Sue Kasper, it's a name you might know by memory but if you grew up PC gaming in the 90s you're definitely familiar with her work. Sue was the lead composer on SimFarm and the international sensation SimCity 2000! Both games were developed by Maxis, a studio known for producing simulation games since the 80s including SimCity, The Sims, Spore and many others. Sue's eclectic tunes have been ingrained in the hearts and minds of simulation game players the world over, and there's no doubt that her work on SimCity 2000 inspired a great many other composers trying to capture that iconic simulation game sound. She's a lifelong musician and guitarist that's been playing gigs in a number of bands around California since the 70s. While we weren't able to speak to Sue directly on mic, we had an excellent conversation with Michelle sitting in as proxy for Sue to answer our collective questions about her work on SimCity 2K and SimFarm. It was a ton of fun hearing her experiences rocking out, and her work with companies like Maxis, Guitar Player magazine, and Avid/Digidesign. Music composed by Sue Kasper unless otherwise stated 0:00:00 Dawn of City (Sim City 2000) 0:06:44 Dancing Megalopolis 0:11:06 The SIM Magic: Experience Mode 0:15:04 Skycrapers 0:22:00 Tax & Money 0:28:35 (Excerpts) Tax & Money, Work Work Work! [with MIDI transcription issues] 0:31:18 Title Theme (Sim Farm) 0:34:13 Dead Farm / Debt Farm 0:39:15 Home Improvement (aka COWMAN) 0:41:53 Work Work Work (Sim City 2000) 0:48:25 Ultimate City 0:52:50 Key of Success 1:01:35 (Bedding) General Farm 1:04:12 Work Work Work! Composed by Sue Kasper Arranged by Ryuichi Katsumata for Sim-Melody from SimCity 2000 Other things mentioned: MAGWest 2024 (Sep 27-29) MAGWest 2023 - George Sanger Pool Party set ROCKRGRL Magazine wiki Bonus link: Small World - Juliet Slip tribute video All songs using Roland SC-55, thank you to Valley Bell for providing the stellar recordings!

Pixelated Audio is back for the third annual Masters of VGM (@MastersofVGM), which happens every June. Various podcasts come together to highlight game composers with the theme this year focusing on the amazing women in the industry. We decided to take a more narrow focus on some of the lesser known composers at Capcom and picked 4 to talk about today going from the company's earliest days through the 2000s. Check out some of the other participating shows in Masters of VGM and discover some new VGM podcast favorites! As always, we hope you enjoy the show! Track List: 00:00 Main Theme - SonSon (Arcade, 1984) by Ayako Mori 03:56 Stage 1 & 2 - Ghosts 'n Goblins / Makaimura (Arcade, 1985) by Ayako Mori 07:24 Stage 3 - Trojan / Tatakai no Banka (Arcade, 1986) by Ayako Mori 10:44 Crystal Snail - Mega Man X2 (SNES, 1994) by Yuki Iwai 15:17 City Zone B ~ Night - Tech Romancer (Arcade, 1998) by Yuki Iwai 20:48 Tenguman - Rockman & Forte / Mega Man & Bass (SNES, 1998) by Akari Kaida 32:40 No!! - Tricky Sliders / Trick'N Snowboarder (PS1, 1999) by Akari Kaida 36:14 Blast Speed (Blast Man's Stage) - Mega Man Battle Network 6 (GBA, 2005) by Yoshino Aoki 41:12 Now Study! (Libra Scales' Stage) - Mega Man Star Force (DS, 2006) by Yoshino Aoki 48:28 Kaze yo Tsutaete (Game version) ~ROLL Special Ending~ - Rockman Battle & Chase (PS1, 1997) composition and arrangement by Yoshinori Ono and performance by Yoshino Aoki Other links Ayako Mori - Capcom Wiki Yuki Iwai - Capcom Wiki Akari Kaida - Capcom Wiki, Wikipedia Yoshino Aoki - Capcom Wiki, Wikipedia

Pixelated Audio is back from a wonderful weekend at VGMCon in Minnesota! Gene was slated to represent us but along the way drummed up a party including Pernell from Rhythm and Pixels, Carlos from Heroes Three, and Thomas Kresge head of the Game Brass (check out their new album Barrel Brassed)! When in Minnesota do as the Minnesotans do, as the saying goes. We had a fun time talking about all manner of VGM related to the Midwest; the region itself, games about the area and made there, as well as composers from the area. Getting more specific we cover pinball and edutainment in some level of depth before the panel devolves into talking about Shrek, cheese, and endless trips cross country. It's a fun journey through a diverse range of VGM and we hope you enjoy the show we put together. Pardon the noise in the background, it was the best we could do with a portable recorder. Track list 0:00:00 (Bedding) "The Creek" WolfQuest (Minnesota Zoo & Eduweb 2007) by Tim Buzza, additional music by Ben Woolman 0:14:52 (Excerpt) Suzanne Ciani Creates the Soundtrack for a Pinball Machine YouTube 0:15:51 (Excerpt) Xenon gameplay (Bally 1980) all audio by Suzanne Ciani (video courtesy of London Pinball) 0:18:19 "Main Theme" Pin-Bot (Williams 1986) by Chris Granner 0:22:24 "Speak Softly, Love" feat. Slash from The Godfather Pinball (Jersey Jack Pinball 2023) by Thomas Kresge 0:26:38 "New York City (Action)" X-Men Legends (Raven Software 2004) by Rik Schaffer 0:33:34 "Title Theme" Oregon Trail Deluxe (MECC 1993) by Lon Koenig and Larry Phenow 0:36:47 "Gimme Mo' Torque" Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense (DC version, 1999 Luxoflux) by Christian A. Salyer, Eric Klein, Javier Marquez 0:40:26 "Tracking Trouble" Puzzle Agent (Telltale Games 2010) by Disasterpeace / Richard Vreeland) 0:47:04 "Granny Cream's Hot Butter Ice Cream" Hypnospace Outlaw (Tendershoot 2019) by Hot Dad / Erik Helwig / "Chowder Man" 0:49:11 "Kitchen Music" I Am Bread (Bossa Studios 2014) by Black Heron (Leo Chilcott and Murugan Thiruchelvam) 0:54:48 "Protector's Enclave" Neverwinter (Cryptic Studios 2013) by Kevin Manthei 0:58:44 “Let's Break Physics (Main Theme)” Unstable Scientific (Studio Castle Soodalkov TBD) by Super Marcato Bros 1:04:29 "Exploration" WolfQuest by Tim Buzza 1:21:09 "The Creek" WolfQuest by Tim Buzza Additional things mentioned during the talk Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) The Story of The Oregon Trail - Gaming Historian YouTube Trailheads: The Oregon Trail’s Origins - Twin Cities PBS Ben Hanson travels the roguelike Oregon Trail - Video Game History Foundation R. Philip Bouchard (lead designer of the 1985 Oregon Trail) Personal website | died-of-dysentery.com | Died of Dysentery book, history of the game Minnesota things! Level with Emily Reese podcast home | PA episode with Emily VGMCon Games Done Quick Other things mentioned Airport CEO - game | soundtrack Fight'N Rage - game | soundtrack SML Podcast

Kamen Rider Agito & Kuuga Wild Battle [仮面ライダーアギト＆クウガ ワイルドバトル] is a 2001 game for the Sega Pico developed by Arc System Works and published by Bandai. It is based on the Kamen Rider superhero license property which started in the 1970s. To keep it brief, the Sega Pico is less a console and more a children's toy. Imagine the guts of a Sega Genesis / Mega Drive (minus the FM) stuffed into a colorful laptop / digital storybook for pre-school age children. For the Sega Pico, Kamen Rider is surprisingly involved and game-like compared to most of the educational software the system was built for. It features a basic 1-on-1 fighting game, a racing game, and a lightgun style shooting game. On the audio hardware side, the Pico contains the Sega Master System's SN76489 (3 square waves, 1 noise channel) and a sample channel used mostly for voice clips. Unfortunately we don't have information on the composer / arranger for the Pico version, but some of the tracks are based on the original Kamen Rider music composed by Toshihiko Sahashi. It's an unexpectedly cool soundtrack for an obscure system even by VGM standards, and we hope you enjoy it! Based on original compositions by Toshihiko Sahashi, no credits available for the Pico arrangement 00:07 Title Screen 04:02 Agito Page 10:19 Character Select 14:51 Battle BGM 21:27 Agito Game 23:09 Kuuga Page 28:24 Kuuga Game Thanks to marklincadet of VGMRips for creating the pack!

