Retronauts - 596: Retro Game Lyrics

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

Nadia Oxford, Bob Mackey, and Diamond Feit revisit early examples of lyrics in game music: The Good, the Bad, and the Discordant. Retronauts is made possible by listener support through Patreon! Support the show to enjoy ad-free early access, better audio quality, and great exclusive content. Learn more at http://www.patreon.com/retronauts

This week on Retronauts, I am the wind, I am the sun, and one day will all be one, or not because the future is a tangled spaghetti mess of music rights. Welcome to this very lyrical episode of Retronauts. I am your host for this week, Nadia Oxford, and I have two very special guests with me here today. You probably know them, maybe. You might know, you might know Diamond fight. What do you say, Diamond? Are you just like a cool friend of mine? That's so loaded.

I know I'm here to hit the high notes today. That's what I'm here for. Am I cool? I don't know. I've taken Mologna on all these questions. I'm just here to talk about music. Sounds great. Yeah.

No, you're awesome. You're awesome no matter what. Thank you. And Bob Mackey, you are also awesome. Say hello. Hello, everybody. It's me, Baba Yetou Mackie. And I can't carry a tune in a bucket.

And I can't actually pronounce any of those lyrics in that song, but I do love it. And I love video game music with lyrics dating back to, I don't know, the early 90s. Yeah, this is a topic. It's kind of like that just got sprung off the top of my head. Like, thinking about it, okay, we've kind of watched the evolution of game music, all three of us. And at some point, someone decided, yeah, we are going to put lyrics in with our chip tunes. And by God, it has been a longer journey than I thought it was, like going back through the history of game, music, and lyrics. First of all, what you have to start with in

many instances is, I suppose, what you would call the karaoke version of a lot of songs, like a great example being the opera from Final Fantasy 6. We could technically sing along if you wanted to, like if you didn't feel embarrassed about that. Although I have some. seen like some live action performances of the opera from Final Fantasy 6 and it was done really, really well. How about you guys? Like, what is the first instance you can remember of hearing, like, even just a voice in a video game, being like, whoa, this is so cool.

Going along to the music, this is so awesome. Well, I was there for the early arcade games and I was always excited when anyone spoke in any early arcade game, you know, even if it was just, you know, those mangled, generated voices in Berserk or the recorded voices in Sinisterar like those were chilling, both chilling to me. And I know Journey

I know Journey had an arcade game but I never saw that in real life so I don't know what that's about. I forgot that existed. Bob have you ever seen Journey's arcade game anywhere? I've only reported on it because it's so hilarious with the digitized faces and everything but I think for me I've been playing

arcade games since like some of my earliest memories you know but they were all kind of primitive in terms of incorporating voices. I never played like Sinistar or anything like that when it was a newer game. But I think the most memorable one was probably the Ninja Turtles arcade game because I didn't know video games were capable of that. And if you go back and check out what they were actually doing, it's just like a tiny snippet and I think they reuse the samples a few times.

But still, it's just like, oh, it's like the TV show is a video game. How can this happen? but that the first, like, major memory of, uh, video game music with lyrics, uh, in, in an arcade game, is that one. Yeah, that was like the first salvo, I feel like from, I think from that point on, like the next couple of years was like an arms race of like, who can get more voice in the arcade games, you know, who can do the longer samples, who can make more, you know, more elaborate openings. But yeah, because when that happened, like, it happened, it just, it came at just the right time, like, I was just the right age and like, you're in somewhere out in public and you hear the song like, I hear the song. It's coming from that machine over there. That's not a television. That's a video game, you know?

And it was just mind-blowing, mind-blowing. And the game itself, when you put the coins in, is actually fun. So it's like, you know. And then I days what? I mean, two years later is the Simpsons, I think. Simpsons is 91, I believe. Yeah, yeah, that's 89. It's a pretty quick rise from snippet of theme song to, oh, my God, each and each game is now adding more and more and more stuff.

And then, you know, all of a sudden we've got Aerosmith singing at us, you know, it's magic, it was a real attract mode arms race to get kids running to the thing that emulated their favorite TV show the most That's a good point, yeah It has been ages since I even touched the arcade game for Teenage Mutin Ninja Turtles like the Konami one

How much of a voice samples were in there Like I remember them saying Like who turned off the lights and like turtle power and stuff like that But is there any, were there any singing Like any parts of singing? They only sample the The briefest sample of the theme song Right, yeah

Not the whole song. I guess just the most important part of the theme song, you know, which is the one that, you know, is now basically a meme, you know, you get that generator online where you can basically anything that has the right cadence. You can just generate like a, a turtle's logo and I am actually in my 30s. Yeah, I know the ones. And yeah, there were character voices in, I really need to revisit voice acting in video games. I did an episode about that maybe 10 years ago and I think there's a lot more to say, but it was typical of the era in which no one was cooperating with anyone. So it was just, who did the voices? I don't know.

They don't sound like anything like the actual cartoon characters, but I guess it was passable in a noisy arcade. It would be passable. Yeah, as you said, Diamond, just like, I hear something. I know that song. I know that game. And, yeah, that would absolutely just be like catnip to a kid in the arcade at that time. Like, I can only just imagine. I wasn't really in arcades very much around that time.

But, yeah, I do remember the Simpsons, even that, like having the voice samples. And you say to yourself, like, this doesn't sound quite right, but it's so cool that it exists that I can't really be, you know, angry about how different everything sounds. It's, you know, the answer is it's close enough. And the fact that, you know, even like two years earlier, you never could have imagined seeing it ever makes it all work. And here's the really weird thing bringing us to today is that there are some like weird sticky rights issues with the original recording of that theme song. So it's different on the cal. Abunga collection. It's slightly different. And then if you try to watch the people who own the episodes, put them all up on YouTube.

If you try to watch those, they have some weird, like, video problems, but also, it's a different recording of the theme song. So I don't know what Chuck Lori is asking for, but it must be a mince. It's like, come on, guys, this is my retirement. I do like to play ball. Our first thought is, our first thought is that the reason this is all gone tits up is that it must be Chuck Lori. Yeah. Hey, he's got two and a half men money.

He's got anger management money. That guy, he doesn't need a retirement fund. I didn't know he had all that money. I didn't know he had that anger management behind him. And it all started with writing TV show theme songs. And I think writing for Inspector Gadget, he's had a weird history pre-sick. That is so awesome. Yeah.

I'd want to interview him if I didn't want to talk to him at all. So, yeah. Yeah, was he Canadian by any chance? Just if he was associated with Inspector Gadgett. I don't think so. I think that was based, the writing at least was based out of L.A. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Have you guys ever done an episode on, your podcast about Infectory Asit, Navajoic cartoon? I haven't, and I don't want to, I don't want to, you know, make any waves here,

but I despise that show. And I never, I never liked it as a kid. We have not covered it on my animation podcast, What a Cartoon, because watching it as a kid was an exercise and frustration because it really was. The formula was so irritating because he was an asshole.

And the kid did all the work, and he was oblivious to all of the work Penny and Brain were putting in. And it was never acknowledged. So I found it distressing as a kid. also it's his dog It's his dog How does he not recognize his own dog You know

Oh right Because he has a mustache on Diamond I mean come on He has a mustache on He's a walking dog with a mustache I'm just saying There can't be that many dogs in the world

That can do the stuff the brain does And if it's my goddamn dog I don't care how good his disguise is I'm gonna recognize hey It's that dog that I live with Hey it's that dog that I bought when he was a puppy This is what happens I come on a podcast

But anyway, I watched the show anyway. I was young enough to be fooled, I guess. Then again, I was probably just a big Don Adams head. And now I'm quietly Googling while you were talking, and I don't think Chuck Lorry had anything to do with it, but he was a writer for Saturday morning cartoons of that era. Some notable writer wasn't an Inspector Gadget guy. Maybe a listener will let me know.

I remember hearing that at some point in my life. Awesome. We've already learned a lot in the first 10 minutes of this podcast, I think. But getting back to just a moment for to video game music, God forbid. One sample that, because we have a bunch of samples, you lucky, lucky people. And one of the ones I had to clip was because it's just so amazing is it was the Skate or Die 2 theme, which takes the original beautiful, gorgeous theme for Skater Die and adds this terrible voice sample on top of it

and completely destroys this song that I adore. But it's so amazing at the same time because, well, just listen to it, Bob, if you're able to cue it up, that'd be great. It's too wild. It's so much noise. You know, I mean, it's a skater culture and it's so subversive for an NES game to keep saying, die, die, die, die, die. It really was. Like, you look back at the day and say, how did they even let a game call skate or die onto the NES.

They didn't have a very good sense of humor when it came to that. And that game begins with you killing a dog. Oh, I forgot about that. That sets off the entire storyline, yeah. On purpose? Yeah, because I had the first game, but I never really played much of the second game.

It was an accident. It's like the mayor's wife's dog, and that's why they're going to close down the community center. Some storyline like that, but it was a shocking amount of... That's how politics work. Yeah. It was a shocking amount of violence for me when I rented this game, which I wanted to be really fun, but it really never was.

No. Unfortunately, even the original skater die. Fantastic soundtrack lacks the die, die, die, but it's pretty great. It wasn't a lot to it. I liked it. I played it a lot as a kid, but it wasn't the kind of game where you had an ending. It was just a bunch of mini games strung together. And some guy who looks like Roddy Dangerfield with the Mohawk is telling you what to do.

And his son is crazy. It's something else. I miss Skater Die. Let's bring back that with a crossword with Tony Hawk. Yeah, we don't have enough skateboarding games now. They're just remaking the ones that were the popular ones. Were you, okay, here's a question for you, and you're not going to admit it, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Were you, like, one of those dumb nerds who made up your own lyrics to video game songs, like, in your head or on paper, either or?

