Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: Undefeated Heart

"I chose a song from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: Undefeated Heart. Tactics Advance was a big part of my childhood gaming, I spent dozens of hours on the spin off game and fondly remember the playful OST. My siblings and I used to joke that the fight music sounded too goofy to battle to, but it all contains some of the signature grandeur of the legendary FF series. This track still has a playful vibe to me, but some resolute heroism as well. I bet we'll get some great compositions with this piece!"

(Wassup Thunder)

Source: Golden Sun: The Lost Age - "Gaia's Rock"

"Gaia's Rock" From Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Lots can be said for the game's soundtrack, and this is a personal favorite, ripe for some creativity."

(Souperion)

Didn't receive a source for this round so I pick one myself. A difficult source this time, because it's from Godzilla and those MIDI's are difficult.

Marcusg, you still may pick a source, send it to me so I can use it for this or the next PRC.

(Bundeslang)

Source: Rush'n Attack - Stage 1 (NES)

"My source is Rush'n Attack Stage 1 (gotta love NES/Arcade era soundtrack naming conventions!)

I searched among old NES and SNES tunes for the next tune, and came across an old childhood memory: Rush'n Attack, an old konami military-vibe side-scroller arcade of jumping, knifing and shooting bazookas. I found out the game was really well received and acclaimed in its time. Anyhoo, It's first stage theme has some nice melodies, with a kind of militaristic vibe. I really appreciate good old fashion NES era melodies. It's short, but has like 4 small sections that I think will be great to mess around with. Have fun with this one!"

(Wassup Thunder)

Source: Ape Escape - Coral Cave (PS1)

Ima hit you hard with the nostalgia. This was one the games that takes me back so long, one of the finest PS1 games.

I'm obviously talking about Ape Escape, which was very innovative at the time, because it had a unique idea. Basically you had to catch monkey's to complete a level, with each level being expansive and well though-out. You had multiple tools at your disposal, as well as villains to fight at the end.  The game is made by Japan Studio and has undergone many remakes, mostly in updating the graphics, but with some remakes adding new tunes, and minigames. Only 3 games were made tops, with the rest of the games being spin-off's or games with multiple characters from different franchises. I don't know why they stopped at Ape Escape 3, maybe something killed it i don't know, but i will say when i was young i was playing this a lot, it's a fun game for sure.

But why focus on the game? The soundtrack is among the finest in the PS1 catalogue. Perfectly unusual blend of cartoony melody ideas, synthetic percussive ideas, and the most obviously, jungle breaks. Rich in Techno and Jungle, but also rich in light-hearted fun in some areas. A lot of the tracks are super simple, mostly looping 1-2 bar phrases, while some go for more heavy melodic ideas. The more i talk about it, the more i would love to put every song on here, but alas i can only choose one. 

The music was done by Soichi Terada, who (Except for the second game) has composed pretty much all of the games in the series. What's also interesting, is that he wasn't even a composer at this point, he was a producer making electronica albums for his own record label, Far East Recording. So this game was a turning point into VGM. All in all, you have to check this dude out, he's so good. I had a hard time picking one track from the game, but in the end i choose to go with Coral Cave. Very relaxing, but also very simple. Only 2 chords are used throughout the whole piece, with the main traction coming from the dynamic melody. Creativity will be needed for this one, but that's good, as music doesn't always need to be expansive (The Bomberman round showcases this well). Hope you do this one justice.

GAME: Ape Escape

Source: Coral Cave

So here's the video:

And as expected from me, my own MIDI:

https://www.vgmusic.com/file/ab08d1620f0b0a3dce1d24d7de2737ba.html#disqus_thread

Source: Battle Garegga (Arcade) - Underwater Rampart

"I feel like a Shmup is in order. Shmup meaning "Shoot-em-Up". This one in particular is from Battle Garegga, which like with a lot of Japanese shoot-em-up's were insanely difficult, and insanely fast. They are often referred to as "Bullet Hell" games, because of this reason. I've played this game (Albeit, with a few modifications to make it easier lol) and it's still difficult haha. Battle Garegga was released in 1996, by the company known as Raizing, (which shortly after became Eighting), and it's known for a forward approach, meaning you just go straight into the game-play, no holds back. Anyways, i shouldn't ramble about the game, it's the awesome soundtrack i need to talk about.

The music was composed by Manabu Naimiki, and primarily follows an electronica score, but in a way, where it feels very melodic, and in parts, jazzy. As you progress, the music get's faster, to where the last few stages, are pretty intense and full-on. The track i'm presenting to you, is called "Underwater Rampart", which is the 2nd stage theme. You'll notice the interesting name there, as this is a slight nod to Underground Resistance (The 90's techno outfit). In fact you might as well call it a cover of Jupiter Jazz (Performed under their alias, Galaxy 2 Galaxy),from the chords to it's beat. The difference being, that Underwater Rampart has more atmosphere, and less jazz. Also the arrangement is ever so slightly different. Those who are familiar with Cowboy Bebop might recognise the song i'm talking about.

It also happens to have a shit-tonne of remixes, with 80-percent coming from the original composer, and those who worked on the Saturn port of the game (Shinji Hosoe, Ayako Saso, Hitoshi Sakimoto and a whole lot more remixed the Arcade soundtrack, Just google in the game, to find out the rest of the composers.) Even with it's sheer abundance of remixes (There's also a 2016 remake, which features another remixed soundtrack, as well as a commercial album of remixed material lol), from different people, it's still not even recognised on OCRemix, so no actual remixes exist of this, outside the composer and arrangers themselves. Hopefully you guys can fill the void. 

