Retronauts - Retronauts Episode 103: A game music primer, plus Darius and Gunstar Heroes

Episode Date: June 12, 2017

Game music expert James Eldred shares some helpful advice on finding and building a collection of classic soundtracks. Plus: In-depth with Ship To Shore's Darius and the DataDiscs Gunstar Heroes set.

This week in Retronauts, more talk, less rock. Hi, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Retronauts. This is a musical-focused episode. I guess you could call it Red Her Not to Radio if you want, but it's a little bit different than usual. This time I'm kind of walking it back, and, you know, we've done a lot of episodes talking about game music, talking about recent game releases, game vinyl, game MP3s, game CDs, etc., etc. But we haven't really actually talked about the process of buying music and acquiring music and all the logistics involved in that. So this week, I just kind of want to walk that back and go through some of the basics of being a game music collector and what that means. And to help me with this conversation, I have none other than longtime retronaut's friend and supporter.

James Eldred. Hello. And you may remember James from a very long time ago. Yeah, what was the episode that you co-hosted? It was probably about game music. I think so. That's my thing. Yeah, that is your thing.

And we're sitting here in your Tokyo apartment looking at a huge number of records. Actually, most of these aren't game music, but still. No, the game is on the other side. Okay. So, yeah. That is also a very large collection. Yes. So, yeah, after talking to James, it seems like it would make sense for us just to kind of go through

and kind of talk about some of the realities of collecting game music or, you know, not even collecting, just listening to it, acquiring. but doing it the legal way. Yes, please, if you can. As opposed to just, you know, torrenting a bunch of music. You can do that, that's fine. No one's going to know,

except maybe your ISP and basically the government, but that's okay. That's a risk you take. Yeah, for us. But, yeah, like we're big into supporting artists and creators, and, you know, Retronauts Radio has focused on new game releases,

specifically because you can acquire those and support the people who make the music, who made the music, who are publishing the music. Retronaut is not necessarily a celebration of capitalism or acquisition, but I believe strongly in, you know, supporting the people whose work you love, the people who create the things that you enjoy, and, you know, hunting for current game releases,

whether on iTunes or on vinyl or on CD or whatever, Like picking those up new, and if you can find them that way, that is money that goes into their pockets so they can create more of the music that you like. So I'm all in favor of that. Yes. And if your computer explodes, your vinyl and CDs and tapes or whatever you have, they're still safe. Right. On the other hand, if your house burns down, your vinyl is going to melt, but it's not going to hurt your cloud saves. Yeah, that's that.

But there's a trade-off. Yeah. That's why you buy vinyl and rip it. I don't know. Word. Yeah. So, anyway. I don't even know where to go from here.

It's such a broad topic. Well, I think we could start with talking about, like, you know, collecting music, the logistics of, you know, if you want to buy game of music. Because I think there's two routes to go there. You can buy new stuff, you know, on any format, but vinyl's really big right now. And, of course, digital and stuff like that.

Or if you, well, what I do, I like to do the most is to, collect old releases and I kind of have an advantage there because I live in Japan now and it's much easier to find those but yeah I mean for basically 25 years no one was releasing game music officially legitimately in the US I mean the first time I ever saw game music releases available for purchase was for Final Fantasy 3 what aka Final Fantasy 6 and Sigurdamana SquareSoft was offering those through mail order in the U.S., and they were like $40 per CD, which is crazy expensive. Whereas in Japan, they've been publishing game soundtracks since the original days of vinyl and cassette. And before soundtracks were released on CD, they were coming out here in analog formats since the mid-80s.

So, yeah, it's definitely been more of an actual market over here, an actual commercial enterprise. Yeah, I'm always surprised when you look at old releases just how specific they got. Like I showed you, I have the Dragon Quest soundtrack on brass. That's all it is. That's a separate release just for an special brass recording of Dragon Quest. And now it's apparently enough of a market for that to exist. Yeah, I mean, I guess you could probably chalk some of that up to the financial bubble, the economic bubble that Japan enjoyed in the 80s, where there was just money to throw everywhere, and people would drill down into all kind of niche markets. And we've talked about that, but it really did create a different sort of, I guess, fandom experience for Japanese gamers than Americans, because you had,

things like strategy guides and figurines and music soundtracks released for popular video games for Famicom, you know, for 8-bit and 16-bit systems. And that was just something that did not exist in the same capacity in the U.S. Like we got weird, janky-looking Mario plush figures and that sort of thing. But we really didn't get a lot of game merchandise past, you know, Pacmania.

Yeah, but I think a lot of, does have to do with the bubble, but it extends even past that. I mean, I have three different soundtracks to show aniki. I mean, and that's the 90s and, you know, you got to get yourself, that's, that's true. That's, that's true. The bubble did kind of begin to collapse in the mid 90s. Yeah. But by that point, you know, the, the market here was sort of, it was defined. Like, it existed and that, that audience was there. There was, there was, you know, I guess people were conditioned to think, oh, I love this game.

I should go buy the soundtrack. And it took a long time for that to catch on in the U.S. in Europe. Yeah, like I said, in the last time I was on, the first game soundtrack, I remember buying was wipeout. But before that, the idea of it never even crossed my mind. Now, when that's the majority, not the majority, but a good portion of what I buy here is just vintage game soundtracks,

and there's just so many of them. And it can be a really kind of difficult area to get into because it can be expensive, too. Yeah. Yeah, but I mean, you know, when I was a kid, I was recording, you know, like the Ninja Guidon soundtrack or Castlevania 3 soundtrack from the sound test within the game. Yeah. And it's putting a little tape recorder in front of the computer or the television monitor, the television speaker, sorry. But over here in Japan, they just went down to the store and they bought a cassette tape of Castlevania. or whatever.

So, yeah. So being in Japan does definitely give you an advantage if you want to find vintage vintage soundtrack releases. But, you know, it also gives you an advantage if you want to find new soundtrack releases because you go to HMV or Tats, what's it called? The best, Sutaya. Well, Sutaya is rental only. Oh, is it?

Predominantly rental only. Really? Yes. I thought it was a purchase place. Well, they don't, do you don't see? You can buy games there. Oh, okay. Because you can't rent games in Japan. Right.

But no, I never, I mean, you can buy stuff there, I think, but I never go there because it's mostly rental. The best place to be, if you're in Japan, or I think you can probably even do it mail order, if you want to get new game releases from someplace in Japan would probably be Tower Records, which still exists in Japan and is quite awesome. Yeah, Tower is like. the Yahoo of Japanese music. Like, it exists here and you can't find them in America anymore. And it's just, like, the Tower Records in

Shibuya is, like, heaven. It's nine stories. And the game music selection there is strictly new stuff, but you'd be amazed what you can find there, like the near automata. What's the name of that game? Neer automata.

Neer automata. Automata, I don't know. Near automata peer. You know, that has a soundtrack, the four-disc Gravity Days soundtrack is there. I bought the soundtrack to Thumper there just yesterday, and it had its own special display with a bunch of, like, a write-up on the game in Japanese, which I thought was pretty great, considering it's an American game by an American composer. But, yeah, Japanese or American or Western game music is making inroads here.

I was at a super potato retro game shop yesterday. And I realized that over the PA, they were playing a remix of Shovel Nights, stage one theme. I was like, huh, that's crazy. I wouldn't have heard this, you know, a few years ago. Disregarding the fact that the game didn't exist a few years ago. Well, that's that. Like, you know, the fact that it did kind of catch on here. Like, it's interesting.

