17 April 2013

Episode 129: Twilight Games

For Episode 129, Brent and Rob focus only on titles which were released the last year their respective consoles released licensed games, exploring the way composers approached working with old hardware.  But this episode is kind of a mess for a few different reasons.  For one, the boys didn't have microphones and had to make do with a very poor quality substitution.  Two, it's complicated when deciding the last year of a console's life span, and this is addressed very confusingly in the episode.  Anyway, feel free to compare this episode to the last one on launch games which focused on a time when things were much simpler.  Full track listing below.


Asterix and the Great Rescue - Nathan McCree - Gaul - Core Design - Sega Master System (Europe) - 1993

Asterix and the Secret Mission - Katsuhiro Hayashi (Funky K.H) - Cavern - Sega - Sega Master System (Europe) - 1993

Power Tennis - Masakatsu Maekawa - Credits - Hudson Soft/Now Production - PC Engine - 1993

Formation Soccer on J.League - unknown - Flugels - Human Entertainment - PC Engine - 1994

The Flash - Jeroen Tel - The Trickster's Funhouse - Probe Entertainment - Sega Master System (Europe) - 1993

Formation Soccer on J.League - unknown - Sudden Death - Human Entertainment - PC Engine - 1994

Zoda's Revenge: Star Tropics II - Takashi Kumegawa, Yoshio Hirai - Ice Age Overworld (Chapter 2) - Nintendo - NES - 1994

Zoda's Revenge: Star Tropics II - Takashi Kumegawa, Yoshio Hirai - Dungeon Theme 2 - Nintendo - NES - 1994

Wario's Woods - Soyo Oka, Shinobu Amayake - Credits - Nintendo - NES - 1994

Sonic 3D Blast - Seirou Okamoto, Jun Senoue (arr.) - Credits - Sega - Genesis - 1995

International Superstar Soccer Deluxe - Hideyuki Eto, Harumi Ueko, Tomoya Tomita, Chris Hülsbeck (arr.) - Konami/Factor 5 - Mega Drive (Europe) - 1996

Virtua Fighter 2 - Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Takayuki Nakamura, Akiko Hashimoto, Tomohiro Endo (arr.), Hitoshi Ohori (arr.) - A Moment from Eternity (Name Entry) - Gaibrain - Genesis - 1997

Grander Musashi RV - Mi-chan Sutajio - Title Screen - TOSE/Bandai - Game Boy (Japan) - 1998

Rockman and Forte - Akari Kaida - Dynamoman - Capcom - Super Famicom - 1998

Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 - Yuka Tsujiyoko - The Army of Leif Seeks Victory: Charge A - Nintendo - Super Famicom - 1999

Metal Slader Glory: Director's Cut - Takane Okubo - Person in Charge at the Station - Nintendo/HAL - Super Famicom - 2000

J.League Winning Goal - Shigenori Masuko, Yoko Suzuki - Team Data - Electronic Arts Victor/Graphic Research - Famicom - 1994


  1. "Ice Age Overworld", the Star Tropics 2 song, totally reminded me of Earth, Wind and Fire

  2. RE: the ending thesis

    I think the problem are publishers assign their A programming and sound teams to new hardware... the old hardware in its twilight years is assigned B and C team programmers and composers.

    You would hear a greater difference if you could get a first and last track on a system from a particular composer. That would require a bit of digging though.

    1. This is true. During the twilight years, not much excitement and effort is put into the games. Then again, Rockman and Forte is a great soundtrack

  3. I'd rather have LMH without microphones than no LMH at all. Great episode!

  4. I suppose the peak for music is right in the middle of the console's life, when the composers and programmers have figured out the technology and are still eager to work on the hardware. Take the SNES, for example -- I'd say the peak years were 1993-1996. In that three year span, there were soundtracks that pushed the hardware sound wise and had sophisticated compositions (Super Metroid, Mega Man X2, Earthbound, Seiken Densetsu 3, to name a few). Whereas with twilight era stuff, it seems like everyone involved with the games would rather be working on newer hardware, which is unfortunate.

    However, the sports tunes in this episode killed it! Thank you for not waiting until the next sports episode to play them. Power Tennis, man, that's a winner!

  5. To clear things up, the reason there was a reference to modern consoles on the vinyl sleeve, is that Sega produced (a very small number of) these original 16-bit Genesis music records only in 2009 (Sega individually numbered each record, that is the number in the lower right corner of the sleeve). In the same month Sega also released another Genesis/MD emulation pack on disc for modern consoles, so Sega cross-promoted that modern ps3/360 release on the record sleeve. Great show, thanks guys!

    1. Yeah, we figured that out later. We'll talk more about it on the next episode. Thanks again!

  6. The music of Nathan McCree's "Gaul" kind reminds me of the Pac-Man picture disc from the early 1980s:


    Some of the same sorts of plinks and bent notes. Master System's got the bumpin' beats!

  7. Mega shame on the LMH research team. 1995 saw the release of the last official NES game The Lion King. I understand it may have been overlooked as it was a PAL release but I have to point it out because Brent was so confident about 1994 being the last year. Wario Woods was the last NES game from Nintendo I believe.

  8. Well actually, Wario's Woods was the last game on the NES in Europe as well, though it was in 1995 (and it came out after The Lion King in that region). But you're right, 1995 was the last year in Europe.

    1. Wow didn't expect a reply on such an old episode. This is where I am up to having only discovered the podcast last year.
      I couldn't find an exact release date for the PAL release of Wario Woods other than 1995 but Lion King was allegedly released on May 25.

    2. It says on Wikipedia that Wario's Woods was released in August 1995 for PAL, but very often Wikipedia is wrong. On this Nintendo fandom site, it says Wario's Woods was released in Europe on June 23, 1995, which again, who knows the validity of that, but since it has an exact date, it seems a little more believable.

  9. Hey guys, looks like you're missing the track name for the "International Superstar Soccer Deluxe" song...Or is it more of an "untitled" affair? Thanks!

    1. Thanks for the heads up. The track is: Short League, Short Tournament