak and Shake' place.  I wasn't feeling all that hungry from the sushi, so I got a salad and an awesome tasting shake.  Here are some Indianapolic pictures:

A random train they had inside a building

I forget which stadium this is

Rain!

17 August 2012: Day 2

I originally had three events this day but cancelled one when I learned it was a tournament of sorts.  I didn't want to get involved with it, so I had to cancel the day before.  In the morning, I played 'Nuns on the Run'.  It's a rather enjoyable 'Hide and Seek' game where novices try to find a secret wish while dodging the older nuns that act as guards.  It's made by the same company that makes Settlers of Catan.

Yep, it's giant Catan!

 Here are some interesting this that people did with cards:

Around lunch time, I went with some friends to a nearby mall.  We got a kick out of seeing that the mall was the 'Simon' brand.  One of the original reasons that I went to Gencon this year was to finish a Dungeons and Dragons campaign that had been running for many years (about 8, although I joined in 3 years in) over e-mail.  My characters name is Simon.  The joke was that when he finished adventuring, he settled down and started a mall.  He hired one of the other characters to act as mall security, except he didn't know how to use nonlethal force.  That's a story for another time though.

During lunch, I commented to my friends that I hadn't been able to locate any drinking fountains, despite my best efforts to do so (I've got a sixth sense about drinking fountains, I'm a little obsessed with drinking water).  My friends looked at me funny when I asked about drinking fountains, and then explained that in Wisconsin, drinking fountains were called 'bubblers'.  Also, ATM machines were called 'Tyme machines'.  I was a bit confused, but thought that bit of trivia was interesting.  With that knowledge, I was able to locate the conventions 'drinking fountains' which were really more like water dispensers.

It's a bubbler!

The last event of the day was a playtest of the 'next version' of Dungeons and Dragons.  I had a blast with it. I think part of it was that the person running the game did a good job at being entertaining and keep all of the heroes engaged.  Sadly, the game ended in a cliffhanger with some strange gray ooze chasing us.

Oh, and what is Gencon without a few cosplays?  Here are a few pictures I managed to take.

Apparently this is a 'Dalek' from the Dr Who series. It kept saying something about 'exterminate' so I kept my distance

Stormtrooper sightings were common. (From the Star Wars universe)

Zuko and his mom or sister.  Not sure which one that is.

Commander Shepard and Liara! (Mass Effect video games)

School and Animation

Dear Readers,

I'm in school right now and I'm so glad I'm here.  I've been dedicating my life to my studies and it's taking a lot of time.  I recently moved to Provo and I'm glad that part is over.  I'm going to school at Utah Valley University studying Animation.  I need to be in a top percentage in my class to enter my program.

In short, I am promising you, the readers of Mormon Geeks, quality posts over quantity posts.  I shall post every other week with something great to read.  I commend all of you for your faithfulness.  I also promise to share all the deliciously geeky stuff I learn here at UVU.

Until then, I gotta head off to class!

Affectionately,

--Stephen

What happened to Kingdom Hearts?

Once upon time, in the magic year of 2002 my parents told me I could have a new video game console for Christmas. I chose a Playstation 2 for just one game: Kingdom Hearts. That Christmas day I spent the entire day in my room falling in love with the Disney/Squaresoft classic. So a new Kingdom Hearts game came out earlier this month and I barely gave it a second glance. So why am I no longer excited about the franchise that helped usher me into modern gaming?
The story of the first game was pretty straight forward. Sora, a 15 year old Anime character teams up with Goofy and Donald Duck in a quest to protect the Disney movies from an invasion of evil shadow monsters called Heartless. The Heartless are controlled by a cabal of our favorite Disney villains and some guy from a Final Fantasy game. It's like if the Legion of Doom all got jobs at Disneyland. Your main weapon is a three foot long key that is somehow the only weapon that can stop the Heartless and lock the doors to other worlds...
Did I mention it was co-created by Squaresoft, the same people who made all the Final Fantasy storylines?
The game was extremely fun, with it's simple combat interesting story line and lovable characters, both old and new. It did have it's faults though, like Sora's feet being about three times the normal size as that of a normal human, making him both look and move like an awkward teenager, which only became truly irritating when you tried to jump platforms with him and could only guess weather or not enough of his giant feet made it on. Donald and Goofy were apparently suffering from major depression throughout the game since they keep throwing themselves head first into combat with no regard to their own health and I had to keep running around the field reviving them. Plus the minigame of flying a ship apparently made out of gummy bears to go between movie worlds was clunky and relatively useless. I don't know how many times I'd find a hidden chest, open it excitedly, only to find another piece to attach to my useless space ship. Despite all that, I truly loved the game from beginning to end.
When Kingdom Hearts 2 came out, my heart gave a little jump with glee. I picked it up as soon as it came out. I remember sitting down, plugging it in, and eagerly pressing the start button to jump into the action.
Three hours later and I was still waiting to jump in.

