These goddamn guys at IndieGames.com are relentless.  Not a single independently produced game doesn’t pass before their eyes, and whenever you think you’ve discovered something worth writing about, they’ve most likely already covered it, and probably before you were even birthed from your mother’s womb.  Such is the case today, as we take a look at a Canabalt-like, Bit-Trip-Runner-ish rhythm platformer called Stalwart, from Jonathan Whiting, the creator of Collateral.  Multicolored meteors and fireballs fall from the heavens, to the beat of fantastic jams composed by Demoscene Time Machine, deterring the advance of your “stalwart” knight, forcing you to jump, long jump, and back flip to avoid being crushed by musical terror; Bringing It On, as it were.  It’s great, of course, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this, but I would like it if the synesthetics were tweaked slightly.  Currently, the notes of the song being played are connected to the impact of the meteors, rather than their appearance on screen, which would give the player more of a heads-up that they are in danger.  That’s just me, though, because I suck at games.

Interestingly, Stalwart is actually a re-creation of an unreleased, nearly Christian-themed game created for the Atari 2600 back in 1984 that never saw the light of day, but was one of the first rhythm games ever created.  At that time, popular Christian music label Sparrow Records commissioned Home Computer Software, Inc. (whose only other credit seems to be the Kids Say The Darndest Things game for the Commodore 64) to create a game based on their popular children’s album, Music Machine: The Fruit Of The Spirit.  Essentially a clone of KABOOM!, Music Machine, the game, has the player controlling Stevie and Nancy, the two characters featured on the music album, as they attempt to catch various symbols representing “positive character qualities” dropped from above by the titular Music Machine.  Music Machine was published by Sparrow Records and only sold in Christian book stores, so is quite a rare cartridge.  A sealed copy was recently sold on eBay for the princely sum of 5,250 dollars.

The unique thing about Music Machine was that an even more rare special edition was available, packaged with a modified version of the aforementioned children’s album meant to be played along with the game (Unfortunately, the one mentioned above is not one of these bundles).  A special introduction was added to the beginning of the record, directing players to start the game at a specific moment, thereby syncing the game to the album.  The in-game Music Machine would send down its flood of “positive character qualities” in time with the “real” Music Machine on the on the record.  This usually only worked perfectly as long as your record remained unscratched and untouched by sunlight.  While some arcade games and a few home consoles (such as the Vetrex) featured plastic overlays with additional visual components, this was the first instance of sound overlay ever being used in concert with a video game.

Home Computer Software, Inc. created a follow-up game using the same concept,codenamed Stalwart, but when the first title failed to catch on, Sparrow Records decline to publish it.  Since the game was already complete, Home Computer Software, Inc. was able to shop the game around.  Miraculously, it was picked up by Golan-Globus Productions, whom hoped to release it alongside their 1984 medieval adventure and box office bomb Sword of Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, starring Miles O’Keeffe and an embarrassed Sean Connery.  Again, a special version of the soundtrack album was planned that would sync up with the game, this time available on a cassette that could fit right in the box with the game.  Unfortunately, the failure of that film, along with the previous year’s failure of the E.T. game that was already dragging down the video game market, lead to the eventual complete disappearance of Home Computer Software, Inc., and the prototype Stalwart along with it.

That is, until now.  The experience has been updated appropriately, of course, with new music and additional menu options befitting modern computers, but it’s amazing how much of the game remains intact and in great playable form.  Enjoy it in your browser!

Game manual images courtesy of AtariAge

Screenshot courtesy of Jonathan Whiting

Seattle’s annual(?) chiptunes festival, known collectively as Chipfest, was going to be the highlight of my year. I was stoked, but then, at the last minute, I learned that Cinematic Titanic would be appearing live in Seattle on that same weekend.  Which to attend?  Such a decision was the equivilent of choosing to chop off my right arm or my left arm, and unfortunately, being that I am right-handed, I chose to cut the left-arm of Chipfest.  Profortunately, thanks to the magnificent tgoldendisc (and apparent partner in crime SeaShow), I can attach a proverbial chainsaw to my bloody stump by way of YouTube.  Highlights include:

Falcon Punch! by Circles

Something by Syphilis Sauna

absolute maddness by McFiredrill

Quite a worthy effort, indeed, though the shots could use a bit more power plug in the frame.

UPDATE:

I’ve discovered another video from Chipfest 2009 and it makes me double disappointed that I missed out:

Classic Arcade Sounds Via Wired’s Geekdad:

Experience the magic and the wonder of the early years of coin-op video games. Hear the classic arcade ambience like you haven’t heard it in over a quarter of a century! The blend of several video games being played simultaneously, the kids yelling and the quarters clanking. We will never hear such beautiful chaos quite the same way again….

Thank you, the internet.

Have you ever had a dream that was so awesome, the fact that you awoke at the end of it was downright depressing?  When I was about 12 years old, I had a dream that I was a Goonie.  Often, as make my sleep preparations, I’ll be reminded of that dream, and hope that I might revisit it that night.  Nowadays, I’m often too drunk to remember any dreams, but thanks to the “new” Retronauts blog on 1up.com, I can live the dream.  Live.

Despite Jess Ragan‘s lack of Goonies love, he’s turned me on (?!) to a pretty mediocre fan remake of the original The Goonies game for the MSX called The Goonies: 25th Anniversary Edition.  Don’t get me wrong, the jubilant folks at Brain Games, the developers of the remake, have done a fine job.  It’s just that they didn’t have much to work with at the start.  The original The Goonies game is pretty basic platformer, with pretty basic gameplay, that basically isn’t that much fun.  I will disagree with Mr. Ragan’s contention that playing as Sloth is some sort of affront against humanity.  Even though Sloth does resemble a Mr. Potato-head gone horribly wrong, at least his head is 4 times bigger than his body.

Still, as Mr. Ragan mentions, there is one thing about the remake that makes it worth checking out.  The remake comes packaged with several wonderful remixes of the Goonies theme that R good enough for me.  Thankfully, the soundtrack can be found within the folders of the game installation and can be played with abandon.

(As of this writing, the game can no longer be downloaded from the official site.  Wha-happa?!)

UPDATE:  The download works from my workplace.  Don’t tell my boss!

On Saturday night, April 12th, a group of musicians/weirdos (myself included) met in South Seattle to lay down a cavalcade of 8-bit tunes, break-core, and glitch.

Fighter X, out of Everett, Washington, got the crowd warmed up with a fast-paced set that had everyone jumping.

Rainbow Pawz, a collaboration between MC Firedrill and Kinoko performed a set with their own brand of happiness, featuring various childrens toys, keyboards, laptops, and rediculous headdresses.

Later on, Kinoko performed a solo set with less rediculous, yet still quite unique, headwear.

Syphilis Sauna brought the noise, in the way only he can, accompanied by visuals from Disjunct.

Unfortunately, I had to leave early, but you can check out more pictures here:

Chipfest! ’08

And some video here (bonus: a video of my brother’s birthday the next day!):

YouTube vids