Retronauts - Retronauts Episode 90: Retronauts Radio 3 - Zelda 30th Anniversary Symphony & Nintendo incidental music

Episode Date: March 13, 2017

Bob joins in for a slightly different episode of Retronauts Radio! We discuss the recent CD release of the 30th anniversary Zelda concert series and look at the history of incredible incidental music in Nintendo's non-game apps.

This week in Retronauts, a different kind of tune link. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the third episode of Retronauts, radio. It's me, Jeremy Parrish, and this week, it's a different kind of Retronauts Radio because sitting across from me in a studio is none other than... Rockadoodle do. You're listening to Bob and Jeremy on Retronauts Radio. I think it has to be like... Call in now for tickets to was Mario Speedwagon. I'm sorry. Mario Speedwagon. It's been a long recording weekend, and I wanted to get that joke in. Nice. So, yes, usually Retronauts Radio, I mean, I say usually there have been two episodes so far, is me talking solo over a bunch of music, talking about new old game music releases.

But there wasn't really that much to talk about this month, so I decided to mix things up. And since I'm here with Bob in San Francisco recording stuff, and he likes game music, it seemed natural. That's all I listen to anymore. I'm out of touch with my fellow humans. That's right. That's the way it should be. So this week or this episode, this month, we're going to talk a little bit about a single new release. And then we're going to do kind of a retrospective on a type of music, a genre of music, a category of music.

So it'll be a little different than usual, but hopefully you'll enjoy it and find it worthwhile. So without further ado, let's just jump in. So the one of the one music So the one music release that I want to focus on this month is one that just came out in Japan and was released actually a few days later in America. I don't know if it's an actual U.S. release or if it just showed up on Amazon through importers. Is it expensive? That's the way to tell. It costs about the same as it does in Japan.

Oh, interesting. Okay. So there's no big markup. It's actually maybe like slightly more expensive than the Japanese version. And when you add in like express shipping from Japan, it turns out to be about the same. So I picked up the Japanese version not knowing it was coming to the U.S. It's all music, though, and there's no words. Actually, that's not true. There are some words.

But not a lot of words, so it all amounts to the same. Music is the universal language. Anyway, this is The Legend of Zelda 30th anniversary concert CD. This is a recording of a concert that was performed in Japan. This was the Tokyo recording, or, Sorry, conducted by Taizzo Takimoto with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. And I guess this is now an Nintendo series that they're doing, like an annual series, the anniversary series. Yeah, I mean, I went to, I was lucky enough to have gone to two of these concerts for the 25th anniversary of Legend of Zelda.

And I have to say, I wrote about this for one up, but it's long gone now. But the first one in L.A. was the debut of this Legend of Zelda concert series. And it was, I loved being there. It was a great privilege, but the audience was terrible. And it was like, I felt like I didn't want to kill anyone's fun, but I was just like, I know you like this song, just please stop hooting and hollering. I just want to hear the music. Behave in an orchestra.

Yeah, but then I saw it in SF at the SF Symphony or whatever, San Francisco, by the way. And everyone was well-behaved, and I got to hear all the music, and that's when they started putting in Majora's mask music into the rotation. So that made up for it. Like, I still enjoyed myself at that L.A. concert, but I felt like, and this is a message to all of you fans out there. There's a time to cheer and clap at an orchestra, but during the music is not that time. Yeah.

Yeah, but that's just my bitter scold coming out on this show. Fortunately, this was performed in Tokyo, so there was no question about behavior. There's very polite clapping after all the songs all over, yeah. But like I was saying, this is part of a series that they're doing evidently now, like an anniversary series, not just with Zelda, but follow-up to the concert that I went to in 2015, which was the Super Mario Brothers 30th anniversary concert. Was that in Japan? It was also, yeah. It was a few places in Japan. I saw it like the last night of its performance in Tokyo.

And I have to say that I actually enjoyed the Mario concert a lot more. And it's not just because I was there at the concert. I mean, obviously being there present for live music is always amazing. But I just feel like it was more interesting and distinct. This is, you know, Zelda, so it's orchestration. It's, you know, very, like, classical music. Whereas Mario was much more about interpretations. and different stylistic approaches.

Lots of, you know, rock, lots of that sort of salsa music or the jazz, big band kind of style. A little bit of reggae, yeah. It just, it was more diverse. And also the drummer was like this 18-year-old girl who just was like completely kicking ass. And I was just amazed to watch her. So,

I'm going to I'm a lot I'm a I'm We're going to be able to be. But, you know, the Zelda 30th anniversary concert is good.

And like I said, because it's Zelda, they really went with a sort of classical orchestrated style. And the arrangements are really solid, you know, but they all stick to a very specific genre, a very specific type of music. So just kind of be warned, if you're, you know, going to pick this up, it's two CDs of orchestral arrangements performed live on Zelda music. So if that's what you're after, then this is pretty great. And it does qualify as a retronauts cover, you know, topic because it goes all the way back to the original Zelda. So it's 30 years of music wrapped up into a single concert.

I'm going to be. So what did you think of it, Bob? I enjoyed it, but like you said, this is like, I feel like I'm being ungrateful, but I have heard these songs orchestrated many times over the past, I don't know, 15, possibly 20 years. And I think I do prefer the medleys more than I do the individual tracks because it is a collection of the songs I enjoy. Not just like, here's this, here's that. It's like, here is the Wind Waker Suite. And in terms of that kind of arrangement, I love medley's when it comes to video game music,

just because it's a sampling of all of the very iconic themes. But I do enjoy all of these, but some of them I've heard a lot, like Hyrol Castle, Zelda's theme. I do appreciate things like the 3DS medley when they pull from, like, Spirit Tracks, things like that. That's always interesting to me. But, again, these are all very solid songs. I just feel spoiled that, like, I've heard orchestrated versions. so many times in my life. That's interesting because I found myself

liking the medleys much less than the standard arrangements of just individual tracks or a few tracks because it always kind of bothers me when you have medleys where it's just like it's a little snippet of a piece of music and then it's a different piece of music and then it's a different piece of music and a different piece of music.

And there's no real connection between them. There's no sort of development or reiteration. It wasn't that jarring to me, but I can see how some people probably would enjoy that. I feel they find a way to stitch them together.