In between games, Squaresoft became Square Enix and had apparently taken over the production. Most of the game play was reduced to pushing a button to get to the next cut scene. In the three hours I had already been to four worlds and had been in three short combats. There had been a game in between one and two, and apparently you had to have played it for this to make sense, since the story had hopped in a bus and drove it off a cliff. Some new white guys who moved like they came out of the Russian Ballet's PCP nightmare showed up wanting to fight, and there's a group of guys in black robes saying stuff about Heartless and Nobodies and have something to do with the Matrix while everyone is apparently waking up from simultaneous nights of binge drinking and bashing their heads into concrete because nobody remembers anything. It was just this weird convoluted mess that felt like the same reason I'd been driven away from most Anime in the first place.
Then the sequels came. Oh the sequels.
They've yet to get to Kingdom Hearts 3, but they'res been a handful of useless filler games about Sora and his increasing army of Anime rejects as they add even more convoluted pieces to the story. Some fit between 1 and 2, others between 2 and 3, but overall it feels like milking the franchise for all it's worth. What's sad too is that they also changed the game play. In one game the battle system is based on cards, so essentially we're playing Yu-Gi-Oh! now. In another they combined the skill tree, inventory and level gauge for some reason into one equip type system, so essentially in my pocket I can have a potion, my ability to shoot fire, and my memory of all my previous battles, which implies that if I un-equip the level that it didn't happen or I didn't remember it...
Do you see what I'm getting at? To me this entire series is like a cake someone made, and everyone loved it. So the person wanted to make the cake again but believed that the reason the cake was so good was that he was gifted at making cakes and not the fact that he just had a really good recipe, so he starts adding things like onion and cow tongue to the cake, and after not getting it right he kept subtracting and adding ingredients trying to find a way to make the cake better than the original, when if he just went back to formula he may be able to get his friends to like him again.
In conclusion, I got a Playstation 2 for a game that was totally worth it, but after that nearly everything attached to the product has been completely ruined. The sad part is that this thing had infinite potential, since it could tap into any Disney or Final Fantasy game ever for interesting characters and plot lines. Kingdom Hearts 3 is confirmed to be the next game to come out, and I'm open to it being amazing and going back to the original recipe, but I'm not buying a PS3 for it.

The GenCon 2012 Chronicles: Chapter 1

I'm planning on writing up some blog posts based on my experiences at GenCon.  First off, overall the whole experience felt like something of a time warp.  The week passed by very quickly, probably due to all of the fun that I was having!  I will probably divide up each 'chapter' into being one or two days.  The first two days are probably going to be pretty boring because I was traveling during those times.

13 August 2012

It started out simple.  I started packing.  I had some anxiety and had some difficulty sleeping.

14 August 2012

Spent the morning finalizing my packing and playing Guild Wars (quite an enjoyable way to spend a morning).  Around noon, I was off on my way to the airport.  The drive was really smooth.  The first 'hiccup' of the journey was that I nearly forgot my Gencon badge and tickets!  I was just pulling out onto the road out of my neighborhood so it didn't cost me very much time.

The second hiccup was far more entertaining for me.  I parked at Diamond Rental parking in Salt Lake City. (I had a Groupon, otherwise it would have been way too expensive).  Needless to say, I was rather pleased with the service.  I parked in their lot and a shuttle bus came and picked me up.  The driver was friendly and helped me load up my suit case.  They also had free water bottles!  I thought that was the most awesome thing in the world and thought I would enjoy my water bottle on the flight in.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

After I got through the security scanning, one of the TSA agents asked if the black laptop bag was mine.  I said it was.  That's when I learned that I had done two things wrong.  First, I had attempted to get through the checkpoint with a water bottle (I thought that was a bit ridiculous).  Second, apparently laptops need to be scanned separately.  I went ahead and removed my laptop and the TSA agent took my water away.

Water bottle, I barely knew thee.  I didn't even get a chance to name thee!

That aside, the first flight in was highly pleasant.  When I got on the plane, the person sitting next to me had already boarded. He said he was glad to see me because I wasn't a really big person.  I then joked that I was 'travel sized'.  Turns out that he was also LDS and had grown up in the same place that I had.  Sadly, he left before I could thank him for the pleasant flight experience.

Mike...Dave...whoever you were.  I barely knew thee!

I don't remember much of the second flight.  I think I was stuck between two other people.  The flight was really short.  I barely had time to get bored.

Two of my friends from Wisconsin came and picked me up from the airport.  It was nice to actually meet the two people in person!  The drive to their home was kind of long.  (They lived a few hours from where I flew into).  The drive was pleasant but I felt exhausted.  I thought I would sleep just fine.

Turns out that I was wrong.  Once we had arrived and settled in, I found I had a case of insomnia.  I ended up staying up till 4 in the morning (their time) before I was able to finally fall asleep.  We were up two hours later so that we could catch the bus.

