Retronauts episode 103: A game music primer
Gunstar Heroes and Darius provide your soundscape pleasures this time around.
Since moving over to a weekly schedule, the Retronauts podcast has been tackling classic game music reviews once a month. We sort of jumped headlong into this venture without really stopping to explain some of the basics of collecting and listening to classic music, though. With this latest episode, we've tried to remedy that oversight by bringing aboard pro-level music enthusiast/collector/blogger James Eldred of the sites Lost Turntable and Mostly Retro to go over some of the essential basics of getting your retro game jam on... regardless of the size of your budget or the depth of your enthusiasm. From free listens to high-cost hi-fis, this episode breaks down the fundamentals of collecting or simply enjoying retrogame music in the modern age. Think of this as a companion piece to the high-fidelty classic gaming episode, but with a specific focus on music.
As a backup feature, I've also included an in-depth look at two recent music LP releases: Ship to Shore's Darius and DataDiscs's absolutely stunning Gunstar Heroes double vinyl set. Both are worth looking into for fans of game history and music, but I'd go so far as to call Gunstar Heroes essential.
MP3, 49.3 MB | 1:40:07
Episode description: Game music expert James Eldred shares some helpful advice on finding and building a collection of classic soundtracks. Plus: In-depth with Ship To Shore's Darius and the DataDiscs Gunstar Heroes set.
Music in this episode comes from the two featured soundtrack releases (Darius and Gunstar Heroes). They're direct vinyl rips, even... albeit highly compressed and normalized and downsampled in order to fit podcast requirements, so that doesn't matter at all. Also, James asked me to note that the Ship to Shore Darius LP release does not contain arranged versions... an understandable mix-up, given that he's basically been doing a Darius soundtrack kegstand recently. Drunk on Zuntata.