I don't know. I'm not listening that closely, but I wasn't like, oh, that was abrupt. Like the jump cut of music. It's not that it's abrupt. It's just that, you know, like what you're hearing

at the beginning is not thematically similar or connected at all to what you're hearing at the end. For me, it was like, I love the Wind Waker's music probably more than any other Zelda games, and I just liked hearing all of the very interesting themes from that

instead of just the Winwaker theme. I was like, oh, good, we get to hear the Pirates theme. and this theme and that theme. I was just on board for more music from the games I like, really. Yeah, I think in my case, you know, the first episode of Retronauts Radio, I covered the Tokyo Symphonic Fantasy, which had some really, really phenomenal arrangements of Final Fantasy music

from Final Fantasy 6 and 7. And they really did put a lot of thought into taking, you know, multiple pieces of music and connecting them in a way that made them feel like it's not a medley, it is a, like a new, position that all fits together cohesively and thematically. So I guess that's a better version. That's kind of what I'm comparing to. Like, these arrangements are nowhere near as inventive or considered as the Tokyo

Symphonic Fantasy. But, you know, this was, that's fine. This was just a single, like a two-week concert series. Yeah. And also, when you're watching, when you're at these concerts, there is a visual component. And I think it's sold much. But these arrangements are sorry. These medleys are sold much better with that visual component where you're seeing footage of the games and they do clever things to transition between them.

So I feel like you could be missing that part of it if you're not seeing it in action for sure. I do. not with the Zelda theme the Legend of Zelda main theme but rather with the Hyrule Castle theme because that is, you say you're a little tired of it but I don't think I, I don't know that I've heard an actual proper arrangement of this

and it's like this pompous, brassy very kind of grandiose theme and it's a good start to the album. It really kicks it off in a very like here's what you're in for, you're in for orchestra. I have heard it before, I'm not sure where, but it is the one song I think from Link of the Past is not remixed

enough. You don't really hear it that often in the game just in one location, maybe twice. When you start the game, then when you go back to rescue Zelda before the dark world happens. And it's a theme I do enjoy when I hear it. I like that it goes immediately from the big pompous Hyrule Castle to Zelda's theme, which is much more delicate. The only theme that is actually more delicate is the Great Fairy theme, which kind of comes toward the very end right before the rousing finale. So I guess these two tracks sort of serve the same purpose. There is sort of like a counterpoint to the bookend pieces. That makes sense.

They're like the inner layers on the bookends. I think I like the Great Fairy theme a little more because it's literally just a harp and a female chorus kind of chanting wordlessly. Yeah, they do a lot with a very simple melody that's just meant to be sort of background music. POMAYOR. But you mentioned that you like the Wind Waker music a lot. I do. More than any other Zelda games. So what is it about that that you enjoy?

And what is it you find great about this medley? I feel like out of all the Zelda games, the Wind Waker's music is meant to personify. the characters. It reminds me of a lot of things like LucasArts Adventure Games and things like that where the music is not just for the scene or for the setting, but it's meant to give personalities.

So, like, I just immediately think of the Pirates theme. I immediately think of Windfall Island theme. But they're very, they very much personify the characters that the song will be playing, you know, around. And I do love the overworld theme. In that case, the, I guess, the

over-ocean theme. I think it is the best Zelda Overworld theme. I get so sick of hearing the Zelda main theme that gets reused a lot, but they do a very, like, very soaring, very rousing rendition of it for the game. I really feel like that's a great version of that song, a great version of that melody, and hearing it in an orchestra is very, very, makes me feel good. I just love hearing that. I'm going to be able to be.

Yeah, speaking of the main theme, that's actually the final track in this, and I don't really like this arrangement of it. I thought it was really, it was very unsatisfying. I actually, this is a deep cut, but there is a 2003 CD called, I think it's called Zelda and Mario Big Band. If you look for some arrangement of those words, you'll find it on YouTube. It's every, every song is free on YouTube at this point, every video game song. But it has a really good, I love the Winwaker main theme. Are you talking about the harp intro or like the legend of Zelda main theme? No, I'm talking about the final track on this, which is the, like, the,

Legend of Zelda, you know. This version, it, like, builds up and almost kind of comes to a crescendo and then drops down and brings in a different arrangement. And then that starts to build up. And then it never really reaches that musical climax that you expect. And it's very frustrating. Is that because it's been to loop? And there's no way to... No, they actually...

actually weave in a couple of different takes on the main theme, but they do it in a way that the arrangement never really reaches a proper climax. And it's a really, I don't know, I actually kind of think it's a bad way for the entire concert to end because you kind of want some sort of like big final show off, send off to end the show. And this doesn't do that. I'm trying to think of how the previous concerts I attended ended and I don't remember which song they went out on. Do you have a favorite? Actually, oh, sorry. The first concert in L.A., which had a bad audience, but the one, the saving grace of that alongside, you know, seeing this great, hearing this great zilda music was Koji Kondo coming out to play a song on the piano. And it's not the song you think he would play.

He played Grandma's theme from the Wind Waker. Nice. So again, one of those themes from the Wind Waker that really personifies a character. It really is supposed to make you feel homesick and make you feel like it's a very melancholy, but I guess the feelings of love and care in that song. And I really, I really love that song. You know, I'm going to be able to be. I'm going to be able to be. Yeah, I like that this arrangement or this concert album does have a few sort of unexpected tracks.

The 30th anniversary symphony track kind of hits every single game. But what really impressed me about it is that it opens up with the palace theme from The Legend of Zelda 2. Right, yeah. Which is not a piece I expected to hear at all. there's not really much Zelda 2 music accounted for on this album but to have the palace theme in there

is a really great start and then it shifts around to a bunch of different games and again that doesn't have a real sense of cohesion to it but it starts off so strong that I kind of don't mind

I like hearing that music It is the best song from Zelda 2 for sure I think it's the one I hear the most like in Smash Brothers and other arrangements people remixing it yeah

and there's also the minor songs medley immediately after that. I mean, I honestly feel like these two could have been just a single suite, like a 20-minute suite. But maybe it's just as well that they kind of took a break. But the minor songs medley has all kinds of stuff like just, you know, random little pieces and snippets of like the Lost World's theme or Lost Woods theme from Zelda 3 and so forth. I'm going to be able to be. I'm going to be. It's nice. It's like all these little sort of underrepresented pieces that wouldn't stand on their own, but hearing them just momentarily,

again, there's enough familiar there that I guess maybe that's what makes these medley's work. Not that it's necessarily a brilliant arrangement, but it's like the sting of familiar. You recognize this song, and I've never heard it played with an orchestra, so I appreciate this, yeah. I feel like actually probably the best arrangement on the entire concert album

is the Hyrule Field arrangement, which does a great job of capturing Ocarina of Times' Hyrule Field theme and the different states that it encompasses, like the dynamic arrangements, you know, the enemy themes and the morning, the sort of dawn twinkle, where it's soft flutes kind of saying, hey, a new day has begun. I'm going to be able to be. They do it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, they do a really good job of They do a really good job of capturing all the different facets of Hyrule Field.

I think so, too. Yeah, that's also a very long song, and it's meant to accompany you across a very long journey over that empty field. So they really hit all of the different versions of that, for sure, throughout their arrangement. I also really like the Garudo Valley theme. Oh, yeah. I did not expect to, I wasn't sure what I expected from that, But it's, it's, um, the, the interpretation in this, in this concert feels bigger than the actual in-game theme, if that makes sense.

Much grander, yeah, grandiose. And, you know, midway through it, it's, it moves into a bridge section and it's like really sweeping and grand. And I, I don't associate that with the Garudo music. I think of that in the game, yeah, kind of subdued and it's like a guitar and, like, cast the nets and stuff like that. It's a very, like, Spanish style, like, you can see one guy playing a guitar, but they make it into this very sweeping, very epic kind of arrangement, which I like. I mean, I like both versions, and this is another song that everyone remixes all the time, but there's a reason that it's a great song. Right, and this is an arrangement that I haven't heard before, so it's exciting to hear this very familiar music, this very kind of played out music in a way that is different than what's expected. I'm going to be able to be.

And then finally, I said, you know, the main theme is a really kind of poor arrangement to end the concert. But the track immediately before that, in between the Great Fairy theme and the main theme, is the Twilight Princess Medley, which is by far the most, like, very, very, and wide-ranging set of music. And I don't remember Twilight Princess's music that well. It's been, you know, 10 years since I'm later. But, you know, just listening to this album, even though it doesn't necessarily take me back to playing that game. Like, this is a great arrangement,

just a great piece of music on its own. And it's about 11 minutes long. So there's plenty of meat to it. It's a hard game to go back to, I think, especially after Breath of the While, which is the polar opposite of game design. But I feel like there are great elements of that game, but the music definitely

I love that medley. It's like, it's music I don't remember, but when I hear it again, I'm like, oh, that was good. That was pretty good. So did you have any final thoughts on this CD? I don't know there's necessarily too much more to say about it, but it's, you know, it's familiar music and a few little surprises that I think, are done pretty well, although I think there is more space for adventurous arrangements

with Zelda that this album doesn't really get to. I was listening to this while I was working this morning on notes, and I don't remember if there was any Majora's Mask content on this, was there? There probably is some in one of the movies, but I don't know Majores. Yeah, I couldn't remember. I mean, there's also not a lot of music in Majors' mask, but I feel like that game should be given more credit in general, and I think we've come around on it. But it's a good mix of Zelda songs, and I feel like they hit everything they need to.

And the different melodies, sorry, medleys are full of, like, lots of music you don't really expect to hear a range for an orchestra. And there's some surprises in there, too. So, again, I take this for granted because I've heard a lot of this before orchestrated. And I've been to two concerts. I am a spoiled baby. But this is still worth it if you haven't heard a lot of this, or even if you have, it's just nice to have these all in one collection. So, yeah, you can pick this album up on Amazon and probably a few other places, but it's like $35 on Amazon for two CDs. So not cheap, but also considering it's an import CD, pretty reasonable.

Japanese CDs can be pretty expensive. It's called the Legend of Zelda 30th anniversary concert CD and just came out, I think, last week, or maybe the week before. So, you know, if you're hankering for some orchestrated Zelda, you're in the mood for something. some Zelda music after playing Breath of the Wild. There you go. Because there sure isn't much music in Breath of the Wild. If you need something to accompany you as you run around in the wilderness, there you go. You hear some piano tinkling as you approach something.

That's basically it. But I like it because it's like, I don't feel bad about listening to podcasts while I play a game now. You're giving me space for that. Thank you. Link is actually listening to podcasts as he explores. I'm going to be able to be. The all-new Toyota Rav-4 asks, what if? What if your ride was refined and rugged at the same time?

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All right, so that was pretty much it for notable releases this month. I guess I could have gone into Shovel Knight since that came out on vinyl. And it's not technically old, but feels it. A very important game writer wrote the liner notes for that. That's true. Me, actually. I'm being self-effacing. I don't think of myself in those terms.

But I did write the liner note essay to Shovel Night for Brave Way. So check that out and tell me if you like it. Yeah, I'll tackle that next month in Retronauts Radio. Just didn't have a chance to listen to it or read the liner notes for this episode. So with no other notable releases to look forward to this month, next month we'll have Snatcher and Thunder Force 2 or Thunder Blade. Yes, Thunder Blade, Galaxy Force 2, that's it. And a few others.

So without that to look forward to, I thought it would be interesting to kind of build on the recent Wii episode of Retronauts and also a recent Nintendo stream that I put together and talk about the really interesting sort of history and a little corner of Nintendo history that is their incidental music. And by that, I mean, not music that you hear when you're playing a game, but music that accompanies things like Minutes. for systems or console biases or, you know, applications, or just, you know, system channels on the Wii.

This is something that I think most people take for granted. Most game consoles, actually no game consoles, aside from Nintendo's, I would say really have anything interesting in terms of music like for their shop or for their, like their main menu. I mean, Vita has just like sound and, yeah, there's just none of that. Like, it's this weird thing Nintendo does. They put a lot of love and care into this incidental music. But the Switch does not have this, correct? It's very disappointing, yes. I was seeing the e-shop in Henry Gilbert, frequent co-host, my coworker, was disappointed.

There was no e-shop music. We were used to that for 10 years, this jaunty little elevator music to accompany with your purchases. Yeah, it's a really strange choice. Nintendo made with this system, or maybe not strange, maybe they're trying to set it apart from the Wii family and the ES family and give you a more mature experience, you know, like everyone else does. You don't hear music when you browse the iTunes store unless you're, you know, sampling music. So I guess maybe that's what they're going for, but it is kind of a letdown. So I guess, you know, this also serves as sort of a like a look back now that this era of

Nintendo appears to be over, a chance to go back and enjoy the music. I will say that Switch does have some pretty good music. I think it was when you set up the system or maybe when you're putting together a me. But that's about it. Otherwise, like the e-shop and the menu, it's just quiet. I don't know. Maybe that's because it's portable, but no, no, 3DS has good music and systems. So I have no idea. Interesting. Maybe they'll patch that in with virtual console in the fantasy world we want to live in. Who knows? But I feel like you can go back all the way 30 years

with Nintendo's incidental music to the Famicom Disc System. There wasn't a lot of music with the disc system, which of course was an add-on that was attached only to the Japanese version of the NES, the Famicom. And when you first boot that up, there's this really great little ditty.

