Musical Picks

TheOrcKing · May 20, 2015

TheOrcKing · May 20, 2015

Darth_Raichu · May 21, 2015

This video is like Sin City meets Kill Bill meets DollHouse meets Power Rangers meets over the top shampoo/hair products commercial

The song has monotonous beat + rap + Tswift = :money:

Darth_Raichu · May 24, 2015

Did he rap ??? :thumbsup:

TheOrcKing · May 25, 2015

TheOrcKing · May 27, 2015

Somewhere, somehow, this just popped back in my head.

TheOrcKing · May 27, 2015

Anyone recall the 3D Pinball Space Cadet game included free with Windows 95/98/XP? Well it did have some music when you played although short like a minute loop. Anywho, I actually found a remix or two of it surprisingly enough with one of which sounding straight from the Space Dandy anime.

TheOrcKing · May 29, 2015

Everdune - "Neuromancer"

TheOrcKing · May 30, 2015

Originally titled in Japan as "Akumajou Dorakyura" literally translating as "Devil's Castle Dracula" but better known to most as "Castlevania", here is the soundtrack to the very first crusade of vampire hunter, Simon Belmont, against Dracula and his creatures of the night. There was also a MSX2 port of the game released under "Vampire Killer" for Europe which had the same soundtrack but did feature some interesting changes in the castle's layout and was a more open-ended platformer somewhat similar to Metroid. Various related remixes will be listed towards the end and added upon as I or anyone else for the matter find new ones.

Castlevania (NES, 1986)

Remixes/Covers:

TheOrcKing · June 3, 2015

Continuing on with the sequel of "Castlevania II: Simon's Quest" known in Japan as "Dorakyura Tsu: Noroi no Fuin" which translates as "Dracula II: The Seal of the Curse" took place sometime after Simon Belmont had just defeated the count only to find himself cursed by the very demon he slayed and now must gather the lord of vampires' body parts scattered about to summon him for one last battle before succumbing to the curse (basically you saw a different ending depending on how long your journey took).

The game had some interesting gameplay mechanics such as being non-linear similar to Metroid plus a day/night cycle with its own elements. Unfortunately between unhelpful civilians with their cryptic messages (later the original producer stated they were meant to be deliberate liars) and a number of areas such as summoning the tornado never hinted at in the game anywhere made this title a mixed bag of good and bad (going on to earn a review by the Angry Video Game Nerd among others). Some of these problems could have stemmed from the cited poor translation of Japanese to English.

Anyway here is the soundtrack for the NES version most of us are accustomed to and the original FDS (Famicon Disk System) one which had different instrumentation plus remixes at the bottom as before. Also if you are curious there was a fan-made remake called Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest Revamped TSE (True Simon Edition).

Castlevania_II_Simon's_Quest.jpg

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (FDS - 1987 / NES - 1988)

Title Screen - "Message of Darkness" (NES / FDS)
Town - "The Silence of Daylight" (NES / FDS)
Daytime - "Bloody Tears" (NES / FDS)
Nighttime - "Monster Dance" (NES / FDS)
Mansion - "Dwelling of Doom" (NES / FDS)
Last Castle - "Within These Castle Walls" (NES / FDS)
Final Boss (NES / FDS)
Ending - "A Requiem" (NES / FDS)
Game Over (NES / FDS)

Remixes/Covers:

TheOrcKing · June 8, 2015

The last installment on the NES/FDS with "Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse" known in Japan as "Akumajou Densetsu" (literal translation "Devil's Castle Legend") had a lot of nice features to round up the series before moving on towards the SNES such as a number of endings (mainly altered text) and branching paths between certain stages allowing you to recruit one of three new characters introduced to the series including Alucard, the dhampir son of Dracula, Grant Danasty, a nimble sword-throwing pirate, and Sypha Belnades, a young sorceress possessing great strength in the elements (with a reveal quite like Samus from Metroid where you were introduced to her as a "him" until the ending revealing her womanhood). The lower paths are considered to be the more difficult areas of the game and the story was actually a prequel to the original game taking place a hundred years before Simon’s first victory against the lord of vampires with the tale of his ancestor, Trevor Belmont.

There are a couple of key spots where the Japanese and American versions differ significantly most notably the music due to the specialized VRC6 coprocessor chip created by Hidenori Maezawa which allowed the usage of two extra pulse-wave channels and an additional saw channel all adding to the system's initial five channel setup. Unfortunately the NES could not support the extra hardware therefore the soundtrack had to be 'downgraded'. For that reason I have included links to both the American NES and Japanese FDS versions for your listening amusement.

Other changes resulting from the translation process involved some different backgrounds, special effects taken out, a handful of enemy sprites altered, and Grant stabbing instead of throwing his knife. A special feature was added to the North American and European editions by entering a specific name on the screen. ("HELP ME" gave you ten lives, "OKUDA" to begin the game with Alucard or "FUJIMOTO" for Grant or "URATA" for Sypha, and finally "AKAMA" allowed you to access the more difficult second quest.)

One last side note, there are two fan-made remakes I can find with one called Super Castlevania III and the other Castlevania Chronicles: Dracula's Curse. Progress on either is up in the air but at least they appear to still be currently worked on. Between the two, the second title looks to be the best thus far in my opinion.

Castlevania_III_Dracula's_Curse.jpg

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (FDS - 1989 / NES - 1990)

Intro - "Prelude" (NES / FDS)
Name Entry - "Epitaph" (NES / FDS)
Game Start - "Prayer" (NES / FDS)
Stage 1: Warakiya Village - "Beginning" (NES / FDS)
Stage 2: Clock Tower of Untimely Death - "Clockwork" (NES / FDS)
Stage 3: Mad Forest - "Mad Forest" (NES / FDS)
Stage 4: The Murky Marsh of Morbid Morons - "Dead Beat" (NES / FDS)
Stage 4A: The Haunted Ship of Fools / Stage 7: Abandoned Mines - "Anxiety" (NES / FDS)
Stage 5: Alucard's Cave - "Nightmare" (NES / FDS)
Stage 5A: Curse Castle - "Rising" (NES / FDS)
Stage 6: Sunken City of Poltergeists / Stage 6A: The Moat Bridge of Peril - "Stream" (NES / FDS)
Stage 6B: Underground Catacombs - "Demon Seed" (NES / FDS)
Stage 7A: Castle Courtyard - "Aquarius" (NES / FDS)
Stage 8: The Main Hall - "Deja Vu (Vampire Killer)" (NES / FDS)
Stage 9: The Inner Halls - "Riddle" (NES / FDS)
Stage A: Dracula's Final Clock Tower - "Pressure" (NES / FDS)
Stage A-3: Dracula's Chamber - "Overture" (NES / FDS)
Boss Fight (NES / FDS)
Level Select - "Destiny" (NES / FDS)
Encounter (NES / FDS)
Dracula's Final Form - "Big Battle" (NES / FDS)
Ending - "Evergreen" (NES / FDS)
Credits - "Flash Back" (NES / FDS)
Stage + Game Complete (NES / FDS)
Lose Life + Game Over (NES / FDS)

Remixes/Covers:

TheOrcKing · June 10, 2015

We will return to Castlevania but first this hot track.

Darth_Raichu · June 10, 2015

Great documentary on Frank Sinatra:

http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/sinatra-all-or-nothing-at-all

Darth_Raichu · June 16, 2015

TheOrcKing · June 24, 2015

Darth_Raichu · June 25, 2015

Samba anyone ?

Yes, I listened to the 1 hour loop and no, I would still listen to the song afterwards.

Darth_Raichu · June 28, 2015

Cover version:

Original artist:

TheOrcKing · June 29, 2015

Shyguys - "Journey"

TheOrcKing · July 4, 2015

Straight from the album of Kung Fury, an independent film of such awesomeness your head will awesomely explode in an awesome flash of pure awesomeness.