Lesser-known Video Game Soundtracks: X (エックス Ekkusu) (GB)

Welcome to another installment of Lesser-known Video Game Soundtracks.  Today, we’re going to talk about X, a game that only uses a single English letter for a title but is 4 Japanese characters long in katakana and whose origins are inspired by the wire-frame graphics of old computers, the programming minds of a some Argonauts, and the challenge of executing 3D on a little gray box.  Oh, and yes, the music to the game is pretty swell, too.  Let’s go!

Fidelity Concerns: “Hip” Tanaka’s Dr. Mario, Part 1

This is Part 1 of my 2 part series on the music of Dr. Mario.

In 1990, Nintendo released Dr. Mario for both the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Nintendo Game Boy.  As we know, the both of these systems use different audio instructions (Ricoh 2a03 for NES/Fami and the custom Sharp LR35902 for the Game Boy).  So what challenges did Tanaka face when moving his soundtrack across these two platforms?  Let’s take a look.