Yeah, I think, but only if they sounded like existing songs, and that would happen a lot with video game songs. But I'm sure when I was much smaller, they would be going on in my head as I'd be playing Mario or whatever. but I never thought to remember them because it was embarrassing. Well, now that you mentioned Mario, I can't hear Mario anymore without saying, swing your arms as I decide. Come on, it's time to go, do the Mario, because it's done. My head is dusted. Yeah. That's it.

I mean, the lyrics are so smart and catchy. You really are. In grade seven, no, sorry, grade eight, two kids in my class. It was Friday, I guess we were all just getting. peeled off the walls by that point in time. They just stood up in the middle of class and said, in tandem, do the Mario swing your arms from side to side. And that's how far they got until the teacher kicked them out of the room.

But it was a pretty funny, spontaneous moment for a time when kids were just spontaneous for the hell of it. And there's no TikTok around. I knew that Lou Albano was a bad influence. He totally is. If he do drugs in real life, you go to hell, wherever that PSA he did. Before you die. Before you die.

Before you die. Before you die. That's right. you do poor diamond it's just like what the fuck you all left me behind what's going on i just i didn't expect our show to open on this this many dark notes we got dead dogs we got drugs in hell and i just i'm frightened poor lou albanos been dead uh original luigi is dead oh my god you're right yeah and now they were cana not not lu but uh luigi was canadian and king cooper is the voice of leon's furniture guy and they're all in heaven together harvey atkin harvey actin yeah and danny wells

as Luigi. You're right. And they're all in heaven together and everything's great. They're doing the Mario in heaven. He went to Mario heaven, which is Catholic heaven. Yes, Mario is Catholic. I think in that drug PSA, Nadia, I think he is wearing a cross. Oh, that makes it even better. Why wasn't he not wearing a cross

in the Elimination cartoon? Like, you coward. Put a big world cross on Mario. Well, the sequel's going to explore as Catholic roots. They need to make eight more of these movies because it was so popular. That's going to be pretty good, actually. I mean, in the Odyssey wedding, that's definitely a chapel. That's certainly a, that's a Christian house of worship.

You know what I mean? You're right. So he's got this, it's some denomination of something over there. Imagine if Mario, if that ended, the game ended with Mario going to a synagogue. That would just screw everyone up so badly. It would destroy everything I thought about Mario. And just like, that would necessarily invite a conversation about Mario's circumcision, which I don't want to have that. Mario's bris.

There you go. we have an episode about game music and we've gotten to Mario's Briss. All right. Going on to video game music that they tried really hard to fit in places where it didn't belong, I was actually super fascinated with, you're the one who put this game on the list. Actually, both of you did, which was Psycho Soldier, 1987 the arcades. Okay, not only are we talking about a pop song on top of a chip tune, just muffled to, to, to, hell and back. They did an English version as well. Yeah. That's the real shocker.

And it sounds amazing and terrible at the same time. Bob, if you could go ahead and play the song. Oh, sure. Fire. Fire. Fire. Fire. Yeah. Yeah. Fire. Fire. Like that's a good. Yeah. No idea who's saying the English version. Probably the Japanese singer is on record because they would usually

make a bigger deal out of those things. But Japanese version, as muffled as it is, it sounds a lot more professional. The person singing the English version does sound a little embarrassed to be singing it. That's why it's like kind of weak and in wavery. Yeah, yeah. Like looking in these lyrics saying, what am I

singing? I have not played Psycho Soldier. It is a two-day beat him up, right? No, it's a weird, it's a weird story. Athena came first, and Athena is like a single player side-scroller with like, you pick up weapons and you got hammers and helmets and things.

So Psycho Soldier is, you can have two players and it's like a size growing. You're basically shooting because you get Athena and you got C-Kenso and there's like aliens appearing. It's a very strange game to explain. But like if you see it, if you see it in action, it's a lot more easy to understand. And the song

just makes the whole experience more pleasant. I have written down, uh, Kaori Shimizu is the credited singer on the Japanese version. And she was just a pop star. It's like, this was like one of like a couple songs they had for her. But it is a wild story because apparently the music and lyrics are credited

to the head of SNK, A.E. Kawasaki. So, like, he's the credited, like, writer of the song. That's adorable. Yeah. I love that. But we don't know really who made the English version or who sang it. Yeah. I guess people would wear a lot of hats back then, so that's not too

shocking. But it is cool to hear. And it's important to know that whenever you see Psycho in a Japanese game, they usually are talking about psychics and psychic abilities. But Psycho sounds way cooler. Oh, yeah. Yeah, because I, I read Psycho Soldier, I'm thinking, oh, something aggressive and r, but I'm like, no, no, that's not, that's not, oh, no, it's, yeah, it's a fun poppy song, and

they've used it many, many times over in count, because, you know, Athena's become a regular character for them. Yes. And once, once K-WF started, then you've got Athena and you've got C-Kenzo's regular characters. So that song has been remade and covered and reposted in, in, like, so many versions over the years. They probably, I don't think they got the original singers, back, but they've done that song many times over, although I don't know if they've ever done the English version again.

I think they usually stick with Japanese at this point, but I'm pretty sure it's out there. I'm sure it's probably, it's probably in K.O.15 in there somewhere. I haven't gotten that far into it. When I was looking up online, I saw that I'm pretty sure that it's in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. I mean, there's a thousand video game songs in that game, but it's incorporated in there in some way. Why not? I'm sure Sakurai loves that song. He must. He's got to. Yeah. Another one that you contributed Diamond that I'm absolutely fascinated with is the X-Men rap in the X-Men arcade game, which is in the junk level, the junk stage apparently. And this is something – this is the kind of thing you don't hear very well in an arcade because it's busy, it's noisy, you can't hear much. But this is actually beautiful and brilliant.

Go ahead. And can you play that one for me, Bob? X-Men. Get it. Oh, hey, another... That's so cool. That's just very clever usage of existing assets because they're just taking sound clips that are in the game and playing with them. because I believe when you, the attract screen

goes, X-Men, or Professor X is talking to the X-Men in the intro, something like that. So they're not doing, they're not taking up more space. It's just existing clips. I feel like the entire game, the entire game has a decent chunk of, you know, lines written into it. Like, I know the very first song that plays with the opening level has, like, some narration, and, you know, the attract mode has lots of voices.

And when you, when you fight all the bosses, all the bosses have at least one thing to say, and they'll say it over and over again, very, very time, very quickly. So I think it's so funny that, you know, we remember all that stuff and, you know, Colossus is, r, and all that stuff. But meanwhile, you have this really sort of wild music on this level. And there's another level later on, which is not a human voice.

It's all those animal noises. Like, it's like animal noises layer on top of it on top of each other. Like, you know, monkey shrieks and things. Like, the music in that game is really incredible. And it's a lot of, like, bizarre use of vocal tracks, not for, like, singing, but just for, like, just for, like, as audio clips. Yeah. And I think it's a really fascinating sort of soundscape for that game in general.

And it's like, it's one more reason I love that game because, like, yeah, it's fun to play and the characters are giant. And if you, you know, you see it in the arcades, you've got these giant screens where you've got six characters. But even if you can't play the game, if you just listen to the soundtrack on, you know, YouTube or whatever, it's like really good and fun music. Like, it's just great. It's really good to listen to.

Yeah, a few of these songs on our list today are from Konami. And I feel like they had a very strong sound collective around this time, much like Namco did when the companies valued having that now I really think a lot of my favorite composers are just they've left their companies where they started it

and they're just contractors now they do their work for hire yeah are either of you tales fans tales of up to a point in that point ended 20 years ago

okay fair with the Tales of Rise is pretty good actually I've heard Tales of Rise is very good from a tales fan who admits the set up its ups and downs I think that was an episode I did three or four years

No, actually. Didn't that just come out on Game Pass and PS Plus, the Tales of Verizon? Yeah, you're right. As of this recording, it's either coming out or it is out. So definitely worth it. People can get on that. But Tales of Fantasia, that was a game that, that was one of those games that you kind of heard about back in the day.

This was for the Super Famicom. As a westerner who was starving for RPGs, it was something you longed for, but you are never going to get in any history of the world because I think by that point, the RPGs that came out were using a very specialized kind of compression, and it was just absolutely stuffed to the brim and to the point that you couldn't even have enough room to localize this stuff. So eventually, Tales of Fantasia did, of course, make it on to the emulation scene as a fan translation. I don't know if either of you played that fan translation. It's infamous. Oh, I did. Not to completion, but yeah, actually, it's funny, a couple

years ago some folks from friends of mine at work we actually decided to like start a game club we're like oh let's all play a game and that was one that my uh one of my co-workers suggested like yeah it's this is this old like super nintendo game that never came out in english but like it has audio in it and it's just this crazy game it's like oh i i need to see this so that was the first ever heard of it like not that long ago and we yeah we played it for a little bit and i was yeah i was really kind of blown away by the audio and just you know the general presentation um the fact that you've got the sort of dynamic sort of combat system where you're like like 2D like back and forth fighting pretty cool but yeah I think probably another reason that didn't make an English version is because it came out like the end

of 1995 right yeah by the time they made it in English like Supermar like Super 4 would have been out and I think Nintendo was already like oh no no no we super Nintendo we don't know her no no no it's all 64 now it's all 64 now 3D 3D yeah I mean there were a few inspired lines but it's kind of what you expect when the translation team's name has a slur in it Oh, right. Oh, God. I forgot about their name. People don't remember that part about it. They remember the line, but they forget, like, well, who translated this? Oh, oh, dear. Oh, dear. We're not talking about that anymore. We don't say that anymore. Yeah, it's just funny how time is a flat circle the way everyone is just kind of like slobbering at the chops to kind of tear apart localizers all over again. And this was, we have real friend tangulations. We have like what the authors really meant to say. And it's just all like, okay, whatever. But yeah, the really impressive thing about. about Tales of Metasia back in the day is that it had a lot of speech

for one thing and it had a whole ass J-pop song as this introduction which was just crazy for a Super Famicom cartridge. It's called The Dream Will Not End, the spilling drops of time. It's performed by Yukarya Yoshida. I thought I saw something

about how this song is revised for different Tales games and that's why I asked either of you if you were fans because I can't, I've played a rise And I like Vespirio a lot, but I don't remember anything of the sort coming up on the games themselves. I'm sure, you know, I'm sure it did. I don't know if those references were withheld from the West because I know for the future,

a lot of the reasons why they never localized these songs is because they would have to pay extra money. These songs were licensed songs. Namco didn't, you know, I assume there was some payment along the way, but at a certain point, the writer gets royalties. So that's why usually we got generic instrumental tracks up to a certain point when they realize, oh, there's a market for these anime songs and people actually want to hear them. Like, oh, man, there's a whole bunch of weaves over there, as it turns out. Go ahead and let's get some money out of them.

