Older News - January to March 2000

Friday, March 31st, 2000

VGMusic.com's New Official Chatroom
Dear VGMusic Fans:
       It's been a while since I wrote a news column, but I felt the need to mention our new official chatroom. You can access it through our java client here, or use IRC. Type /server irc.esper.net then /join #VGMA if you are using an IRC chat client (such as mIRC). Our chatroom rules will be a little more organized once set. Remember, there is no rule saying that you can't have fun. `^_~-
       Yours truly - -
                          Princess Toadstool (Peach)
Thursday, March 30th, 2000

Competition news: Ultima-Eternity

Blah blah blah, new competition. That's what you're thinking right? Think again...

Ultima-Eternity is no ordinary competition. This is a multi-website competition. What does that mean? That means this competition will be advertised from here to RPGamer, The GIA, Zophar's Domain, and beyond.

The competition itself is an RPG Remix competition, and consists of three (3) categories: MIDI, Module, and Live. Something for everyone. :) If you want more information, on what you can and can't do for this competition, visit the Ultima-Eternity page.

In addition to what I said above, each participating site has 5 positions to fill to promote the competition. If you are interested in being a representative for this site, please email Powerlord.

In addition to our site, you may want to see if you can enter on behalf of Game Music Network or HeLLVeN. You do not need to be on a team to enter this competition, but we would like to fill up all team slots first, before people start entering independantly.
(Powerlord)
Friday, March 24th, 2000

Final Fantasy 8 PC MIDIs

I know what you're thinking... the FF8 midis don't show up in the update list, so they must not be on the site. That's not the case though. I manually added the Final Fantasy 8 MIDIs to the PC page, as well as fixed some bugs on the PC page. Thanks to Yura of VGMidi for the FF8 PC Midis!

It has come to our attention that some users would like the PC page split into two sections: One part for rips of the music for games, and another for sequenced music. The staff is currently discussing this, and we will let you know what we decide soon.
(Powerlord)
Thursday, March 23rd, 2000

The return of the Sonic Corner

The Sonic Corner has reopened it's doors. The Sonic Corner was one of the larger Sonic music sites (and the only one whose main focus was music).
(Powerlord)
Thursday, March 23rd, 2000

Is a Computer more musically talented than a human?

The results are in for that Tomorrow's world test I mentioned a week ago. I have not published the results here, incase we break any copyright laws, but check out their results here. How many of you got it right?
(39ster)
Wednesday, March 22nd, 2000

Telefragged looking for people for new site.
I received this message this morning from Marv.
TeleFragged (http://www.telefragged.com) is looking for an individual to develop and maintain a Playstation 2 web site that will become a part of our quickly expanding network. Persons applying for this position must be a self-starter and motivator with the ability to take the initiative and develop both a team and content for the site. Prior experience in web site maintenance and strong people skills are a definite plus. Prior Experience is desired and please send resumes to resumes@telefragged.com. This is an incentive based position.
(Powerlord)
Friday, March 17th, 2000 11:40pm EST

Lunar: Eternal Blue pack-in materials

Lunar: Eternal Blue's pack-in materials were posted not long ago on Working Designs page. They include:

3 Game CDs

1 soundtrack CD featuring arranged and expanded music

1 "Making of LUNAR 2" documentary video CD

1 Hardcover LUNAR 2 manual and artbook

1 Paper map with stats on the back

1 Full-size gold metallic Lucia's Pendant

4 mini character standees

Click here for picture. If you preorder, you also get the Ghaleon Punching Puppet.

Hmm... it looks like we even scooped the Major Sites (PSX.IGN.com, RPGamer and TheGIA) on the preorder gift and extra items not previously announced by Working Designs, thanks to Joshua Kaufman's sharp eyes!
(Source: Working Designs)
(Powerlord)
Thursday, March 16th, 2000

Is a Computer more musically talented than a human?

A popular BBC show here in the UK, called Tomorrow's World are doing their annual test, to see if a Computer is as intelligent as a human. On their site they have a section where they want as many people as possible, to listen to 3 tunes, and vote on them. 1 tune is composed by a computer, 2 are composed by humans.

Go, listen and vote on them. If you live in the UK or if you can recive this TV show, you can check out the results when they release them next week on Wednesday 22nd March, but I shall also print their results here.
(39ster)
Saturday, March 11th, 2000

Lunar: Eternal Blue, Lunar: The PC Story

Lunar: Eternal Blue

Master Zophar returns, this time to the PSX in the remake of Lunar: Eternal Blue. For those of you who have been following the Lunar series, you would have noticed that a remake of it appeared in Japan last year... well, the US release is in it's final stage of Translation by Working Designs, and has an expected release date towards the end of June. Since this isn't a review of Lunar: Eternal Blue, or the Lunar series I'll stop the review there and get on with the news.

