Zoë Blade & Pig - 8-Bit Generation

Musicians Zoë Blade and Pig recently create "8-Bit Generation," a stunning soundtrack exploring some of the themes of the 1980s and 1990s (embedded above).. The songs are clearly inspired by the music of classic video games, from the NES to the Playstation--but there is a definite feeling of newness throughout the album.

At times nostalgia, others whimsical, 8-Bit Generation starts of hard with "Cream Soda," the second track and--quite honestly--an amazing song designed to get inside your head and stay. The next few songs remind me of Anamanaguchi or Nullsleep, and use sounds which were probably produced with an NES soundboard.

Sometimes the album takes a contemplative turn, other times it kicks up the fun with tracks like "Closer" that convey the fun and excitement of exploring a video game world for the first time. Of working towards a quest and knowing that you are reaching the end. But for me, "Closer," is about that time in the middle, in which you accomplish a major task--like the 3rd or 4th dungeon out of 8--and much still remains to be done.

"Mapping out the System," conversely, feel more serious. It is perhaps analogous to that point in which you--as a player--realize that you cannot beat a game without some excellent mapping and organization.

The last two tracks mimic either an ending credits song, or something slow out of Final Fantasy 7. Lyrical, with strong hopeful-sounding motifs plus a significant amount of sadness.

I don't mean to stress the representational nature of the album too much, but with some of the song titles the connection is difficult not to make. In any case, 8-Bit Generation is fresh, killer album that you should definitely check out--but only if you want to go on a musical adventure from 1987-1997.

You can purchase the album on iTunes, or listen to it embedded above. You can also check out 8-Bit Generations the documentary.

If you like the music you might want to listen to more of Zoë Blade's music on her website. I've started listening to another album, Dagda's Arp EP, and it's awesome as well.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup Tileset

The only way to play Crawl is in an ASCII interface, however, people have still made some excellent tiles for the game. Check out the tiles here, and stick to Telnet/SSH for your gameplay. Like the Nethack tileset, another great example of roguelike graphics.

Just think of the time that is saved not animating any of this crap. It's a wonder we ever started caring about graphics so much. Make sure to click the picture or save it for the full-sized image.

Where is Mega Man 11?

2008 saw the release of Mega Man 9, possibly the greatest installment in the entire classic Mega Man saga. Shortly after, Capcom followed up with Mega Man 10, which smoothed the formula even more.

Endless Attack modes in each provided an awesome new mode of platforming that has significant potential. You can already find about a dozen "endless attack" romhacks online. Proto Man and Bass provided the variety and challenge necessary for keeping the interest of the hardcore players. I still rank beating Mega Man 9 and 10 on hard with Protoman as some of my greatest gaming achievements.

Years later, however, I'm left wondering: where is Mega Man 11? Maybe the Wii is just coming to a close, or maybe Capcom is hesitant to continue the classic series without Inafune. Maybe that's it for Mega Man.

I recently purchased Mega Man X7 on a whim, but I've never really considered the MMX series all that great when compared with the classic NES and Wii 8-Bit adventures. 

I'm sure Starship Mega Man 55 or whatever else Capcom is putting out is equally good, but I just can't get motivated to play the other games in the series. The platforming always felt sloppy and the game always felt like it was marketed to younger kids or people seriously into techno and mohawks. Only with classic Mega Man does one need to be badass mother fucker to achieve victory, without the artificial dark and gritty "edge."

The edge comes from the game itself, and if you don't have serious nuts you might as well go cry at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Pixel Art: Michaelangelo TMNT

Mike was undeniably the coolest of the Turtles. He is a role model and an inspiration to become a ninja.

Pixel Art: Donatello TMNT

Donatello was the brains of the operation, and the strongest character in the first NES game.

Deeds of Yore - An 8-Bit Webseries

Deeds of Yore is an 8-Bit Webseries created by Ostrog Productions and set inside a Commodore 64 cartridge. It won "best animated series" from the LA Web Series Festival 2012, and it's easy to see why. Ostrog has created a truly unsettling world of gnomes, tigers, and flat animation easily comparable to something you'd expect from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

It's a standard classic technology plot: a human from Earth gets trapped inside a computer world, and fun/hilarity ensue. It's a time-tested formula (From Captain N to Tron to the much more recent, Captain S), but Deeds of Yore keeps it fresh with the Ultima-style RPG jokes.

Characters move around as tiled versions of themselves, townspeople spout the same borderline nonsense they do in game, and everything is generally strange and creepy.

Admittedly, I've never played a C64, but I've always wanted to. I grew up on an IBM 286 playing Rogue and Moraff's World, and if you've played any older RPGs the humor should easily translate.

There are currently 13 episodes, and the first four have been pretty hilarious. I'm about to watch the 5th right now, and will probably just blaze through all of them.

If you are into classic RPGs, video games, or humor in general then watch Deeds of Yore. I cannot speak more clearly that that.

...This is really making me want to play the actual game--which I'm pretty sure doesn't exist. Or does it?

You can check out the Deeds of Yore website here.

And you can watch the first episode below, and make sure to subscribe to their Youtube so you can catch the new episodes as they air. Things seem pretty normal in the first episode, but just wait until you get sucked into this crazy computer land.

Pixel Art: Leonardo TMNT

He can be just as irresponsible as the rest of the Turtles, but sometimes the writers make him the "reasonable" one.