It sounds sort of like a superhero theme. Like a superhero's about to take off or they just got changed or something into their costume. Yeah, it reminds me of just like, it's just rising, you know. And isn't Mario like chasing Luigi around on that screen? Well, what happens is when you play the music and you hear the do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do. Like there's a, the Famicom disc system logo rises from nowhere. Right. And then after that it's silence.

And then, yeah, Mario and Luigi kind of like have this little fight where they're trying. to change the color of the logo. So it's just kind of a little incidental detail that you see it boot up. And you won't actually see Mario and Luigi interacting if you have a discette in the system. That's just kind of like an idle animation while it's waiting for you to insert a discette. But that is kind of this iconic thing for Japanese Nintendo fans. I don't think Americans have any nostalgia for it unless they happen to import a system, which wasn't really that common back in the 80s.

But, you know, for people who grew up playing disk system, that you heard that every time you started up a new game, and it's every bit as memorable as the chunk of putting the disc in or the kudunk, kudunk, kudank, oh, my disc error. The rubber band broke. So, yeah, I think the first time Nintendo really went kind of all in on system music. I'm going to jump around in the notes here, Bob. Oh, sure.

was in 1990, I want to say, three with Mario Paint. Oh, yeah, I played a hell of a lot of this because computers were still unaffordable for an upper, lower, middle class family, and this was the solution. And it was also sort of like, we're going to teach your kids how to use a mouse, you know. Yeah, so tell us about Mario Paint. It was sort of a, well, not sort of, it was a creativity app. It was a suite of creation tools in that very much like R&D1 in their style. the act of creating was, even that was very toy-like. Like, everything was, the interacting with this program was fun in and of itself.

Like, everything made a noise when you clicked on it. It was just trying to make, you know, the act of, like, very basic MS Paint-style drawing, very basic animation suites, very basic music composition, as fun as possible with the limitations of a Super Nintendo in 1993. And I loved it. Yeah, I think this, the entirety of Mario Paint really kind of defines, Nintendo's approach to things that could be very boring because you have a paint app, and this was not the first paint application for a game system by any means.

They were on computers. I think there were some, yeah, there was like the Tiny Tunes, Tiny Tunes cartoon studio for NES. A few years before that. Color of Dinosaur. But Nintendo made their fun. They turned it into a game. Like there's even a little Nat game, like you're swatting bugs. And, like, everything, every tool makes a different noise.

There's a lot of feedback that makes everything fun to use. Like, every different stamp makes a noise. Every different kind of drawing, it makes a different noise. Like, they were very, very careful in making sure everything was just fun to poke at in this program. And the music of the system or of the game, like the app, the cartridge, was a big part of that. It helped give the whole thing personality. The composers for the Mario Paint music were, there were three of them. Hirokazu, Hiy Yoshitomi, and Kazami Totaka.

And I think probably, Hipptonaka is probably the best known, but Totaka has sort of this legacy of this kind of habit he has of integrating this little medley or melody that he created into pretty much every soundtrack he works on. I think there are a few that don't have it. But this was the second time that he used what is now known as Totaka song. The first time was an X for Game Boy, like hidden in there. But here it's the title screen. When you start up Mario Paint, you hear Totaka song. But that was not the only memorable music in Mario Paint by any means. And there's a lot of music, but the two that kind of stand out most to me is the first is the creative exercise, which you hear when you're, you know, kind of painting.

And this has that kind of, at first I thought this was a Soyo Oko, Oka composition, because it has that sort of like slightly flat, slightly out of tune sound that some of Nintendo's compositions for Super NES did. But apparently it's just, maybe it's just the instruments they were using the samples. But this is like an almost kind of goofy and comical piece of music

and it sounds a little bit out of tune but it kind of comes together as it develops and by the end of it it's actually pretty rousing. It is. It feels like it kind of feels like almost like game show music by the end the way it's like a little cheesy I think it's fun in a cheesy way.

I feel like the best thing I could say about some of this music is that it's sort of like elevator music or it's sort of like I think the Sims did a good job of making like very fun takes on Americana music, things you would hear in the background of like running Stimpy episodes. That's what it reminds me

of really, like this, this like 60s cocktail party kind of thing you drop on in the background. And sort of speaking of 60s style music, the Nat Attack minigame music is like jazzy spy music. It sounds like, you know, man from uncle or, I don't know, Mission

Impossible or something. It's very, Peter Gunn. It's very kind of retro and it's not what I would think, like, this is the music for killing bugs, but it works. Yeah, and Hibon. Yeah, and Hiptonaka would do Earthbound with the other guy. There you go.

Sorry, I always forget his name. And this, the creative use of samples and the odd choices really remind me of what we would see later in Earthbound, which would be like maybe a year after this in Japan. So I feel like there's some ties to Earthbound in here as well. So a few years after that, I'm not sure exactly what the timeline was on this, but kind of around the same time, Nintendo created something called Nintendo Power. And this was not the magazine that we had in America. It was a... That's always confused me. Yeah.

It's really hard to find information. on this, like when you do Google searches. Yes, disinviguation. Yes, because Nintendo Power is a magazine, but it's also a series of flash cartridges that Nintendo published in Japan where you could take a blank cartridge

for Game Boy or Super Famicom to a convenience store and plug it into a media writer, a kiosk, and copy games, like in a very inexpensive price, like 500 yen or something, $5. And copy those games to the flash cartridge

and they would be yours to play and keep until you wanted to overwrite them. And like, okay, that's fine. You have video games in here.

But the really crazy thing about this, I bought one of these when I was in Japan last month and, you know, kind of did my very first playthrough of it

or mess around with it for the first time on a Nintendo stream. And like everyone else watching the stream, I was taken aback by the fact that the menu music

is really good. It's like, why is the menu music for this flash cartridge application. So good. Yeah, no one would have really. Yeah, no one would have really cared, I guess. It's that extra touch, I think, that, I don't know, in these shop menu things, in these, I don't know, these kind of menus, I feel like they want to make you feel good about what you're doing or at least, I don't know, make it less bland and less practical than it could be, I think.

Yeah, this music piece reminds me almost of Streets of Rage's music. Like, it has a very Uzo-Koshiro kind of sound to it, which is great. It's not really what I associate with Nintendo, but it's certainly not what I would think of. of, you know, for selecting a video game from a menu, but it's great. I really love it. And sometime around this, I don't know, like I said, the timeline, but Nintendo also released something called the BSX Satellaview, which was kind of like the, what was I called for Sega? Sega Channel.

Yes, the Sega Channel. Or the other one that was on both Super NES and Sega. God, I can't remember the name. Basically, it was a satellite TV service. And you could subscribe to it and you had a special attachment for your Super Famicom, super NES, and it was only in Japan, of course, and you could plug in one of these flash cartridges and download games specifically for the BSX Satellaview service. You could also play live games that were like a limited time experience, such as the BSX Zelda,

where you were like basically you would tune in at a certain time. time each day and there would be someone giving you live navigation. Yeah, it was, this feels like so Japanese, but it was these radio, kind of radio style radio play things you would tune into with narration and they would give you different goals to meet, I think, with every episode. And I don't know if those were ever recorded or anything like that or saved in any way, but it feels like so ephemeral that kind of functionality that it had. Yeah, the Satellaview was the source of some really interesting games such as radical

Dreamers. Oh, yeah. That's right. The original sequel to Chrono, or Chrono Trigger, which kind of was rebuilt into Chrono Cross. For sure. But it was more of a graphical adventure as opposed to, or even a visual novel as opposed to an RPG. But anyway, the Satellaview had BIOS music, you know,

like sort of a main system music, and it's really, really good. There was actually several pieces of music composed for it. The main menu, the error screen, music that you play when you're downloading, software, and there's a lot of variety to it, and it's all kind of different pieces, you know,

different genres and styles. Like every piece of it sounds great, too. The main menu has kind of an ethereal feel to it. It does feel like, welcome to the future. This is the future of games. Yeah, it's kind of echoing into the future. But it's very, you know, sort of relaxing. It is sort of what you would think of as menu.

But then the error screen music, I guess, you know, you usually think of like error screens as very frustrating and like, ah, damn it, I had an error with my system. I couldn't download the game. So maybe to counterbalance that, the error system or the error system, or the error system, or the, The airscreen music for the BSXSatelovue is really kind of relaxing. Like, I could just listen to this and kind of peace out. So you don't throw your Super Famicom through your TV. Right. And then the download music that played while you downloaded games,

which I'm sure probably took a while because this was not exactly fiber internet. It varied from, like, there's one piece that's basically a soft waltz. There's another that's player piano ragtime music, very upbeat. And then finally, I think my favorite might be this jazzy piece that wouldn't sound out of place in a Mario Kart game. Like you could hear it on a Super Mario Kart track track.

and be like, yes, that belongs there. And there. And there's no way to find out who actually composed this, I'm guessing. It's not like, where would the credit go on this? Well, actually, the video game music preservation foundation. Very good. I'm glad you asked this because I did look it up and I tried to find composers for all these and it wasn't always easy,

but in this case, VGMPF cites Akito Nakasuka. Yes. Nakatsika. Nakatska. That's better. Yes. Cites Akito Nakatska.

Yes, great. Way to go, Bob. Japanese pronunciation. It's rough. For the win. All right. Anyway, Nakatska San did fantastic music. It's all very good.

And it makes me sad that we didn't get the BSX and all of you. This person do anything else? Yes, actually, you can check his page at the video game music preservation foundation. And he's got a lot of cards to his name. But I didn't bother to write down any of those things. I'm sorry about that. That's okay. So finally, the first one that we actually did get here in America besides Mario Paint,

the first like system kind of thing was the Game Boy Camera. And the Game Boy Camera is interesting because not only was the music composed, by HIPTanaka, but the entire product was designed by HIPTanaka. It was his creation. It was his baby. Interesting. Yeah, I was kind of surprised to hear that. Like, I knew he had worked on it, but I interviewed him several years ago.

And he was like, oh, yeah, that was me. I made that. It's weird. You don't really associate him with hardware, even though he did compose, like, the Chiroimite songs and things like that. He was just working on the games. Yeah. And this one's interesting because, one, you know, we got the Game Boy Camera in America,

so it's something many people listening to this. I've heard, but also it's one of Tanaka's final projects for Nintendo before he left to work on composing for the Pokemon anime. Now he's like the boss of Creatures, Inc. Yeah, we discuss this. There's like five Pokemon different, there's like five different Pokemon companies, all very confusing. It's all in our Pokemon episode.

The Game Boy camera is interesting because the music is really different from everything we've heard so far. Like everything that we've talked about so far has been like very rich, developed compositions and everything on the Game Boy camera is very, it's kind of hard to listen to. It's really strange. Like, when you first turn it on, it immediately jumps into the title screen

and it has this weird sort of like dancing photograph of a guy dressed as Mario hopping up and down. And the music is very discordant. It's strident beeping sounds. It's hard to listen to. And that's kind of the theme throughout this entire thing. Yeah, like, especially the, uh, the, the doodle theme for the, uh, like when you can vandalize photographs. It's extremely harsh and sounds very sort of like almost repellent.

Maybe it's sort of underlining like you're committing a crime, you're drawing on these pictures. I think so. The idea is that you're taking people's images, you know, you take a photo of someone's face and then you vandalize it. So there's kind of like this musical undercurrent of like you are a bad person for doing this. Another interesting thing is that the shooting mode for Game Boy camera when you're given the menu for it there's always like this kind of

dough-eyed girl looking at you but then there's a menu underneath that it's like an RPG menu and it's like shoot item run and the only one that really works is is shoot well in view but because it has this RPG presentation

the music also has this kind of RPG sort of style. It has a few different tunes depending on where you are in the photo process, but there's like the sort of dreamlike loop that you get when you first bring up the camera menu. There's also a lullaby. And then when you're viewing that you're undertaking, whether it's like looking at an individual shot or looking at an album or looking at a slideshow,

each of those menu options has its own style of music. Like the slideshow is a riff on the Nutcracker Suite. Which is... The whole thing is just weird, but it... There's small choices. It fits with the Game Boy camera because the Game Boy camera is weird. There's a lot of weirdness in it. like the mini games and the shooting games and, you know, this, the kind of vibe that you get from the Game Boy camera was very much Nintendo R&D 1 and you see a lot of it in the Wario games, especially Wario Land Advance and then Rhythm Heaven.