But let's assume most of the people we're talking to who are listening to this. Do not live in Tokyo and do not have easy access to the Tower Records in Shibuya. Yeah. So what does that mean for them? Well, if they want to buy, if sticking with new stuff, and we'll get to vinyl, I think, in a bit. But, like, if you want to get new releases of new soundtracks, I think probably your best bet's, you know, going to be the Internet, obviously, in Amazon. And I see people complain a lot about what they think is a high markup. Like, you'll see a new game soundtrack, and it's like 50 bucks. But in Japan, CDs cost a lot of money.

CDs are really expensive here for whatever reason. Yeah, because you can rent to them. Ah, yeah. So a new CD in Japan will cost you, you know, anywhere between $20, in dollars, between $25 and $32. So you add an import price to that, and $50 is pretty fair. Yeah, Amazon is one place to get these soundtracks. You can also import them directly from some retailers that do ship overseas.

CD Japan is a good choice. They sell you soundtracks in actual yen prices like fair without any real markup. And if you get the slow boat shipping, then you can save a couple of dollars off the Amazon price. But yeah, we're not necessarily

just talking about Japanese soundtrack releases. Also, if you're looking for old stuff, people always mention eBay, and that's great, but the prices on eBay can be crazy. I always recommend discogs, which is an online database and marketplace only for music. And the game database, it's all a user curator. So there isn't, there's a lot of holes there when it comes to game music, but it's getting

better. I personally put in about 400 releases over my holiday break. And you can get a much better deal there because they're selling to people. who know what they, who know what it is. So there's less, like, you know, of the whole, like, taking advantage of people who just want to buy one thing. You know, you have entire stores dedicated to imports, and they're going to price stuff a little more fair.

It's still going to be expensive, but it's much more fair. Okay, so I thought Discog's marketplace was, like, peer-to-peer. Is it, I mean, are there, is it basically peer-to-peer, but there are, effectively businesses that have set up around that system? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. My friends who have record stores in America, they have a discloser. page. Oh, okay. I didn't realize that. Yeah. And it's, I guess for the seller, it's better, too.

Yeah, I mean, you can definitely pay a lot of money in the Discog's marketplace, but you're right. Like, I've never bought there, but just browsing through it, I've noticed that prices are much, much more reasonable unless something is like genuinely rare, in which case you're going to pay actual market value. But if something's not rare, you're also going to pay actual market value, which means you're not going to be taken advantage of. I mean, and there's always it's, There's a guy trying to sell a copy of Nevermind for $2,000, but you know, you ignore him and you just focus on this people who are... I mean, they only made like 10 million copies of that album. It's pretty rare.

Oh, yeah. Well, never mind on vinyl, we're not going to go into that, but that's worth a decent amount of money. Oh, well, sure. But not too grand. I think meant like the tape cassette. Oh, tape is that. No, in Japan, if you want to afford to buy music in Japan right now, what you do is you go to Goodwill and you buy other cassette tapes. And then you come here because apparently cassette tapes are a big thing here right now.

And you can, you know, like I was telling Jeremy earlier, I saw Nirvana cassette tapes for $2,000 to $4,000, that's $20 to $40,000, that you could buy in America for $5. So, hey, if you want to set up a bartering system to get some good stuff, you know, that would be a good idea. Yeah, that's not a bad idea. Yeah. So, yeah, like, okay, that's kind of just a general, I suppose, um, introduction. to buying music in Japan and overseas but you know

there are a lot of a lot of new releases that are coming direct from the publisher there are some independent labels that have kind of come into being specifically for the purpose I think of selling game music we've talked about them a lot ship to shore

discogs mondo or not docs sorry data disks metadata disks Mondo I am 8 bits There are a few others. Bravewave. Yeah. And Mondo does all kinds of stuff. They started with t-shirts and posters, and now they're doing the soundtracks. And, you know, I think you really

liked the latest release. Yeah, the Castlevania 3 and Contra 3. They turned out really well. Yeah, I'm glad those turned out well. I have had multiple bad experiences with their sound quality, so I'm a little more hesitant to recommend them. It seems like they're getting serious about improving their quality. Yeah, I mean, I think for the longest time, the ideal market were people who do not listen to their records, which is about 40% of people who buy records. Yeah, but I think as records have become more common

as something beyond just collector's items, more and more people are actually listening to the records and saying, why does this sound so bad? Yes. So I think the market is just kind of forcing them to, to up their game but again like I don't want people to think

this is specifically just about game vinyl because it's really not like I there are so many ways to buy video game music these days it's it's fantastic I mean you know like I said 20 years ago I was a kid who

spent a whole lot of money to get a hold of a Final Fantasy 3 Final Fantasy 6 soundtrack it was very very expensive and was a very very hard purchase for me, but it started me down a dark road. And that's no longer necessary. Like, yeah, you can spend a lot of money on a soundtrack if you want to, but there are lots of ways to get a, you know, get a hold of music legitimately. And I mean, I think there's never

been a better time to be an enthusiast of game music. There are more and varied releases. They're coming from Western publishers and Japanese publishers. They're coming in a wide variety of formats, at a wide variety of price points. Like, if you want to listen to a game soundtrack, you can do it. Like, there's no real barrier to entry anymore. Yeah, and, you know, if you want to buy, like, the super high-end one, like, a good example would be the recent release of Darius by a ship to shore. You can get that on vinyl, and it's red or blue, and it looks great. But you can also, I think, buy most Zunata stuff on iTunes.

So if you just care about the music and you don't have a record player and you don't want to go down that dark path of all that stuff, then it's very easy just to find stuff online digitally and usually at a very affordable price. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that's really pretty much where anyone should start when they're hunting for game music is just go look at iTunes. I mean, it's insane what kind of stuff shows up on iTunes. like Mother 3 soundtracks, not just the original soundtrack, but also remix soundtracks. You can buy those on America's iTunes.

That game has never come to America. At this point, it probably never will. But nevertheless, you can buy both the soundtrack and remixes on the Apple store. Like, it's a, yeah, like just the sheer amount of stuff is kind of incredible. There's a lot of stuff being released on Spotify. oh yeah i heard about that yeah i don't i mean living here i don't have access to the same spotify so i can't see it but i i've heard that more and more like sega put a bunch of stuff on spotify you mentioned that and sega there've been several other other companies that have started putting

stuff up on spotify also yeah so that's not a way to purchase it but if you just want to listen to it and you don't really care about owning it you don't want more clutter in your life streaming services are a good way to do that yeah a lot of people seem to be going that route these days. I mean, that's not my thing, but yeah. I mean, the problem with streaming services is that you know, publishers and creators get almost nothing

for that. You might as well just be stealing it off YouTube or it's a bit torrent at that point. Yeah. But, you know, that is still like they're getting something. If you stream the Sonic theme, the Green Hills zone, a few thousand times, then

Sega probably gets five cents. Yeah. So I guess if that's that's the way you want to go. That's one way to go. camp, all that stuff. But the big thing now seems to be the high prestige vinyl releases from I am 8 bit, Wave, Wave,

ship to shore, I can never say them, data disks and places like that. And they're usually pretty good. I like all those companies. But when you buy stuff, those cost a lot of money and it's important to kind of pay attention to what you're getting. You know,

IAM 8 bit tend to do picture disks. And those look cool, especially when they're spinning on the turntable, but pixel discs usually sound like garbage. Yeah, it's worth kind of explaining why that is. But, I mean, to play a record, you're putting a needle, a tiny, like, microscopic needle into a tiny microscopic groove to play microscopic little bumps, basically, that, you know, vibrate and create sound. A picture disc, silk screens an image over top of those grooves. So it's actually filling in some of the space And it's creating a very thin

But nevertheless, a very real layer of material Between the needle and the actual music I mean, it'd be like trying to talk through your t-shirt Like, I can still hear you, but it sounds awful You're going to sound like Spider-Man Yeah, which is okay But Pixar discs have gotten a lot better I compared the stuff from the 80s

