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Creating The Soundtrack For Bally’s Xenon Pinball

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Ever wondered how those distinct pinball sound effects, speech and music were developed back in the day?

In this short early 80s documentary clip, renowned Electronic Music Composer, Suzanne Ciani, takes us through the creative process of putting together the iconic soundtrack for Bally’s Xenon pinball machine. By lending her voice to Xenon (as the female robot), Suzanne became the the first human female voice in a pinball game!

We absolutely love Suzanne’s body of aural work that spans across many mediums, including film and of course, pinball.

Welcome to Xenon!


source: Tokyo Matt



 

80s Baby: NKOTB Are Back Baby!

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New Kids On The Block are back, baby! Well, so are Salt-N-Pepa, Naughty By Nature, Tiffany and Debbie Gibson performing 80s Baby. Part of the ‘The Mixtape Tour 2019‘, this new single is a throwback to the awesomest decade of them all, the 1980s!

This song will have you bopping along with that familiar cool 80s tunes. Oh yeah, the video clip is a throwback to Sega’s cool OutRun arcade game – a nice touch indeed!

Huge thanks to Poop Face (aka: Freakin Frankie) for letting us know about this!


source: New Kids On The Block

 

Awesome Chiptunes: 8 Bit Weapon

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There is something about lo-tech chiptune music that gets the old aural nostalgic nerve tingling. Listening to 8 Bit Weapon’s self titled album of chipmusic certainly took us back to the heyday of computer generated music that we loved to listen to, even if the associated game was absolute crap. Music has a way of speaking to us, no matter the times we are in.

8 Bit Weapon’s album is the culmination of sound experiments that started in 2015 and ending in 2017. Created via the original Game Boy and Commodore 64 (Ed: SID forever!), the artists sought to explore the outer reaches of the Game Boy’s 8-bit CPU/4-bit sound chip, especially it’s dynamic wave channel sound manipulation capacity with the addition of the Commodore 64 SID synth bass and other sounds to round out the albums sound.

Please don’t ask us to pick a favourite track, as it is like asking to pick our favourite child – impossible! OK, if push came to shove, then we’d say Dungeon Crawler Baller is our fave track, but only just – seriously, all the tracks are ace and unique in their own way.

What Seth and Michelle (8 Bit Weapon) have created is pure awesome original and unique chiptunes that your ears will want you to play over and over. If you are into chiptunes, then this album is for you. Get it now!

Artists: 8 Bit Weapon
Album: 8 Bit Weapon (available via Bandcamp)
Cost: USD $5.00 (or more)

Michelle and Seth are 8 Bit Weapon
image source: 8 Bit Weapon

Disclosure: 8 Bit Weapon kindly provided us with the download of their album for this article.

 

Retro Cube Speaker and the Super GamePad

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Do you want control and great sound? Do you like all things retro? Then keep reading!

8BitDo Retro Cube (Bluetooth) Speaker ($39.99 from PixelCrib)

For those of you that love listening to chiptunes (or any music) on your phone, you’ll note that the speakers aren’t much chop. Enter 8bitdo’s NES inspired Retro Cube Bluetooth Speaker! Enable Bluetooth on your smartphone and switch on the Retro Cube Speaker and you are paired up ready to blast out some cool tunes!

We absolutely love the look of the Cube, which fits right in with our retro gaming décor. The best part is, you can take it anywhere around the house (or outside) to give your ears some decent aural pleasure. At $39.99 from Pixel Crib, this is a no brainer – get one now!

MyArcade (wireless) Super GamePad ($24.99USD from MyArcade)

If you are sick of sitting close to your SNES Classic Mini due to short controller cords, then MyArcade’s Super GamePad may be the answer.

Boasting a cool SNES retro style with wireless functionality, the Super GamePad is a versatile controller that can be used to play on the SNES and NES Classic Minis and on classic (supported) virtual console titles on the Wii™/ Wii U™!