An 8 hour (approximate time) playable demo of Lunar 2: Eternal Blue demo is being included in with Vanguard Bandits. (Source: RPGamer)

Rumor has it that the Lunar: Eternal Blue package will include 5 CDs: 3 Game CDs, 1 "Making Of" CD, and 1 Soundtrack CD (Game Music!! :D :D :D). (Source: RPGamer)
Working Designs says it will reveal all the details of Lunar: Eternal Blue's packaging, as well as begin preorders, after they finish server maintainance next week.
From the Working Designs Website dated March 10, 2000:
Our website will be down early next week for up to two days while we perform long-overdue maintenance on the server and a few upgrades. After the maintenance is complete, we will be adding details about the LUNAR 2 launch, package contents, and pre-order premium program. Thanks for your patience and support!
(Source: Working Designs)

Lunar: The PC Story

While every other gaming site out there has been starstruck by Lunar: Eternal Blue, I've also been keeping an eye on another Lunar game currently in production... The PC port of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is expected to be out later this Spring. For those of you who missed this classic RPG's Playstation version or don't own a Playstation, I highly recommend purchasing this game!
(Source: Working Designs)
(Powerlord)

Friday, March 10th, 2000

UK Game publisher looking for web designer

FastTrak Software Publishing, a company based in the London, UK area, is looking for a full time staff member to create and maintain their web presence. Here's the requirements:

Urgently required: Full time permanent position to create and maintain a web portal for all things games development related.
UK based - North London (Watford). Skills required:
V. Good Web abilities,
basic programming skills - pref C & C++.
Must have a serious passion for games, games and games, oh and preferably music too!
Additional qualities: reliable, honest, humorous and a workaholic.

Please contact now
Jon Silvera of FastTrak Software Publishing on +44 (0)1923 495 506 or e-mail jsilvera@polaron-group.co.uk

Thank you.

If you think you are qualified, and like in the London area, email Jon Silvera.

(Source: Zophar's Domain)
(Powerlord)
Wednesday, March 8th, 2000

1.6Million

Mike asked me to say that sometime on Sunday the site hit 1.6 Million hits. Only 400,000 to go now. Thanks to everyone for this achievement. Anyone want to guess when we hit 10Million???

Also, incase some of you are wondering why I dated this news as Wednesday 8th, well, it's Wednesday here, even if it's still only Tuesday in North America.
(39ster)
Thursday, March 2nd, 2000

11,000+ songs... minus a few, Faint rumbling in the distance

11,000+ songs... minus a few

I haven't manually updated the PC count for the songs I took out in the Bobby Prince fiasco. Needless to say, there is probably around 60-80 songs there... which brings us back below 11,000.

Faint rumbling in the distance

I don't know if anyone noticed or not, but I've stopped posting competition news on the main page. This was caused by me seeing the light from venus reflected off a weather balloon (I hope I quoted that line right)... Well actually because I was going to open a competitions page, but never did.

In competition news: VGMidi is bringing us OSR-1 (One Song Remix). The goal is to Remix Final Fantasy 5's Ahead On Our Way. Visit VGMidi's page for details.

Something BIG is approaching from the direction of RPGamer... I suggest you keep an eye out for it on this page and RPGamer's Music Box. To quote Mark Jordan:
A competition unlike any the RPG music world has seen is coming. Keep an eye out on Music Box and other places for this competition; You definatly do not want to miss it.

(Powerlord)
Sunday, February 27th, 2000

Yahoo! We have 11,000+ songs!

We're famous (again)! Check out this image taken of the bottom right hand corner of Page 56 in the March 2000 addition of Yahoo Internet Life! This is the third (known) time that we've been mentioned in a magazine. Yippee, errr, Yahoo!! :P

Also, I would like to thank Peach for completing the last archive update which has brought us over 11,000 songs online.
(Mike Newman)
Wednesday, February 16th, 2000

images directory being changed over

Just to inform everyone that the images directory is about synchronized with my local copy... this will cause some of our images to go missing, including all the logos on our main page except the sistersites rotating logos. This is to be expected, and everything should be back to normal soon.
(Powerlord)
Wednesday, February 8th, 2000

1.5 Million is a lot

The counter over on the left has around 500 more hits until it hits 1500000... 1.5 million hits. A scant 5 months to the day after it hit 1 million hits. Apparently we grow more popular every day. To that end, I'd like to invite everyone to post your suggestions and ideas for the site on the VGMusic.com Ideas & Suggestions Board
(Powerlord)
Tuesday, February 1st, 2000

And the beat goes on... the continuing saga of RPGLair

RPGLair is not shutting down after all, but is attempting to legalize itself, and bring in an experienced video game music veteran, melvyl, founder of the Hellven tracking group, and owner of the now defunct King Melvyl's Castle.