Yeah, we don't want to one or too far off the path. But, I mean, the entire licensing and rights issue of songs in Japan is a nightmare. I think is the shortest version to say that. I'm sure if we ever get James Milky back on the podcast, he could tell us all about that. because he's worked with, you know, recording artists and in music rights for, you know, a variety of purposes over his long career. And yeah, it's just a nightmare. If you play music in Japan, you're supposed to pay all sorts of, you know, licensing fees. Even if it's like not even music, it's just like some sort of recorded sound.

Like, if someone owns it, you're supposed to pay a charge. And it's just, it is a huge mess. And so, like, even stuff like, I didn't even know this, but in Street Fighter Alpha, you know, Street Fighter Alpha is very much based on the Street Fighter animated film, which in Japan has a pretty cool pop song in it, which is still very well known today. And in Japan, the Street Fighter Alpha Arcade Cabinet included an instrumental version of the pop song. Oh, cool. Which I didn't know because I didn't live in Japan and I didn't play it. I play it in America where they ripped that thing right out. You couldn't have it. You couldn't have that, you know, an instrumental pop song in the American version because they didn't want to pay whatever

it cost to pay. Yeah, I also think, like, maybe up until the mid-aughts, publishers did not want to include any Japanese language in your video game. I think they assumed that if a consumer heard that, they would think something was wrong and they would return the product. I laugh, but you're probably correct on that one. They really tried very hard, especially going as the further back you go, the harder they tried to cover up the fact that these games came from Japan, God forbid.

Yeah, to the point where when you heard a song in Japanese, and something, you thought, like, oh, this feels naughty. People don't want me to listen to this. Yeah. It was just kind of like, this is different. I know I'm somewhat out of the loop, but I know that for years, for years for me as an American watching like TV commercials or movie trailers, whenever I saw a commercial for a film and I looked at the actors, like, if the commercial didn't have, you had

minimal or like no actors speaking on camera, I was like, oh, these people aren't speaking English. That's why they don't, they don't want to tell us what they're not speaking English. they want us to go to the theaters and find out they don't speak English once we get there you know it's just it's been you know that's just been a weird a weird factor for so long I can only hope I can only hope with the recent success of Godzilla

minus one and and the fact that the American movie market has kind of imploded I can only hope that at this point they're just they don't care anymore it's like all right just come to theater please we're begging you please we need to get butts and seats whatever it takes and like parasite winning best picture in 2021

yeah I hope I can only hope that the tides of changed. But for a long time, it was like, oh, here's an exciting action movie from Thailand, and here's the Rizza to tell you all about it. Go ahead, Rizza. It's like, okay. Thanks, Riza. We're like, no, here's a wonderful animated movie from Japan. John Lasseter is here to let you know it's going to be okay. And he's a guy you can trust. His soothing tones will put you at ease. Don't get too close. Bob, why don't you go ahead and play a bit of that clip we have from The Dream Will Not End?

I love it's lossy S&ES. I have the entire thing, but I can skip to the middle of it, if that's okay. Sure. And I really like how they're clearly hiding the low quality of the sample by just cranking up the reverb. Yes. Yes. It's very clever. It is actually, because it does have a very distinctive sound.

I enjoy it very much. Yeah, Cycle Soldier was not doing that. I don't think they could access reverb at that point in history. No, the reverb technology was not nearly as good, apparently. Yeah, I would really like about that intro, too. You can't really see it, obviously, because we're talking here. But it kind of presents itself as an animated. or a movie where you have like the credits sliding in along to like, you know, footage of the characters just kind of goofing off and getting up to stuff within the game.

So it's a really nice blending of, well, basically everyone at that point was obsessed with making games into movies and it started before Final Fantasy 7. So there's a great example right there. So I think we're kind of bouncing everywhere because I, that's the way I am. I think we're in the 90s, roughly. Sure, yeah, mid-90s. Spiritually, yes. Yeah. I never left.

Oh, my dear sweet telephone, that was clear plastic. Where have you gone? I want to bring up, and thank you, Fight, for reminding me of this. Evolution X. Music is the weapon featuring Aerosmith. Dear God Almighty, I actually played this. When I played this, I was in the middle of a big Aerosmith thing. I don't know, for some reason. I think I really liked to get a grip. And I kind of fell out of love when my mom told me, yeah, Aerosmith was popular when I was your age. And I was just like, oh, my God, how are they still alive? And I just kind of dropped it like it. Like, it was a diseased cat or something. Yeah, they had a real renaissance in the 90s, like overall. I mean, I think at least a good chunk of the credit goes to that walk this way sort of collab with Run DMC. That's right. It's got them a lot of MTV plays.

And then I feel like each album in the 90s, they had more and more videos, more and more elaborate videos, you know, leading up, of course, to the Armageddon, which was like, I think their first actual number one hit single, like ever, which is just like kind of an amazing considering how they were playing music. I think so. I think that was their biggest hit ever, the Armageddon song. Um, but somewhere in there, they were popular enough to get the folks at Midway, you know, because I think, I feel like Revolution X came hot on the heels of T2, which T2 is another one that was like, obviously not a lot of music in that game, but a lot of voice samples and video samples and here are the actors you love from the movie and they're on your, you know, they're on the screen, they're shoot at them. And somehow that got people that's like, okay, let's put a game where we're shooting it like fascists, but we're going to do it to rescue Aerosmith because they've been kidnapped. the fascist. And the head fascist, by the way, is this busty playboy model who's going to be Sonia Blay in a couple of years. That's a fun fact. The lady who plays... I didn't

know that. Yeah. The lady who plays Helga in Revolution X would be the replacement with Sonia Blade in Mobile Combat 3. Oh, God damn. Yeah, it was them basically turning Tipper Gore into a dominatrix so you can fire CDs at her because it's like... Right. Basically, the game is like the woke police are here

and they're going to take away your video games in music. Yeah. The woke police are here for your eras. Yes. The most offensive music ever, Aerosmith. Right. And she has a gigantic wreck. She sure does. I'm pretty sure she turns it to a monster at the end of the game, right? Of course she does. She turns into some sort of like techno creature or like a beast. Something happens. But anyway, you murder her. It's at, of course you do, because it's to regard, how dare anyone suggest at that time? You think things are noisy and annoying now. You didn't live in the 90s where it was just like, how dare you suggest I even not use slurs?

What is wrong with you? And now you're in a video game where you're getting shot with CD. and Aerosmith has this really small loop going on of Eat the Rich. Please play it, Bob. I think I included it. Oh, sure. And that's playing behind the sound of, like, you know, automatic gunfire that never stops. Everything explodes in that game. You know, all the enemies are attacking you with weapons and bombs and missiles.

But I think part of the astonishment for me is that, you know, I want to say Revolution X as an arcade game was 94. So when the PlayStation arrived the following year, at least in America, you know, it was an early PlayStation 1 home game. Right. So that to me was the real astonishing thing. It's like, oh, wait, we can play this game at home. and it's on a CD so we can hear this music on our CD in our living room. Like that was that was kind of the more astonishing thing. Like, you know, at that point, we had had a couple of years of real human audio in arcade games.

But the fact that CDs were now the standard for most home systems, Nintendo said, you know, no, you wait for it. But, you know, with PlayStation and Saturn, both being CD technology, suddenly we're having these, you know, human voices coming out of our home consoles. And that's like a new frontier, like, oh, my goodness, you know. And in the case of Revolution X, I believe you've got a picture of Aerosmith on the title screen. And it looked like almost like a sticker. It was a very clearly high-res image. Yeah, it was. So like for me, for me as a teen, I was like, oh, my God.

Like it's like they're staring at me. Oh, my goodness. No. I recall playing the, I recall playing the Super Nintendo version of this. And a lot of the samples made it intact, which was a doubly impressive on a cartridge. Yeah. What year was that?

I didn't even know it came to S&S. Yes, I had a fun evening playing through that with my stepdad, him saying, God, this is so stupid. Well, to his credit, he wasn't wrong. I mean, we were mentioning earlier, I know we're in the mid-90s now, but we mentioned earlier, like, karaoke games. And it's through contendo that I learned, well, you know, I knew about the Famicom second controller being used for karaoke or having a microphone in it. But there were karaoke games. They sold a microphone. So people were doing that way back with the Famicom.

Comicom. Like, the Famicom was built from the ground up to be like, possibly karaoke can happen on this. We're not sure yet. Well, I mean, some games required it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was, you know, certainly it was a big part of, you know, the original Zelda because of the, you know, the trick about the pole's voice. You're supposed to make a noise because they had the big ears. And that just, that didn't translate at all to the English version. And they just took their hands like, oh, whatever. Arrows now. Who cares? Arrows go in the ear. Sure. But if you go back to the, and I mean this. with no sarcasm, the classic, Takeshi's challenge. You know, of all the million things you do in that game, one of the requirements to finish the game is you have to go to the Karoke Bar, you have to drink a certain number of drinks, and you just sing a certain number of songs. And you have to do it, like, well enough for the game to be impressed by your singing.

You know, like, that's just, that's how you beat the game, you know? And that's 86, I believe. So, you know, that's making the player put the lyrics in there. But still, like, it's forward thinking. That guy was ahead of his time. Ketano. No, for sure. That's pretty cool.

