Slashdot Mirror

NES music fans, check out the minibosses.

The Minibosses did some wicked cool remakes of the castlevania music and some other old school video games as well (like megaman)
check em out
I hope they get those guys to do the music

There are quite a few people nowadays, who have grown up with NES systems in their time, keeping the music alive in various forms. For instance:

Minibosses
Redefined - Nintendo A Cappella
All Your Bass A Cappella

..and as a side mention:
http://www.pressplayontape.com/

They are a very popular band at the clubs here in Phoenix:

http://minibosses.com/

They even have some MP3s you can download.

Don't forget http://www.minibosses.com/ for all the minibosses goodness. There's MP3s and live videos.

I saw minibosses in Brooklyn over the summer (opened for Eagles of Deathmetal, I think). AWESOME SHOW.

I also saw Mr. Bungle at Snocore in 1999 in Asbury Park, NJ. Fucken awesome show, too. I had heard of them before that, but never heard their music. I was blown away.

Not exactly what you're looking for, but you might check out the minibosses. (http://minibosses.com/) They're a band that plays old video game soundtracks..quite amusing, actually.

They get heavy rotation on my iPod, especially their covers of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! and Contra. It's great when it comes on during my weekly poker game and everyone at the table feels like they've heard it before but they have no idea what it is.. :)

That said, in addition to mc chris, we also have returning guests from last year:

MC Frontalot

Optimus Rhyme

and the Minibosses

Lastly, a couple of questions from me.

1)My girlfriend is a *huge* fan of the Brak Show, Sealab, etc... have you really left for good?

2)Making music for the Nerdcore seems problematic to me. Namely, I don't think that one would be able to put forth a bunch of intellectual property on the internet and expect this group to actually pay for it. Are you 'making it' on the take from the door at your gigs alone? (Hat's off on leaving your day job and giving it a go in either case).

3)Do you feel pressured to put forth a conventional full-length CD for your fans, or will you continue to offer up shorter, sweeter groups of songs for free on your website?

Thanks, and see you at PAX!

Stormy

...but didn't give them the linkage? The minibosses homepage.

Minibosses surely like. They have a (very good) band that only plays video game classics. Check out their demos!

Thanks for Ars Technica for the info, from the Ars holiday gift guide

Here are some other places to listen to videogame music in nontradional ways.

First there are the minibosses http://minibosses.com/ They are a cover band of videogame music that preform live shows. They even have a few MP3s on their site.

Then there is djpretzel's remix.overclocked.org http://remix.overclocked.org/ Here you can find tons of songs set to a beat. For the true emulation nerd, check out the original overclocked.org http://www.overclocked.org/ comic strips. They are well dated, but still bring a smile to my face.

There's group out there called Minibosses which use your favourite 8-bit video game tunes to make music:
http://minibosses.com

• The Minibosses, of course.
• Check out Project X. They've got full renditions of the Mega Man 2 and 3 soundtracks.
• This has already been mentioned, but Relics of the Chozo is an excellent cover of the Super Metroid soundtrack.
• Poke around at OC Remix. You're sure to find something you like there.

Maybe this will be big break for The Minibosses?

The article forgot to mention the Minibosses. Tisk tisk.

- RustyTaco

The Neskimos do punk rock covers of NES songs

Te Minibossses are more of a ska band. Like the Neskimos, they mainly cover NES era game music.

Hard rock more your style? Try Game Over, a self-described "Nintendo Metal" band. Not very much up for download on their site, but what's there is good.

And let's not forget OC Remix, the unofficial hub for remixes of game music.

The cool thing is, a lot of this music is actually quite good. Give it a shot. And by the way...yes, all of the MP3s on these pages are legal to download. Enjoy. :)

Yes, downloading copyrighted material is illegal, whether you think this is right or wrong.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Copyright law is an important issue, worthy of debate. But it's damn hard to have a debate when people are making fundamental mistakes. These mistakes (be they actual confusion on your part or willful sloppiness) are propogated by other people, gradually convincing people of theories that are completely unsupported by actual copyright law and intent.

There is nothing illegal about downloading works protected by copyright. It is perfectly legal.