I mean, I have a few 80s picture discs and the pictures will chip off and they're unlistenable I bought that Res one and I have the CD the original pressing CD and it sounds better but it still sounded

remarkably good now I can't say the same thing about Glow on the Dark records which IM8Bit has done with Ori and the Blind Forest and I see it a lot with movie soundtracks there was a Fright Night reissue

that was Glow in the Dark and those sound horrible. Really? Why is that? Is it something in the material? I assume it has something to do with the coding they put on it. I have several glow-in-the-dark records. I don't know why. I have, you know, that Fright Night one, an old craft work single, the Ori one, and they look so cool, but they sound just garbage to the point where I am 8bit even put up a disclaimer before you buy the Orii. It's like this isn't going to

sound great, which, but they provided a download code for that. So, which comes to my second point, like, I love vinyl. I have a blog dedicated to vinyl. Vinyl's great. I have 3,000 records. Vinyl's horribly inconvenient for modern life. I will always support first any label that releases the music with a download code. I think that is very vital. If you want the people to listen to the music and I think sometimes it's a rights A rights issue like you know some or another company's grab the digital rights or the CD rights so they can't include it Other times though they're just being selfish and they want I mean it's true yeah they just want you to buy it twice Yeah, and I won't buy it twice yeah I'm a big fan of the way Brave Wave by an album whether CD or more vinyl

they give you a download code for it. Yeah. That's really the way to do it. Like, I realize, like you said, there are sometimes rights issues, but it's definitely something to watch for. And like, I.M. 8bit released the Headlander soundtrack, which I love that game, and I love the soundtrack, but it was $40 and it had no download code. And I'm just not going to risk that. Also, you have to keep in mind, and this is not IM8, but this is the nature of vinyl. Vinyl is not entirely reliable.

Sometimes you'll just get bad luck and get a bad pressing or when it's warped, and they're not going to give you a refund for that necessarily. So then you're stuck with a scratchy record that, in no download code, and you spent $40 on it, and it looks good on your wall, but that's all it's good for it. So with all these inconveniences and troubles and setbacks with vinyl, why would anyone collect vinyl? You know, sometimes I just look at my wall of records, and I ask myself that very question

and I think about the fact that I have you know a few thousand records in a storage locker back in Pittsburgh that I can't get to and I just cry but you know vinyl when it comes to new stuff I think people

it's like buying a poster or buying the collectible figure if that's what you're into it's like it's a way to show that you really like something and it's a physical tangible object that you can hold and that has more weight physically and you know metaphorically to you

like um a good if you just download something especially or if you download it and even pay for it you don't think about it as much in my opinion and like like remember when when you two gave everyone an album for free no one cared and it was probably not a very good record but if you don't if you just give it actually people were angry about it well i mean we got a brand new youtube album how how freaking dare you. Yeah.

Well, it's like, you know, when I was in college, I would download music all the time. And, you know, when BitTorrent first happened, you'd download stuff. And then, okay, I have the complete metallic discography. That's nice. I'm never going to listen to it. So, yeah, I mean,

I think by having a physical product, it's kind of a way to show you appreciation for, and it's also just, it looks nice, I guess, you know? Yeah, I mean, for my part, it's it's about the process of listening it's uh i don't know i kind of got to a point where you know a lot of a lot of um what i listen to is older music just because i'm that's me um and what i find now is that labels and artists you know are repackaging these old albums on cd and

they're giving you like deluxe editions that have bonus discs full of live recordings and outtakes and that sort of thing, and that's fine. But after, you know, 10 years of buying these albums and being like, oh, I should, I should get this album again because look at this stuff. There's stuff, archival material and live performances. What I eventually realized was like I was never listening to those bonus discs. I was listening to the album and not the bonus discs. And I guess I've kind of increasingly become, this might sound a little weird, but but sort of I guess a fan of

austerity like not minimalism but kind of just pairing it down to the essentials which it might seem strange that I would be acquiring records you know like acquiring things

as part of a process of stripping down but I find that I'm enjoying music more now that I'm not getting these like you know three hour version of a 40-minute album. It's just the album.

And like, you know, sometimes you'll get to a track that you hate and it's too bad because you have to physically skip it by lifting up the stylus. But for the most part, like, I put on a record and you, you know, start it and you listen to it and then 20 minutes later, you know, you either flip it over or you listen to it again or put on a different record or something,

but it does kind of compartmentalize it. And it's easier for me to focus on that music for 20 minutes, then to put on an album and just let it play for two hours, because then it just kind of fades into the background, and I stopped being conscious of the music. So, like, that's, that's really pretty much entirely the appeal of vinyl for me. Like, of all the things that, you know, the different factors involved, it's just, like, limiting my music like that, given in, in this finite physical form, inconvenient as it is, like, has forced me to kind of stop and, and, and, pay attention and think, like, why do I love this music in the first place? And it becomes a

conscious act as opposed to, you know, just sort of something that's there in the background that I take, you know, for granted. I see, I mean, I see your point there. You're talking to somebody who spent $200 on a funky ghost of Hollywood box set. So I don't know to get more music. So I can kind to see both ends of that. I want all the remixes. I want all the live performances. I want all of that, but also vinyl has intimacy to it. People like to say and, you know, and it's not really about audio quality. I don't think vinyl sounds

inherently better or worse. It depends on the release. It depends on the mastering, you know, and that's not such an issue with game music as much. You're not going to get game music on CD isn't overly compressed. So you don't have to worry about that. It's not like when you buy

the new, you know, but actually pepper is and it sounds like garbage even more than they usually do, because it's compressed. That was a very subtle, I'm sorry. They're a fine band. Because to compress, that's not an issue with game music. You don't have to weigh about that.

So it's really, you know, the format you want, get it on that. And if you like vinyl because it's cool, that's great. And if it makes you feel more attached to the music, that's great. But if you buy vinyl, listen to it because that's a big, I've been reading, you know, 40% of people, I think, like I said earlier, don't listen to the records they buy. And they can do what they want. It's their money, but that's not a sustainable market. And if you want to see companies like IM8Bit and Ship to Shore and Mando and all these companies keep releasing awesome soundtracks, then the people who buy them, you know, should listen to them because the people who are buying them because they look neat, they're going to quit doing it.

Yeah, I wish labels other than Brave Wave would release their music on CD as well as vinyl. CD is an undivated format. Yeah, I mean, it's weird. Like, when did CDs become this thing that were like, oh, who cares? Because I remember, like, what a fetish object of those were back in the 80s and in the early 90s. You were like, a music on CD? Yeah, I mean. Is it when they lost the long boxes?

I have a few long boxes. You know, for me, I got into vinyl because it had stuff I couldn't get on CD. You know, I like synth pop and I like Depeche Mode and Eurasia and Pet Shot Boys. And they have dozens of remixes, especially. 10 years ago, 15 years ago, that you could not get on CD. And that's, and soundtracks too, and that's why I started buying vinyl. Nowadays, if

I have a choice between a CD single and a 2, 12-inch single of a Depressed mode single, I'm going to buy the CD because it's more convenient. You know, so I don't know why CDs are out of favor now. I think, I don't, and I don't know if we'll see

CD nostalgia. Who knows? Maybe we will. Everything becomes, if if the species survives along enough, everything develops nostalgia. I mean, we were talking about tape cassettes earlier. Yeah. And that's, apparently that's a huge thing over here now. Yeah, tape cassettes are really big in Japan.

And I don't, is it big in America? No, it's like, it's still kind of this like super hipster format. Some people will release stuff on tape cassette, but it's kind of ironic. But you are seeing more and more of it. It's probably going to supplant vinyl as like the, you know, the, the, you know, the, the, the, the, kombucha and mustache crew favorite format. Yeah, and here it's insane.

Like, I see any sealed cassette tape goes for at least without $10. And, you know, or like that Dragon Quest one I got was $4,000 and $40. And it's, and there's new tape decks being made.

And I don't get it. I mean, tapes can sound good. I'm not, you know, and if you want to listen to them on tape, hey, you go crazy. But the problem with cassette tapes is they die. Yeah, more so than vinyl. They're very, very fragile.

And also because the player can kill a cassette tape, cassette deck, and cassettes just wear out. And, you know, the problem with CDs is they wear out if you do nothing. They will eventually just die. And you'll start. Are you talking about BitRot? BitRot. I mean, you know, they're plastic.

So a CD that came out in 1986 or I think 82 were the first CDs. A CD that came out, maybe two, if you buy it now, it might not play. I have a few of the very first CDs, and they play. You say if you do nothing, they'll die. If you do anything, they'll just die. They're going to die no matter what. They're going to die regardless, because they just degrade. Now, a vinyl record, if you never play it, we'll never degrade.

And, you know, that's an environmentalist user, but, you know, sounds good. That's why, like, you know, the Library of Congress, and they archive stuff if they can on vinyl. because it's, or real-to-reel, it's the safest formats. But real-to-reel is tape, right? Yeah, but it's a whole thing. It's, you know, I mean, real-to-reel stored, just like tape stored, tape stored will last a long time. Tape being played a lot will not.

Vinyl being played a lot in the proper conditions, and if we can get to that in a minute, will still last a considerable amount of time. The vinyl never played will last forever. but you can definitely do things to your records to destroy them yes of course the proper way to listen to video game music is to get it on a

a cassette not a cassette but a cartridge record like not record but a cartridge album that only plays on the original hardware that's what you really want yeah you go nuts I don't think they release those yet I mean I did I did do the

the Columbus Circle 8-bit music power videos, but those are kind of a weird exception. An interesting exception. And I know Kiji Yamagichi, the composer of Ninja Gaiden and

TechMobile, has talked about releasing an album on a Famicom cartridge, but yeah, I'm being facetious. I will totally buy that, but no, I will too, if it ever comes out, but yeah. That'd be a little strange.

So you were going to say something about vinyl. So, yeah, if you want to get into that, we can, you know, I think the biggest thing, and one of the biggest reasons I wanted to talk about this was a lot of my friends are getting into vinyl, a lot of people are getting into vinyl, and that's great, but I always hear, I'm going to go to Urban Outfitters and buy whatever turntable they have. I'll go to Target or, you know, Walmart or whatever, and for the love of God, don't do that, because you will destroy your records. Yeah, I get occasional pings from people who are like, hey, I really enjoyed Retronauts radio.

Uh, should I get a, like a Crosley or an ion? Like, they, they have stuff at Urban Outfitters. I saw something at, you know, Hobby Lobby. No, don't do that. And it's not, this is not a snob issue. This is not even an audiophile issue. You know, there are expensive turntables that don't sound good. The, the issue with, uh, those cheap turntables you see at Target, like the ones or

USB turn tables is that they use, so you could get into a whole thing about needles and cartridges, what plays on the record, and there's different kinds. But they use ceramic needles, and ceramic needles are the oldest kind that are still being used, and they put a lot of pressure on your records. And when you use those, you're wearing out the groove. And so if you were a kid who is my age, you know, person 40 or older, and you had a cheap turntable, you had a ceramic needle turntable, and if you remember, after a while, your record didn't work anymore,

because it was literally like sanding off the groove. So any turntable, like those ion turntables that say you can archive your music or those Quowseley suitcase ones that look really neat. Yeah, I love those suitcase ones. They look so cool, but you might as well take sandpaper to your records because it's doing the same thing. Man. Yeah, I very casually got back into vinyl because, you know, back in the 90s, people were just giving away vinyl.

It was like you'd go to a record store and they had all these crates underneath the CD bins. They were like, just please, for the love of God, take as many of these as you want for a dollar or two. So I would buy records. I was like, oh, I love this album. I want the artwork big. It's nice. I don't really care about

condition. And I ended up with a few dozen of those. And my parents are kind of in the long-term process of getting rid of all the stuff of mine that is at their house. and that I left when I, you know, left home however long ago. And so they, you know, they finally said, okay, well, here's a bunch of records that

belong to you. So they dropped them off. And I said, oh, well, I should get a record player and, you know, just kind of listen to these. So I bought one that was very kind of stylish looking fit the aesthetic of our living room, cost a decent amount. And listen to it was like, ooh, this sounds really bad. And then after about a week, the wiring inside gave out because it was so badly manufactured that within a week, it actually died and like one of the sound channels stopped playing. So I returned it and said, you know what, maybe I should actually just buy a decent record player with this money.

So I did. I bought an Audio Technica, like just the entry model, but it's a good record player. it sounds nice. And I listened to these records and was like, oh, wow, this actually sounds really good. I always thought a vinyl is sort of this substandard format because, you know, as a kid, we had some beaten up old record player that belonged to my parents. I don't think, you know, they really did the proper maintenance on it. I don't think they really were aware of what needed to be done.

And all the records that I would listen to were those, you know, beaten up records that I bought. And so, you know, it was like scratchy and lots of surface noise and sometimes it would skip. And so it was kind of a novelty, but I was like, yeah, I'm ready to move on to CD. But going back and playing with a proper record player, I was really surprised by how good the format sounds. So I started getting not super serious about vinyl. I'm not going to own a thousand records or anything like that. But like, you know, the albums that I love and, you know, when I can get the new relationships, leases on vinyl, I'm all for that, especially game music.

Yeah, and, you know, you mentioned to audio techniques. I think you have an ATLP 60. Yeah, that's the entry model. Yeah, there are cheaper ones than that that you should not buy because those have the bad needles that I was telling you about. That's a great, you know, entry level, basic, it'll do what you need to do. Yeah, it's $100. Yeah, $100 turntable, you know, I would, you know, they're a really good starter

turntable and I think I was trying to find one cheaper than that, that was good and I couldn't I think if you are at the least bit interested in records then you could start from there and then if you're interested in moving up then there's

all kinds, once you get to like $2,300 your range of what's good is just really explodes and there's different kinds of turntables, there's belt-driven turntables and there's direct drive, and that's a whole other discussion and his viewpoints on what's better or not. But like, basically, what I always

recommend anybody do if they're looking for a turntable is, you know, do your research, just Google the model number. There are forms full of idiots like me who spend way too much time talking about these things, and you can find out what's good, what's bad. Ignore people who talk about, you know, oh, you know, they want to pick apart the sound staging or other words that don't mean anything about audio quality. Just look about if it does it sound good, Will it destroy your records? No, then it's probably a good turntable. And then, you know, from there you can start, if you want to get even more involved, you can get more involved.

Right. Yeah. And then from there, you start rewiring your house and you buy a separate transformer that separates your power source from the neighborhood so you don't get any, yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, and another thing to think about is if you don't want to spend a lot of money on a new turntable, you know, turntables have been around for a very long time. There are very good used turntables that you can get for less than $100. You know, go on Craigslist. You know, you'd be surprised what you can find from somebody who just doesn't care

and they just want to get rid the turntable, you know. And that's how I got mine. I have a Technics, $1,200, which I think is the best turntable. If somebody ever asked me what turntable to get, get a Technic's $1,200. That's not an unpopular opinion. Do not get a new one. New ones cost $3,000. You do not need that.

You can get a used techniques for $5 to $300. And I've had mine for eight years. It's never given me any problems. They're built like tanks. They'll call the wheels of steel for a reason. They are the greatest turntable in the world. If I had to leave my house with one thing, I'd grab that. Wow.

Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, myself, I'm interested in moving on from that entry-level model. there is the challenge of explaining to my wife that yes I know I have a very nice little turntable and I listen to it and I enjoy it but I really need to spend more money on another one but you know that's that's a that's a me issue not a not a you issue so yeah yeah I mean I kind of feel like I've taken the a sort of circuitous path but sort of ended up in the right place with a very near miss with a bad turntable yeah and You know, it just happened to coincide with a bunch of studios starting to get serious about releasing game music on vinyl. So it's been great because it, you know, game music has always been something that I've been interested in listening to and also writing about professionally, but I kind of dropped off for a while since like 2010, 11 or so. But this has gotten me back into appreciating game music again. And, like, I just stop and think more about what I'm hearing.

And so, you know, I guess it's maybe it's just a personal thing as I'm getting older or something. I need something to jumpstart my lack of enthusiasm for life. I don't know. But in any case, yeah, you guys have been sort of taking this journey with me, whether you like it or not. So that's kind of the story there. And one thing, if we can talk about that for a second, like when it comes to, you know, I talked about how download codes are great, and CDs and digital audio is great, but even then some labels won't put them out on CD, they'll do vinyl only,

or you'll find an old game music soundtrack or anything, and it's only on vinyl. And then that's when you, if you really want that portable on your iPod or whatever, that's when you want to start looking into ripping vinyl. And again, those cheap turntables that have USB connections, they're completely worthless because they don't have a good final pre-amp installed. They might have one, but it's garbage.

So to explain that a little bit, I don't want to get too technical. Final signals, finals are turntable, vinyl. Final signals are very, very weak and compared to any other audio signal. So you need a special amplifier that's specially made to boost that signal. So if you just plug your turntable

into your computer without that, you'll barely hear anything. So USB turntable sometimes have those built in, they can sound okay. The audio technical one's not bad, but if you really want to rip vinyl to your computer and have MP3s, I always recommend getting a good regular turntable, whatever you think is the best for you, and then buying a USB audio device. I have one called the Art USB Final Pre-Amp Plus. It's simple, you just plug it into your USB.

You plug the turntable in, you adjust the levels, so there's no clipping, and you're done. And you can record to any program, Audacity, whatever you like, and there are programs that remove clicking, click, and white noise, some better than others. I usually use those because no record's perfect, and I'm kind of, if I'm listening to headphones, then clicking sounds can get really annoying. But it's not that hard. It's kind of, for me, it's been a fun hobby. I've pretty much, like, I dedicated an entire blog to it, lost turntable. I rip stuff that's only on vinyl and share it. But it's not that hard.

It's a really fun way to kind of get really into the music you listen to and kind of, you know, entry-level, like, audio mixing, even if you really want to get that far. Some people will rip stuff and change the equalizing setting, stuff like that. That's not for me. But it's not that hard. And, like, if you want to buy a Brave Wave vinyl, like the Pants of Dragoon soundtrack and listen to it on your iPod, that's how you do it. Something I have noticed while I've been over here in Japan this year is that CDs have become

an extremely, like game CDs, have become an extremely popular format, like hot, hot collector commodities. It's really weird because I never really, like, game music on CD was always kind of like you could just go, it was a commodity, you could just go buy it. And all of a sudden, like, you go to Nakano Broadway and there's shops that are asking like $1,500 for a Mario CD. You know, I blame myself. You did this? I came here, I bought

all the game music, and they're suddenly like, wow, people are buying this. Malk up the price, so I apologize. But, yeah, like, I don't know what happened with game music the past year. I've been in Japan now three and a half years, and when I first came here, it was easy and relatively

cheap. I could buy, I bought a 13-disc outrun box set for $80, which for 13 disc is not a bad deal. Now that would cost me double. And, um, like we were at Nakano Broadway and they had, what was it, the Donkey Kong country three soundtrack

or two? Uh, one of them. And it was over a thousand dollars. And pardon my language, are you fucking high? Like, it's good. I think Mario, it was Mario 64 or something. It's like $1,400. No,

the only one that was over a grand was that the Donkey Kong one, I think. The Mario ones were really expensive. But I remember because, regardless, they were all way too expensive. Yeah, like, it's an N64 soundtrack. You don't even want that. I mean, a great game, but not good music. I mean, that's fine.

I mean, you do you. But, like, that's the thing about, if you come to Japan to buy game music, you have to keep that in mind. And, like, if you go, Napao is an awesome place. It's kind of better than Akihabo now for buying games. Sometimes it can be. Actually, no. There's a secret place we found last time I was here.

It's so good. The prices are so good. And I'm not going to tell anyone where or what it is because... Tell me later, please. I will. But it's too good to spoil. Sorry, everyone, I'm holding out on you. But going back, if you want to buy game music, when they come to Japan,

there's all kinds of guides for buying games of Japan and where to go for that. But for game music, like I said earlier, Tau Records is the best for new stuff. But for old stuff, go to Bookoff. Bookoff is, like, the used bookstore chain that also sells games. Yeah, it's basically Japan. Hands have priced books. And you can get really good game music there at really good prices. I found Famicom Music, which is an old release in the 80s for 20 bucks.

And that's a really good deal. And sometimes they know what they have and they price it accordingly. But it's still, and there's bookoffs freaking everywhere. Yeah, they're all over the place. And if you go out in the country, make sure, like if you go, if you leave Center, Tokyo, go to Saitama or Tachioji or further away, you'll see burk-offs but you'll also see hard-offs which it's funny every time you say it and they sell hardware hence the name

and in addition to hardware they also sell CDs and stuff and you can get great deals on games and music there it's like the best take a you know if you're going out to like Mount Tikal or some or Kamakura or some area like to do sightseeing look on Google Maps look for a hard off you'd be shocked what you can find for almost nothing.

Yeah. Yeah, another great place to look. The prices are, you know, pretty steep there because they know what they have, but friends in Akihabara, their entire third floor is basically, it's some strategy guides, but it's mostly game soundtracks. Yeah. And they have some stuff there that I've never seen, and they want a pretty penny for it. Yeah.

That place actually gets, like, not just in terms of music, but also games. like stuff behind the counter that you can't touch I saw like a box copy of rendering ranger for Super Famicom there that game is crazy rare crazy expensive

it's like a $2,000 game and they just had it kind of sitting there Yeah you know It wasn't even like a display case It was just like kind of on a shelf behind the guy

in that crowded third floor room where all the music is I was just like Can I lick that? Oh, like that. Take away value, then they have to give it to me. Aha, that could possibly go wrong. Yeah, Akihaber can be good for game music.

You know, Friends is pricey. Soup Potato is actually pretty good a lot of times. For game music? For game music. And they carry new stuff, too. Trader has a little bit of game music, and sometimes you can get good stuff. But, like, usually for game music, soup potato and friends, and otherwise, Akihaber is not going to be much of a help for you.

The chains, the ones I already mentioned, book off. There's a big chain here called Disc Union. And they often have game music. And if you're going to find game music on vinyl, which I get asked about all the time, one, you won't find it. You might, I mean, it doesn't happen that much, but you're going to find it at a disc union

or at a HMV, which is still a thing here. And that's pretty much it, or at an independent record store. And if you're looking for game music vinyl, ask where the anime soundtracks are because they usually bundle them together and they might not even know they have game music. When I came here for vacation about four years ago, that's how I found any game music. It was in the anime section. And that's your best bet.

You're usually, if you find game music on vinyl, it's probably going to be Dragon Quest. So I hope you like that. So people listening to this probably will. Quite possibly. All right. So I feel like this has been a pretty solid primer on collecting and listening to game music. I don't know. Is there anything that we have kind of overlooked or missed?