Or possibly drunk. Maybe both. Possibly likely. Fight. Something else he mentioned here that I completely forgot about. Oh my God. It's loaded by Enterplay, which is the most 1995 PlayStation game ever checking this out. We have a theme song here.

Did it start with Pop Will Eat Itself? I believe the song predates the game. I believe that the song predates the game. I think they licensed the song for the game. But in either case, again, much like Revolution X, like, you know, imagine us, a bunch of teenagers. We've got our brand new PlayStation, you know, we're either buying games or renting games. Like, this is an early title, maybe not launch title, but like really early title loaded. And it's like, oh, my God, it's a game and it's singing to us.

What? And it's singing on a short loop. So these lyrics are in my head, even, you know, even 30 years later, you know, R.SV, P, R. I think I have a clip. Did I include a clip there? Oh, I just say it. Go ahead. Yeah. Okay. Why am I reminded of green jelly?

Is that a food or a band? Both. Okay. My brother was a big fan. I was never a big fan, but he listened to them all the time. It sounded like that. But just one more shocker from the early CD era before, you know, a couple years, you know, before a couple of years later when composers and video game studios were actually making original works for their games that were going to surprise us, you know, in a whole different way.

although at the time I didn't know who the you know I didn't know who Popolita stuff was so like that was a great new song to me yeah I still don't know who they are I recall there was some racing game that said on the cover proudly with music by God Lives Underwater and I thought well you know

that's a pretty cool band name but huh and I think it said like as seen on 120 minutes and I was like well I don't stay up that late I'm sorry I can't even meet you halfway R S, B, B, R S, B, B, R S, B, P, R S, B, your reputation. I'm Bhophae

Bhophe. ...toe Bhopi... ...their... ...and... ...that... ...and... ...and...

...the... ...the... So Diamond, you were saying that was basically like your first exposure to, like, games blaring out lyrics at you from, like, home consoles. And I feel like I might be the outlier here Because I think the first time I was like, whoa, about lyrics in CD-based songs was, of course, one-wing an angel. How could I not be? Am I alone in that? I mean, console-wise, I'm pretty sure that was the closest to a full song with lyrics.

Although those were sampled voices, I mean, there were real voices, but they weren't like, it wasn't like a track running off the CD, which is why if you bought the PC version of it, the old PC version, it was just a straight MIDI track. They did not incorporate the samples of the voices. But I think, yeah, that was the main draw console-wise. Like, I had heard sampled voices before, but I don't recall ever hearing a full sampled song. Clayfighter attempted something similar to that, but I purposely didn't include it because it is just, I don't know, two sets of lyrics, really. And this is much more ambitious. Yeah, why don't you go ahead and, I mean, we all know the song.

We can pee to it, but Bob want to go ahead and play a clip of it. Yep, that's swarming an angel, all right, and I'll promise you this much, if you go to see a Final Fantasy concert, you are going to hear it. It doesn't matter if they're playing acoustics. It doesn't matter playing the kazoo. They're going to play one-winged angel. I mean, it's going to be great. Don't get me wrong.

But, yeah, that was a, it's a little bit familiar, I suppose, at this point. Yeah. Impressive. I feel like as historians, you know, it's okay to acknowledge that something wasn't first. So it was like, yeah, this wasn't the first song I heard on my PlayStation, but it was definitely the, well, it was ever the first one of the first one I heard in Latin. But it was. There you. There you go.

It certainly was one of the more memorable choices, especially in that game, that long, long, long-ass game, you know, that only comes. up during that battle after you've played the game for probably, you know, at least 80 hours at that point. So, you know, and by contrast, you've got like, you know, Symphony the Night, which I think came out in America a little bit before Final Fantasy Seven. I know in Japan, Five Five Five Five Five Five Five Five Five Five Five Five Five Came at first, but either way, they're both 97 in both countries. Symphony the Night has a couple different lyrical songs sprinkled throughout it. Some of them dramatic, some of them less dramatic. But in any case, if you, you know, When you first get that thing home, the first thing you're going to hear, you know, on the screen where you're selecting the same music is a woman singing, you know, I don't know what language she's singing in, but she's singing something.

Yes, that is Mitru Yamani, the composer of Mitreimani. That's her sister Kaori. Oh. Oh, really? And she appears on the soundtrack again later on. I think it's during a boss battle. The song's called Demonic Banquet. And that's where she really goes off.

That's where she really goes. She goes for 11. She goes for 11. She goes with Christine Daye levels there. Yeah. Right. Which is just kind of a wild thing to include in the game. And of course, if you beat the entire game, you get the most left field selection of all when the game ends.

And you just get the sort of slow R&B, you know, like soft jazz music. It is. sung by Cynthia Harrell, I am the wind. And it's just, wait, what? It's, I mean, to go back to FF7 real quick. I know I had played games with songs in them before that, but they just felt like, oh, they licensed this song. It just happens to be playing while I'm playing the level. And then when the song's over, you hear like, and then like another song will load.

Here, regardless of how long you fought Zephyroth, the song just kept looping seamlessly. That's true. And that was like, well, how did they do this? And then with the, it's weird what I am the win from something the night was predicting because we had not had Titanic yet. We did not have the true rise of Celine Dion. But it is such a Celine Dion style song. And whenever I hear it, I'm like, oh, this sounds just like because you loved me. It's one of the earlier, the pre-Titanic Celine Dion songs.

Yes, I know pre-Titanic Celine Dion songs. I have a mother. I have a mother, but I still didn't know. And you're living in Canada. Let me tell you right now, when I was in grade nine, I think it was, we had, what year did Beauty and the Beast come out? You would know this, Mackie. 91? Yeah.

91 so yeah it would have been in grade 9 French we had our final exam and there was a bonus question about Celine Dion in French and I'm like I don't know so I never answered the question has something to do with Beauty and the Beast I think she composed something for that as well oh she's saying the the titular song with I think Pibo Bryson over the credits like the pop version oh okay yeah I know what you mean yeah I've just never been a huge Celine Dion fan but she is certainly around in Canada or she was I'm more, I have more of a vendetta against Brian Adams. Just, I think the funniest line in a movie is just now, now the Canadian government has apologized for Brian Adams on several locations. Because I had to suffer, suffer through everything I do, I do for you. Number one, it was CanCon, so it's all over the radio, can't escape it. Number two, my grade six teacher was obsessed with that song. And the film that went with it, Robin Hood, Not Men in Tights, the other one, the serious one. Prince of Thieves.

And we had to Thieves. We had to do gymnastics routines with this stupid Brian Adam song. Again, like many people, I have a mother, and I was alive in 1991, and that song played roughly a thousand times in her car. So I understand your pain. My condolences. But you're absolutely right. I never made the connection. That is so very much a Celine Dion song.

And I always liked it. Like, I remember when I finished Symphony Night, it kind of left me with a very melancholy feeling, especially since the first time. I finished it, I didn't get the quote unquote true ending where Maria follows Alicard. Like she just leaves him behind and it's like, oh, that's kind of a sad song to cap everything off. We have a clip. I want to go ahead and run that. Just like the end, I've always been drifting high up in sky that never ends. You know, I'm sure I thought I was probably too cool for this when it started playing.

When I finished the game, I was like, what the hell? But now I've realized I am not too cool for anything, and I enjoy musical theater in my old age and in cheesy pop ballads. So I'm no longer a surly 16-year-old. I think this rules. It's a great song. That saxophone should be illegal. I just, Konami really put everything into their songs. Again, they will show up a few times on this list.

And, yeah, I appreciate that about them. I mean, we can, I'm free to admit that it's not my cup of tea, but also like, I think at the time I was probably more angry about it. Because, yeah, this was definitely the kind of music I enjoyed. So when I bought the symphony night soundtrack on CD, I want to say probably, probably 98, 99, whenever I could find it. I listen to that CD all the time. I would bring it with me to work in the post office.

And I would play it on a, you know, a CD player that people could hear. in the background. And it was always funny to hear reactions to the music in general because, you know, the music's all over the place. You know, most of it's instrumental. Some of it's, you know, high tempo, some of its low tempo. There is a song completely in Japanese on the, on the soundtrack. The fairy sings it to you. Yeah. Which is, it's weird. That song was cut from the original version.

If you buy the game today, like the Requiem version, the song has been replaced and it's localized. So now you can hear in English. Oh, nice. Even if you play, if you play the classic soundtrack, it's on there in Japanese. But yeah, it would always end with I'm the Wind. And that was the song like when that came on, I would always run over the player to hit the skip. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

That's not the one I wanted. That does remind me of, I will cover it soon in the notes, but just covertly listening to things you know you'd be murdered for if anyone found out. Or you would be forced to have to walk into the ocean, never being able to live it down. But I remember working at my college newspaper

and I was listening to a lot of J-Rock at the time. And people were taken aback by it because they were like, you don't even know what they're singing about. And I thought like, what do you think they're making fun of me? They're personally like saying Bob Mackey sucks. I'd be able to make that out at least. I knew at least that much Japanese. So yeah, I had to grit my teeth when people would say like, what's a song even about? It's just like, I don't know. Do you listen to the lyrics in anything you listen to? Probably not. Yeah, I must say that that is a really scary problem, I think, among a lot of, I want to say a lot of Americans. I don't know. Maybe if Canadians do the same thing.

but, like, I remember being a lot of situations where either listening to some music in another language or being around people speaking other languages and someone else just shows up, like, hey, what are you talking about? What are you saying in front of me? Like, we're talking about something else. Like, go away. Like, you know. That doesn't happen that often. Where it didn't happen, not saying it never happens, of course, but Toronto, like, no one's speaking English here anyway. Everyone's just speaking. You go on a bus. Everyone's speaking like 10 different languages. It's pretty cool, actually. I just, yeah, I've had some, I've had some really weird moments of my life. for people, like, inject themselves in conversations because they hear a language they don't recognize. Like, what are you? Like, what are you? I didn't meet an Asian person until I was 25 because I grew up in Northeast Ohio. Yeah, it's just never really been an issue for me. But, yeah, that's actually kind of ties into this point I have here. Cynthia Harold is also, she's also the one who voiced Snake Eater.

