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Thursday, September 30th
Do you know PHP3?, Request for EW Article
Do you know PHP3? Then Help Out!
Over the past few months, we've been hoping to setup a new
online database for the list of our music files using a server
script called PHP.
Unfortunately, no one on our staff knows much about it. If you
know PHP and you want to help out (a job as big as this would
put you on the staff), please let me
know.
Please send me the EW Article!!
No one on the VGMusic staff ever got to see the review of this website
in the EWInternet multimedia supplement (page 32) in the
September 17, 1999 edition of Entertainment Weekly (Issue #503).
It seems the newstand issues didn't have this special supplement, but
some home subscribers did get it. If you have a copy still, PLEASE
either scan the review and email it to me
ASAP, or contact me
about sending the entire issue to me by snail-mail. I'm still dying to see it!
(Mike Newman)
Monday, September 20th
The Demise of the Sonic Corner, Domain name 2nd anniversary soon, Are YOU ready for the sites 3rd Birthday?
The Demise of the Sonic Corner
I just received this news by email:
"This is JD, the maintainer of The Sonic Corner. I'm writing to you to inform you that The Sonic Corner has been closed.
VGMusic has credits on every one of the pages, saying the table design has been borrowed with permission from The Sonic Corner. I would
like The Sonic Corner changed to JD Harding with the same url."
- JD Harding >>
This comes as an unexpected shock, especially to me (it was one of the sites I tended to visit). Hopefully JD has more luck in his future pursuits...
Meanwhile, we are accepting Sonic the Hedgehog MIDIs for the Master System, Game Gear, Genesis & Sega CD, Saturn, and (the future) Dreamcast sections,
although you must get the sequencers permission before uploading those files, as per the upload agreement.
Domain name 2nd anniversary soon
Our Domain Name turns 2 on October 19, 1999... If that seems like a long time...
Are YOU ready for the sites 3rd Birthday?
The Website turns 3 on December 19... It doesn't feel like it's been 3 years. I myself have been with the site
since July 1997, updating the wishlist... 1,000,000 hits, 2 years on the domain name, 3 years on the website...
We'll probably have something special up for the 3rd birthday, we'll fill you in later.
(Powerlord)
Monday, September 13th
National Publicity!
I just received this wonderful news by email:
<< Just thought I'd drop ya a note.
In the September 17, 1999 edition of Entertainment Weekly (Issue #503), on page 32, the Video Game Music Archive was named the Music Best of Breed in the >>EWinternet<< section. You were given an "A" for the site. Way to go! =)
- Travis Tubbs >>
I in fact knew Entertainment Weekly was writing
a review of the website, but they told me it would probably come out in August. Once
September came around, I was a little nervous that the review would never print. I can't
wait to see it. I checked my college bookstore today for the issue, but it wasn't
out on the magazine rack yet.
(Mike Newman)
Thursday, September 9th (Dreamcast & FF8 USA Day)
1,000,000!
Long, long ago, when Yahoo's net-worth was 5 cents, I was a high school senior who had some time on his hands. While my attempts at the "Mike Newman Homepage" proved fruitless (5 hits/month), I decided create a webpage about something other than myself. Inspiration struck when I looked at my small music file collection on my hard drive. I had a Castlevania song along with a couple other videogame music midis that I had downloaded from the internet. Since there didn't seem to be any comprehensive source of videogame music online, I started the Videogame Music Archive webpage on Geocities. And the rest is history...
One million hits. WOW!! I still can't believe it. While I would like to give myself credit for getting the archive started, it is only appropriate that I thank the many people and organizations who have made this website what it is today:
Geocities - While it may not seem too revolutionary today, back in 1996, free space for a webpage online was extraordinary to come across. Geocities provided the birthplace for this website.
Necrosaro - Without your finanial help, "vgmusic.com" as a domain name would not have been possible. Your early help with updating the website helped pave the way for a much larger staff, and you helped me learn that you can trust someone on the internet, even if you haven't met them in person.
Powerlord - Your contribution to the website have been unbelievable! Your CGI/perl expertise have paved the way for installation of the upload script, new-files directory, "semi-automatic" update script, message boards (both old and new), and you also been on top of security issues.
Cyberkhan - By merging your Commodore 64 midi collection with the archive, you helped to make the archive overall more complete.
Peach - Without a doubt, you have added more midis in the updates to this website than any other staff member. I still can't imagine how you handle so many midis. The tremendous updates you do have kept people coming back over and over again!