The tune is amazing, the chords are really interesting, and there are changes to make this an absolutely ripe song to remix! I hope you have fun with this!"

Game: Battle Garegga (Arcade)

Source: Underwater Rampart

As always, here's the video:

And my own custom made MIDI:

https://vgmusic.com/file/a5df1960757ae52d1a24a8ebce464382.html#disqus_thread

(TheVideoGamer)

Source: Panel De Pon (SNES) - Lip's Theme

"I choose "Lip's Theme" from Panel de Pon for PRC427. Panel de Pon is the Japanese version of the SNES's Tetris attack, where the cast is composed of fairies with varying dominions. Lip's is flowers. It's a plucky, spunky song, just ripe for remixing."

(Souperion)

Source: Mega Man X5 (PS1) - Mattrex / Burn Dinorex Stage

"Wazzap, I finally picked a source for PRC round 426. By the way, thanks for running this compo, I've had a great time participating and learning from everyone else involved!

Much as I hate to break a streak of obscure yet amazing sources, I'm turning up the heat by choosing Megaman X5's Mattrex/Burn Dinorex stage theme! Cause it's been a while since PRC has done a mega man title, and I'm 95% sure OCR has never done THIS track from the game. It's got a lovely combination of airy rock elements and flowy synths and some fun chords. This oughta fan the flames of creativity for people this round! Har har, fire puns."

(Wassup Thunder)

Source: Zork 1 - The Great Underground Empire (PlayStation 1) - Track 8

"This one is a little more obscure, but one that cannot be missed, because the music is incredible unique, and definitely worth your time in the remix department.

This one comes from a little known PlayStation game called Zork 1 - The Great Underground Empire. Now the title isn't new, because you see, this is a full remake of a classic 1980's game of the same name (1980 to be exact). It's a text adventure game, complete with a very immersive historical like storylines to really keep you going. In the original, you basically had a wall of text that would appear everytime you do an action. So like a textbook kind of adventure game (Remember this is primitive software, so graphical content was almost non-existent). And that would continue until subsequent remakes would add new technological advancements. (In the Atari days, we would mostly have single square tones to denote an action. By the NES days, square waves could produce simple music, and by the Genesis/Mega Drives days, FM Synthesis and it's capabilities, meant we could make full tracks, with a variety of instruments.) In this remake's case, we are on the PlayStation 1, so we could do full graphical capabilities for it's time, and of course full CD music. The game itself is very simplistic but fun, however what get's overlooked is the new score provided onto the PS1, which i think needs to be looked at, it's awesome. The music was composed by the only and only Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima, who might be legends to some, and uses in what i would call a Synth Orchestra. In this track specifically (Which is titled Track 8. I believe none of the tracks have names, I find that rather annoying to be honest), we have all the makings of rich melodic ideas, that sound like it could come right out of some medieval castle, but instead of it being lush orchestral strings and brass, the kind you expect for that kind of feeling, we have a full synthesizer palette. It's so rich in synths, that it sounds very much on the verge of being a rave track, but it's in 3/4, and features no drums of any kind, just light percussive taps on the tambourine, so it lends more to the classical music world. Honestly the track is unique, and could work in so many styles (Trance anyone? lol), hope you have fun with this!

NOTE: The video linked is the Sega Saturn version, because it was ported to both the PS1 and the Saturn. Both versions contain the same music. This is a Japanese only release, no US version is based on research, so this one is a little more rare.

ALSO NOTE: There is an extensive use of delay throughout the whole track. I didn't add that into the MIDI, because i wanted peeps to have an easy time with the MIDI, even if it's in the score. So you might need to manually add it in, if you wanted more of a 1:1 kind of approach."

Game: Zork 1 - The Great Underground Empire (PlayStation 1)

Source: Track 8 (None of the tracks have names sadly)

As usual, here's the video:

And my own custom MIDI:

https://www.vgmusic.com/file/bb0064c23f96d4a5f41322263107a615.html#disqus_thread

(The VideoGamer)

Source: Turrican II - Freedom (Amiga)

Source: Bomberman Hero OST (N64)

Composer(s): June Chikuma

Song: "Redial"

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv-2XIhmxPE

Blurb:

*Stretches* "After such a huge, complex, fairly serious tone presented in PRC 421, and the more somber take of PRC 422, I wanted to do something more...upbeat, a bit simplistic, but glorious and catchy to hear nonetheless. I had SO MANY choices going around in my head, though! Should I pick something from Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon? Or Shinobi III? Strider 2? Quest 64? Mischief Makers? Be a bit hammy (since it's nearly Valentine's Day) and do, like, "Candy's Music Shop" theme from Donkey Kong 64? The list was endless--but after having a lie back and listening to a certain OST, (and the remix of "Zip", one of my fave Bomberman songs on OCR,) my mind kept coming back to this--and I had to do it. I also saw that Super Bomberman was used a few times in PRC (and in MnP, Bomberman 64's "Green Gardens" theme was used as well), but was sad to see there was only the one OCR remix for Bomberman Hero and none anywhere else!

This priceless, underrated little gem of a 64 game / song needs some love, I believe. So let's put our thinking caps on, ladies and gents, and do something cool with the stylish Drum 'n Bass takings of 'Redial'.

Also, if someone can do up or find a way better MIDI source than this one, please say (the one I found is a bit lacking and weird to me, lol.)"

~ TVQ :D

Source MIDI Link:

http://midis101.com/midi_download/13205/FA8792647DD7B474D0426C872E4CED7D/Game_System__Nintendo_64__Bomberman_Hero__Redial_Sequenced_By__Jace

(TheVodouQueen)