Like, this is the DNA for all of that. All of those things that kind of would come to define the later work of EAD or R&D1. It's right here. Yeah, they could have just made it a simple camera, a quote unquote app, but it's like, no, we want to make interacting with this fun and toyola. like because we are Nintendo, we are R&D1, and that is our thing that we do. So the next thing that Nintendo released, the kind of, at least that I'm aware of,

that sort of made use of their interesting approach to music was Mario Artist, which was a series of Nintendo 64DD discs that only worked with the 64D disc attachment that came out in Japan. And this was meant as a sort of follow-up to Mario Paint. Yeah, and actually I'm learning through research from the past episodes we've done

that Mario artist has the roots of some very interesting things like the suite is also the prototype for Warioware basically came out of it and also I learned through our wee episode that there was going to be a suite called talent I mean there is talent studio

but part of it was going to be a sort of me like approach where you I guess there was like was there a camera for the 64 or something? I don't believe so but maybe you could use the game boy camera because it did have that attachment for transferring Game Boy data to Pokemon Stadium. There was something they were going to do where you were going to paste your face

on these like Kokeshi dolls, which exactly looked like Me's, like little dolls with roundheads, but they couldn't figure anything to do with them outside of that, but they moved on to become Mies in the Wii menu. So, yeah, a lot of interesting things came out of this Mario Paint sequel that we never saw. And Mario artist's main composer was, again, Kazumi Totaka. with accompanied meant by Kenta Nagata

and Toru Minigishi Yeah they're of whom I know You don't know them? No, I don't. Okay, I'm not judging you but I just was looking up these guys because of different things I've been doing

but Kenta Nagata Mario Kart 64 composer but both he and Toru Minigashi accompanied Koji Kondo on the Wind Waker soundtrack That's right

I think that was the first Zelda soundtrack that was not just Koji Kondo on his own So they helped to make that soundtrack great, those two guys. So, yeah, there were a couple of different applications released under the Mario Artist series. One of them was Talent Studio, which was basically, like, composing stuff, like a music composition. And I think you could make movies.

I don't know. I've never used it. If Chris Kohler were here, I'm sure he has it and can tell us about it. But the music is great. Like the talent studio menu, it almost sounds like a scratch attempt at creating some of the animal voices in Animal Crossing. Like it's this kind of discordant and weird music. And there's this sort of gravelly sampled nonsense voice that's singing or talking along with it. It's really hard to describe.

Fortunately, I don't have to. You can just listen to it. But there's definitely this, like, it's like, it definitely has that animal crossing babble voice feel. Yeah, I mean, I think Animal Crossing might have predated this because the DD released in like, what, December of 2000, I think Animal Crossing was a, uh, Spring 2000 game in Japan maybe. Okay. Yeah. I remember that because it's like,

it predates the Sims, I think, by like a month or two. There's an interesting story there. But yeah, maybe they sort of were developing that tech at the same time. I don't know. Probably so, because Totaka, of course, worked on Animal Crossets music. Yeah, he's a dog. He is KK. Slider. The animation lab is great.

I love when Nintendo gets weird with its music. And the animation lab's music is very weird. It's this very chilled drum loop, and playing over top of it, there's a stuttered, sampled, distorted voice saying animation. I assume it's Totaka's voice, but who knows. Yeah. Like he does voice games sometimes, like he's been Yoshi's voice before. That's right. No, he is Yoshi's voice.

I think definitively. Oh, definitively? Yeah, I think that they just use those samples or they got them to record better ones. I don't know. Okay. But yeah. But yeah, it's got kind of like a max headroomish quality to it over this very, like, very, very low-key electronic, you know, drum sound. But then on the other hand, you have the Paint Studio app, which the title screen,

sounds more like something from jet set radio. It's got like this very energetic sort of distorted sampled funk guitar. And it sounds very, very jet set radio until the part where the steel drum kicks in. And then it's like its own thing. But it's a really lengthy composition, much more so than the talent studio menu, and it goes for a long time. I guess because, you know, paint, you're going to be spending a lot of time just sort of looking at systems and stuff.

I don't know. And you see that sort of that lengthy loop approach in the piano station. studio drawing tracks, there's one of them that's, like the main drawing track is an electronic piano or some clavier sound. It's very sort of muted and soft and, you know, so eventually there's some synthesizers, but it actually takes a minute of this sort of loop for a melody to sort of come into being. And it all kind of builds slowly. So it's very relaxing, very kind of new age-ish. It helps you concentrate, I think, on drawing. Thank you.

On the other hand, there's another music tune that's like super upbeat and jaunty and has samples of monkeys screeching. So it's like the opposite. It's actually kind of jarring and weird. Then a third piece of music is, it's basically sounds like them kind of channeling Philip Glass, like the Koyane-Skatsy soundtrack. It's a very sustained organ chords, and it's sort of like a mid-tone, and then an undertone, like a deeper tone. And then a rhythm builds up of these tones, almost like a, you know, like a loop or a reverb. It's music from the hearts of space. And then on top of that, there's a melancholy.

that actually starts to sort of coalesce around 30 seconds in, and then that takes about a minute to actually really reach a crescendo. So it's very like sort of slow, deliberate music for a video game, and it takes a while to get going somewhere, but it's very satisfying when it finally does. So once the 64 died off, Nintendo moved along to the GameCube, and there weren't a lot of apps for the GameCube.

But the GameCube operating system did have music, and you might not even have recognized it as such. But if you play it really fast, something interesting happens. Are you aware of this, Bob? Oh, yeah, I think who broke this? Was this recent news? No, it's been around for a while. Okay, I thought it was, like, within the past five years.

Maybe within, like, the past five years. Yeah, but there's no real reason for you to really visit that menu ever. I feel like I maybe did it twice in my lifetime. But, yeah, that is, what is that the disc system theme? It's a disk system jingle, slow down to, like, one 16th speed or something. But I will tell you that the GameCube jingle of, you know, the cube unrolling and then hitting the middle with that, like, orchestra hit, that is now a meme. I've seen so many memes where it'll play the GameCube thing and the orchestra hill will be like somebody falling over or somebody getting punched or something. I've seen so many different versions of that.

Richard Spencer getting punched. I've seen that version of the GameCube intro. And I think something happens. If you hold in Z on all four controllers, it does something to alter. that. I think it's like a sumo scream or something like that. It does something different. I think I did it once, but yeah, like weird, weird little tricks like that to it. I know if you hold down B, it'll go into progressive output mode. Oh, but no music. No music. the e-reader for Game Boy Advance, and this was a weird little device. This did come to the U.S., and only weirdos like me bought it.