Kalrac - Your upkeep of the FAQ page has not only been invaluable to me (since it has significantly reduced my incoming email load), but has been a big help in informing all visitors to the website.
Chiba - Your expertise in Japanese videogame music has helped us cover game music that most Americans would have never had the chance to listen to.
39ster - Updating the ZIP file collections was a huge endeavor, and your efficiency and effort has quickly gained my respect. Your help with fixing quality related errors has helped us become a better website.
Wildkard - Your help with the videogame encyclopedia is appreciated. As you probably found out (as I did when I worked on it) its a futile job for one person to do. The encyclopedia while be better integrated into the archive once we get our new database system up and running, so all the work put into it will not be in vain.
Telefragged - Geocities may have been this website's birthplace, but Telefragged has become vgmusic.com's best place to be. We've been hosted here the longest of any of the other locations we've been at. The quality and service we've gotten here is extraordinary and I wouldn't move this website anywhere else unless someone paid me! Special thanks to Slade and Marv for all their help.
Sequencers - Anyone who has made a good videogame midi file has my deepest gratitude. While I don't have the talent to make such a file myself, I am quite familiar with the work and techniques needed to do so. The collaboration of so many people is yet another reason of why this website is so extraordinary!
Patrons - Thanks for visiting this site. At least one million midi served. Its been amazing to hear from people all around the world. All the nice complements I have received over the years have been truly appreciated and have cheered me up considerably (since running a website isn't 100% fun, but pretty close!).
Composers - This site above anything else is a tribute to the music you have made. I would like to personally thank you, since videogames were a significant part of my childhood amusement, and the music from the games I played shall forever be in my heart.
- Mike Newman
Videogame Music Archive Founder
P.S. - 999,999 hits on 9/9/99. A coincidence? I think not! :^)
Dear Friends,
Wow, how interesting! I actually managed to hit 1,000,000! If you guys were wondering
how I managed it, I was just pretty lucky when I refreshed my browser. I didn't do anything
that others cannot do, so don't think I cheated with staff tools. It's funny how many of the
staff members tend to get the milestones, but we don't know why! Our next goal is probably 1.5 million,
so members, keep trying! I'm so surprised that I managed this number though, but I wish to share it
with everyone who wants to see! Click here for the
GIF image of the 1,000,000th hit.
Well, all I can say is: Yeah, Peach has got it! `^_~-
(Or should I say, "Peach wins again!"?)
Yours truly - -
Princess Toadstool (Peach)
We just passed the one millionth hit at approximately 7:15 PM Eastern Time.
I can tell that people reloaded to get that number, however.... the last 50 hits went in less than
15 seconds.
And the $1 million dollar prize goes to.... Princess Peach Toadstool!
(Powerlord)
Tuesday, August 31
Chat Room pages updated
All the chat room pages were updated, and the main page is now located at a new location.
The chat room pages have also been switched over to the jurasdiction of the Video Game Music Sister Sistes (VGMSS).
(Powerlord)
Sunday, August 22
Chat network restored, X-Midi-2 fixed results
Chat network restored
Esper.net, home of #vgmusic & #rpgamer, has now been completely restored to normal operation.
X-Midi-2 fixed results
After dropping Zeal Deal, here are the top 3 entries for X-Midi-2.
(Powerlord)
Saturday, August 21
Chatroom Chaos Restored
We now are in control of our chatroom again, after it being out of our control
for over 12 hours. Although the server outage was not fixed, the database the backup
services are using were copied from the computer the main services are on.
(Powerlord)
Friday, August 20
A Reason to Buy the Sega Dreamcast? / Wishlist Poll Closed
Dreamcast Sequencer
The Magic
Box International Videogame News reports that:
Waka Lab is planning to release a new Dreamcast software called Dreamcast Sequencer on October 28 in Japan, a music program which allows you to compose, mix and playback your own music on DC, there are over 2500 sample sound data, this program also allows you to record music from the DC Mic Device. You can save your works into MIDI, VPF, and WAVE format. If you wonder how you can share your works with friends, this program will allow you to upload and download files over the internet.
Thanks to SFZeroGuY for pointing out this news to me.
