That little tune, a converted version of Mawaru Penguindrum‘s ending theme, got me looking around the interwebs for more chiptuned music as of late. I’ve been fond of Anamanaguchi’s work for quite some time (I think it was their track Helix Nebula off their Power Supply EP that got me interested), but now I was looking for more, and the Internet has been extravagant in its generosity.

Before finding this multi-part documentary on 8bit culture, I stumbled upon quite a few top 10 lists, many of which referenced Bit Shifter and Nullsleep, and I wholeheartedly endorse their work. Then I stumbled upon Starscream, which is an 8bit Rock Opera about the future and our exploration of space, and my mind was blown — an epiphany akin to first hearing the Protomen’s “Breaking Out”.

I could have probably saved myself a lot of time if I’d managed to find /mu/’s essential 8bit music recommendations; an image that I’ll pass along to you below.

I must say that I’m more partial to Western expressions of 8bit music than the stuff I find coming out of Japan; though I confess that’s largely as it seems more experimental and jazzy than what I’m looking for. This may be related to the fact that most of the chiptune-y stuff that resembles the Western efforts tends to be game or anime related; witness the reflexive awesomeness that is Chiptuned Rockman… a chiptune remix of classic Megaman music.

I’ll leave you now with the weirdest and coolest video I found on this research run — an 8bit version of the Doctor Horrible musical (music and simulated gameplay!)

Despite the kerfuffle of my usual PAX crew’s confusion over transport methods to the Emerald City, our final choice to take the Amtrak down proved more than suitable, even with the crazy WiFi congestion in the passenger cars. More to the point, this was the first time in seven years of PAX’ing that I hadn’t driven The Major down, and not having to concern myself with traffic or parking this trip resulted (to skip to the end of a long-winded story) in what can arguably considered the most relaxing PAX experience I’ve had in years.

Normally the next few days after PAX are spent in a form of fevered recovery (sometimes literally), but this time, I had enough energy to squire the ebulliently charming Dr. Read about town as she settled her trans-national affairs and still manage to make the Protomen concert at the Biltmore that Monday night. And that’s after three nights of sleeping on a hotel room floor, pounding Expo Hall pavement and queuing up like a well-mannered Canadian lad to see the show exclusives. Thus far, I’m in favor of repeating this “no driving” experiment next year. Though with better preparation, hopefully; one of our number decided to come to the show late, after all the tickets had sold out; he ended up shelling more than two bills for his three day pass (and I’d say, he got more than his money’s worth). At the very least, none of us got scammed with the fake badges that were being hawked by scalpers.

Of PAX itself, what can be said about it that a thousand gaming blogs and media sites haven’t already covered. PAX really is not one monolithic event; it’s better understood as comprised of a number of separate PAXes, the sum of which forms a giant mechanical lion-robot — er wait. But yes, there’s Tabletop PAX (to which I lost two members of our train-ride crew all weekend, and more power to ‘em), Expo Hall PAX, Panel PAX, D&D PAX (which, I suppose, could be considered a supbset of Tabletop), and Event PAX (like the QR Code treasure hunt, or the Omegathon, or the concerts).

Over the years I’ve ended up narrowing my PAX focus down to Expo Hall and a few select panels, with a smattering of tabletop thrown in when my feet start to hurt (shameful geek secret: I’m not terribly fond of board games, though I won’t turn down a well designed card-based game if it comes my way).

My memory of the weekend ends up being a fractured series of vignettes, as the overwhelming nature of the shows-within-shows (yo dawg) manages to defy easy comprehension or recollection, so I’ll go with my impressions of what I saw.

I’m glad I got to get some hands on with Mass Effect 3, as that’s managed to assuage some of my fears (justified, I suppose, by the lackluster nature of Dragon Age 2). It does look very slick, and I do appreciate the increased rpg-ness of it (something sorely missing in ME2).

Quantum Conundrum (from Kim Swift of Portal by way of Airtight Games via Square Enix) looks very good, even if it doesn’t feel like a huge deviation from her previous work; more evolution than revolution, but considering the pedigree, this is hardly a bad thing.

Torchlight II’s multiplayer is, if possible, more fun than I would have thought from my brief hands-on time spent with it at PAX 2010, and the $20 price point and the reassurance that it remains highly mod-able means that I’ll probably be buying 4-packs and gifting it to friends on Steam.

I managed to talk to Notch, briefly, about the direction that Minecraft was taking, and I got to see a nice preview of Scrolls; neither of these things were particularly illuminating, but they still managed to entertain me immensely.

Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare sticks out as the indie winner for this PAX; even as a 2D puzzler mapped onto a cubical surface, some element of the action reminds me, inexplicably, of Cave Story, and this can only be a good thing.

SW:TOR was mostly recycled messaging (and footage! it’s the same damn trailers we’ve seen a thousand times before), but I did manage to catch their end-game implementation. As a current WoW raider, I can’t say I was impressed, but then again, I think that’s mostly because I was hoping they’d innovate away from set piece big-boss encounters and come up with…. I don’t know? Something more magical? More dynamic? I may have set my expectations too high, perhaps. Still, Bioware’s forte is in its storytelling ability (and their constant drive to hire more writers does show a certain fervent commitment to creating a lot of out-of-the-gate content), so that will be the thing that will get me playing it, when it ships. Whether it holds is a different matter entirely.

Because I was in the SW:TOR panel, I managed to miss the Gearbox panel (and more’s the pity, as they had pizza! and, uh, a free copy of Borderlands 2 for all attendees), but then again there’s no doubt that I was going to get Borderlands 2 as a Day One release anyway. And in any case, I was more drawn to the D&D Through the Ages panel held thereafter, since Dave “Zeb” Cook was a panelist, and he was largely responsible for all the time I sunk into AD&D 2nd Edition throughout my highschool and early university years. Fascinating discussion, overall, especially when it came to the reasonings behind various system mechanics. And, of course, my favorite quote of the weekend — “If you enjoy hard work in gaming, then you’ll love 4th Edition [D&D] as a player, and 3rd Edition as a GM”.

On the topic of panels, this year’s Acquisitions Inc run was a standout event, rivaling last year’s Prisoners of Slaughterfast. This year, it was “The Last Will and Testament of James Darkmagic I”, and my god, was it ever fun. All I can say is, I totally want my future D&D games to have musical accompaniment. I’ll update this post once I can find an official video link. In the meantime, have this musical intro to the player characters.

On a personal tangent, it shames me to think that it took this long to realize how much more it is about the people I see it with than the event itself. PAX is one of the few times I get to see my scattered crew in one place. These are the people I gamed with, shot the late-night shit with, shed blood sweat and tears with as we slogged over university papers (both academic and extracurricular), and who now live all over the country. So yeah, games and concerts and hoopla notwithstanding, I’m really looking forward to PAX 2012 so I can see these crazy people all in one place again. With that, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite videos from PAX — Tycho, inveigled upon to Just Dance.

This one here is for reference. The next one, ah, the next one… oh Japan.

This beauty comes courtesy of Pack Rat Studios, and it’s currently on sale on eBay. I love the attention to detail on this figure, from the brass and iron rivets, to the steam pistons on the forearms, to the flickering coal-fire light in the chest (check out the site for those pictures). The best touch, I think, is the awesome handlebar ‘stache on Victorian Anthony Stark.

Custom toys have always tickled my collector impulse, largely because they’re unique, and because they’re an expression of previously unknown and unfulfilled desire. It’s always nice to see artisanal work being done in the field of pop-cultural toys, especially on woefully under-represented Western properties. I mean, aside from Jonathan Kuriscak (head honcho of Pack Rat Studios), you’ve got Jin Saotome and a few others; certainly nothing along the lines or numbers of Japanese custom-makers.

Then again, it’s not like there’s a real Western equivalent to Wonder Festival, both in terms of creators and visitors. I mean, just look at a small sampling of the contributions to this past winter’s Wonder Festival…

One of these days, I think I’ll pull out my dremels and resins and give this custom-creation thing a go. I’d really love to make some of Mega Man’s Robot Masters, or even try them steampunk-style.

I am in utter awe. Set designer and current Emily Carr student Lance Cardinal created a working, beautifully-accoutremented Muppet Show theatre, with elaborate rigging and consummate attention to detail.

It’s nice to see a fellow Vancouverite making such wonderful things; it’s always cool seeing the collective geek cred of this fair Pacific Northwest city swell with the dedicated and unabashed nerdery of its creative citizenry (see also: desktop siege weapons).

The Not So Lost Woods, a photo by zero-lives on Flickr.