Snake Eater, you know. That's her, yeah. Which has never been, I'll be honest, not my favorite middle gear style of three. song. We'll get to the one I actually do like in a minute here. But, um, okay, so capping out the 90s until we get to some of Bob's favorite picks years because they're pretty great. Um, I think this is you as well. Fight Violent Storm. Yes. Ninety-93 for the arcade. Holy shit. Yeah. I never heard of the song or the game before. Um, so credit to Heidi Kemp's for highlighting this couple years ago in her blog, Gaming Moe. But yeah, this is a, it's just, it's just a random. and beat them up and the music in general is not necessarily hip hop themed but stage three is

very hip-hop yeah do we have that bob can play that i'm gonna get you essentially everybody want to not gildo down i'll go straight to sheena sheena and i'll be there yes i will this world is very difficult but i've got nothing to lose now there's no defeat you soon as i challenge the beginning of the end So I rescue Sina I'm never gonna stop Leave my power

Now I spend my time Fighting all around I'm a tough guy You think you can beat us We got them look Oh so fine Just wait I'll get even with you

Hey it all His His science is tight Wow Bold move in rap to not rhyme And it felt like the low, it was like the low self-esteem rapper is like, I'm going to get you eventually. I've been no hurry. I've got to go to the bank.

Yeah, as I wrote in the notes, these are English lyrics that sound like they are being wrapped by the cop who comes into your grade three class to explain why it's a bad idea to run out into the four-lane road just outside the school building. Yeah, that's based on a real story. I went to school at a very beside a very busy road and the cops would come in and see. say, like, please don't get hit by a car. If you don't get hit by a car, if you promise not to get hit by a car, it will give you this cool flag with an elephant on it. He's a safety elephant or whatever. So, yeah, that's what violence storm reminds me of.

I was thinking, we had the DARE program in America, and this feels like a dog in a costume, or sorry, a man in a dog costume, rather, would come in and wrap about a weed or something. I prefer if it was a dog in a costume wrapping, but science has not reached that level yet. Okay, Kiss, we don't want you to have any crazy illusions or episode, so listen to the talking dog. He'll steer you right.

Yeah, that was a very quick kind of tour of the early part of video games with music, like that early history. It's kind of all over the place. It clearly started earlier than I ever gave it credit for. While we're just kind of like rapping, as it were, I thought we could talk a little bit about just some of the more, you know, popular songs, maybe the ones that you liked. Bobby put down a lot of suggestions that I love here. I wanted to first shout out one of the songs, the first, like, J-pop song. really made an impression on me. And that was electrical communication from Rockman 8.

And the reason that made an impression on me is because I had not, by that point, heard a whole lot of music coming out of a home console. And that's when I realized, or one of the points I realized, oh, God, I screwed myself over by getting an N64 because this ain't coming out of N64. But that's a, that's a great song. It's like the epitome of J-pop songs to me. I think it was also, yeah, it was the intro song for, um, Super Adventure Rockman as well as Rockman 8 and there's actually

still quite a few a few like rites surrounding that one as we're talking earlier about the copyright hell that Japanese music ends up mired in I think I have a clip

if you want to go ahead and play that pop That rule. That rule so hard. That rule so hard. And that's one of those songs that, that rule so hard. And that's one of those songs that, like, I should go back for just a second and I should go back for just a second and talk very briefly about whether or not we were all the kinds of nerds who did play that music, that game music with lyrics in lieu of like having to learn about actual music and getting scared off. Like, yes. I did to a certain extent. Yeah, I will talk about it when we cover some of the, my suggestions here.

But certain things, like I said, I was thinking of having a cyanide capsule installed in my tooth just in case anyone caught me listening to any of this. I had already been an outcast to my peers. This would have landed me in another dimension. I think. That would have punched you into another dimension, in other words. We didn't even know you could be this weird. How can we up the bully?

Yeah, fair. So I'm assuming that track did not make it to the Mega Man 8 English version? Oh, God, no. We had some generic ass, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, guitars. And same with the Mega Man X-4. Sorry, Rockman X-4. I forgot to download some of that as well. But Unbeatable Love, I surely have in my heart.

I think the song is translated to. It's another pretty cool J-pop song. And that didn't make it either We have like a very generic guitar Boring, yeah That is that is such a bummer Because you know, I'm on record as a Mega Man 8 fan And I feel like listen to the music like that

That would really get my you know Get my Gub Shift to go out and there and fight Dr. Wawi Yeah, Dr. Wally I mean, Mega Man We need the I was going to say we need the oral history of that line reading We really do Find out who it was as a Mega Man fan

What was happening? Why was there never a second take? Should I do that again? No, we're good. Do what again? Exactly. Break for lunch. Yeah, that's, that also paired with a really great attract mode, you know, back in the day when people used to put their CRTs in front of the stores and say, hey, here's what you can buy instead of running the same B-roll for infinity.

Just seeing that anime or that Rockman ate goodness, that Mega Man ate goodness. Like, oh, man, again, I was like, oh, shit, I bought an N-S64, didn't I? Yeah, I sure did. I should probably give a shout out to the boat song from Lunar. I totally forgot to do that. Are you the viewer fans? To a certain extent. I'm a big fan of the moon in general.

I like the moon. Yeah, the moon's pretty cool. I did like this game, Silver Star Story Complete, with the famous moon song, of course. When it came time to play the next game, I didn't make it through the back half. There's like a super long epilogue, and I just didn't have the stamina out for that at that point in my life. Yeah, like, I think a lot of people heard this because of the playable demo. This part was on the playable demo, yeah. Oh, man, playable demos.

I mean, they still exist, of course, but like back then you'd get them on pizza boxes and shit. And Lunar had the opening song as well, their own, you know, anime O.P, basically. Yeah. Which I think I might like that song more because of the charmingly bad lyrics. That's another instance of English kind of trying to fit very hard. to the rhythm of a Japanese song and kind of succeeding in a way. But, yeah, I mean, I still think of all dreams are real unless you dream they're not, you know. Isn't that a classic, yeah, if I handed that into my writing craft teacher, he would have pitched me out the window.

It sounds like something John Lennon would say, not one of the good things he would say. Hey, guys, you ever think about, yeah. Oh, dreams are real. Oh, they're not. That's more of a wringo. I didn't do any rehearsing of my Beatles before this, so. That's the best you'll get. That was Lunar for the Sega CD.

That's an instance where you, if you're an RPG fan, you look at that and you look at that sequence and you look at that anime combined with that music and you say, wow, that's really cool. I want that. And then you don't get it because, well, you got an S&S. What else do you need? But yeah. I wanted to go back for a second to Konami because I promise I talk a little about Metal Gear Sala 3 music. And here's what I'm going to say about it. I love Way to Fall by Star Sailor.

I think it is a heart-wrenchingly great song that is perfect for the ending of Middle Year's Sala 3. And supposedly it was not supposed to happen. But I can't find confirmation on this. I've heard that Kojima being Kojima got mixed up and he wanted, I don't know, like, another song. I think it was a Bowie song. And he ended up with this. but then like in 2021 he comes back and says

oh yeah this song is all about you know the relationship between boss and young snake and it's like okay well kajima's going to kajima uh do have you either of you heard anything to that effect about this song I've heard the rumor but never I've never heard it substantiated but you know Kojima is way into

media of all types so I would be surprised if he had heard this band which I still think is fairly obscure star sailor and thought like oh this would be great for the game I'm working on because the CD came out in 2001, and he would be at least starting development of MetalGersault 3 at that point. Right, right. Can you, I think I have a clip of that.

Can you play it? Oh, yeah. They'll tell you what they know, but they won't show. Oh, oh, I've got something in my throat. I need to be alone while I suffer You look like you're about to cry, Diamond. That's rough. I haven't, you know, as of this recording,

I'm still making my way through Middle Gear Solid 1, and I'm still getting used to the vibe of this whole series, but yeah, that's some deep stuff there. is a pretty intense game. I'm going to get there. I promise, I've promised many times in the show that I'm going to get there. I will get there. I wonder.

Right now, I'm still in one. I wonder if they were retained Way to Fall for the upcoming mega remake of Metal Gear Solid 3. Oh, shit. Good point. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, you want to hear something weird, weird trivia? My cousin is the producer of the Metal Gear movie.

Oh, like in progress? In progress, the one in progress. I'm like, damn, I wish I was closer to him because I totally wheeze on my way in there and talk to Koojima. I'd be like, hey, Kojima, you want to smoke some weed? And that would just be like my life accomplishment right there. I don't know what would happen if he was introduced to drugs. I thought he was already introduced to him.

He yelled about how much he loves weed on Twitter one day. He might have been like a 14-year-old declaring, yeah, I love weed, but he strikes me as someone who could absolutely choke. Yeah, you know, with all of the stars he's hanging out with, the sicko stars, I'm sure they're passing the blunts left and right. Oh, they got, I think he even said Del Toro or someone, introduced him to weed, but he's smoking. I don't blame him. Do you want to tell Hideo Kojima, Heyman, hit this?

Is that your goal in life? That is absolutely my goal in life. What else is there? Yeah, yeah. You tell me if there's another goal worth achieving and I'll go for it, but I think that's it. While we're, again, while we're still on Konami, I kind of wanted to highlight, you're not here from Silent Hill 3. The opening song, now I actually have not played Silent Hill 3. so sorry about that but I just love the song and one of the reasons I bring it up is because there is actually a cover by a Russian metal band now Bob go ahead and play the first like I think I have a one there that's like labeled like regular and the other ones labeled Russian play the one that's not Russian this should be the correct one

I just got to forever The green grass blows in the wind And dancing It would be a much better sight With you With me I just freaking love that song Such a driving song

Yeah In the case of Silent Hill games I believe a lot of them have Ending songs with lyrics And some of them like even change Depending on what ending you've gotten And some of those actually I don't want to mean

I mean, no disrespect to the people who put their heart and soul in these songs, but some of them are sung by a man, some of my man with a very dramatic voice. And it's kind of weird. I kind of wish Voidberger could jump in and voice her concerns about these songs because, you know, as the Silent Hill series went on, I think Akira Yamaoka needed to know that lyrics were a privilege, not a right, because he really, he really abused them. I think it's why Silent Hill 2 out of my favorite, you know, themes because they were, I think for the most part, lyric free. And then Silent Hill 3, the lyric started. And there's a few cringy things. But I think four and beyond is when it gets a little like, oh, like just maybe a little too modeling or melodramatic. I don't know what you want to call it.

I know the recent we want to be Silent Hill so hard it hurts. Was it stray souls? It's made by an ex-blooder guy. and like that game has three different ending songs all with different lyrics and it is very much a silent hill like ending and there's like that game is awful and trash and do not buy it but if you watch someone play it like sgf you will enjoy those ending songs how about the go ahead and click the russian marked one okay i'm opening the russian file right now Lost in the wind dancing It would be Much better

Time So if you With me If you had It spells me I'll be Find on my own baby

I never fell so long You came alone So now What Should I do I'm strong

out I think I do My body acts in knowledge of yon. My soul I fell through. All right. Amazing. That man is doing his best for a language he probably doesn't speak.

Absolutely he is. I give him credit. God bless. I cannot sing a Silent Hill song in Russian. Don't ask me. There you go. And then the death growl start. But yeah, I just, it's a,

Cishes of Mercy, flavored, Silent Hill. Yeah, I can deal. I mean, there's also the other level of the fact that that's a game about a young girl, and the original version has a woman singing it, so having a man cover that song does make it sound a little strange.

Just a little bit. Come with me, daughter. My body hurts. Yeah. And they feed me everything you had more. Craves my happiness. When you made me feel joy in made your smile, but now

I feel your stress love was never meant to be such a crazy affair, I know and who has time for tears never thought I'd sit around and unravel your love to love So, Bob, you have a whole bunch of great songs here that we should go over.

Sam and Max for a start. Yes, I thought I was like, oh, I'll have five of these to the dock. And then I was working in a coffee shop this morning. I think caffeine was helping me. But I immediately thought of a bunch more. But Sam and Max is the first one on my list. Sam and Max hit the road. And this, I want to say, is probably the first full comedic song with lyrics in a video game.

Prove me wrong, children, prove me wrong. And it's actually sung by the villain of the game. Conroy Bumpus, I believe, his name is. He's an Australian game hunter who's also like a rockabilly guy. Awesome. That's his weird mixed up character. And in the game, he captures Bigfoot and a giraffe neckerle and you're trying to find them and track them down. But yeah, here's a little bit of King of the Creatures.

Oh, I'm trapped my first time. I got before I could speak Killed me a bear when I was free And now with this big foot and giraffe next break I finally have a full of nashiree Hit it, boys And I do want to say Speaking of technology at the time

If you got the CD-ROM version of the game There was a discette version Sometimes it would only include The spoken dialogue from the intro Just to let you know what you could get if you had the CD-ROM. But because a CD-ROM drive, I'm guessing, was probably like $1,000 in today's money or more.

They wanted to make sure, like, here is your added value for the boutique CD-ROM experience. You get all the voice acting, and here's a little bonus. And with Sam and Max, you can actually listen to the soundtrack, or like CD-quality versions of some songs, including this one, if you just popped it in a CD player. Oh, perfect.

You probably don't get told off by ALA cards for doing that. No, no. There's no al-a-card warning. That's wacko, isn't it? That's wacko's voice. Yes, yes, Jess Harnell is a billion voices. He's wacko. He is now the new Lechuk in the Monkey Island series, but he's got like 700 rolls on IMDB. All right, because I, I've played that game a long time ago. I did not remember that song in particular, but so listen to it. It's like, okay, that is not an Australian man, but he's doing his best. It's like, oh, wait, he kind of sounds familiar. And I quick Googled him. It's like, oh, it's wacko, of course. A guy with a good Beatles impression.

Yes. When I think of funny video game songs with lyrics, I think of, I can't remember which Monkey Island it was, but it was along with the pirates that are singing. And Guy Brush finally stops them by getting them to try to rhyme orange. Yes. And they're just coming up with orange, a door hinge. That one is also good. But I just included this one for it being first. It's a really good bop for like early video games.

I like that very much. And it sounds funny as hell. You also put Psychosolter, which we have covered. How could we not? It's just a beautiful piece of work. Wisdom of the World from the mother album, like from Mother, like The Mother? From the Famicom Game Mother. This has been one of my favorite albums for over 25 years when I discovered it.

It is a full rearrangement of most of the songs on the Mother soundtrack done by Keichi Suzuki. And Hiip Tanaka was also a musician on it. So there's a rock musician and a video game musician who would go on to be a rock musician doing the soundtrack for this game. It's insanely good. It's insanely cheesy. And it adds lyrics, mostly a British young girl named Catherine Warwick. And I always love to bring this up in any discussion of music because it's just so weird and unique. And you would not think a Famicom game could generate this.

There you go me the wisdom of the world. Tell me the secrets of the heart. And the entire remix song is like four minutes. So there's all these different verses and there's all these different like movements. It's just, it's very wonderful. And I think more people should know about it. And by the way, it's all on YouTube. Just find it on YouTube.

There's something similar with Mother 3, Polyana. The Mother 3 soundtrack had a version of Polyana, which is a very, it's in several earthbound. Sorry, Mother Games. Yeah. And that had lyrics to it. And I always love that song as well. They might even be the same lyrics on this record because they do a re-imagement of Pollyanna as well. Yeah.

Which I think Pollyanna isn't Earthbound. Sorry, Mother, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, yeah. It's from Mother and then they reuse it in Mother 2, like most of the mother songs. And there's also, I applaud you for including this one, Bob. Melodies of Life, I think. The only reason I didn't include it is because I couldn't remember if they sang it the game or not, and I looked it up and I couldn't really find a definitive answer. It's been

a long time since I played nine. Do this thing in the game? It's over the credits, but I would say, so, Ui Matsu, I think this is his longest soundtrack in terms of sheer amount of songs generated. I covered this game for Retronauts, like, three or four years ago. There's over a hundred songs. I think it's like 160. And I think eight of those songs are just different variations of melodies of life. But then when you're at the end, you get the entire full vocal version. And I mean, I feel like I'm in the minority here. I don't know about you, too, but I prefer this to eyes on me. And I know you have to choose one. You can't like either one the same amount. You absolutely have to. Yeah. Or they cut off your oxygen if you don't. And I say they should. No, I actually agree with you. I, to be honest, I'm not the biggest Final Fantasy 8 fan, but that has anything to do with the fact that I think that the ending is very, very sweet. But I don't think that eyes on me is a great song. I think you're right about that. And melodies of life, there's something, it's something. It's, It's meant to be simple. It's actually very much like the eight melodies from Earthbound and Mother. Just that very simple kind of refrain. And I love it. Like I think you mentioned here that you played or replay FF9 during the pandemic. That's a good time to replay FF9. Yeah. It's long. It's it's sad. It's uplifting. It's got all the emotions. And I know it had like a weird reputation at the time, but I think there are now a ton of fans of this game. Oh, talk to Kat.

Yeah. She'll stand this game until she dies. And she should. And there's also, you put down, this is interesting because you put down, reach out for the truth from, sorry, reach out to the truth from Persona 4. And of course, persona for music is fantastic, but I am a golden gal. I only play persona for Golden. I don't know how the, the songs are different. I'll play it because I have like 10 seconds of Reach Out to the Truth.

I hope up, I picture to the truth on my last. I'm thinking the thing for the whole moment to now break away. Yeah, I forget how is the golden version different? Does it not include that little segment, or is just the new song altogether? Actually, I think they did what they did with the persona 5, where that is one of the songs in battle now. And there's, I think it might be the, what do you call it, the early attack song. And there's something else for the regular music. but I included a, I don't know if this is a song that I included is in the original persona for, but it's called Your Affection.

It's one of my favorite daytime songs that you play that you hear when you're kind of just doing your chores and stuff. Do I, did I have a, slip a sample? No, but I can just play the YouTube version. I think that'll work. Oh, sure. Yes, brawows, forget what they'd wet for day after day, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I did play persona for when I was unemployed for a year, so I basically woke up and played that game like it was my job because I had no job because I had no job. And so just like, you're living another life.

It's, it is practically a job. Yeah. But I just like, in my head, just etched in somewhere around my brain. It is, it is lyrics. I face out. I hold out. Yeah. Yeah.

Sorry, my voice squeaks. See, I should not have attempted it. Oh, you sounded great. You sound perfect. Yeah, I was going through surgery when I was playing persona for a gold and at least part of it. And I just vividly remember that song for some reason over all the others while recovering. I also play a lot of Final Fantasy 16. Sorry, 14.

Sorry. 15. It was 2016. I was pretty drugged up and playing some pretty good video games. It wasn't a bad time to be alive. If you were hopped up on goofballs, we can forgive you for not knowing what number it was. Oh, absolutely. The years were blending.

It did not matter. That's what they give you with the dominole surgery. Just say, you know what? It's going to hurt real bad, so we're going to give you the good shit. I'll have more time travel drugs, please. They absolutely were. Rhapsody, Rhapsody, a musical adventure. This is something else you included, Bob, and I'm trying to remember what that was. This was released by Atlas. It's a Nipponichi game.

and it's a fairly okay JRP where the main gimmick was the characters six or six to eight times of the game will break out in the song like it's a Disney movie and these are very like Disney style songs

and this was released by Atlas in 2000 and there's been several re-releases since then it recently came out for Switch and PC in 2022 and I think very little has changed since then but I have a tiny bit

I've never actually played it but I do have a tiny bit just so you can hear like what one of the song sounds like I remember the song I've known it for so long and it feels so good to hear sounds a little sad

but sweet just the same lovely melody so you get it it's like Jody Benson or something And I have a little story to go with this where I went, somebody spent money for me to fly to Austin to see Epic Mickey 2, the Power of 2. Sorry, Disney Epic Mickey 2, the Power of 2. Warren Specter was the guy behind that game, legendary game developer.