In addition to the new staff member, there is also a letter written to all the sequencers involved. So far, one public response has been made, by Arthur Prawitt. This response disturbed me greatly, because it was all psychology. Psychology may be good, but there is one force his response did not take into account: Betrayal. Taking what someone has created and posting it without their consent creates an atmosphere of betrayal. If it happens to a lot of people, the feeling of betrayal grows so great that most people do not trust you at all.

As a staff member of this site, I have no control over people copying the files and reposting them on another site. I don't pretend I do. I do however, remove files that sequencers request to be removed. If a sequencer does not want their work on a public archive, it is their choice. We can not force them to let us have their music on our archive.

Exclusive files, such as those from competitions, where the end results are not just your average, everyday music file, are a different matter entirely. That is one of the crux issues between RPGamer and RPGLair. Any file created specifically for a website should not, at any cost, be transferred to another website.

Such files are normally kept separate from normal files. An good example here are SSTrax's X (RPG Remix) competitions, RPGamer's X-Midi (RPG Remix) competitions, and VGMidi's RMC (Remix) competition series, as well as any other competition files from any website.
(Powerlord)
Monday, January 31st, 2000

"Oh my god, you killed RPGLair!", Penny-Arcade discovers VGMusic!

"Oh my god, you killed RPGLair!"
RPGLair closed it doors earlier today. Here's what's posted on the main page:

RPGLair is definitely closed ... thanks to RPGamer http://www.rpgamer.com and Mark Jordan from the Music Box section. Thanks too to the authors who send me emails to request this : "Delete any files which are mine". I'm agree with RPGamer and the authors to haven't ask their authorization about the music files ...

Now if you want to post some comments about that, send some to Me there : ldeluermoz@sophitek.fr

or to Mark Jordan from RPGamer there : Music@RPGamer.com

There is also a vote up on whether the site should remain open or not.
If you want the site to be shutdown, go to RPGLair and vote!
If you want the site to come back, go to RPGLair and vote!
If you would never go to RPGamer for music, choose the option marked "Non/No Je n\'irais jamais chez RPGamer pour des musiques !".

Penny-Arcade discovers VGMusic!
The Penny Arcade discovered the wonders of Video Game Music last week. For those of you who do not know what the Penny Arcade is a comic about video games. You should also read The Bench while you're there, just because it's funny.

I also found A Video Game Music Mix from Penny Arcade.

(Powerlord)
Sunday, January 30th, 2000

RPGLair under fire from RPGamer's Music Box
This just in! Mark Jordan, of RPGamer's Music Box accuses RPGLair of stealing RPGamer exclusives. Here is the text of this article, taken from the Main RPGamer Music page.
Heh, I'd love to include this special little message to the inconsiderate, pathetic fools at RPGLair, the supposed self-acclaimed #1 RPG music site in the planet. More like the #1 RPG music stealing site in the planet. This message is to our friends there who wait for my update to steal every file I have; who don't even ask the musicians if they want their songs posted; who steal RPGamer-exclusive songs (While not even renaming the files. I've seen xmid prefixes on files there); who don't credit MIDI musicians; and who rip off my good page and countless others. Funny how I never submitted my self-made lyrics to their site. Was I drunk? Since you all await my update so often, I give you this ultimatum: If you do not get rid of ALL RPGamer competition-exclusive songs and RPGamer tabs, piano sheets, and lyrics, I will be forced to take drastic measures. Most people have common sense to at least even ask, but this site has not. The Music Box isn't the only site ripped off. VGmusic.com and SStrax are always stolen from by this site as well. Be sure to send our friend who owns RPGLair a kind message. I give you all a month to get rid of what I asked. Other sites will follow with their demands. It takes a lot to get me mad, but this is the quickest way to blow that fuse.
As a website, the Videogame Music Archive does not stop people from copying the songs on our site, only from having people link directly to our music files. All of you who have sequenced or tracked any songs from RPGs, this may concern you. If you want RPGLair to stop, I suggest emailing them and asking them to remove your music files, and/or contact Mark Jordan at RPGamer.

On a related note, if you find a song here on our site that you created and want removed, please email us.

(Powerlord)

Saturday, January 29th, 2000

KFSS Studios Redesigned, VGMusic.com's new server, Mr. Prince has left the building

KFSS Studios Redesigned!
Now it's easier than ever to access up to date information on Project Majestic Mix. Thanks to Aaron for all his hard work!