Ultimate Brain Games is a board game collection released for PS1 in 2003 developed by cosmigo and published by Telegames. There's not much to say about the board games themselves; things like dominoes, chess, backgammon and the like, but the soundtrack written by Zbigniew Siatecki is great! Cosmigo was a very small German developer responsible for a ton of board and card game collections from around 2000 to 2015. They still exist today, mostly as the developer on a pixel art graphic software called "Pro Motion". Zbigniew Siatecki's story is a somewhat familiar one around this timeframe. He's a Polish musician and graphic artist that got his start in the demoscene in the 90s / early 2000s (working under the pseudonym Siatek) whose music made its way into a few games from 2003-2007. Since his work on Ultimate Brain Games, and the related soundtracks for Ultimate Card Games and Solitaire Overload, he's mostly moved onto 3D graphics working on titles like Hard Reset, Shadow Warrior 1 & 2 (the 2010s series), Dark Souls: Remastered, and Cyberpunk 2077. His music is warm and nostalgic with all of the charming turn of the millennium demoscene vibes you can handle. While we couldn't get him on the show, we're still big fans of his work and we hope everyone enjoys it as much as we do. All songs composed by Zbigniew Siatecki 00:00 Alice - Ultimate Brain Games (PS1) 03:51 Twilight 15:51 Blossom Time 23:04 Maya 31:40 Winter Morning - Ultimate Card Games (GBA) 36:37 Winter Morning (Excerpt) - Solitaire Overload (DS) 38:31 Dolphin Play - Solitaire Overload (DS) 41:59 Dolphin Play (Excerpt) - Ultimate Card Games (GBA) 48:02 "i love you" filename Syfonia.it also Starlight in Ultimate Brain Games (PS1)

GunMaster is a December 1994 arcade exclusive game developed by Metro Corporation. It's a single or two-player boss rush action game that's part fighting game and part platformer; think a dash of Gunstar Heroes with a Neo Geo art style. The game uses a well-established combo of soundchips: the OKIM6295 for 4 channels of ADPCM and the YM2151 for 8 channels of FM audio. Metro Corporation was best known in the 90s for their Bust a Groove / Bust a Move series. More recently they've been a contract developer for Nintendo working on several Pokemon games and the Switch re-release of the Another Code / Trace Memory games. The soundtrack was composed by a trio under the pseudonyms Famishin, MAZ, and Shadow although our information about them is limited. What we do know is that Famishin continues to work in the game industry with their company Yuzusoft, with game releases as recently as 2022. MAZ was last seen as composer for Metro Corporation's PS1 game BursTrick: Wake Boarding!!, and Shadow is as elusive as Totsukurzwell (from our show on Dangerous Seed). As always, we hope you enjoy this boss music heavy soundtrack. All songs composed by Famishin, MAZ, and Shadow 00:00 Opening 01:52 Soldier Ore, Aries 09:39 Pearl, Onyx & Gemini 13:09 Leo 20:02 Turquoise 22:50 Tourmaline, Virgo 24:56 Aquarius, Taurus 28:11 Cancer, Red Amber 30:55 Capricornus 40:48 Queen Dia 45:45 Ending Thanks to 2ch-H of VGMRips for creating the pack!

Gigandes (ギガンデス) is an arcade game developed by East Technology in 1989 and released in February of 1990. It's a horizontal shmup in the style of R-Type featuring all of the bio-mechanical tropes common to the era. It was designed for the Taito X System hardware which used a YM2610, the same audio configuration used in the Neo Geo, and was composed by Akira Inoue and Takaro Nozaki. East Technology was a small developer based in Shinjuku that mostly worked on arcade games. The company was founded in 1987 and operated until around the mid-1990s. East Technology only produced around 10 games; their most notable were Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone published by Technos, and Operation Wolf 3 and Silent Dragon published by Taito. The soundtrack to Gigandes is eccentric and in some ways ahead of its time. Full of weird and off-putting samples, the tonal whiplash is at times abrasive and at others catchy, but always compelling. Relative unknowns Akira Inoue and Takaro Nozaki put together a one-of-a-kind soundtrack that is worth the time to explore and we hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did. All songs composed by Akira Inoue and Takaro Nozaki 00:00 Brain Dump (Stage Start) 00:10 Speshul Atak Younit (Chapter 1: Round-37 Takes Off!) 06:23 Climax Without Foreplay (Chapter 2: The Rival Arrives) 09:04 Propagandasm (Stage 2 Boss) 14:27 Populism Answer (Chapter 3: Mesopotamian Nightmare) 17:37 Behold! This Face (Stage 3 Boss) 23:36 New Order (Chapter 4: Save the Colony Part 1) 27:21 Vertigo Factory (Chapter 5: Save the Colony Part 2) 33:09 Aquarium Island (Chapter 6: Showdown at Tatarajima) 36:14 Fight Fire with Fire (Stage 6 Boss) 41:40 It Ain't a Plot (Chapter 7: The Underground Kingdom of Larzan) 45:15 5-Count (Last Chapter: Sleep Quietly, My Friend) 49:12 Unused 4 52:29 Exposure Over (Last Boss) 54:49 Loving as Much as a Wound That Heals (Name Entry 1) 59:07 The Warrior and the Official (Name Entry 2) 59:46 5.67 Billion Years of Solitude (Game Over) Thanks to The Golden Horse of VGMRips for the pack!

We’ve got a really fun soundtrack to dive into this episode from a Jaleco arcade title released in 1989 called Plus Alpha, composed by Tsukasa Tawada.  It’s an overhead shooter similar to Twinbee, Raiden, or 1942 and was re-released on the Nintendo Switch in 2020 under the Arcade Archives series published by HAMSTER Corporation. This is one of Tsukasa Tawada's earliest soundtracks, a composer still active in the 2020s with work on Pokemon and Harvest Moon titles. He brings lots of variety in this soundtrack, which is a ton of fun and also hits all the marks for an awesome arcade experience.   Tracklist: All tracks composed by Tsukasa Tawada 00:04 Triumphal Return Overture (Title) 03:26 Wind Dancer (Stage 1 Wind Country) 08:25 Into Blue (Stage 2 Sea Colony) 09:39 Bird Island (Stage 3 Flower Town) 14:20 Sun Colors (Stage 4 Snow Country) 16:08 Last Heart (Stage 5 Sand City) 19:54 Neo Baroque (Stage 7 Eden) 21:11 Boss Stage 22:06 Harmonica for Peace (Unused) 26:47 Ending Theme Thanks to ctr from VGMRips for creating the pack!

In this latest mini episode we're talking about Solstice: The Quest for the Staff of Demnos, a childhood favorite on the NES composed by Tim Follin. Solstice released on the NES in the US and UK in mid 1990. It was developed by Software Creations and published by various companies in different regions. It's a challenging isometric puzzle platformer in the vein of games like Knight Lore and Lumo. Solstice only released on NES, but it did have a sequel on the SNES called Equinox. Tim Follin is a VGM composer that hardly needs an introduction. Master of VGM folk and prog rock and putting way more effort into game soundtracks than they usually deserved, Tim worked on games like Bionic Commando and Ghouls'n Ghosts for C64, Plok for SNES, Ecco the Dolphin for Dreamcast and a tons more games. More recently he's moved into game development with games like Contradiction: Spot the Liar. For more info about the illustrator of the box art, check out Michael Winterbauer's website. Tracklist: All tracks composed by Tim Follin 00:05 Title Screen 06:47 Introduction 07:10 Main Theme 18:50 Game Over 19:00 Credit ~ Continue 26:22 Ending Thanks to Gnome from VGMRips for creating the pack!