And he had the gall to say, well, you know, this is the first musical video game ever. And immediately in my brain, I was like, what about that, what about that, what about that? So I just brought up at the roundtable. I was like, well, Rhapsody, musical adventure, had a bunch of songs in it. And that was like, I don't know, 16 years ago. He's like, okay, okay, yeah, I know that exists. And then somebody else said, what about this? And he was like, all right, listen, it's just a PR point.

I know it's not the first. Let's just move on. He seemed very mad. His, like, his sweater vest was getting rumpled. Because Superman aren't on the flash? Yeah, sure. Why not? And what has he done since then?

I think we defeated him. I'm confused. Is this song kind of? of like a Tenacious D tribute song? Like she's singing the song about the song that it's good?

Like, I don't understand. I need to play more of Rhapsody to discover that. And hey, it's on Steam. I can boot it up right now. We can find out.

It's funny. You mentioned Epic Mickey too because for some reason I got flown out to Mother Fffin Disney World to preview that game and I had never been to Disney World until that point.

Without getting a free trip to Disney World, how could you have an unbiased opinion on that game? I asked you. I didn't review it. I was just previewing it. Still, the preview.

You need to have the experience of having ridden Space Mountain to understand the game. Oh, absolutely. And that was my first time, actually. I was like, wow, cool. Roller coaster. But there is footage, I mean, somewhere deep on the internet walking through the park with a bunch. There's a bunch of us and more inspectors there, like, leading Jesus and the disciples. And he stops and talks about whatever, some Disney ride.

And he can see me. And I'm very Canadian and very hot and very huge. Just like slowly fading as he's talking because it's like 30 degrees Celsius out there. And I'm just like, Jesus Christ, someone saved me from Florida. For you Americans, that's 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Something like that. I sure felt like it to my delicate sensibilities. But there was an odd moment in that trip where I got stuck with him on a rooftop when we were watching fireworks in the rain.

Yeah, I don't think it was an acid trip. In a different context that could be romantic. He's a strange. He's an interesting guy. Yeah. Interesting guy. Don't know if I'm ready for a relationship with Warren Spector, but he's certainly interesting. Don't bring up 15-year-old JRPGs around him.

It makes him upset. No, definitely not. Now I know. Now I know his weakness like a Pokemon. Dr. Finkelstein's song, A Nightmare for Christmas, Uki-Bugie's Revenge. So, again, I think... Oh, go ahead, Nadia. Sorry.

Oh, I did not play this. I was just going to say, I didn't play this. Very few people did. And it's so funny how so many things are getting sequels now that have been a long time coming. It's weird that the only sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas is a PS2 game made by Capcom of Japan that is basically like Devil May Cry starring Jack Skellington. That's amazing. Here's the thing. They recycle a lot of the songs from the original game, from the original movie rather, and add new lyrics.

And I mean, those are fine. And actually, a lot of the voice actors who are not too famous or dead come back to do the voices of the characters. Like Chris Sarandon is Jack Skellington. He's even doing the singing voice this time, and he's doing a great job. But when they have to make their own songs, you can really tell what Danny Elfman adds to a project when he's not available. It's really rough. And I'll play a little bit of that right now. This town has changed my voice since you've been away without a pummel.

And king, it's boogie boogie's way Doctor please Oh can't you see you're wrong You were the king But now you're nothing but cray Boogie boogie is back And he's planning to stay And I think Voidberger might have

Played through all of this But we have like There's a slight inside joke Between my wife and I Where the song Making Christmas From the original movie Or either of you aware of that song Yeah

Where you can basically take Any four syllable phrase and just start singing it like making breakfast or like sweeping the floor You can just narrate your day With any four syllable phrase Well they do that in this And they change makers to get the town back

So I was like I'm not a hack They're doing this in the in the sequel The video game sequel to NBC You know I don't want to make any conspiracy theories here But if you've got a sequel to that movie and you don't have Danny Elfman

it feels like you shouldn't be allowed to have anyone named Ugi Bugi, because that sounds too much like Oingoingo. I think they got the Oki Bugi voice actor though, so there's some bit of authenticity there. The best is yet to come. Metal Gear Solid,

1998. This is another Konami gems. And just a very strange and compelling choice, especially for 1998. I don't want to spoil Diamond, but this is the song you hear at the end of the game. And it basically was the perfect way to set the tone of that game after the conversation about nuclear arms proliferation that's very depressing. And that was like, oh, that was 25 years ago and things are much worse now.

But here is a little bit of the best is yet to come. It's very, very good. So you just played through a game that's to be a John Carpenter movie Here is the saddest song written in the saddest language, Irish. Have fun. Okay, thank you. Thank you for saying that loud because I was like, okay,

It's a Konami song. It's Japanese. No, it's not Japanese. Is it English? No, it's not English. What is she singing? Yeah. Mysterious Irish dialect. You're right. Absolutely right about being the saddest. The saddest language for a song. Bob, how far, like, have you done the near raids in FF14? Yes, I have. Because that final battle is, I think, is Irish as well, because of course it is. And God, this is a gorgeous song. That whole quest just broke my heart That was my first like That was me thinking, oh, it's Yokotaro How can he make Final Fantasy 14 sad?

Well, guess what? Actually, Irish So I just went to the near concert with my wife And we were looking up like what language were they singing in Because it wasn't Japanese And apparently The composer calls it a chaos language Where it's a mix of it's a made up language

The songs are in a made up language But it's a mix of different languages Oh But it does sound, I assumed, yes, I assumed it was Irish when I was there. I was like, I thought it was. Yeah, yeah, very close to it. But yeah, it's chaos. That suits.

That suits Likotaro. I mean, what else would it be? Why would it be normal language? Come on, Nadia. Get with it. Get with it. It says here Donna Burke recorded an English version. Yeah, you can look that up on YouTube, but it's one of those things where when you're just

telling me in English what this song is saying, it's not as beautiful. And especially when you have to, like, jam a bunch more syllables in to fit the words. into the existing melody, it just sounds really awkward. And, you know, she's a great singer, and I trust her, but I prefer the original performance. That's fair. Yeah. I only see the best is yet to come. Here's one I've actually been looking forward to.

Baba Yetu, Civilization 5. Sorry, Civilization 4, 2005. That's why I got mixed that up. That's a great song. This is one Nadia in Diamond that I remember, oh, like, that's a good song. And then I looked it up. It's like, oh, it's not just a good song.

It's the first video game song to win a Grammy. like six years after it released and actually the newest Grammy winner is a Kirby remix of Metanites theme So muzzletov Kirby That's where we are now

And I don't know who added this I think it was you Nadia This was performed on American Idol This song It was yeah I got a golden buzzer I don't know what that is Because I don't watch American Idol

But you can look at the performance It's really great It's a great song I love how the I love the opening for Civ 4 Especially since it kind of comes around In a circle And you have the guy

the caveman drawing the kind of space station on the the wall, the cave wall is like art, caveman art. And just think to yourself, my God, what paleontologist would come upon that and just shit their pants? I want to see it happen. Do you have a clip? Oh, yeah.

Let's hear Baba Yetu. Yeah, wonderful song. I looked this up, and I was like, after listening to it in the coffee shop, I thought I'm at one with the universe and all things. And also, I think I could fight God and win now. I'm going to try to do that. Absolutely. But really, I just went on a very long walk and listened to Baba Yetu like ten times in a row before I walk. before I walked home.

If I'm not mistaken, I think it's the Lord's Prayer. Yes, in Swahili. Swahili. Swahili. Oh, thank you. I was going to ask. I don't know. And I love that we're ending on this one.

Yeah. Okay, we have. At the assistance, at the insistence, rather, of stewardship, he threw this one out. And of course, I think we should just include it because it was a feat for an N64 cartridge. And nobody had done anything like this, at least this vulgar when it comes to video game music with lyrics. I am the great mighty poo, and I'm going to throw my shit at you. A huge supply of tish comes from my chocolate starfish.

How about some scat, you little twat? There you go. In my notes, this is a challenge for the listeners out there. Is there another Nintendo published game with the word twat in it? I think we disturbed Diamond. Yes. you're right. I don't think there is probably the only N-64 game with Twat in it. So congratulations, rare. This game needs a re-evaluation in a podcast because I love how it released and people thought they were getting South Park. Really, they were getting the most northern UK humor ever heard. Yeah. Absolutely. You okay, Devin?

I just, look, I'm the kind of person who, you know, unless you're a metaprofessional, I don't really like talking about in my bowel movements. To have a sentient excrement sing a song about itself, I'm a little shook. I'm sorry. When I took karate back in the tens, I can't remember when it was, the place, the dojo had like an arrangement for birthday parties. And they had an N64 that they just kind of broke out for the parties. And they had Mario Kart and they had Conquer's fucking bad fur day as an option. This is for 10-year-olds. And I see them playing this game.

I'm like, do you guys know what game that is? Whatever, it's not my business. You know, I really hope they turned the volume up for that one. Nadia, I know you're trying to be colorful, but they should have called the game conquer's fucking bad for a day to let people know what they were in for. There's no disguising it if you just call it that. Like, I mean, as Diamond said, you have the singing shit. Where else do you go?

