12 September 2012

Episode 98: Shorties 2

In this episode, Brent and Rob focus on video game music tracks which are absolutely no longer than 15 seconds.  Ironically, this ends up being one of the Legacy Music Hour's longest episodes.  Brent and Rob are also joined by an unannounced and unexpected guest.  A very big and flighty guest, in fact.  A wide variety of consoles are covered, consoles including the Sega Master System, Game Gear, and TurboGrafx-16.  And finally, there seems to be a strong theme of nostalgia in this episode which is discussed and heard throughout the music.  A long, nostalgic journey through a wonderful selection of "micro songs".  Full track listing below.



Game - Composer - Song - Company - Console - Year (North American release unless otherwise indicated)

Thunder Force III - Naosuke Arai - The Wind Blew All Day Long (Opening Theme) - Technosoft - Genesis - 1990

Double Dribble - Atsushi Fujio (?) - Set Up - Konami - NES - 1987

Castlevania: Bloodlines - Michiru Yamane - Pressure (Invincibility) - Konami - Genesis - 1994

Rambo - Tohru Hasahe, Minki Motoyama - Headquarters/Safe Zone - Acclaim/Pack-In-Video - NES - 1988

Chou Kyuukai Miracle Nine - Naofumi Hataya - Play Ball - Sega - Mega Drive - 1995

Utsurun Desu.: Kawauso Hawaii e Iku!!! - unknown - Ending - Takara - Famicom - 1992

Werewolf: The Last Warrior - Shogo Sakai, Takafumi Miura, Yusuke Takahama - Data East Logo/Cutscene - Data East - NES - 1990

Black Belt - Katsuhiro Hayashi - Title Screen - Sega - Sega Master System - 1986

City Hunter - unknown - Wrong Door - Sunsoft - PC Engine - 1990

Cosmic Wars - Hidenori Maezawa, Harumi Ueko - Buy Ships - Konami - Famicom - 1989

Heisei Tensai Bakabon - unknown - Rooftops - Namco - Game Boy (Japan) - 1992

Yu Yu Hakusho: Makyou Touitsusen - T.K.O. (Norio Hanzawa, Katsuhiko Suzuki, Satoshi Murata) - Play Again? - Treasure - Mega Drive - 1994

Xevious: Fardraut Saga - Masatomo Miyamoto, Masanobu Tsukamoto, Toshiaki Sakoda, Takayuki Hirono - Round 2 (Unused) - Compile/Namco - PC Engine - 1990

Super Oozumou Netsusen Dai-Ichiban - Hiromi Shibano - Main Menu - Namco - Super Famicom - 1992

Legendary Wings - Tamayo Kawamoto, Manami Matsumae (arr.), Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (arr.) - Hi Score - Capcom - NES - 1988

Hourai Gakuen no Bouken! The Adventure of Hourai High School: Tenkousei Scramble - Hitoshi Sakimoto - Victory - J-Wing/Dynamite - Super Famicom - 1996

Captain America and the Avengers - Tomoyoshi Sato, Tatsuya Kiuchi, Shogo Sakai, Hitoshi Sakimoto (arr.) - Unused (Arcade Continue) - Data East - Genesis - 1992

Sonic Drift 2 - Saori Kobayashi, Masayuki Nagao - Balloon Panic - Sega - Game Gear - 1995

Contra: Hard Corps - Hiroshi Kobayashi (H. Devi Kobayashi), Akira Souji (Akiropito), Kenji Miyaoka, Michiru Yamane (Chiru2 Yamane), Akira Yamaoka (Gajokai), Hirofumi Taniguchi (Nitachigu) - What a Painful World - Konami - Genesis - 1994

Bionic Commando - Junko Tamiya - Albatross Boss - Capcom - NES - 1988

Earth Defense Force - Tsukasa Tawada, Yasuhiko "Zep" Takashiba (arr.) - Stage Clear - Jaleco - SNES - 1992

Superman - Kenji Tamasaki, Junichi Ueda, Hiroshi Tsukamoto - Round Clear - Sunsoft - Genesis - 1992

Fighting Masters - Masapi, Shioya (Hiromitsu Shioya?) - Player Select - Almanic/Treco - Genesis - 1992

X - Kazumi Totaka - Junction - Nintendo - Game Boy (Japan) - 1992

After Burner II - Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Noriyuki Iwadare (arr.) - Maximum Power - Sega - Genesis - 1990

Tokimeki Memorial: Densetsu no Ki no Shita de - Keroppi Inoue, Noriko Takahashi - Yukari at the Tennis Club - Konami - Super Famicom - 1996

Battle Golfer Yui - Naka-chan 3-sai, Kenta-kun. Yada!, Maru-chan wa omotta, Kyoporiran - Deep Over - Santos/Sega - Mega Drive - 1991

Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode - Michiharu Hasuya - Target Mode Ground - Vic Tokai - NES - 1988

