Interview with Amiga game music legend: Olof Gustafsson

Long-time gamers like me will fondly remember the Commodore Amiga computer, and the amazing games that were produced for it.  The Amiga kicked off the careers of many gaming industry legends, with many having roots in the Amiga demoscene.  One such legend is composer/musician Olof Gustafsson, pictured above. Olof, using the handle Blaizer, originally composed tracker music for a demogroup called The Silents.  The original members went on to form Digital Illusions, and release the awe-inspiring Pinball Dreams, followed by Pinball Fantasies and Pinball Illusions.  



These games were lauded for not only their brilliant graphics and gameplay, but also their amazing soundtracks, which were composed by Olof.  Needless to say, Olof went on to compose many more great tunes for other Digital Illusions games. The reason I thought to post an article about Olof?  Well, I recently stumbled across an embarrassingly-inane interview with him on YouTube.  Take a look and you'll see what I mean.  I don't think language is the stumbling-block here, I think it's just a plain lack of research and knowledge.  Eg, the interviewer:

• Thinks Olof was a member of Razor 1911 (0.57 mins)
• Asks if Digital Illusions still exists (3.25 mins)
• other examples I couldn't be bothered to document

Maybe it's just me, but does Olof look like he wanted to escape at around the 2.54 min mark? 

Fans of Olof's might not realise that he is still active in the demoscene, and that he composed the music for the amazing Starstruck Amiga demo by TBL, which was the winning demo at the Assembly demo party 2006.  You can see the demo below.  It's even more impressive when you consider that it is running on an Amiga, with the music playing courtesy of the Amiga's 8-bit 4-channel 'Paula' sound chip!  The music is up to Olof's best, and I love the choreography of many parts of the demo, eg. at the 5.35 minute mark.

A higher quality version of the demo and an mp3 of the soundtrack can be downloaded here from pouet.net.

Good news for Xbox 360 gamers: in the interview Olof reveals that his new company, Epos Game Studios, will be releasing their first game via Xbox Live Arcade.  I for one can't wait!...

C64 retro-game music: Reyn Ouwehand & Jeroen Tel

I love old computer games- especially the retro 8-bit music.  One of the legendary C64 (Commodore 64) musicians is Martin Galway, composer of many superb C64 game soundtracks.  Green Beret is one of Martin Galway's most famous tunes, and you can find a wide range of remixes all over the web (eg Remix.Kwed.Org).  This YouTube video is not just a remix, but something quite different.  It is essentially a live performance by Reyn Ouwehand (a famous C64 composer in his own right), who uses some fancy looping technology to enable him to play multiple parts and instruments by himself.   Anyway, it's very cool... give it a few minutes as it gets more and more impressive over time. I particularly like the cool Rhodes part at around the 8-minute mark.  :)

Another famous and prolific C64 composer/musician is Jeroen Tel.  Jeroen is responsible for some classic game tunes, including my favourites Eliminator, Cybernoid and Robocop 3.  Judging by this YouTube video, it looks like Jeroen is still very much active in the 8-bit music scene.  This is a small except from a longer performance, which you can download in its entirety from 8Bit Mayhem. 

While C64 or Amiga retro-tunes may not be everyones' cup of tea, I still think they sound fantastic.  Particularly when performed by talented musicians like Reyn and Jeroen...

Nintendo Wii - uh, I mean 'Vii' - review

I first saw this video on Kotaku.com.au, and just had to post it here to spread the word.  A Brit by the name of Dr Ashens has gone to the trouble of ordering a KenSingTon Vii from China to review.  And an entertaining review it is!  I particularly liked the Chinese Puzzle Bobble knock-off: Squirrel Bobble!  I actually owned a Nintendo Wii for a year... a mostly enjoyable experience, except for the lack of decent games.  By the time this problem was rectified (Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy etc) I had sold the Wii and moved on to the Xbox 360 - with no regrets at all.

While on Dr Ashens site, make sure you check out his Human Killing Machine (for Atari ST) retro-game review.  Ashen's reviewing style brings to mind Zero Punctuation, but with enough differences to be unique.  His HKM review is a reminder to all of us just how terrible some games from our past could be...