Video Games Live

Hey, Tommy. Actually just popped by the forums today myself (I usually try to be helpful over at slightlydark.com, another cool community dedicated to preserving 'rare and obscure game music'). There's a lot of great stuff going on here I've been reading through, a lot of it I hope will be helpful to the research I am doing on videogame music (surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be much out there). There are a lot of good ideas floating around here, some of them addressing problems I have with showing people that videogame music is important when far too many people have prejudices against it. I'm sure you've had to deal a lot with that, too (heck, sounds like even guys like Chance Thomas have trouble, reading about the Grammies). What do you think some good solutions to this problem are?

I was also over at VGL in San Jose during the GDC, but I guess I was kind of exhausted because of the whole conference and I didn't have good seats (I fear I had to dub the area I was sitting in the 'fanboy section' so everybody there tended to get pretty excited and vocal) so I actually didn't enjoy it that much. However, I did really enjoy the GANG awards - that whole day with the Nintendo keynote and Will Wright keynote ended perfectly with that excellent awards ceremony you guys put on. I think if that single day was worth the entire trip. I missed the first few minutes of the awards while walking from downtown, but I was fortunately able to catch the drummer (sorry, I never caught his name!), Blindfolded Pianist, and of course the REALLY amazing Guitar Heroes. All of them were great, and it was nice to see everybody getting awards for the music and audio they had helped make. I also seem to remember they had guys in there with videocameras and I would love to get a copy of the recording. I didn't find any information on the GANG page or Gamasutra, but I hope it's available somewhere. Do you know how I might obtain a copy of this?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Hey, Tommy!

It was great meeting you at the GDC and VGL (and before the IGDA awards, haha! *stay away from the bathrooms*).

The GANG awards were great again, as usual - I recommend seeing this to anyone who is going to the Game Developers Conference. Have you put any thought into making recordings of some of the performances available to those who couldn't make it or would want to hear them again? The Guitar Heroes performance last year was nothing short of amazing!

Video Games Live in LA was also MUCH better than last year's performance at San Jose. I don't know if it was that the orchestra seemed happier to be performing the music or if it had to do with the smaller theater and better seating than I had last year. Of course, having a lot of important guests helps, but I think it would still have been fantastic even without Mr. Kondo there. I also enjoyed the better and different layout of songs this year, like Succession of Witches and especially the One Winged Angel - great performance to you, Kevin Kline, the orchestra, and choir! Definitely makes going to the concert again worth it. Of course, it's also great to hear Warcraft and Call of Duty again (not to mention Rygar in full orchestra! Nobody must recognize this game, but it's got such an amazing score, particularly from 1986!). I'll throw in another request for some Metroid music to the growing pile, while I'm at it (I know you'll think of some way to get it in there soon!). I'm very tempted to go again next year.

Oh, one question on the videogame footage from the history of game music piece. A lot of the footage shows the player losing the game. What was the design decision behind this selection of footage? Did it have something to do with the fact that we lost these games more often than we won them and so this is what we remember most, or that it deals with closure to the video clip?

Actually, I still have to upload the pictures I took at GANG and VGL, though I have already sent a few to Chris Kline (let's hope he can make it to more VGL's in the future!).

Also glad to see the Earthworm Jim Anthology soundtrack available on the Video Games Live website - I didn't have any cash on me, else I would have bought one! Looking forward to picking one up soon.

All the best,

Devin Monnens
www.deserthat.com

How ya doing, buddy?