We receive many emails every week here at RFGO, and most of them are filled with questions. "What is it with Chad and dolphins? Is Chad single? When are you making Chad Concelmo action figures? Can I meet Chad? Can I have him? Can I tie Chad up in my basement?"
Possibly the most frequently asked non-Chad question, however, is "Hey, what's that song that plays at the end of the show?" Well, dear listeners, I've decided to answer that inquiry once and for all by inviting my friend Bit Shifter to sit down with us tonight. He's the one who created the wonderful song you hear at the end of our show, and one of the finest chiptune artists around.
Just in time for next weekend's Blip Festival, we'll be discusing the art of 8-bit music, where it came from, how it works, and why we just can't get enough of it. If you're in the New York area next weekend, you can join the Dtoid staff when we see him perform live with a ton of other amazing artists. In the meantime, hit the comments with any questions you have for him or for us, and we'll do our best to answer them!
Contest:
3:22 PM on 11.25.2007
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Although I don't know if it's retro enough for the retro cast, I'd like to know your guy's opinion on the gameboy camera / printer. Personally I think it was the greatest invention known to man, but that's probably because I was young at the time and easily impressed.
Yup, now that you mentioned it, the music was completely fucking annoying. I really enjoyed the open-ended gameplay it had. It was refreshing to play a game where they didn't have everything on rails.
Ok, how about this one. I'm going to go the arcade for this one. What would you rather play if you had a pocketful of quarters? Either, Discs of Tron or Black Tiger?
To Chad: make sure to make mention of 8 Bit Weapon. I put the CD I got at the Nerdcore thing into my 360 and played E4 and Geometry Wars with it playing, and it was perfect.
Seriously, it was scored by Elfman
and Directed by Sam Raime straight out of "army of Darkness". It had all the makings to be an awesome movie D:.
Dtoiders attending Blip Festival this year, as far as I know, will be:
Myself, Analog Pidgin, Niero and Colette, .tiff, Phist, and Charlie Suh. There are more, but I'm not sure who's definitely in or out.
Also, here's a chiptunes question: Is there a school of chiptune artists that limits the number/type of channels they use in compositions to the channels used by games on the original hardware? You know, four channels plus noise or whatever for NES-based tunes, etc. I truly love that chiptunes are being pushed in wonderful new directions, but personally I ascribe special badassery recognition to those who can come up with stuff as exciting as, oh, Mega Man 2's soundtrack under the same (hardware) limitations.
Also, check out www.2A03.org for some NES chiptune loving.
Yay, chiptunes!
Yes! The sound design in general and animation in Phoenix Wright are fantastic.
Heart to all of you, if I had a place to stay that was cheap as free I'd probably pay the gas to drive over to NY, but I probably won't be able to make it this year. Have a blast!
@Chad
Did you manage to beat your cousins at anything?
If we ever hang out, I'm buying you 4 pints of Guinness, a bee costume, and a bag of Skittles.
1. How do you feel about mainstream artists working with Chiptune and not mentioning anything or giving any recognition to the Chiptune subculture?
2. [A very cliché question] What was your most influential game or piece of Chiptune?
Like Timbaland did? What a dick.
Exactly. He is quite the Summa.
Dang.
Can we get a mention for the C64 and its awesome SID chip? Some of the best 8bit music of all time is featured in C64 games.
Personal fave: Phantom of the Asteroid by Rob Hubbard
Don't forget us over the pond!
:jumps up and waves arms frantically: