During the early ’90s there was a lot of in-house feuding in the game development community, and High Noon was no exception. Half the team wanted a game set in the romping wild west, while the rest were banking on their latest character concoction: the controversial, cybernetic stoney hero known then as Brutus the Bakin’ Jamaican.

Thankfully, they reached an agreement in 1991, and debuted the saloon-stompin’, cyber-horse ridin’ Cybastian-01; a hero whose enemies existed in two dimensions. As this first stage track indicates, the western world could go hazy at any moment, transitioning to a beautiful (but deadly) beach in a puff of smoke.

Dynamic music was incorporated into every stage, with enemy sprites dancing to the rhythm of the reggae-inspired sections at one moment, and stagecoach swindlers blastin’ their guns to a hoof-clopping twang at the next. Ride on, Cybastian-01, ride on!

From Kingston To Deadwood
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Created as a collaborative effort between Djinnocide and Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

Stop what you’re doing right now and check out the teaser for Bit_Rat’s next album, Test Subject. This Rat’s no stranger to Beep City, with his rad track “Warm Green Something” having kicked off February’s Love Songs from the Future.

“Test Subject” Album Teaser [8bitcollective]

The LaFontaine-style voiceover by abum contributor MC Fen isn’t the only guest feature to the album. Along with Fen’s raps, Test Subject will also feature the badass chip stylings of Temp Sound Solutions and Norrin Radd. With this and Radd’s chip metal album on the insanely near horizon, it looks like we’re in for a steady salvo of audio treats.

Nothing resonated more strongly with early 90s youth than Urban Axe, an arcade game that took a vicious warrior of olde and planted him right in the middle of LA. Though the first level played out in traditional medieval beat ‘em up style, all bets were off once Savagus was transported to the mean streets of present day. Nuttier still, a transdimensional tear caused both worlds to eventually merge, creating some strange brawler mash-up of 90s hip on an ancient trip.

Kids went equally wild for the NES port, and while the inferior sound chip couldn’t quite match the original’s flavor, it did an admirable job of recreating the urban warrior beat to which so many arcades twisted and turned. This song finds Savagus torn between two worlds; lost in a thieve’s paradise, though these thugs have more than blades at their side. BANG! Watch out! You’re in BANDIT VALLEY!

Bandit Valley

Created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

DOWNLOAD THE  FULL ALBUM HERE:

Love Songs From The Future Vol.1 [110.7MB .zip]

The Mayor of Beep City was on his last legs, as was his once-proud metropolis, now littered with invading ninja. All weapons had been used twice-over, all ammo depleted. The butts of guns and the hilts of worn blades the only remaining resistance. That is… until they opened the vault.

The Love Beam, a Maser Cannon buried deep underground in case of extreme Kaiju emergencies, was their last hope. It takes twelve of the most sonically-powered citizens just to pull the trigger, and those are just the soldiers that signed up.

Not only was it a smashing success, but the sound from the blast—that street-cleaning shockwave that knocked each and every ninja’s spinal column straight out of their necks like ten thousand screaming bottlerockets—was captured for all to hear on this very special compilation. Crank it up, grab a loved one, and for the sake of humanity, be careful where you aim it!

Track Listing

01. Warm Green Something (Bit Rat)

02. Battle For Bifrost (Daemon9623)

03. Nicole Shippo (Alex Mauer)

04. The Tale of A Pirate (Nario)

05. Honey Hive (Moldilox)

06. Infernal Shell (Temp Sound Solutions)

07. Never To Return (Norrin Radd)

08. Kludge (Captain Tortilla)

09. Flight of The Peacock Lords (Prizmatic Spray)

10. Air Raid The Ocean (Zio and TEH LOLZ)

11. Sputnik (Wizwars)

12. Jungle Jim’s Jellybean Jamboree (Djinnocide)

Beep City wishes to thank all of the musicians involved!

Action Vacation IV took the much ballyhooed series in an even more technologically refined direction, sporting an additional chip that doubled the graphical power of the Nintendo Entertainment System. This time the Bullet Twins (Zip and Flip) vacation on Shuriken Island, a brutal destination in the ninja nation filled with soldiers and armored salamanders of a madman’s creation.