(Mike Newman)
Wishlist Poll Closed
The wishlist poll is now
closed. The results are as follows:
| Should the Wishlist be split
up? |
| Answer |
Votes |
% of votes |
| No, don't change the wishlist. |
116 |
25.72% |
| Yes, into older systems (SNES and older), newer
systems (Saturn and newer), and arcade & computer
systems. |
144 |
31.93% |
| Yes, into console systems, handheld systems, and
arcade & computer systems. |
132 |
29.27% |
| Yes, but not either of the above ways. |
59 |
13.08% |
| Total |
451 |
100.00% |
The
majority thinks that the wishlist should be split up, however
it's almost an even split between dividing the wishlist up by
bit amount and by consoles & handhelds. Because of this
near even split, how it will be divided will be decided at a
later time.
(Powerlord)
Thursday, August 19
Project Majestic Mix Update, Poll Updates
Project Majestic Mix Update
Project Majestic Mix, the CD Project, has released some new samples! Go listen to them,
then tell us what you think in the polling booth.
Poll Updates
New Poll Question: "What do you think of the Project Majestic Mix Samples?"
Speaking of the polling booth, the wishlist poll ends tonight at midnight ET, last minute voters, please
vote now!
(Powerlord)
Tuesday, August 17
Upload Script online, Compo News: X-midi-2 finished!
Upload Script online
The upload script is now back online, with a new set of upload rules.
Compo News: X-midi-2 finished!
I still haven't gotten around to opening a separate section for it. :/
Anyway, X-midi-2 was finished up yesterday afternoon.
Here are the results.
I was not part of the judging team, but I noticed one thing while creating this list.... Zeal Deal ALREADY existed on RPGamer:
Original and Xmidi2
versions. They are *exactly* the same. It looks to me that someone took a file on RPGamer and submitted it to this competition.
(Powerlord)
Monday, August 16
Upload Rules Delayed, Forums went offline again, UPDATE OVERLOAD!!!
Upload Rules Delayed
Due to unforseen difficulties (ie, we weren't all around to discuss the upload rules (*ducks*))
the new upload rules will not be up until sometime tomorrow, and subsequently, the upload script
will not be back online until sometime tomorrow.
(Powerlord)
Forums went offline again...
Earlier today, the forums went offline again for an unknown amout of time.
I managed to contact one of the Telefragged admins, and they are now back online.
(39ster)
UPDATE OVERLOAD!!!
Dear Friends,
I know that it's been a long time since my last update, and as a result, the
new-files directory breeched 1000! During the update process, the increasing
amount of MIDIs being submitted each day was out of control. We've decided to
temporarily take the upload script offline until later today, when I have cleaned
out the new-files directory.
The good news is that the update is finally through, and the amount has toppled
over any previous update, ever: 584. We really do hope you enjoy the results.
Please inform me if there are any problems with the update *other* than the multiple
titles of the same name (there's a problem with the CGI script which is causing it
to do this in the addition section only).
On other news, some rules and regulations will be in effect later today tomorrow for uploading
files. This will help avoid unnecessary or rude submissions, not only to help us
update easier, but help visitors view the new-files easier by avoiding copies, hacks, etc.
We hope that you will be pleased with the rules that we have decided upon. If you have any
questions or comments (no flames please) pertaining to these rules, please post a message
in the Q&A or General message boards, and we will try to respond when possible.
Thanks! `^_^´
Yours truly - -
Princess Toadstool (Peach)
Saturday August 14
Upload script taken offline temporarily
The upload script has been temporarily taken offline to let Peach catch up on her current update
and to let us finish our new Submission Policy. The New Files have been pouring in quite a bit faster
than we anticipated.
(Powerlord)
Tuesday, August 10
Ladies and Gentleman, the polls are now open!
The polls have now opened at 11pm EST here on VGMusic.com.
The first poll topics are:
- What is your favorite videogame system manufacturer?
- Do you think its illegal to share videogame music?
- Should the Wishlist be split up?
Visit the polls and cast your vote!
(Powerlord)
Monday August 9
AOL's Instant Mess, Pokemon Mess
AOL's Instant Mess
By now, you've probably heard of AOL vs Microsoft on Instant Messaging. However, Did you
know about Microsoft's Dirty Little Tricks
(an editorial by Powerlord)? These blasts from the past
show that Microsoft, even in it's "Let's make a standard" guise, can not be trusted.
(Powerlord)
Pokemon Mess
A broken link on the Gameboy page
was fixed for the Pokemon midi collection ZIP file. It appears the accented
E was causing problems in some web browsers. We changed all the accented E's
to regular E's, which immediately fixed the problem.
