From the very same team that brought you the hit Famicom adaptation of The Drifting Classroom comes an 8-bit take on another Kazuo Umezu manga, Fourteen. This monsterpiece—which follows Chicken George as he grows from a sentient pile of chicken flesh to a full-sized creature who absorbs and implements all of our scientific knowledge in the most twisted way imaginable—debuted in Big Comic Spirits in 1990, and could possibly be the master’s most mental work yet.

If you want to read about the specific insanity of Umezu’s Fourteen, here is as good a place as any. Unlike The Drifting Classroom, you won’t find much information awaiting you on Wikipedia. Details on the game are equally scant, though a few tracks from the rare soundtrack were recently unearthed.

“The Birth of Chicken George” and “The Liberation of Chicken George” follow the first and second stages, respectively. The first finds the player controlling the lump that will become Chicken George, maneuvering past scientists in the lab, and eventually making it toward a series of computer terminals while fighting off attackers and growing piece by piece. Stage two has George free at last, and running rampant through a zoo filled with scientific horrors, releasing them all and unleashing them on the unprepared masses.

Enjoy, and hope that one day we can play this Japanese classic once and for all. Perhaps by the time the manga is translated and licensed for North America…

01 The Birth of Chicken George

02 The Liberation of Chicken George

Created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

Special thanks to Ryan Sands of Same Hat; pretty sure it was this post that originally introduced me to Fourteen!

Had Beast Blaster been domesticated closer to its Japanese debut it would no doubt be a highly coveted classic today. However, the port took so long that it was nearing the end of the NES’s life when it finally came out, though fans “in the know” still consider themselves the fortunate few. Beast Blaster is a lighthearted action/platformer on the surface, but there’s incredible depth beneath, as well as some startlingly violent boss battles that clash magnificently with the stages that precede them.

Take this track for instance. Halcyon Hills, an early stage, is bright and colorful. Sure, stomping about in the grass and flowers are killer robots that want our hero Ace’s head, but it’s otherwise cheery, taking full advantage of the system’s palette. However, once its two levels are cleared, Moxy Bulboom slams down from the sky, turning the grass red. What follows is a fight that sends flesh flying, as the only way Ace knows to best a beast is bloody blasting.

Shake those dark thoughts for now, though, and come along with us on a saccharine sonic journey.

Halcyon Hills

Created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

Everyone knows and loves the Very Quest series. You may recall we posted one of the most beloved themes in Very Quest II, “Cave Visitors”, at the very beginning of Beep City. The series certainly didn’t slack down the line. Much like Square Enix’s venerable Final Fantasy series in popularity (though more of an action-RPG at its core), Very Quest spawned numerous sequels, and one of the best was without a doubt Very Quest IV: The Mystic Throne.

VQIV is most notable for having more minigames than any other entry in the series, truly fleshing out the mystical world of Verania. Two fondly recalled classics are Goblin Sack Race, which is more or less self-explanatory, and Thimblerigger, a true to life game of chance more commonly known as the fraudulent shell game. You may find yourself humming along instantly as you jam their themes below!

Goblin Sack Race

Thimblerigger

Both songs created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

Imagine, if you dare, being stuck inside a place so terrifyingly conflicting, you just don’t know what to do with yourself! Such is the plight of Victor Cazarian, famed researcher-slash-adventurer that finds himself trapped in the confines of the nefarious Baron Blood’s Lunatic Lair. Does he dance with the devil in the pale moon light? He may not have a choice!

This late ’80s gem was perhaps most famous for its party or die philosophy. It confounded players with a moral dilemma. Sure, you could traverse the sprawling manor with relative ease by gettin’ down with the ghoulish guest list. But boogie too much with these batty beasts and you may just end up on permanent vacation! Then again, refuse their decadent delights and it’ll be time for Victor to use his fleet feet for something else entirely: kicking butt.

The question of fight or flight has never been so… groovy.

Party in the Palace
Download the .xm file
Created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OS X)

Marc Weidenbaum’s blog, Disquiet, recently presented an audio reply to an article on the state of the music industry printed in the latest issue of The Atlantic. He asked a handful of artists to contribute musical responses/interpretations of an accompanying illustration, which you’ll see above this text.

There’s much more to it than that, and I definitely recommend reading the full set of articles, and checking out the mix of music and soundscapes in the release post below:

Disquiet – Despite the Downturn: An Answer Album

So how does this cross over with Beep City? Why, there’s a new Moldilox track in the collection! “Discard” is the third track of the album, so give it a listen. Many thanks to Marc for getting Moldi off his ass for some new jams.

Kicking off with something brand new and never before heard, Flamin’ Hot Cheatcodes is chock full of Moldilox’s boldest jams, each retooled for the optimum TV-game-channeling experience. Consider this a chronicle of Chapter One of the Moldilox Story! Download the full album below:

Flamin’ Hot Cheatcodes [39.9mb .zip]

TRACK LIST:

1. Wistful Woods
2. Mechanizer Metropolis
3. Smash Disaster’s Brave Escape
4. Alleycat Shakedown
5. The Sphinx Awaits
6. Bandit Valley
7. Action Vacation on Shuriken Island
8. Crucial Fight – Volcanic Peak
9. Snow-steeped Forest
10. Triumphant Takeoff

All songs created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

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)

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)