This particular track is the well known theme music, which plays from 1-1 too 1-3, as the wind in the field blows kite-flying ninjas in a whip of leaves and bits of branches.

Action Vacation on Shuriken Island

Created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

Veteran space pilot Smash Disaster may have been a popular and enduring action game character, but he sure as hell wasn’t a lucky one. Take his eighth game, Smash Disaster in the 88th Nebula, for instance. First stage, BAM, Smash’s boosters go kaput, sending him crashing down to an unexplored planet.

That’s precisely where this particular track comes from. The song takes us on a journey, from a jubilant flight to Smash’s ship hitting the rocky surface to his triumphant escape. Note the musical uncertainty as he rises from the wreckage, and the swift tonal shift as aliens take over the crash site. He battles through them valiantly, and despite all odds he is able to take off once more and continue his exploration of this strange nebula!

All thanks… TO YOU!

Smash Disaster’s Brave Escape

Created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

Some of the most dastardly platforming ever conceived was present in Tengen’s gore-infused hell-romp Splatter Train. Aptly titled, Satan’s Pit is the first of many blood soaked stages awaiting our hero. Henry battles reanimated corpses, horrid fiends borne of pure evil and ghastly apparitions that attempt to suck his soul dry. Players had to not only face these pixilated horrors but also a slew of labyrinthine side-scrolling levels in a race against the in-game timer, lest Henry miss his stop and forever be trapped.  Slaughter power-ups throughout the stage allow Henry to sacrifice an innocent soul on the surface in order to stop the timer and provide himself more time to reach the train.  This caused a massive negative impact on the player’s score and, conceptually, did not sit well with many parents.

The steady “CHUG-a-chug-a-CHUG-a-chug-a” of Charon’s locomotive (replacing his long-standing boat) is ever present throughout the stage, occasionally accompanied by the whistle of the damned.  A driving melody leads the charge into a foray of time changes, bone-smashing metal blastbeats and crushing leads.

Satan’s Pit

Created by Daemon9623

Gore ruled gaming well before Mortal Kombat came on the scene. Sure, we’ve all played classics like Namco’s Splatterhouse series, but none were more obscene than competitor Tengen’s answer, Splatter Train. The first in the series shocked many with over the top cutscenes that transitioned into a non-stop 2D bloodbath. Parents shrieked as the titular train took their gleeful children from level to level, from Satan’s Pit to the stage in question, the infamous Demon Foundry.

A horrid swirl of metalworks and rust-blasted gore-fighting, by the time protagonist Henry Harrison was done with the foundry, he was literally oozing with the blood of his enemies. It all culminates in a boss that vomits so much bile that the slowdown becomes nearly unbearable. The 8-bit metal soundtrack drove everything home in a brutally unconventional way, eschewing standard loops for bizarre solos and powerful digital drumming.

Demon Foundry

Created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

The Revivification series—part action, part role-playing (but always billed as the former due to uninspiring RPG sales at the time)—was never quite the downer its boxart (by famed cart designer/photographer Gus van D’nan) depicted. The third in the series was especially uplifting, due in no small part to the sequence to which this song provides accompaniment.

Following the theme of the series closely, protagonist Terrence Knight once again finds himself waking up in the middle of his own funeral, buried deep beneath the earth. Thrust into action, he battles his way to the surface as rain pounds and thunder krakows, engaging ghouls along the way. Note the burst of triumphant music as he emerges from the rain-soaked surface and deals the final blow, sealing his rise from death!

Funeral Storm

Created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

Tecmo was really rolling with a goldmine as far as Ninja Gaiden was concerned, so why stop at the series proper? In the early ’90s they rolled out a very strange prequel known as Hayabusa Mission. This time around, the true “demon lords” were drug dealers and petty thugs, so Ryu took on work as a freelancer, cleaning up the streets with his sword and budding expertise in ninjutsu.

This particular track comes from stage 3-1, the Secret Ninja Drug Dojo. Crack-cocaine was still a hot topic at the time, but Ryu made sure it became nothing more than dust in the wind at the tip of his blade. Drug barons beware!

Secret Ninja Drug Dojo

Created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)