(Mike Newman)
Sunday, August 8 (Addition: Monday August 9)
I'm gonna party like its 999,999
The hit counter hit 900,000 shortly after midnight Eastern Time Sunday morning.
No word on who was the lucky visitor. We are now only a month
and a half away (at the most) from 1,000,000!! Thanks to everyone for their patronage.
I'm simply amazed by how the popularity of this website keeps growing and growing.
(Mike Newman and modified 8/9 by Powerlord)
Saturday, August 7
A little compo update, and the departure of Melvyl from the Video Game Music Scene
Compo Updates
Nintendo Remix Competition 2 (NRC-2) Tracking Competition is due on August 20th. Visit the SSTrax competitions page
to sign up for your spot now!
MIDI Remix 2 (X-midi-2) entries are to be sent to music@rpgamer.com. Anyone willing
to judge should also contact music@rpgamer.com.
Somehow I missed that in the last update. The due date is still August 14th.
There may be a new competition section opening here later this week. Stay tuned.
Melvyl leaves the Video Game Music Scene
Melvyl (also known as King Melvyl) announced this week that he has left the Video Game Music Scene to
pursue his tracking group and other interests. Melvyl founded the group HeLLVeN
(Note: HeLLVeN's site is down for some reason right now. All I get is the Apache install page)
The withdrawl of Melvyl's site leaves a blank in our banner rotation, so it has been temporarily filled in with another
Sistersites logo (Cyan background logo) and links to the sistersites page.
If you have an interest in joining our sistersites, please fill out this form.
(Powerlord)
Sunday, August 1
Forums outage, Testing new News look, & Compo updates
Forums outage
The forums are out as I write this. Apparently the forums web server went out around midnight CT (the time
zone the server is in) and no one is around to restart it. Normal operation should be restored
when one of the bosses@telefragged.com get my message and restart the web server.
The forums are now online again after being out for over 9 hours.
Testing new News look
If you see anything strange with the news layout, it's because I'm playing around with the way
the headers look. I'm attempting to implement a standard way of having more than one news article per
staff member per day.
Compo updates
I hope I didn't leave anyone hanging there.... I haven't reported news of compos recently, even
though two have finished, and two new ones have started.
C8 & C-midi-1 (AKA: Old News)
Both C8 and C-midi-1 have been completed! The top 3 were:
NRC2 & X-midi-2 (AKA: New News)
SSTrax has announced Nintendo Remix Compo #2 (NRC2). The rules: Remix a theme from an NES game. Due date is To Be Announced.
RPGamer has announced X-midi-2. In general, remix any song on the RPGamer games list. Rules are posted
on RPGamer's Music Box. The rules are the exact same ones I had posted for X-midi-1. Due date is August 14th.
The Upcoming
After SSTrax finishes NRC2, they will move on to X6 (this time X-midi and X were spaced apart to cause less confusion). After that.... I'm writing up the rules to the
Game Style Compo (GSC) that will most likely have concurrent midi and module parts.
(Powerlord)
The news about the forums later updated by (39ster)
Friday, July 30
Zip Update Finished!
After a over month of hard work, I'm am happy to say the zip update is now finished!
All the existing zips in the archive were deleted, and replaced with around 114 new zips,
which between them I have added 2673 midis! (If I managed to add them up with my calculator correctly.
If it isn't exactly that, it's only maybe a few tens off. Oh well.) I didn't touch any of the zips in the
new-files, however, I made this rule. If a game has 10+ midis, all of them go into a zip for that particular game.
So I hope you understand that's where the zips have actually come form.
Well, enjoy those zips. It's been a great learning experience doing them, and I learnt many little tips along the way.
If you find any problems, please mail me so I can fix them.
(39ster)
Thursday, July 29
More Cell Phone Music News
SFZeroGuY was kind enough to
point out the following info at
The Magic Box International Videogame News page: <<
Capcom is planning to release a new arcade machine called Chaku Handy Phone Melody Collection in Japan, which enable you to download a collection of music, melodies and sound effects into your cellular phones, there will be a total of 500 melodies available
>> Japan always has the coolest gadgets!
(Mike Newman)
Tuesday, July 27
Play Music on Your Cell Phone
I recently found out that certain models of Ericsson cell phones
can play a custom melody when the phone rings. In fact, some people
have been programming videogame music to be their rings!!