I was like, yay, I can finally play Urban Champion on my Game Boy Advance because I hate life. But the e-reader was, it had a lot of cards that were not specifically game applications, and some of them were, you know, like Pokemon viewing cards. And some of these cards had music. Like, I think there was music built into the system because there's way too much music to come off of a card. So this was like some sort of system level music that only played when you activated certain

things. But this music is great. I mean, it's like super kind of techie and energetic. It's a pretty short loop, but it's really intense. and very energetic, considering it goes to a goofy peripheral that reads paper card. Yeah, the only thing I think I missed out on with these is, so the whatever Super Mario Advance was Super Mario Brothers 3, which I think is like Super Mario Advance 4, which one is it?

Super Mario 3 is Super Mario Advance 4. There was DLC, quote unquote, with the paper cards, and it was like really wacky, like you can pick up vegetables now and there's like remix levels and these were all. on maybe randomized paper cards. I don't know how they sold them, but this was e-reader. You could not get these levels without the e-reader attachment at all, ever. And maybe you can download a ROM where those are hacked in or something. No. Actually, there was a set that was sold at Walmart.

It was like Walmart exclusive. But you can access those if you get Super Mario Brothers Advance 4 on Wii U virtual console. It has all the e-reader levels built into it. Okay, I'm going to have to buy that now. I'm sure they're not good or as good as the original because how could they be, but it's just seeing things add to this game is a novelty to me, so I want to see it. It's kind of like an early taste of Mario Maker, actually. There's like some crazy weird levels that do stuff like make use of Curiboshoe,

things that you never saw in other official Mario game designs. And Mario Advance 3 or 4 was developed by Nintendo, the group that used to be R&D 4, think. I can't remember what the name of the division is now, but it's the people who went on to make new Super Mario Brothers. Oh, really? Okay. Basically, like, they did Super Mario Brothers deluxe for Game Boy Color.

Then they made the advanced games. I think Tose might have helped make the, like, I wasn't sure if it was all Tose. But, like, Nintendo, their people were involved. And then after sort of getting back into the swing of things with the Game Boy Advance games, they were like, all right, let's make a new actual Mario game for D.S.

Yeah, that's probably the most interesting thing about the Game Boy Advance E-reader. So after that, we get into the more contemporary consoles, Wii 3DS, Wii, you? Bobby, you want to take away on Wii since you put together that episode? I'm sure. This has been on your mind a lot. I mean, some of these channels I never visited because, why? Who cares?

But because by the time I got a Wii, it was after the invention of smartphones and I didn't need to look at my Wii to know what the weather was. But the Shop Channel definitely is something I visited a lot and heard the music on a lot because it took forever to load. And it does feel like, it feels like almost like a parody of elevator, like, I don't know, like in, I don't know where this music came from, but it's not elevator music, but it's like the soothing shopping music you would hear. It's just very cheesy and very like, I don't know, but it's the kind of thing I heard in the Sims where it was, it felt like a parody of elevator music or like a parody of that kind of jaunty shopping music. I feel like it's like a sort of robot version of the girl for Eponimo. And tan and yank and lovely

The girl from Yipanima goes walking And when she passes it's when she passes goes When she walks She's like a sound But that swings so cool and sway so gently It kind of sounds like that I'm sad you didn't play the second Mario Paint song Because it does sound like Felice Navidad

After a point Yeah But no I can kind of if you hear that in here, but I do like how it starts like, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, and then it goes into the... You just triggered me, man. That is the music of my nightmares. Because you spent so much money on virtual console, yeah.

So much time just sitting, waiting, watching Mario would run past. Yeah. Then Mario would go fast faster. Then Mario would swim past. There were actually lots of different animations. It would be Luigi sometimes. Yeah.

What about the weather channel? I never used the weather channel, but it's really nice music. I think on the Wii episode, actually, I went out on the, nighttime weather channel because there was a day and night theme which is really cool. I liked how it was time sensitive to which one, but the night theme is a very soothing acoustic guitar

song. It reminds me of the song that plays when you end SimCity for the SNES. It plays this very soothing song and the moon is falling asleep and is blowing a star into the sky. It's very nice. I like it. I like the daytime music, which is like this kind of woodwinds and tune percussion, maybe like a Glock and spieler xylophone, and there's plucked strings underneath, kind of like Pizzicato violin. It's very nice. It's very, very mellow.

Nintendo's so good at this. Yeah. Then there's the photo channel, which I never used the photo channel. So when I was listening to the music, I was like, is this really the photo channel music? Because it starts out, it's just like piano, and it's a pretty simple composition. But pretty quickly it builds up, and it's kind of forceful and aggressive. Maybe that's for if you have a bad vacation. I guess, but I feel like this is supposed to be sort of a digital picture frame, and it's supposed to be very,

just like static and relaxing. And the music is just a little too edgy for that to work. So it's a really weird choice. I would like to know the explanation for that. I know there's a lot of thinking that went into the photo channel, but do they talk about the music and Awada Asks? No, but there are like three pages of discussion about the photo channel in that Awada asks. So more than you ever needed a note, but not anything about the music.

And then finally, the Wii also had the Everybody Votes music, which is great. It sounds like it's got like drum machines and has this very 80s soul pop feel to it. Like, you know, beat it era Michael Jackson. Like I could really see Nintendo having borrowed this from Quincy Jones or something. I did enjoy it when I was voting for pizza versus hamburgers in 2008. It really helped me make a decision. Yeah. And finally, 3DS and WiiU, not too much there to talk about.

The shop on 3DS is, it starts out with just kind of like effects and like jingles and ringing. But it does eventually kind of form into music. And it's much more soothing to the way. We shop music. Did you do much? Did you do much shopping on 3Ds? I do, but I don't think I have the sound on when I'm shopping, because it's just like, like, why do I need the sound on?

I'm not actually playing a game, but yeah, I'll take your word for it. I did listen to it. I was like, oh, I've never heard this before. That's interesting. It's not, it doesn't start off as jarring as the Wii shop, that's for sure. Or as like intense, you know, just like the staccato hits. Yeah, it's more like wind chimes or something. But I bet you have heard the Wii, the me music on 3DS.

Is that the, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, yeah, it's basically, well, it's a different arrangement of that music. Like, that's the, okay, the me plaza music. Yeah. But that appears in different forms throughout. So if you've done the mini games, the, you know, the street pass games, you have heard the Mew music in some form. Like, it gets used a lot. Yeah. And as you get more people in your plaza, which I think maxes out at 3,000 in terms of what will change, you get, like, more instruments added to that arrangement of the Plaza music.

