Yesterday we brought you the trailer for Second Skin, a new documentary premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival in early March. To continue our pre-coverage of that festival, above you'll find the trailer for Reformat the Planet -- yet another documentary premiering at SXSW that, like Second Skin, deals somewhat in the world of video games. This one, however, is a tad different, as it follows several people who use their old Nintendo systems to create some pretty amazing music. How do they do it? I'm not entirely sure, but I do know that they use the actual music from, say, the Nintendo Game Boy, and transform it into these epic tracks.
It's definitely very cool, and I'm real interested in the film itself, yet I couldn't help but laugh watching these guys absolutely rock out while jamming on the buttons of a Game Boy. It's just comical, I don't know -- I mean these guys get REALLY into it. And their audience -- all sweaty and whatnot -- get REALLY into it. It's pretty awesome, I guess, and it just blows my mind to stumble upon these little worlds of art you never knew existed. Anyway, check out the trailer above and let us know what you think.
[via Matt Dentler's Blog]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-07-2008 @ 7:39PM
MCW said...
Yeah, I wish I knew how to do something like this too. Make use of that old Game Boy Advance. Looks like an interesting movie, could be the next King of Kong.
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2-07-2008 @ 8:12PM
OjNK said...
There's a whole pile of people making chiptunes out of pretty much anything that makes sound. Hell there's people hacking Speak'n'Spells with pitch benders and whatnot to make music!
I regularly throw on micromusic.net at work as background music. Total nostalgic sound, I love it!
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2-07-2008 @ 10:34PM
Jaspardo said...
http://www.myspace.com/dotaymusic
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2-10-2008 @ 6:46AM
Michael said...
Jaspardo, as interesting as that link was, it was pretty lame compared to the music that was played in this trailer. The melodious and lush sounds that were created for this film's soundtrack are just amazing! I want MORE!!!
I live in Austin and may have to venture out during SXSW to try and catch this one, if nothing else than to say I've seen (and heard) it on the big screen. Nicely done guys!
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2-17-2008 @ 6:46PM
Bit Shifter said...
Erik -- thanks for posting the trailer and info about the film. I wanted to address one point:
"How do they do it? I'm not entirely sure, but I do know that they use the actual music from, say, the Nintendo Game Boy, and transform it into these epic tracks."
An important distinction (which probably isn't made clear in the trailer) is that practitioners of chipmusic aren't using music from games, they're using the game consoles' on-board soundchips in order to make new, original music. So in other words, these old consoles are being used as synthesizers, rather than as gaming machines or computers. These new songs often sound reminiscent of old game music, because its the same underlying hardware being used for both -- complete with the same limitations (limited range of timbres, usually no more than 3-5 channels' worth of polyphony, etc.) -- but original game music itself isn't involved.
@ Michael: Some of the songs in the trailer include "Salvation For A Broken Heart" and "On Target" by NYC chiptune musician Nullsleep, and "Micawber's Moan" by Stockholm chip musician Random. Both have material availble as free mp3 downloads at the website for artist collective & netlabel 8bitpeoples:
http://www.8bitpeoples.com/discography_gfx.php?artist=Nullsleep
http://www.8bitpeoples.com/discography_gfx.php?artist=Random
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