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Chiptune Friday: A Test of Island Courage!

Posted by Derrick Sanskrit

As a lifelong coast-dweller, I am well aware of the fact that hurricane season is upon us. With this in mind, I feel that it's the right time to bring out my favorite island-hopping adventure game, StarTropics from Nintendo. Here's the happy little ditty that plays in Chapter 6: Reunion when your young adventurer finally finds his missing archeologist uncle, Dr. J:



I find this track incredibly peaceful and welcoming, an impressive achievement of chiptune considering the relatively brief loop and the extremely minimal use of the NES's five audio channels. People complain about the lack of a true Punch-Out! game on the Wii, but StarTropics never even left the NES. I would love some waggle-based yo-yo combat in a tropical Twilight Princess. Oh well, at least I still have my original immersive letter...

Related articles:
Chiptune Friday: Don't Just Stand There, Bust A Move!
Chiptune Friday: Return of the Blue Bomber
Chiptune Friday: Do the Monster Mash!
Chiptune Friday: LUNGE!


+ DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT

Comments

Rob said:

Link not working!

Is there a chiptunes cover of Islands playing the theme from Startopics?

July 25, 2008 1:56 PM

Derrick Sanskrit said:

Here:

www.imeem.com/.../y_hirai_dr_j_found

Hmmm...none of the embedded imeem tracks seem to be working.

I'll contact them and try to find out what's up. I hope I don't have to come up with a different way of sharing tunes every week. And yeah, that Startropics/Islands Alternate Soundtrack is still on my mind. :D

July 25, 2008 2:32 PM

Nadia Oxford said:

My husband and I got StarTropics off the VC. It kicked our asses pretty badly.

July 25, 2008 3:12 PM

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about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia's prized possession is a certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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