We love the SNES (PAL) colour style, but if you like the North American styling, then MyArcade has you covered. The Super GamePad may not suit those with large hands, so you may want to try one before you make a decision. For everyone else, this is a great wireless pad that features a HOME button for easy access to the game selection menu on the SNES/NES Classic Minis. There is also an intuitive TURBO button that can be assigned easily to any of the action buttons. The ergonomic grips (like newer controllers) make the Super GamePad very comfy to use.

Oh yeah, the 2 x AAA batteries that power the Super GamePad will last for 75 hours, so you can play without worrying that you will run out of controller juice! Another neat feature is the shape of the main action buttons: X and Y are convex, whereas the A and B are concave, a subtle and cool feature. Before anyone asks, you can play about 25 feet (7.5M) away from the console without lag or disconnection! So now you can play your video games from the comfort of your couch or fave recliner 😉

 

DISCLAIMER: The Super GamePad and Retro Cube Speaker were supplied by MyArcade and PixelCrib respectively.

 

Mi-Sex: Computer Games

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Watching the ABC’s Classic Countdown on the weekend, we saw a music clip that triggered a torrent of nostalgia. The music clip in question was Mi-Sex’s Computer Games.

Released in 1979, Computer Games was way ahead of its time, both in the context of the nascent computer and video gaming age, and the use of Control Data Corporation’s data centre to film their music video, which features a number of arcade games from 1979 – can you name them all? The answers are further down below – don’t you dare cheat!

For those of our vintage that remember this hit song, here it is for you to enjoy once again. And for those that haven’t heard this before, kick back and enjoy!


source: saynotonowave

Answer: Computer Games features Vectorbeam’s Speed Freak, Atari’s Basketball and Exidy’s Star Fire! Did you get them all right?

 

Classic Videogame Music Performed Backwards

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Composer and musician Stemage has taken classic videogame music and performed it backwards! The results are surprisingly melodic – have a listen and see if you can make out the original tunes.

Super Mario Bros.

Tetris

Ghosts ‘n Goblins

Punch Out!!

 

Source: Stemage on YouTube via Technabob

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msausretrogamerMs. ausretrogamer
Co-founder, editor and writer at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

 

 

Pokemon Theme By A Computer Hardware Orchestra

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Floppotron - featuredPaweł Zadrożniak, a.k.a. Silent, is the inventor of the amazing ‘Floppotron’ – a computer hardware orchestra of 64 floppy drives, 8 hard disks and 2 scanners. Follow the link to see how he made it.

Watch this incredible machine play the theme song from the Pokémon TV show theme.


source: Paweł Zadrożniak on YouTube via Laughing Squid

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msausretrogamerMs. ausretrogamer
Co-founder, editor and writer at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

 

 

PUP The Band: DVP

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PUP DVPCanadian punk rockers PUP just got a little cooler with the release of their amazing retrogaming themed music video for new song ‘DVP’ (directed and created by Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux). So many games to spot – Super Mario Bros., Mega Man, TMNT, Pokémon, Oregon Trail, NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat…

[Language warning]

Source: PUP The Band on YouTube

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msausretrogamerMs. ausretrogamer
Co-founder, editor and writer at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

 

 

Beautiful Music: Fettes Brot Feat. Geekchester

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featured1You don’t need to speak German to appreciate the awesomeness of German hip hop band Fettes Brot with the retro computer big band Geekchester.

Source: Neo Magazin Royale on YouTube via Laughing Squid

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msausretrogamerMs. ausretrogamer
Co-founder, editor and writer at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter

 

 

Smokin’ Hot Jazz Cover Of The Pokémon Theme

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Scott Bradlee (of Postmodern Jukebox fame) gives us a smokin’ hot jazz cover of the Pokémon theme song, featuring Sara Niemietz on vocals – we can’t stop listening!


Video source: Scott Bradlee on YouTube

Source: via Laughing Squid

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msausretrogamerMs. ausretrogamer
Co-founder, editor and writer at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.

Follow Ms. ausretrogamer on Twitter