15 August 2012

We were to the place where the bus would pick us up early.  The bus ride was largely uneventful.  I tried to do some reading and resist cringing from one of the movies that was playing.  It was called 'Gamers: The Fellows Hip'.  It was like a sad fan fiction/modern version of Lord of the Rings.  I was feeling a bit cranky by the time we arrived in Indianapolis, mostly because a lot of the people on the bus were talking very loudly.  I had a hard time concentrating on my book!

Bus pictures! (The store is 'Gnome Games', they arranged the shuttle bus and hotel rooms for us! It was awesome!)

Wisconsin is really green!

We finally arrived at the hotel and I took a look at the 'swag bag' that Gnome Games gave us.  Apparently Gencon used to do a swag bag, but it quickly devolved into the various vendors handing out papers to redeem at the vendor booths.  The bag had a number of tasty treats, but arguably my favorite item was the roll up blanket thing.  I promptly decided to wrap it around my head.  A friend of mine took a picture and said I was practicing my 'derka-derka'...whatever that is.

No trip is complete without my trusty laptop!

My friends and I then walked over to a nearby waffle house to enjoy some tasty food.  Here's some pictures:

Yep, it was pretty tasty! First time for me having grits too!

Waffle House!

Intelligence vs Wisdom, Part II, Reality Games

A few months ago, I wrote a post in response to an article that pointed out how wisdom can be better than intelligence. Today, I'll continue that concept.

What is intelligence? There's the old cliche that "knowledge is power". Absolutely, knowledge is power. I've worked in manufacturing for the past six years. Before that, I lived in a dorm where the 3rd floor was the "engineering floor". Why am I pointing at engineers? Well, for one, they've gotta be friggin' intelligent. Engineering is such a unique thing that it requires knowledge and creativity. My boss' husband is an engineer and came up with a design for something unique for something so ordinary. Can't say what.

But, I have also known many engineers who were not wise. Smart? Yes. They probably had genius IQs, 4.0s in some of the most advanced engineering courses, and past their SATs and GREs with flying colors. But that didn't mean they were wise.

Now I point to reality TV. Now, when I say "reality TV" I am referring to Survivor, Big Brother, The Amazing Race, and the Apprentice. I could let any of the singing/dancing/performing competition shows that grace our small screens. I'll permit the "originals" in The Real World and Road Rules. I am NOT talking about a Kardashian, a 'desperate' housewife, a diva toddler, or a mother with a bunch of kids. Maybe I should specify "competitive reality TV".

Specifically, Survivor and Big Brother are two shows where wisdom outweighs intelligence. The premise of Survivor is "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast". It is a show where the most intelligent people fall and the most wise people rise. Every season has seen a different type of winner.

This is Sandra Diaz-Twine. The picture on the left is from Survivor: Pearl Islands. On the right is Survivor: Heroes vs Villains. Sandra won both, the only contestant to ever win two seasons of Survivor. She is honestly one of my favorites from Survivor. Why? First, I like the sass. Sorry, if you're gonna argue, be sassy about it, at least it's entertaining. Second, she played a similar game both times, but she had different people to outwit.

Sandra is an unassuming mom. She's got the cliche loud Hispanic mama attitude and doesn't take crap from anybody. Her first time playing the game, she had an alliance, a rather good one at that. But then seen as the least threat, she kept staying, until she made her moves and won the game.The second time around, she didn't even have to make moves. She warned people about her "allies" and their deviousness. But no one listened. So she stuck with her unwanted alliance until they were too stupid to get rid of her and she won.

Sandra is someone who used a lot of wisdom to get to the end and to win.

And here's Rob Cesternino. Sadly, he didn't win. (He should have won Survivor: Amazon, in my mind.) Rob's someone who used his intelligence to his advantage. At the time, only 5 seasons of Survivor had been played and Rob knew them all like the smartest kid in the class knows a textbook. He did well to ride low enough at first. But then being a part of a plan to outwit a rocket scientist, getting rid of a cop, and then switching gears when he realized he'd be out of the game too early if he didn't switch plans got him to the final 3. Poor Rob just couldn't stand on a log as long as a beauty queen. But Rob played that season smart. He controlled everyone. (Yeah, I could point to a different Rob with this concept, but this one's my favorite, not the other one.)

In life, we can be the biggest brainiac. Nerds and geeks are not people to mess with these days. Guess what, they've got the money and the jobs, usually. But on the same token, it takes some wisdom to have friends and family that like you for who you are, not just what you do or how much you spend.

For me, the intelligent person considers success materialistically. The wise person looks at success from within. Knowledge is intelligence. Using that knowledge to society's advantage is wisdom.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that a new season of Survivor starts soon? Well, it does and I'm excited for it. Woot!

Alien abductions are involuntary, but probings are scheduled.