-->

Friday, June 10, 2016

Ep. 24: Culture Studies


Josh and Emily continue on their overworld trek and almost find a tavern to settle into, but then Emily ruins things with her magic. Again. Oh well! Join the listening party in the middle of the woods and ponder the origins of music, the relative value of human culture, and as usual, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

We also finally pick a winner in our MOTHER 3 raffle! Tune in and see if it's you!

Click above to listen or subscribe.  Click below for the usual direct download.


Tunes! Tunes! Tunes! Tunes!

Suggest a Track   Email Us

This episode was made possible by:
Game Track Title Composer(s)
U.N. Squadron Ground Carrier (Desert) Manami Matsumae, Takashi Tateishi
The Legend of Zelda:
Spirit Tracks
Overworld Adventure Toru Minegishi, Manaka Tominaga, Asuka Ohta, Koji Kondo
Skullgirls Where Money Flows Like Water Michiru Yamane, Vincent Diamante, Brenton Kossak, Blaine McGurty
Uchuu no Kishi -
Tekkaman Blade
Tekkaman Blade Skeleton
Mario Tennis Island Open Entry Match Motoi Sakuraba
The Legend of Zelda:
Ocarina of Time
Requiem of Spirit Koji Kondo
Contra Hard Corps Something Wonderful Hiroshi Kobayashi, Michiru Yamane, Akira Yamaoka, Hirofumi Taniguchi, Aki Hata

...and listeners like YOU.

You might also be interested in: Emily's Backloggery

11 comments:

  1. WHAT?! I won? I mean, Yoshimitsu won?! How happy I am.....for him!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Argh, this episode was so good! UN Squadron is one of my top ten SNES games, and probably my favorite Shmup. One thing about it I think is cool is it's based on a manga called Area 88. It was one of the first Japanese comics published in the US. There was an animated mini-series in the mid 80s that is totally worth checking out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_BewoOw1w). The air combat scenes are pretty impressive, especially considering it's old school hand-drawn animation.

    I had such a hard time picking a single track from Skullgirls to suggest, almost every track is fantastic! I highly recommend listening to the whole soundtrack. But if you're in a hurry check out Skull Heart Arrhythmia, The Seat of Power, and Unfinished Business since those were my runner-ups.

    I love the mention of the brave souls who ripped all these great soundtracks we enjoy listening to. I always feel like I'm validating someone's existence when I download an spc or vgm pack. Ripping music from games is not an easy task and I appreciate all the hard work that goes into it!

    Oh, and I want to thank Emily for introducing me to rockbox. While I don't plan on adding every Sega Genesis soundtrack, I am having a blast filling my mp3 player with all my favorite retro soundtracks. It is insane how such a tiny device can have SO MANY TRACKS.

    PS I cannot wait for Kubo and the Two Strings! I'm an animation aficionado and stop motion is one of my favorite mediums.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm thrilled that Rockbox is bringing you joy! I'm so happy to have been able to share its existence with you, because I know how giddy I still get about it. I can only imagine that your mind gets re-blown every month or so, like mine does. :)

      And that's another team of hugely dedicated, mostly anonymous volunteers to thank right alongside the rippers and emulators -- the Rockbox developers. So much respect.

      Delete
  3. 6–10 – 16

    In terms of technology, the DS is roughly equivalent to the Nintendo 64. The GameBoy Advance is roughly equivalent to the Super Nintendo, but more plenteous memory allows them to use more and better sampling than they were able to with the SNES. Interestingly, the Game Boy Advance sound chip has a sample-based chip similar to the SNES, but it also has PSG-like capabilities.

    I always think about the portables as being one generation behind. GBA=SNES, DS=N64, 3DS=GameCube, PSP=PlayStation, Vita=PS2.

    Speaking of Japanese transliteration: ti=ch, hu=f, ri=li, bu=v, dz=j, n=/m/ng/ and so on. To piggyback on Josh's comments, the problem occurs 1) when there isn't a direct Japanese phonetic equivalent to a word to be borrowed, or 2) when a Japanese phonogram is somewhere in between two sounds of another language from which a word is appropriated.

    Fun examples: in my Japanese class, our Japanese Student Teacher accidentally wrote Mount Hood as "Mount Food". It took great effort to convince a Japanese friend of mine that the J-pop band "Globe" was not actually "Glove". (The Katakana for globe could also mean grove).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ahh, that's right. Thanks Naka! I always randomly forget that the DS is more advanced than the SNES (even though it's obvious), because I bought one mostly to play GBA ports of SNES games. I'd never even played a GBA game until I got a DS Lite circa 2007! Thus the two systems kinda blur together in my mind.

      Delete
  4. I'm pretty sure I've heard a version of that skullgirls track on another game. can't find it now, but I think it might be one of the castle snow DS games.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Emily, if you beat Metroid II before I do, so help me...

    ReplyDelete
  6. ALSO, as a follow up to the last episode, I've had an near-uncontrollable urge to yell out "RUNBOW!" during meetings at work or at the grocery store and just run around room.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let's make this a thing, right after "Congratulations" catches on.

      Delete
  7. Hey guys, I've been out of pocket for a while, and I've been catching up on my podcasts slowly. I'm so glad that you responded positively to my track choice, but...... you um...... played the incorrect track......

    I don't know if it is my mistake, or yours, but I meant to submit the credits track:

    https://youtu.be/1yDhiErrN18?list=PLf3QV788NeiShvR117X8dm9vd8RZLdTFX

    It's a very reflective track, and my testimonial will make alot more sense after you listen to it. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh nooooo!

      I think the way the request was submitted made me think you were looking for a track titled "Tekkaman Blade," and this just happens to be one of those games that has a tune named after the game's title. What we actually played was the title theme!

      My sincere apologies, Retro Nick. I should have been able to put two and two together. I'm really going to get a stern talking-to when the Carrot Man shows up next... but I'll endeavor to make things right!

      Delete