"Beep" documentary

[Jan Lund Thomsen]

This one popped up on Kickstarter the other day, for anyone interrested:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ve ... game-sound

Doesn't look like they have any of the classic SID/Paula gurus lined up, sadly. Hopefully they won't skip the home computer tunes in favour of PC/console stuff.

[Chris Abbott]

They should really team up with the Bedrooms to Billions people to get that footage, I'm not sure the main C64 composers have much more to add than what's on there.

It seems very North-American-centred though, and the claim to "definitiveness" is slightly annoying hyperbole. There was a time when UK C64 music was definitely the best in the world for anything ever (before the NES, Mario and Zelda picked up all the plaudits), but the NES sucked up all the oxygen over the Atlantic.

I guess we'll soon see how serious they are...

[Jan Lund Thomsen]

Ah yes, Bedrooms to Billions. I threw $25 at their Indiegogo-campaign, based on the having watched the great 20-minute "Newsfield Years" on Youtube. Hopefully the new film will be half as good when it comes out. Two years after helping fund it I've stopped thinking about it, really. That's my main problem with crowdfunding - by the time stuff finally comes out, I've lost the initial enthusiasm for it. Same with Wasteland 2, even though that one one is only about a month away from release.

And yes, "Beep" does seem VERY north-american in focus. While that slightly irks me, it's also somewhat fascinating that the two separate scenes existed without neither being very much aware of the other. And odd that they didn't merge after the internet came about and tied everything together across continents.

[Chris Abbott]

B2B is still on the way, the delays were mostly about clearances and stuff, apparently.

[Makke]

Yes, this looks very US oriented, but quite nice none the less. I think B2B will be a more interesting watch though, I'm still torn whether I should've upgraded to the bigger version with more interview material.

Can't wait for the copy to arrive. I've not really watched anything of the stuff they've released so far. I'm saving myself for the final product!

[Jan Lund Thomsen]

The B2B peeps sent out a newsletter two days after my last post, saying that the digital version well be out on Thursday 25th September.

So now I'm back to being exited about it. I didn't spring for the 'special edition' release either, but since the main film is a whopping 2 hours and 20 minutes I'm not really fussed about not getting 2.5 hours of additional extras that I'll probably won't find time to watch.

[Jan Lund Thomsen]

Oh, and while we're at it. I got me a copy of Video Games: The Movie (http://videogames.vhx.tv/) about a month back - well put together documentary, but it didn't really add anything new. So in the end I found it a disappointment, even if it was only $12.99.

Might be a good documentary to show to that significant other/friend/relative who's puzzled by your fascination with video games, though.

[Chris Greening]

Hi guys. Chris from Game Music Online here, and one of the people helping out with the doc.

Appreciate the initial set of announcements was very American-focused, but don't worry! From the start, we wanted to give a strong perspective of game audio as a whole -- throughout the eras, throughout the world. Hence, we've been actively talking to a number of C64 and Amiga composers and demosceners since launching the project and have been able to announced the first names attached: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ve ... game-sound

Chris Huelsbeck
Frederic Motte
Charles Deenen
Allister Brimble

There's also a number of other European, Japanese, and Korean artists attached to the project. Though they've been harder to track down, we're also in talks with a couple of other C64 legends and might be able to announce something in coming weeks. Be sure to comment if there's any other guys you'd love to see involved.

[Chris Abbott]

Matt Gray popped up on these boards in another thread recently, you might want to approach him. Bedrooms to Billions never got him.

[madfiddler]

I spoke to them about the whole - Starting with sound of the C64/Amiga with chiptune, then going in to games, and going back to chiptune and performing them with the violin. They weren't interested. Not enough Gameboy I guess.

[francesprince]

I think, They should really team up with the Bedrooms to Billions people to get that footage, I'm not sure the main C64 composers have much more to add than what's on there.

[Jan Lund Thomsen]

The documentary came out yesterday, and luckily I had a couple of hours to spare to watch it. They talk to Charles Deenen and Chris Huelsbeck during the C64 mention, and Allister Brimble also pops up. As does Michael Land and Clint Bajakian during a segment on the iMUSE system. Suprisingly, there was way less emphasis on the Gameboy than I had expected. And way more emphasis on music design/sound design than I expected.

Turns out that good game sound is a lot harder than you think. So all in all, it's not a bad film and I'm glad I supported the kickstarter.

Available for $3.99 rental / $9.99 download from https://beep.vhx.tv/