Yeah. It becomes like a full, like, bombastic. Yeah. That's all you know. Yeah. All I get is the bombast. And then finally the WiiU, which I guess is the end of the legacy for Nintendo's system music. the home menu when you just have the system on is it's almost not music

it's just like kind of like bumb boom boom yeah it's just like long airy cords it's like digital kind of like digital wind chimes I don't know it just feels like it's it's soothing and I kind of miss that with the death of the Wii you

I sort of just would like turn it on and go do something and it would be fine to leave on in the background because it was soothing right it had all those little sound effects that went with it that was another kind of one of those sound design things You had the sound of the me's tromping up the screen, and you had the little voices that me's being like, yeah, kind of sound like Pikman or... And Reggie would be in the crowd trying to tell you about something.

Like, there's new games like zero. No, you can make me. And then finally, the me maker music is nothing at all like the we me maker music. This is so foreign to me. I made a total of one me in my life, and that was the one of me, and that was done because I think by 2008, the novelty of making me's head ended. We've made every Hitler and Jesus and Hank Hill there is, and I think it was over. But, yeah, it's very different than the 3DS me music. It's very different than the 3DS me music. It's very, has kind of like an open sound, is how I would describe it. the tempo is the same as the home music

and it actually goes on for quite a while before it loops. So I guess they really expected you to sink some time into making me. This is still exciting everybody. Another misjudgment on behalf of Nintendo with the Wii. I still love it. It's my special baby. So I do have a little bit of reader music before

we, or listener. Reader music. Reader music. Read music, yes. Listener mail before we move along. Let's see if there's anything. Nope. Here's one from George Stroff. Nintendo has had a lot of really good system music over the years. Even the Famicom Disc System had its own quite good boot theme. My personal favorite is the elegance from the Hanafuda 3DS theme that was given out at Club Nintendo at the end of its life. Man,

I've never heard that one. I haven't either. I'm a big fan of how they've been switching out the Wii U eShop music every few months, sometimes to a track from whatever game is just released, but usually to a completely original track. All the original tracks, ones are worth checking out, but I think my favorite of them all is this one. Another neat thing is how a couple of the Wii-U system themes have two different variations that play at the same time, one of the TV and one of the game pad. Oh, I didn't know that.

It never quite sounded right to me due to a slight HDMI audio delay on my TV, but the idea was fun. Wow, that is pretty interesting. I have to try that out. Usually I have the audio off on my game pad if I'm on TV. Same here. John Barnes says, I'm sure this will be one of the first things

you touch on, but just in case, here's the GamePube music sped up, yeah. I was delighted when the picdo chat stage was revealed for Super Smash Bros. Brawl and had the Wee Shop Channel Music as one of the available music tracks. Right. I can't imagine fighting to that. Music, did it? It didn't know, but this stage was pretty fun. Yeah.

Nintendo may have made a few baffling or short-sighted decisions with regards to its digital offerings on Wii, including certain aspects of the Shop Channel itself, but that cheery music and download progress being represented by Mario collecting coins made the experience better than using its competitor's online stores 99% at the time,

which isn't saying much when one of them is PSN. But still, sure, it's psychological window dressing to loosen your wallet, but it's fun all the same. The fact that the song made it into Smash Brothers is further testament to Nintendo's playful attitude toward everything they make. All right. So anyway, yeah, that's our listener mail section. I hope you have enjoyed that. I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Bob, it was nice having you on a Retronauts radio.

Sure, this is going to be a long one because we've talked, our recording of us talking is an hour long, and that's before any music is added. So this could be two episodes. I don't know. I'll leave it up to you. It'll be one. Unless I run out of time editing tomorrow. But that's good.

I'm glad we had that much to say. Yep, I had a lot to say. And, yeah, I'm going to, I really miss the era of Nintendo system music. I think it's over now. It's like, no, we've grown up. You get no music. You're an adult now. I'm hoping they added in a system update to the Switch.

That would be great. Yeah. There's a lot of things Switch is missing right now. Feels like this system should have launched in about six months. That's, it's a soft launch. Yeah, very soft. I'm going to buy it when it's a hard launch. I would recommend, yeah, waiting.

You've got Zelda on, we use, so that's all you need. It looks fine. So that was it for the third episode of Retronauts Radio. Thanks for listening. We'll be back in a month with Shovel Night, Snatcher, Galaxy Force 2, probably some other stuff. There's a lot coming out.

So it's a lot to look forward to. And so that'll be four weeks from now. In the meantime, you can follow us now in the here and now on iTunes at Retronauts.com. You can support us through Patreon because that's part of our business model, the kindness of strangers. And of course, like I said, retronauts.com will soon become a real website like Pinocchio became a

real boy, except I hoping we will not lie as much. Bob, tell us about yourself. Oh, sure. You can find me on Twitter as Bob Servo. I'm also a writer for fandom, writing video game content at fandom.com. Go there for my stuff on video games.

And I also write a comedy article every other Thursday for something awful as I have done for the past 12 years. in case you didn't know that about me. I do that as well. And my other podcast is Talking Simpsons every Wednesday on the Laser Day, laser day, every Wednesday on the Lasertime podcast network. We're an hour like nine recording, by the way.

But, yes, this has been a long weekend. Go to Talking Simpsons.com. Every episode is a new episode of The Simpsons. We explore an excruciating detail. When this launches, this episode you're listening to now, we will be in season five, and we have almost 100 episodes to you to go back and enjoy. If you were trying to get into the show, pick an episode of The Simpsons you love and listen to the Our Corresponding episode

and I guarantee you will like our show. So that's every Wednesday, Talking Simpsons.com or look for Talking Simpsons in your podcast device. You'll find us there. Thank you. As for myself, you can find me on Twitter as GameSpite. I create things like Game Boy World and Good Intentions video series, but that's all part of Retronauts and that's what I do now,

podcasts and website and videos. And I think it's funny that people are always like, man, your life is so laid back now. you have so much free time. Actually, I'm working harder than ever I have before in my life because I'm building a business, but it's great. It's lots of fun. I've really been enjoying it. I'm grateful for everyone's support

and continued patronage, whether through Patreon or just through listening of Retronauts. I hope you continue to enjoy our episodes and we'll continue to support us. And I will continue to create the best content that I can along with Bob. So thanks again for listening. We'll be back next week with a full

episode, I think. Retronauts East. Yes, look forward to that. We're going to be able to be. The All-Noy, The all-new Toyota Rav-4 asks, What if? What if your ride was refined and rugged at the same time? Introducing a car that's got style and substance to spare.

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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. Maine 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, 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.