A list of some code for videogame music
is available on the GSMinfo webpage.
(Mike Newman)
Saturday, July 24
Chrono Cross Music
It appears that I beat Mike to this (he mentioned it to me).
A sample of the Chrono Cross music (The Introduction Music) is available on Square Japan's website,
in the Chrono Cross section.
The music is available in MP3 format.
(Thanks to RPGamer for letting me link to their file since Telefragged does not let us store MP3s.)
In related news, TSSF has already completed an IT of the Battle Music for Chrono Cross... I for one would
like to know how he got it so fast. :D
(Powerlord)
Monday, July 19
Videogame Music Quizzes
While VGMusic.com's music quiz is not up and running, we
are collecting links to other videogame music quizzes online.
The links will be listed on the Quiz Page.
One new quiz, Nintendo 64 MIDI Quiz,
is now listed.
(Mike Newman)
Sunday, July 11
Lost news
Somehow I forgot to post two articles in the past few days.... They are as follows.
Xmidi1
X Midi one was completed early morning on the 8th of June. The results are here!
The winner is The Legend of Zelda: Introduction Carribean Remix
by Ice!
Coming in 2nd was Xenogears: Emotion by Kaijin,
and in 3rd was Lufia II: For Our Savior by TSSF.
Visit The XMidi1 Results page for the rest of the list.
Cmidi1 and C8
Cmidi1 and C8 are two related competitions... C8 is the SSTrax original tracking competition #8 (MOD tracking), and Cmidi1
is RPGamer Original Sequencing competition #1 (MIDI sequencing). C8 entries are due in by July 16th, and Cmidi1 entries by July 20th.
See the SSTrax C8 page for more details on C8,
and the RPGamer Music Box for more info on Cmidi1. I have altered the C8 rules to fit Cmidi1's rules:
They are available here.
If you have questions, you can ask on IRC at irc.esper.net in #SSTrax for C8, #RPGMusic for Cmidi1, or #VGMusic for general chat.
(Powerlord)
Saturday, July 10
Pacman Fever!
Toon told me on the General Message Board
about the Buckner and Garcia
Official Pacman Fever Website. It turns out that these guys, back in 1982
wrote a song called Pacman Fever that became a popular hit. I was too
young back then to even know the difference between Coleco and Atari, let alone
remember at all hearing this song, but its neat that they are reissuing
their music now-a-days. Check out the website. They have the history behind
the song and also Real Audio streams of their songs ("Online Jukebox").
(Mike Newman)
Monday, July 5
800,000... its almost like a million
At approximately 11pm EST, the hit counter on the front page hit 800,000. Yippee!
Only 200,000 away from one million. Thanks to everyone for visiting!!
(Mike Newman)
Sunday, July 4
IRC Pages to be redone
I'm going to redo the pages for our IRC chat channel to include the new rules page and make them easier to find.
(Powerlord)
Saturday, July 3 (UPDATE: July 4th)
X-Midi-1 RPG MIDI Remix contest
I've got the point scores in now! See the rules section below.
Our good friends at RPGamer are hosting a MIDI remix competition, I just wish Mark
Jordan had too me a little sooner... oh well, I should check out The Music Box on
RPGamer more often.
The deadline is the 7th, a mear 4 days from now, but I'll bet that *real* MIDI sequencers
can finish something in that time.
Rules
The rules are the same as the rules for the SSTrax X series competitions:
- You are scored on both:
- Technical
- Appropriateness of Instruments. (25 point max)
- Controllers (or lack thereof) and how they add to the song. (25 point max)
- Using multiple midi devices will lose you 30 points.
- Musical
- Is the song in a new style? (That IS what a remix is) (25 point max)
- Does it sound good, or could someone's kid sister do better? (12 point max)
- Can you tell what song it is a remix of? (13 point max)
- 40 points deducted if the entry is from a song other than a game on RPGamer's game list. The game
list is here.
PHEW! Anyway, those are the rules so far. Entries need to be emailed to music@RPGamer.com.
If you think you could judge well and have a MIDI editor, contact music@RPGamer.com
(Powerlord)
Tuesday, July 2
New Front Page
(Updated July 3)
The new page layout is now up. There's been a few bugfixes since yesterday when it originally
went up. If you spot any wrong links, please email Mike Newman or Powerlord.
(Mike Newman, later updated by Powerlord)
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