Anything you wanted to bring up that we didn't touch on? Not much. Just, yeah, I think that covers everything. You know, when it comes to like turntables and stuff like that, just do your research and feel free to always, you know, contact me. I love answering questions about vinyl and turntables and helping people avoid costly mistakes. I probably bought four turntables before I found mine. I spent more on cheap turntables

than are an expensive turntable. So, you know, if you ever have any problems with that, you know, feel free to hit me up on Twitter or my blog or anything and I'll be glad to answer any questions. So to wrap this up, what's the most interesting game soundtrack you've listened to lately, or you've picked up. Oh, boy.

I bought this insane Darius box set that has, I have it right in front of me because it costs so much, I like to look at it. It has seven discs of music, no, six. It has six discs of music, and then, oh, geez, I'm sorry, I'm going to start over it. This Darius box set has eight discs of music and a disc, a Blu-Disc of, like, gameplay footage

and the first derogist game by hamster. We don't my hamster. In this huge box set that also came with a paperweight that glows and a freaking beach towel and a teacup. And that's been a big time sync for me. A time sync? How so? It's eight discs. Oh, I see just like sitting there listening to it and really focusing on it?

Well, just it takes up. It costs a lot of money. I don't want to say how much money. So I'm listening to everything on it Whether I want to or not And it has I mostly bought it for the first ones But it has some good stuff on here

It has the Super Comic-com version And the SNS version Some mobile versions Have really good arrangements And stuff like that And it has the game too Which I'm still terrible at So it's like every Darius game

It's actually not It's only It has Darius Sagaya Which is the Gameboy version Yeah Darius 2 Darius Saga was

I think that was also and master system. Maybe, yeah, that's right, yeah. And Darius, Guyden, G. Darius, the Masters and Ver than of Sagaia. Okay. And Darius Forrest and some mobile ones, too. And it's fun.

I like them a lot. Does it have the new one? The Darius, I think, burst? It unfortunately does not have that, which is a shame because that soundtrack is incredible. This is really focusing on, like, the really early stuff. Okay, the vintage stuff. The vintage stuff.

Which is fitting for retronauts. Yeah, that makes sense. And I also trying to think. any other really good ones recently I found a vinyl copy of Habocat music which is just a really old release that has an awesome arranged

version of balloon fight so that's always good nice and I've been collecting these really small like three-inch CDs yeah CD singles of various Nintendo releases

and there's no special versions on them it's just the game music and there's about 25 for Nintendo and then like 15 for Namco and they cover the all-launch games and really weird stuff too like the soundtrack to the Famicom Disc Rider which was a device that in Japan you could go to like a convenience store or something with a blank Famicom Disc System game and for like $5 you could download Ice Clymer or the Goonies

or you know one of the older kind of archival games and have that until you rewrote the disc. Yeah, yeah. So, like, that's mostly the stuff I buy as older stuff. Like, you know, Jeremy covers the new prestige, awesome, Brave, Wave, or Data Discs, Pansu, Dragoon, and I'm going to listen to the compilation of Kanavia Game Music from 1985, because that's what I do. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just not a new release.

Yeah. So how would you compare the Darius CD soundtrack set to the, recent vinyl release. Well, the recent vinyl release by Shiptosur has the original, it's a repressing of the original Darius soundtrack, which is the second Taito game music release. And that's different because that has the soundtrack and then it has the arranged version. And the arranged version of Darius is probably top five game soundtracks of all time. It's such a bizarre and amazing and eclectic.

Bizarre, how so. It's almost like the main theme The chaos The main theme of Darius I keep saying it two ways I don't know which is correct I'm sorry It's a very almost avant-garde piece

That I think was inspired by Philip Glass Because it kind of has a strange loop And the time signature is really bizarre And the arranged version is just huge And it's just bombastic and amazing And it's like one of my all-time favorite songs, regardless of where it's from. I could listen to that all day.

And it has kind of like weird jazzy numbers that don't have much to do with the original music. It's just such an amazing collection of music. I highly recommend that. And I bought the Sipter Shore release. Sounds good. No big problems there. The cover arts almost kind of faded, to my opinion, because I have an original impression, so I can compare it. Most people can't, so they don't know that.

But it sounds great. That's all that matters. Yeah. Yeah, I just got that and right before I came here and I haven't had a chance to listen to it. So I guess that's one that I'll look forward to and probably write about

or talk about on a future episode. Another new release that I like, it's on CD, is the Namco released the Pac-Man Championship Edition Soundtracks and that's two CDs with Championship, Championship DX, and 2. And 2's a horrible game,

unfortunately. But the soundtrack's great. And all those songs are fantastic. like really let up in techno like that really fun great original music that is

I think if you like if you like techno and electronic music and it's like hard hidden beats can't go wrong there all right well I think that about

wraps it up for this episode is there anything else you wanted to add final thoughts parting shots etc no I think that's about it everything like I said okay so what's next

on your shopping list or are you off of buying things for a while after that Darius said? I'm never off of buying things. I don't know what game music's coming out. I'm always buying some bizarre Japanese band release of some vintage YMO box set or I don't know. I have problems with music. I said see someone, you know, with my collecting, but I can't stop, won't stop. I mean, do you listen to the stuff you buy?

I listen to 95% of the things I buy I have listened to. Okay. Yeah. Well, that's, you know, better than most. Yeah, I think so. Certainly better than my collection of games. Yeah. I've not played 95% of those.

Yeah, I mean, when I spend money to buy a 12-inch remix of a was-not-was song, I am listening to that remix of What Dinsoi. It cannot stop me. And really, shouldn't we all? Okay, so thanks, James. why don't you tell us where we can find you on the internet because you did invite people to reach out to you for advice. Well, I'm on Twitter

too much. You can find me there at Lost Turntable, and that's also the name of my blog, Lost Turntable, and I also have another site that I update when I can called Mostly Retro, and that's mostly dash retro, and on that site, I wrote a really big guide

to record stores in Tokyo, and you know, if you want to link to that, you can, or look that up, and that's where I send people if they ask questions about records. And on Lost Turntable, about six years ago, I wrote a guide to ripping vinyl. And I've updated that a couple of times, but not much has changed. So, yeah.

All right. And as for myself, you can find me, you know, at retronauts.com on Twitter as GameSpite. You can find Retronauts, of course, on iTunes. You can find us on Podcast One and in the Podcast One app. Retronauts, of course, is supported through Patreon. at patreon.com slash retronauts. That's how I'm making my living these days. So if you enjoy this episode and want to listen to Retronauts a week early without any

advertisements, you can do that by supporting us for $3 a month on Patreon. And that's cool of you. Anyway, that I think is about all I have to say. So thanks for listening. Thanks, James, for sharing some advice. It's happening. Hopefully this, even though it's not really specifically focused on retro gaming per se has been a useful discussion and will help you if you are interested in

kind of getting into collecting game music in whatever format or just listening to it. So please enjoy some groovy tunes and we'll be back next week with a new episode. The best in paranormal talk radio is here on podcast one as part of the Jericho network. Beyond the Darkness examines all aspects of the supernatural every day, Monday through Friday, and now the same team behind Beyond the darkness bring you the most frighteningly real-life dramas on True Crime Tuesday. Subscribe now by visiting DarknessRadio.com, then click the True Crime Tuesday. Today banner. Again, that's True Crime Tuesday. Visit darkness radio.com and click the True Crime Tuesday banner. Subscribe now. Picking a car in real life isn't like selecting one in a video game. Once you commit, there's no stepping back into the virtual garage to swap out parts or models. Nope. In real life, you got to live with your decision until your loans paid off.