Puyo Puyo - Toshiaki Sakoda - Sorrow - Compile - Mega Drive - 1992

Cyborg 009 - unknown - Title Menu - Bec - Super Famicom - 1994

Road Rash - Michael Bartlow - Busted - Electronic Arts - Genesis - 1991

The Peace Keepers - Atsuyoshi Isemura, Hyu - Ending Story - Jaleco - SNES - 1994

Phelios - Yoshinori Kawamoto - Sogin's Jar (Chapter 2-1) - Namco - Genesis - 1990

Transformers: Convoy no Nazo - unknown - Main BGM - ISCO/Takara - Famicom - 1986

Who Framed Roger Rabbit - David Wise - Judge Defeated - Rare/LJN - NES - 1989

Commando - Tamayo Kawamoto - Title Theme - Capcom - NES - 1986

Volfied - Hisayoshi Ogura, Kouichi Dekune (?) (arr.) - Final Round Clear - Taito - PC Engine - 1989

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link - Akito Nakatsuka - Indoors - Nintendo - NES - 1988

Xexyz - Hirohiko Takayama - Force Star Boss/Face of God - Atlus/Hudson Soft - NES - 1990

EarthBound - Hirokazu Tanaka - The Cliff That Time Forgot - Nintendo - SNES - 1995

Mega Man - Manami Matsumae - Stage Select - Capcom - NES - 1987

14 comments:

  1. Hey guys! I'm a long time listener, first time commenter...nah I'm just messing with you guys. In all seriousness though, this has been one of my favorite episodes that you've done. Please keep them coming and an early congrats on making it to the 100 episode mark! Here's to another 100 episodes! And Rob, you are totally right: the Genesis sound chip is SUPERIOR to the SNES!

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  2. MY nostalgia for a Rambo game soundtrack lies within the greatest Rambo game ever made: Rambo First Blood Part II for the Sega Master System!!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIgUWqTrxZM

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  3. You got Black Belt on your track listing as Genesis, not Master System. Thanks for playing the Black Belt title -- SO GOOD. ... as is anytime you play a Master System track makes me very happy, a-thank you!

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  4. Great episode, and it was me that texted asking if you've watched Total Recall yet. You neeeeed to see it!

    I asked because I was listening to the Movies episode, catching up on your episodes. Speaking of, Brent already played that Rambo track on the movie episode! It's a great track though and never mind hearing it.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I thought it sounded awfully familiar...but I also agree, great track. It does have a very strangely punctuated meter to it, almost like it's playing backwards. I wonder if you took the track and reversed it what it'd sound like,.

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  5. Great episode, guys!

    I was particularly struck by the Earthbound track "The Cliff that time forgot." Brent had said that it was creepy, but I don't think it's creepy at all. I -do- think it's very, very emotional, though, very sad.

    I think probably the best way to describe what this song imparts to me is simply to rename it. Therefore, I dub this song "Mourning the glory long departed." Okay, so you got the big brass blasts, which sound like they're doing some kind of fanfare, which imply some kind of great glory. But then the way they echo, overlap, and die out, and the dissonance, and melancholy those different layers create imply that the glory has departed, and is remembered longingly.

    Anyway, that's the sad, sad story this song conveys to me.....aching nostalgia.

    ...what a great track!

    (p.s. no, I did not cry...but I did ache.)

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  6. Brent & Rob,

    Also related to "The Cliff That Time Forgot," is it possible that it's just the first few notes of "La Marseillaise" looped & manipulated? Perhaps Hirokazu Tanaka nodded off during the first few notes of the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" and composed his song in his sleep:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4p8qxGbpOk

    Love, Andy

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    1. Whoa, nice observation! Plus, there are several Beatles references throughout the game, so that could actually be the case...

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    2. That track seems really appropriate to the name, like Brent was saying. It makes me think of some spooky forgotten ruins of some civilization that predated man and left almost no trace.

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    3. Spoilers




      Well if you played the game, you would be able to know that Giygas, the cosmic destroyer and the final boss of the game, was living in the Cliff that time Forgot a lot of years before the events of EarthBound. So that kinda makes sense, and let’s not forget that the Cliff that time forgot is connected to an gigantic underground cave full of dinosaurs.

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  7. The chords in that Golgo 13 track remind me of the "Knight Rider" theme song. Also, Michiharu Hasuya seems to mostly focus on the two pulse channels in his NES soundtracks.

    I think Rob's first attempt at pronouncing Volfied was correct. As he said in Episode 3, its Japanese title is "Vorufido"; if the "ie" were supposed to be pronounced with a long i, I think the title would be "Vorufaido" in Japan.

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  8. I'm curious...why is it that almost every time you guys say a track is from the Turbografx-16, the site lists its actual console as the PC Engine?

    Also, wow! A rare appearance from Silent Hill series composer Akira Yamaoka! Very cool, he's one of my favorite game composers.

    SO glad to hear an EarthBound track here. That soundtrack is so diverse and interesting that it really needs a lot of representation on the show. It's my favorite game of all time. There's actually a lot of sampling and references to real-world music in its soundtrack, too; the sample Andy pointed out is really cool because it's one sample I wasn't aware of.

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