I, as a retro gamer, am very young. I am 17, meaning I was born at the release of the
Super Nintendo. But being the son of a Young couple in Sweden who's father was going to
college, the best we could afford in our small 2 room apartment was an NES from the
classifieds. Of course I wanted the SNES, and I drooled at the display N64 at the big toy
store in downtown Stockholm, but at the same time I loved my NES and played it too
death.

As I grow and mature as a creative individual, my childhood experiences are always
reflected in what I do, and the things I love. The simple colors and that distinct, beautiful
simple sound that came from that grey box ground themselves into the very core of me. I
am regarded as having weird music by some of my friends, seeing as my iPod is dominated
by NES soundtrack and Chiptunes; which brings us to the point of my post. Why the hell do
people make Chiptunes, and why do we love them?

One can simply write that off as taste, but I think its something deeper. When you grow up
around that kind of sensory input, it truly grows on you. Its like when parents teach morals.
It becomes something that you are founded upon. It becomes something you "believe in".
It is something you carry your whole life.

There is something special about the NES soundchip that can't be reproduced. It was a
weird middle ground where the hardware could produce enough channels for fully layered
compositions, but not quite advanced enough to mimic real instruments. I would personally
classify the NES as its own instrument. There was a distinct sound that existed, and if you
have ever played games like Mega Man 2 or Ninja Gaiden, those composers took that
hardware to the limit and made absolutely awesome music. It was not only good game
music, but good MUSIC. The songs sounded good.

I think the draw to make Chiptunes sprouts from is the subtle almost subconscious concept
behind it. That this technology is outdated and meaningless in a practical sense; so we
apply it in an artistic sense. Typing this, it feels almost hauntingly existentialist. It also
follows the same lines of minimalist art; where the artist creates as much as possible with
as little materials as possible. Where the emotional punch in the piece is achieved with as
few visual (or in this case auditorial) elements as possible. The NES for example has 4
channels of sound, and I have heard some incredible compositions come from that.

If your in the mood the check some of this out, you should check
out 8bitpeoples . They are a new york based art
group who do some amazing stuff. May I recommend Anamanaguchi?