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When you're ready to commit to a new or used car, visit TrueCar to enjoy a more confident car buying experience. Some features not available in all states. Hopefully you found the first half of this episode useful and interesting. But I feel like it wouldn't be a Retronauts Radio episode, a true Retronauts Radio episode, without some music. This is, after all, not talk radio. So I'd like to offer some quick reviews of a couple of LPs that have just arrived, one of which actually won't be shipping to the general public until later this month. The first of these is Ship to Shore Phono's Darius soundtrack.

Taken from the 1986 Taito arcade game, this is the second volume of Taito's Zuntata Arcade Classics collection. The first volume was actually kind of a sampler of Elevator Action 2 and Nightstriker and Metal Black. This volume, however, focuses entirely on the soundtrack to the original arcade version of Darius. I think most people, if they remember Darius, remember it mainly because of what an unusual arcade cabinet it was. Taito kind of insanely put together a cabinet that had three monitors side by side for an extra widescreen effect. It was like the video game equivalent of 1960s

Cinerama movies or something. Given the complexity and cumbersomeness of the original arcade cabinet, I don't know if many people have actually played Darius in its original form. But you've probably played some home version of it. And the general idea probably comes through, I think, in those versions, whether it's, whether it's been a Darius sequel or the recent Darius burst for PlayStation 4, you're always a spaceship flying through space, blowing up giant robots that look like fish, taking different tracks, different paths to the end, and all of that comes from the original Darius. And just as Darius was a sort of technical showpiece in terms of its arcade cabinet setup and the visual design, its music setup was also somewhat of a groundbreaking

creation as well. This was one of the first games composed by the Taito in-house band Zuntata, and the arcade cabinet actually sort of broke technical limits and new bounds to offer a better, higher quality, more impressive music playback capability. The Darius Arcade Cabinet had dual Z80 audio processors driving both FM synthesis and sampling. Now, listening to Darius on LP, you can definitely tell that it is a product of its time. This was a 1980s. game, an FM synthesis really began appearing in arcades in 1985, 86, and took a while to come into its own. This was a pioneering work, a really groundbreaking creation. Like I said, I combined both FM synthesis and samples. But as often happens with pioneering works, things would come

along later that were, you know, kind of built on the work done here, and in hindsight are much more listenable. I mean, like the Darius soundtrack has some really great compositions, but the overall sonic quality is fairly muddy. It doesn't have really the electronic clarity of later FM synthesis arcade titles. It uses a lot of sampling for drums, kind of like Thunderforce, actually. There's sort of an inherent limitation to the range of some of the sampled sounds due to the space and memory involved and the relatively low capacity storage options available to arcade games of that vintage. And the FM synthesis itself is often strident and seems to peek or distort. So like I said, great compositions, but it can be a tough listen in spots.

Still, I think this record is great as a historical relic. Like several other ship-to-shore productions of the past, it does appear to be a sort of reissue of an existing LP. That's probably why it's a single game and why the LP itself is actually fairly short. It's only about 30 minutes of music. It doesn't really take advantage of the full space available to an LP, but it's a little too long to be a 45 RPM 12-inch EP. Anyway, if you can get past the slightly murky sound quality, there is some really great music on here.

And one thing I really like about the Darius soundtrack is that the emphasis really seems to be on boss themes. There's a lot of distinct boss themes, seven different boss themes in total, which I guess makes sense given the game's emphasis on the giant fish-like piecing robot bosses. There are 28 stages in total in the game, but based on the track you take, you fight seven different bosses. So I haven't actually played the original Darius in a long time, and I can't say exactly how this works, but my assumption here is that each boss you face, regardless of the path you take, has its own distinct boss theme. So you fight seven bosses, each with its own theme. In any case, let's look at a few standout tracks. And on top of that, each of the boss themes has its own kind of style.

For instance, the first boss theme has a real Gradius-like feel. Very classic space shoot-em-upon-up. The second boss theme, in my opinion, is kind of short and unremarkable. It's just sort of there. But the third boss theme is very eerie and sparse at the opening and has this pulsing beat that sort of fades in and out. Whereas the fourth boss theme, it has a really strident opening with the bursts of synthesizers and kind of a discordant sound that makes it a little bit of a difficult listen. Whereas the fifth boss theme has sort of a sharp, the fifth boss theme has sort of a sharp, aggressive,

strobing sound that kind of takes up some of the ideas from the fourth boss theme, but in a more refined sense. And then in a counterpoint to that, the sixth boss theme has sort of like a piano ragtime element, mixed with lofi FM synth. It's a very unique and distinct piece. It's a very unique and distinct piece. And then finally, the seventh boss theme feels fittingly epic. There's highs and lows, peaks and troughs, changes in tempo. It all has a sort of like, this is your last chance wistfulness to it almost. It feels really like, yes, this is the end of your journey. Thank you. And then combining all these things together, you have various other tracks.

Like the opening piece, Captain Neo, with a fast-paced, spacey sound and backbeats and counter melodies, it really sets the tone for the rest of the album. Percussion is used lightly here, but it does kick in during the bridge section. Inorganic beat is kind of an almost like the definitive Darius track, in my opinion. It has a lot of sampled percussion overlaid with a clear synthesizer line. And then that clear synth kind of to a more heavy, oppressive lead line that builds up constantly toward to climax, and then once it reaches that peak, begins to loop again. Finally, also of note our

cosmic airway, which has a very triumphant feel full of sampled synthesizer bursts. I'm going to be able to be. And the sea, which is more serene, although the peacefulness of it gives away to high-energy synthesizers, which, you know, kind of makes sense for a shoot-up. All and all, though, it's a pretty, and all, though, it's a pretty interesting relic. Like I said, sometimes that can be a tough listen, and this being an LP release rather than a CD release means that you can't just skip past a track easily. It would also be worth noting that if you are into Zuntata's music, and you should be because it's always excellent, the band has dozens, like eight dozen albums available on the iTunes Music Store. If you look up the band by its name, Zuntata, Z-U-N-T-A-T-A, you can find nearly a hundred different albums available. covering a huge range of their work from the mid-80s all the way through recent years.

Of course, it's always different composers. Zootata is just the name of the collective, and depending on who actually does the work for a given game, it's going to sound a different, have its own personality, and also, you know, they compose according to genre and theme and so forth. Basically, anything you pick up from Zuntata is going to be great. The albums range in price from a few dollars to like $10, so you're probably a not going to want to buy all of them. And in fact, picking up something like Zuntata Arcade Classics Volume 1, which has three games on it on LP for like $25, is cheaper than

buying the complete soundtracks to those games for $10 a piece. But still, that option is out there if you're not an LP collector and you're just interested in picking up a few tracks, a few games, a few favorites from Zunata or just checking out some of their work. That's a great way to go about it. Oh, And finally, I'd like to end this episode with a look at the latest release from Datadisks, one that just the latest release from Datadisks, one that just shipped to media for review a couple of days ago, and should be showing up for people who

purchased it on pre-order by the end of June. And that is Gunstar Heroes, composed by Norio Hanzawa, taken, of course, from the all-time classic treasure-developed game published by Sega for Genesis and recorded directly from Sega Mega Drive hardware. I've had nothing but good to say about data disks releases, and this one might actually be the best thing they've done so far. and I kind of feel like I'm pushing a little bit of hyperbole when I review data disks stuff because I feel like there have been several times when I've said this is the best thing they've done so far but they just keep raising the bar and this is an amazing package. I mean, even just kind of disregarding the game itself and the soundtrack, the packaging they've put

together here for I think $25 or 25 pounds. In any case, it's not super expensive for a deluxe 2-LP reissue of a classic video game soundtrack. But this is a really extraordinary package. It's two 45 RPM 12-inch EPs, altogether containing about an hour of music, somewhere between 50 minutes to an hour, again, recorded directly from original Mega Drive hardware. And it does a great job of combining both the American and Japanese packaging for Gunstar Heroes. You get a little bit of both the sort of airbrushed American style and the hand-drawn Japanese style on the packaging. And there's a fold-out poster that has the American cover and Japanese cover.