VGMusic.com's new server
No, we didn't leave Telefragged. What we DID do was move to one of Telefragged's newer, less occupied servers. Hopefully this will mean less lag time for all of you downloading things from our server.

Mr. Prince has left the building
Two days, forty-five minutes ago, I sent an email message to Mr. Prince. Since I have not yet gotten a reply, I have post what I last received from Mr. Prince and my comments on it. The email addresses in this have been replaced in part by x's. That's the message, in it's entirety, with only the email addresses changed. Here are my comments:

The ad banners at the top of our site are required by our host, telefragged, for us to remain hosted for free.

We get no money from those banners.

The VGMusic Store, and our AllAdvantage account are our only sources of income.

All proceeds from these have been used to pay off our two senior staff who paid for our previous hosting and for our domain name.

The remaining proceeds were given away as the prizes for the websites 3rd birthday.

The following staff members (former and present) have never paid out nor earned any money for/from the Videogame Music Archive:

Ross Bemrose (Powerlord)

Greg Burris (CyberKhan)

Thomas Schrantz (Kalrac)

Adrian Myer (WildKard)

Princess Peach Toadstool

Chiba

MissSchala - Added 7:57pm EST

Andrew Hannay (39ster)

The Kat

CLaNRuLeR

Sites we host that are not commercial (We host only 2 sites at present):

SSTrax

KFSS Studios.. not yet anyway. Since Project Majestic Mix is a CD project, they will be selling CDs at a later date.

Do you still consider this site a commercial site? How about those sites on Tripod.com... the ones that pop up an ad banner at you... how about the ones on geocities, which have that hovering box?

(Powerlord)
Wednesday, January 26th, 2000

Bobby Prince Music removed
Earlier today I was forwarded a message from Bobby Prince.
There are MIDI files on your site that are not in the public domain and are copyrighted. Those which are partially or completely copyrighted by me are: Commander Keen Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure Doom Doom 2 Duke Nukem 2 Duke Nukem 3D Final Doom, TNT Rise of the Triad Wolfenstein 3D Please remove these MIDI files (or zipped MIDI file collections) from your site and all mirror sites immediately. Sincerely, Bobby Prince bobby prince Music bobby@bpmusic.com
All files for the aforementioned games have since been removed. Please do NOT upload files from these games.

(Powerlord)
Friday, January 21st, 2000

"Video game music: The Professional way"
Yesterday, I was browsing Rareware's website, and I found this brief webpage, that you might find interesting. It briefly says how they made the music (and Sound Effects) for Goldeneye on the N64. Take a read. I like the fact that they use midi to compose the music.
Keep up the Good work Sequencers, Midi is cool, Long Live Midi!

(39ster)
Friday, January 14th, 2000

"Video game music: not just kid stuff"
Matt Belinkie, a friend of mine, has written a detailed paper on video game music. It is provided here online for your reading enjoyment. Feel free to discuss it on the General Message board.

(Mike Newman)
Sunday, January 9th, 2000

Contest Winners!!!
Its almost 1:00AM EST time here and we have finally tabulated the contest results! And the winners for the VGMusic Theme Contest are:

Part 1: Best Theme Song
First Place Winner ($20): Vgmusic theme by Max

Part 2: Guess the Songs We Picked
First Place Winner ($20): Tom

In Part 1, the tallied Top 5 picks by the VGMusic staff were:

Entry #16: Vgmusic theme by Max (Ice)
Entry #6: And Away We Go by Ben Carter
Entry #17: Videogame Anthem by Freddie
Entry #11: Symphony #2 by Patrick Waters
Entry #19: Mediterranean Techno by A Blue Guitar
All the entries are available on the Contest Results page. The contest results page also has our prototype Competitions table, so take a look at it to see what music competitions other sites are running!

In Part 2, only two people were able to guess 4 out of the 5 top songs we picked. Out of these two people, Tom had picked our exact first and second picks, while the other person had only picked our #1 as the first place pick.

I'm about to fall asleep, so I'll update this info more tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone for participating! This contest was quite fun. I hope to hold another contest again in the future.

(Mike Newman & Powerlord)
Wednesday, January 5th, 2000

Y2K Problems? Nah....
Y2K problems? Nah... I just misunderstood one of the variables... I thought it was the last two digits of the year, but instead it was the number of years since 1900. Easily fixed. :)

There is another problem, one that is more serious. Apparently our update scripts are getting interrupted somewhere in the middle of executing for an unknown reason. For that reason, the upload script has been taken offline until furthur notice. Sorry about that, but that will be the next problem script as anything that processes over 500 files seems to be dying.

Hmm... turns out Marv was testing some server options to stop runaway processes at the time I was running those update scripts. Everything seems to be back to normal... false alarm, I guess. :)

(Powerlord)