I, you know, I wrote this game off and now I don't know if I have to play it or if I have to never play it. I, gee, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. You know, I attempted to play it. when it was new and marked down to like $20

and this really is the highlight of the game and it's kind of I shortly stopped playing after that because nothing the game has to show you can top this

it's like I had a boss fight with a single pile of shit I don't I don't care what you're doing with your Matrix references you're not gonna top this

Is that on the rare replay I'm pretty sure yeah the Xbox original remake I think is on that or just the N64 I forget All right

maybe I'll have to put that up and just experience it for myself at least until I experienced this. It's something else. Do you know off the top of your head, Bob, who's saying it? Like, I think it was someone from Rare. Yeah, actually, yeah.

When we looked into Star Fox games, I noticed that all the voice actors in Rare games were rare employees. That's why Conqueror, his voice is so charmingly immatureish because it's basically the director of the game doing the voice. Yeah. I think Chris Seaver, I think, is the guy's name. He would not be the one to write the Donkey Kong rap that would curse his bloodline for a million. years afterwards until finally he received redemption from the gamers and they forgave him but yeah I think that was

Grant Kirkthroat I can't pronounce his name yeah I think I think that is who it was one of the two like most notable rare guys one of them is the culprit I'll call him the culprit the guy who did the thing I have a soft spot for that song to the point where when Smash Brothers melee came out I would troll my friends by making that the background song

in the Donkey Kong level Oh yeah, you always had to do that So they're finally here Performing for you If you know the words you can join in to Put your hands together If you want to clap As we take you through

This moon to wrap Hoo DG Don't keep up here Can I give a shout to some fighting games Because otherwise I'll feel like I left Some cards on the table Because even though You know we talked a lot about 90 stuff

And I feel like as the 90s wore on, and we got used to having more and more vocals in the games, singing vocals, I should say. I have to shout out a couple examples. First of all, we have to acknowledge the fact that Mortal Kombat, the original game doesn't have that much music, and there's certainly no singing in it. But the fact that they would have, you know, a bunch of Belgians, I think, get together and make a techno song. And that techno song would become so popular from a commercial that it would get into the movie. and now like 20 years later that that techno song is Mortal Kombat to so many people like I feel like

that should be acknowledged even though I don't know how many games even have the song in it like it certainly didn't come from the games itself but eventually it became bigger than the games at all so that's worth mentioning I agree Yeah and hey the Immortals The Immortals of Belgian Techno Band

Their entire Mortal Kombat The album is a hoots Which that song comes from Right the single comes the album comes And I'm sure because that album made money, that definitely gave us, you know, Killer Cuts, the Killer Instinct soundtrack, which is also worth mentioning.

Oh, yeah. Again, not in the game itself, but very worthy. And somehow Shaq Fu fits in there. We're not, we're not sure how. But, you know, as an S&K fan, you know, when I finally got my hands on KOF1998, and I put that cartridge in that big-ass cartridge in my NeoGeo and I push play.

Beautiful. That is a song, that is a game that wraps to you at the start, tell you how good it is. You know, that's worth saying, you know, it all began in 94, kept the roll in 95, peace fill in a place in 96, and he came down in 97, and now it comes, and here we go, KOWF is here again. Nothing going to stop. It's 1998, done, done, and it just goes.

And that is, you know, that is an epic opening for a game that I still consider, you know, one of the greatest ever made. And also of that era, we have to mention the fact that after Street Fighter 3 launched and Street Fighter 3 had its problems, they made a second street. Street Fighter 3. And then they made a third Street Fighter 3. And when they get to third Street Fighter 3, it's like, okay, you know what we want? We need more hip-hop in this game. And they reached out to Toronto's own Infinite, Nadia. From Rexdale, Infinite. Oh, shit. Fucking Rexdale. Beauty. He's from Rexdale. Looked it up. Love it. And he's, you know, the actual, like, combat portions of the game don't have that many lyrics in it. But he's all over the select screen. He's all over, you know, the menu screens. He's rapping on Street Fighter 3, how good Street Fighter 3 is. And he sells it to you. He sells you.

This is, no, we got it right. This is the good one. Please. Please don't go. Come back. And it's on topic. It's on topic because here we are in 2024. And Street Fighter 3 Third Strike is going to be an Evo this year.

So it's coming back. It's all coming back around. And I have to mention this also last but not least, maybe least in my heart, but not least in my brain. Mar versus Capcom 2. They decided, you know what? We had our chip tunes. We had our synth songs. What we need now.

is smooth jazz, and the people need to be taken for a ride. And they... I'll take you for a ride. Yes. And, you know, for me as a kid playing, you know, maybe not a kid, but for me as a young adult, playing Dreamcast games, I absolutely did not want this music in my head, but now it's like, it's the second most famous thing about that game. So, you know, Capcom was right.

They were ready. We weren't ready for it, but Capcombe was right. That's the music we should have had for the game. What's the first most famous thing about the game? The fact that it has like 58 characters. in it and you know some of their pallet swaps but it's fine they're all in there they've thrown everybody in there diamond had the had the marty mcfly comment of it you may not get this but your kids are going to love it yeah yeah all of gen alpha is doing uh some some awesome dancing to like

take you for a ride on ticot i'm guessing right they got to be yeah i mean look at go on youtube look up like jazz remixes and you'll find like live live performances of this music from marvel copcom too it's beautiful it's awesome Look it up It's your way I'm looking I'm like We're you hijooking

Yeah, you caught my eye Now I've got to try To get you, baby I'm going to take you for a ride I want to take you for a ride It's crying to me I'm going to me I want to take you

I just might. Man, this has been one hell of an episode. Thank you both so much for helping with it. Do you have any concluding thoughts about, I don't know, lyrics and video games and how cool or stupid they are or both? I mean, I'm still stubborn in a way. I'm more of an instrumental person. I'd rather have the game speak to me in some aspect on its own terms. Fair. But I'm also a grown adult, and, you know, I'm not immune to the power of beauty.

so if you want to have a song in there and it's singing to me about the wonders of the universe or how sad things are or literal excrement I feel like there's room for that too That's for me I think now songs with lyrics are so common We kind of take them for granted

I just had finished a few Pretty big budget Japanese games Resident Evil 4 remake and Monster Hunter Rise The DLC for that And both games end with the vocal theme But now I'm just like I'm gonna leave the room This is taking a while

And I'll let it play out until I get my end of game score. So, yeah, I feel like, especially in Japan, they're still doing this. They're still writing original music for credits. But I guess, again, it's not a special anymore. I say, pay attention. Don't leave the room. Watch all the credits go by. I'm yelling at myself for doing that, too.

Hold your bladder. Hold your bladder. It'll survive. Yeah. So it's certainly been kind of, I don't know if I call it an honor, but an experience to watch it all evolve from the very start. It's all the way back to that. skate or die, die, die, die, to die. Very aggressive. How dare you buy this game? We're going to kill you now. Good times. So that is it for this week's episode of Retronauts. This counts as your parent-mandated music lesson for the week. So tell your mom, you're free. As for the two of you, where can we find you? First of all, you, Diamond. I feel like you're on the show. I don't know, maybe. I am. I'm quite frequently on the show, especially because for our patrons, I make weekly columns and I read those columns to you. And one of the reasons I'm very fond of those columns

The fact that I always put music in there So by all means, if you're a music like you're in this episode Tickles your fancies that, hey, I would like more Richard or Notts with more music By all means, get in our Patreon and listen to my weekly columns Because they're full of music, some of them have lyrics Indeed, if you want to go back, if you want to go way back, excuse me, to my Batman Arkham City column, I sing an original parody At the end of that column.

So go listen to that. Beautiful. How can you resist? But around the internet, I actually have a brand new website. You can look, go to fightclub. That's F-E-I-T, my last name, C-L-U-B, a place where music is played, and me, the pronoun. Me. It's the, it's the website for me, Fightclub.me. That's nice.

How about you, Bob? Well, I'm not trying to become the next weirdo Yankovic, like Diamond, but I am doing other things. I have other podcasts, by the way. It's all part of the Talking Simpsons Network. You can find them. Wherever you find podcasts, go to TalkingSimpsons.com. There's Talking Simpsons, a chronological exploration of the Simpsons, and there's what a cartoon. We look into a different episode of a different cartoon every month, and that's all happening, again, where you find podcasts.

But if you go to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons, we have a ton of miniseries episodes behind the paywall, almost seven years worth of stuff, shows about Futurama and King of the Hill, Batman, the Animated series, and so on. So please check those podcasts out. And it's been a while since I promoted my book. I have a book out. It came out late last year. It is the Boss Flight Books volume, all about Day of the Tenticle. If you enjoy classic point of venture games, I did what I would call the definitive oral history on Day of the Tenticle. And it's available through the Boss Fight Books website or through Amazon or wherever you find books.

And, of course, I'm on Twitter and other things as Bob Servo. You know where to find me. Indeed, we do. Thank you so much, actually, everyone listening to this for supporting Retronauts. And please continue to do so over at Retronauts.com or pageron.com for us slash Retronauts. We have dandy and affordable pledge tiers. I guarantee you access to ad-free episodes that arrive a week early. We already had a mention of Diamond saying that they do their column with the music and cool stuff, and they narrate it to you.

So that's up for the grabs. And I believe also, if you pledge at the magical Nintendo 64 tier, you might be able to pick an episode every six weeks, I believe it is. Months, months, months. Okay. Every six, oh, God, no. Parrish would kill me. many ways. Too many requests.

As for myself, I am on Twitter and Blue Sky at Nadia Oxford. I also am part of the Acts of the Blog God podcast. Yeah, it's a podcast. That's right. And we talk about RPG's old and new, Eastern and Western.

You can find and support us at pagerun.com forward slash blood god pod. But until next time, keep making up those lyrics to Magnet Man stage music in Mega Man 3. exactly as I never, ever did as a child. She tells me, I'm sorry I got a role.

Now I see she's broken what she stole. Still, the words echo in my head. Watchers sell my words. brother wants you dead I magnetically drawing my death to me so I get my body reverse hilarity

walking to my town weaving that gun around you want to fight I'll give you one tonight thank you so this is a good man I bet you know this is that good man I think you're not this back good baby so it's clear

folks don't get along Now you'll feel what we heard is wrong.