In addition to the two record sleeves, which are printed on high-weight paper stock, with full-bleed original Japanese illustrations, kind of in a full-color manga style on both front and back of each individual sleeve. It's just amazing. And then the records themselves, you know, come in standard black, but you can also get one red and one blue discs, or you can also get both discs pressed with a split red and blue color, because of course, it's a two-player game. You play as Gunstar Blue and Gunstar Red. So there's really just a huge amount of love that was put into this soundtrack. You can tell that someone at Data Discs really loves Gunstar Heroes. And I feel like this is, you know, one of those rare and wonderful. occasions where something that is a, you know, like a timeless world-class masterpiece is really given it to do. As for the Gunstar Heroes soundtrack itself, it is a, I describe it as a complex high-energy work, one that really puts the Genesis's audio capabilities to the test. I've noticed over the years that Genesis audio tends to be kind of hit or miss, and I imagine that's

the same, the case especially for the Gunstar Heroes soundtrack. Like the game itself, it's highly technical, and it doesn't feel as smooth and necessarily as listenable as many other game soundtracks of the era. It's more challenging and intricate, like the game design itself. So it perfectly fits. You'll either love it or hate it. But, you know, there's a ton of variety on here. Much like the Darius soundtrack, there are compositions and themes for each stage, and then also different themes for each boss that you face, even some of the mid-bosses, and some stages have multiple themes. So just as the game itself is constantly shifting, constantly changing just giving you tons of variety, the music does too, which really, I think, kind of helps sell

the idea of Gunstar Heroes as this ever-shifting, involved, very beautifully designed work. Like I said, the music really plays up the quality and the strengths of the game. The first stage where you start out is sort of a mid-tempo piece with a central melody and little audio details flushing it out. you know, like backbeats and synthesizer harmonies and things like that. It's not, you know, the most exciting or invigorating track in the game, but it kind of sets the stage not only for the game, but also for the sonic texture of the soundtrack. And I think the stage one boss also really kind of shows how the Gunstar Heroes soundtrack is very challenging. It has an almost discordant sound.

It's like each part is sort of playing according to its own rhythm. Like there's the drum line, the extra percussion, the lead line, the underlying rhythm. Sometimes they all seem to be working like on their own tempo. kind of in opposition to one another, but then they come together and it kind of reaches this climax and then starts over and, you know, everything dissolves again. And as with certain parts of the Gunstar Heroes soundtrack, it can be kind of tough to just listen to on its own, but it perfectly fits the game. Stage two, sort of auto-scrolling stage that takes place in a mine, is naturally driven by a driving sort of percussion line with multiple layers of melody that take turns shifting into the lead. And that builds into the stage two boss theme,

and that builds into the stage two boss theme, which is the only boss theme on the entire album that really feels like an extension of the previous work, like the stage theme. And that makes sense here, too, because the stage two boss is the famous seven-force boss, where you have to fight this robot that has, depending on the difficulty level you're playing at, up to seven different forms that it mutates through and you have to defeat each one. And the stage two boss theme, and the stage two boss theme feels like an extension of the stage two theme because the boss takes place sort of within the same context as the

second stage. And at the same time, the boss theme sort of builds its urgency and sense of energy. It has a lot of different movements, just like the boss itself has multiple different forms. It's really just a perfect sort of musical expression of the stage and the boss and the relationship to each other. So great stuff. Stage three of Gunstar Heroes takes place on an aerial battleship, and fittingly, the stage three theme is an epic ascending piece that fits that setting. The Stage 3 boss takes place on the wings of a plane and the stage 3 boss takes place on the wings of a plane. and you know it's a very urgent stressful battle that carries a fast tempo in the music and something you'll notice sort of throughout the boss themes that there's almost like an

alarm motif with the use of the synthesizers and this really I think plays that up perhaps more than any other Thank you. The fourth stage theme has the most expansive feel of any track on the soundtrack. It's a little more loose and I wouldn't say unstructured, but it gives you a little more room to breathe. And I think that's kind of in a reflection of what the stage itself is. This is the infamous board game stage. And because it has that unusual structure and sort of an unpredictable sense of progression

where you never know what you're going to have to, what kind of. kind of challenge you're going to have to face as you roll the dice and make your way through the board game, the stage kind of leaves itself open to interpretation and to dealing with those different dynamic possibilities within the level. And the stage four boss, of course, is one of the most disorienting and challenging in the game, where you never quite know what the attack is going to be from the boss. You have to kind of watch the colors and see how they change. And as such, its theme is really intense, constantly building to create this sense of urgency and tension.

Stage 5 has a big open sound with a clear melody over a standard beat and some really great harmonizing and sort of like backbeat synthesizer lines to kind of flush it out. And Stage 6, which takes place in outer space, as a shoot-em-up stage is a fairly extended track and feels, you know, very much like a classic space shooter. Not so much like Darius or Gradius, but you definitely kind of get that same sort of tempo, that same sort of vibe. Thank you. Thank you. And then finally, there are two different stage themes to stage seven because it's a more extended and more complex level.

Thank you. You know, I'm going to be able to be. And then that bleeds into the very heavy metal sounding final boss theme, which is great and really kind of creates a sort of climactic sense of, this is the end. It's an interesting counterpoint to the way that Zunata developed Darius's final boss theme, whereas that's more like a, has almost kind of like a poignance to it. This is just more like everything's rocking. This is it. This is like the final encounter. And I think both are really valid approaches to creating, you know, final boss music.

It's just kind of a question of what mood do you want to create? clearly, Treasure and Taito went for different sort of moods with their respective classics. Anyway, I know I say this a lot about Datadisc's stuff, but it's absolutely top of class, and if I were going to recommend you own any one release from Datadisks, this would be right up there with, I don't know, Outrun, or maybe one of the Streets of Rage soundtracks. But, you know, top tier, an absolute essential for any, not just collector, but anyone who loves video game music. And I think that wraps it up for this episode of Retronauts Radio. So thanks again for listening. We'll be back in a week with a normal episode, Retronauts East,

and back next month with more looks at music. I know next time on tap we already have a Silent Hill LP, a two-cd compilation of every Ninja Guideon game's soundtrack, well, every classic 2D side-scrolling ninja guidance, let's say. And who knows what else will be coming along. So thanks again for listening, and I hope you'll check back for Retronauts in a week. Thank you. And caller number nine for one million dollars. Rita, complete this quote. Life is like a box of...

Uh, Rita, you're cutting out. We need your answer. Life is like a box of chocolate. Oh, sorry. That's not what we were looking for. On to caller number 10. Bad network got you glitched out of luck. Switch to Boost Mobile, super reliable, super fast nationwide network,

and get four lines, each with unlimited gigs for just $100 a month. Plus get four free phones. Boost makes it easy to switch. Switching makes it easy to save. The Mueller report. I'm Ed Donahue with an AP News Minute. President Trump was asked at the White House if Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation report

should be released next week when he will be out of town. I guess from what I understand that will be totally up to the Attorney General. Susan Collins says she would vote for a congressional resolution disapproving of President Trump's emergency declaration to build a border wall, becoming the first Republican senator to publicly back it. In New York, the wounded supervisor of a police detective killed by friendly fire was among the mourners attending his funeral. Detective Brian Simonson was killed as officer started shooting at a robbery suspect last week. Commissioner James O'Neill was among the speakers today at Simonson's funeral. It's a tremendous way to bear, knowing that your

choices will directly affect the lives of others. The cops like Brian don't shy away from it. It's the very foundation of who they are and what they do. The robbery suspect in a man police say acted as his lookout have been charged with murder. I'm Ed Donahue.