In this bite-sized installment we're exploring the soundtrack from Bomb Jack on the Nintendo GameBoy composed by the legendary DMG DJ, Alberto José González. Bomb Jack released on the Game Boy in the UK in 1992 and Sweden in 1993. Adapted to the handheld  by Bit Managers and New Frontier; published by Infogrames. Bomb Jack has had dozens of ports derived from the Tehkan Arcade game from 1984. CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 16, 64, Amiga, PC88, SG1000, ZX Spectrum, and even things like Java ME. Alberto José González is a Spanish video game graphic artist, music composer, designer, and pretty much everything else. Notable games from French publisher Infogrames helped shed light on his early career and eventually helped found Bit Managers and later Abylight. Twitter | YouTube | SoundCloud Tracklist: All tracks composed by Alberto José González unless otherwise stated 00:03 Bomb Order Bonus 02:05 Title Screen 12:18 Stage BGM 14:58 Name Entry 2 (ARC) - originally composed by Tsukasa Masuko 19:09 Game Over (The Last Sigh) Thanks to The789Guy for the Gameboy pack and 2ch-H for the Arcade pack over at VGMRips!

Another titan of the game industry, George "The Fat Man" Sanger, joins us live at MAGWest! George has done so much to shape the course of game audio in America that the best we can hope for is scratching the surface with this post. During his career he's worked on numerous games, alongside his legendary group of cowboy composers under the moniker "Team Fat" which consisted of himself, Dave Govett, Joe McDermott and K. Weston Phelan. A short list of projects that George and Team Fat worked on: Thin Ice for Intellivision, Maniac Mansion and Rad Gravity for NES, Zombies Ate My Neighbors on SNES, a litany of computer games including Loom, The 7th Guest, The 11th Hour, Wing Commander I and II, Ultima Underworld, Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon, Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo, Pajama Sam 3, and many other games. He's done work for so many companies it'll be faster to just link to his Wikipedia or Mobygames pages. His influence in PC game music is especially strong. He's created think tanks and collaborated with audio companies which led to the adoption of hardware like the MT-32, General MIDI, and even redbook audio as data on CD-ROM games like the 7th Guest. In the 1990s, he was also one of the first to bring American VGM composers together through "Project Barbecue", an early precursor to events like GameSoundCon, MAGWest and others. We loved every minute of talking with George and hearing his hilarious stories; from his humble beginnings, to his lengthy career and accomplishments, to his work with Team Fat. He is a larger than life character in a suit and cowboy hat and we wouldn't have it any other way. If you haven't got your fill of George yet, check out a few more things: Team Fat Bandcamp page - buy some of their classic albums! George's website - Learn more about the man himself And a few plugs from George for good measure The 7th Guest VR Soups On - Remade music from 7th Guest and 11th Hour in a 4 vinyl set (fully funded Kickstarter) Pixelated Audio and the Fat Man Music composed by George Sanger or other members of Team Fat (Dave Govett, Joe McDermott, K. Weston Phelan) unless otherwise stated 0:00:00 (Bedding) Swing Commander (Rec Room) ver 1.7 - Wing Commander Remastered (MT-32) - Dave Govett and George Sanger 0:05:39 Surfin on Thin Ice - Intellivision Lives! (GC) Based on "Carnival of the Penguins" for the 1983/1986 Intellivision game "Thin Ice" - George Sanger 0:13:49 (Excerpt) Main Music - Capture the Flag (Atari 8-bit) 0:15:08 (Excerpt) Surfin on Thin Ice (Live) - Intellivision Lives! (GC) 0:18:02 Planet Theme - Rad Gravity (NES) 0:22:19 Title Theme - Rad Gravity (NES) 0:23:31 Go Get 'Em! - Wing Commander Remastered (MT-32) - Dave Govett and George Sanger 0:26:22 (Excerpt) Main Theme - Loom (MT-32) Based on "Pas de trois - Intrada" originally by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, transcribed by George Sanger and Gary Hammond 0:27:32 Main Theme - SSN-21 Seawolf (MT-32) 0:34:33 Putt in Tunisia - Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon Remastered 0:48:28 Bedspread - The 7th Guest Remastered 0:54:00 I R Sam or Sam's House - Pajama Sam 3 Remastered 1:01:51 Train: The Lost Puzzle Piece (Unused) - The 7th Guest Remastered 1:06:57 Zombie Panic - Zombies Ate My Neighbors (SNES) - Joe McDermott and George Sanger 1:18:13 Dave's Theme - Maniac Mansion (NES) - David Hayes and David Warhol 1:21:53 Welcome to the Zoo (Final) - Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo Remastered - George Sanger and Team Fat