A double post on this last day of June, to make up for my sparse postings this month, this time, taken from the Top 25 songs on my iPod:

1. Big Wreck – That Song
2. Wallflowers – 6th Avenue Heartache
3. Everclear – Santa Monica
4. The Darkness – I Believe in a Thing Called Love
5. 54.40 – Radio Luv Song
6. The Minibosses – Super Mario Bros. 2
7. Andrew W.K. – Ready to Die
8. Yoko Kanno – Tank!
9. Tal Bachman – She’s So High
10. Richard Cheese – Gin & Juice (Snoop Doggy Dogg)
11. The Darkness – Get Your Hands Off My Woman
12. Orbital – bagpipe style
13. L’Arc~en~Ciel – Neo Universe
14. Stan Bush – The Touch
15. Nirvana – Lounge Act
16. Buffy TVS – let me rest in peace
17. Maaya Sakamoto – Hemisphere
18. Paul Westerberg – Waiting for Somebody
19. Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Strong
20. The Minibosses – Megaman 2
21. Andrew W.K. – Party Hard
22. Fluke – Atom Bomb
23. Mike Post – Quantum Leap Main Title
24. Alabama 3 – Woke Up This Morning {Theme from ‘The Sopranos’}
25. Beastie Boys – Brass Monkey

It’s a bit different from the last time I did a Top 25 (-ish) song listing; I’d hazard that the summer heat and nostalgia make up the prime reasons for this change.

Notes:

1. Big Wreck was a great Canadian band specializing in catchy guitar riffs and memorable lyrics, with “That Song” being a great example of these, being a paen to music and memories.
2. The Darkness make me believe that the glam-rock of the Eighties is back in full force, and it’s freakin’ stylish. I’m not sure if it’s irony-induced nostalgia, or the pure brash energetic catchiness of their tunes that get me, but any band who use the phrase “Get your hands off my woman, motherfucker!” gets my attention.
3. The Minibosses do guitar-rock covers of classic 8-bit video game tunes; and they’ve got good range, from their jazzy Super Mario Bros. 2 to their ten-minute-long Megaman 2 super-crunchy power rawk-opera. And they’re going to be at the Penny Arcade Expo (along with MC Frontalot and Optimus Rhyme). Rawk!
4. Yoko Kanno‘s “Tank!” (with The Seatbelts) was the theme to Cowboy Bebop, a series that interlaced Kanno’s jazz stylings with hyper-cool anime.
5. I love and fear Richard Cheese‘s lounge covers of popular music. This one, as the title states, goes over Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice”, and is surprisingly good late-night driving music.
6. Orbital‘s electronic rythms have been some of my particular favorites, ever since the use of “Halcyon (On and On)” in the movie Hackers. “Bagpipe Style” gets points for sheer driving brashness.
7. You can’t have grown up as a geek in the Eighties without having seen Transformers: The Movie, and Stan Bush’s two standout works — “Dare” and “The Touch” are indelibly linked to this movie in my brain. “Dare” is definately an Eighties tune, but is so ridiculously optimistic and enjoyable you’d have to be a total curmudgeon to dismiss it.
8. “Let Me Rest in Peace” was Spike’s rock-ballad to Buffy in the seminal musical Buffy episode “Once More, With Feeling“. It’s out now, part of the Season Six collection, too.
9. Maaya Sakamoto sang the theme to Escaflowne, and here she does the overwhelmingly catchy theme to RahXephon, an Evangelion-esque anime with strong musical inspiration (its subtitle was “Tune the World”)
10. According to the iPod, I’ve listened to Andrew W.K.‘s “Party Hard” thirty-one times since I added it three weeks ago. It’s such a good, high-energy, boisterously-good-fun summer driving tune that I can’t help but peel out of work every day listening to it.
11. So, it turns out that Season 1 of Quantum Leap is now available on DVD, which is probably why I’ve been listening to the theme song for this show. I can’t explain it otherwise, because, honestly, it’s just not that good of a song, though it is memorable-by-association.
12. On the other hand, Alabama 3′s “Woke Up This Morning” is a damn good themesong for a damn good series. I definately need to watch more episodes of The Sopranos
13. You can’t really have summer night driving music without “Brass Monkey”. I think that’s a bylaw here in Richmond for all Asian male drivers between the ages of 18 – 30.

It’s the drinkin’est place on Earth! And, appropriately, Bender’s giving us a tour of the city. Or, at least a guy dressed as Bender (damn, that suit must be hot).

Tin Man, Sin City

Well, as the ‘bot once said: “Bite my shiny metal ass!”. No, wait, it was “I’m gonna go build my own theme park… with blackjack and hookers! In fact, forget the park!”

Truer words were never spoken.

So freaking awesome! It’s a flash video of breakdancing transformers (well, transformer… well, uh, Soundwave), courtesy of Gizmodo! Damn, that’s cool.

Soundwave: Groove Master

They even mixed in the voiceover from the original cartoon series! I really need to retreat to my fortress of solitude and contemplate the loss of my Transformers collection.

UPDATE 06/09/04: It seems the above link is broken. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Dave B, here’s a mirror of the breakdancing transformers.