For example, let's visit our old friend Google. See that at the bottom? "(C)2003 Google". Google claims copyright on that web page. By visiting the page you have downloaded a work protected by copyright. Have you broken any laws? Of course not. Google wants you to download their page. Similarlly I visit CNN and download their copyright protected works all the time. No copyright infringement.

It's illegal to make an unauthorized copy of a work protected by copyright. If the copyright holder authorizes the copy it's all legal and good.

Even old Napster had legal uses. Quote one band I happen to like (and whose album I purchased after discovering them on Napster, "We gained a lot by having our mp3s on Napster, it better not go away." (June 30th, 2000 news for The Minibosses).

Yes, downloading copyrighted material is illegal, whether you think this is right or wrong.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Copyright law is an important issue, worthy of debate. But it's damn hard to have a debate when people are making fundamental mistakes. These mistakes (be they actual confusion on your part or willful sloppiness) are propogated by other people, gradually convincing people of theories that are completely unsupported by actual copyright law and intent.

There is nothing illegal about downloading works protected by copyright. It is perfectly legal.

For example, let's visit our old friend Google. See that at the bottom? "(C)2003 Google". Google claims copyright on that web page. By visiting the page you have downloaded a work protected by copyright. Have you broken any laws? Of course not. Google wants you to download their page. Similarlly I visit CNN and download their copyright protected works all the time. No copyright infringement.

It's illegal to make an unauthorized copy of a work protected by copyright. If the copyright holder authorizes the copy it's all legal and good.

Even old Napster had legal uses. Quote one band I happen to like (and whose album I purchased after discovering them on Napster, "We gained a lot by having our mp3s on Napster, it better not go away." (June 30th, 2000 news for The Minibosses).

From Donkey Kong:
Jumping to start a level, the pitter-patter of Mario's footsteps, the noise of successfully and unsuccessfully jumping barrels, and the little ditty you get when you clear a level - I can still vividly hear those when I think about them. [And no, I'm not an ancient, I'm 22].

From Pitfall:
The 'Tarzan swing' music when you hopped on a vine, and the Dragnet-style music when you die - those really stick out too.

And as far as game soundtracks themselves go, you have to give credit to Megaman 2. Want proof of how good MM2's music was? Listen to this track by video-game-cover-band The Minibosses. It's a great track.

From Donkey Kong:
Jumping to start a level, the pitter-patter of Mario's footsteps, the noise of successfully and unsuccessfully jumping barrels, and the little ditty you get when you clear a level - I can still vividly hear those when I think about them. [And no, I'm not an ancient, I'm 22].

From Pitfall:
The 'Tarzan swing' music when you hopped on a vine, and the Dragnet-style music when you die - those really stick out too.

And as far as game soundtracks themselves go, you have to give credit to Megaman 2. Want proof of how good MM2's music was? Listen to this track by video-game-cover-band The Minibosses. It's a great track.

Have you ever considered calling up the local Game Spot or EB and ask them to stock your game?

Big chains like EB are actually paid by publishers to put the game on their shelves. They also don't pay the publisher for the game until it actually sells. If it doesn't sell, the publisher has to pay shipping to take it back (or they can retroactively lower the price, which is why bargin bins exist). In some cases a store makes more money from publishers than from actually selling the game. Furthermore, purchases are done in huge quantities by central warehouses, not on a store-by-store basis. They don't want to talk to you unless you can supply 1,000 copies (two copies per store). So, you get to pay them to take 1,000 copies of your game which they can return to you if they decide it won't sell.

The game is hostile to small companies and individuals. Not out of malice, but simple economics. This system works well for them, talking to you just isn't reasonable.

To have any hope, you're going to need to find management for your local store willing to make an exception. The big chains often have rules that simply won't allow your little deal to go through. If no such rule exists, the local management may simply quickly check the numbers and realize that even if your game is moderately successful (and the odds are against it), it will cost them more to stock it than they will make in profit. You need to find someone with the freedom to put your product on their shelves and a willingness to make a high-risk, low-benefit move. Really, you're looking for someone willing to take on your product out of a desire to do good, not simple greed. They're out there, but it's a small number. Since you're working on a store-to-store basis, you'll be hard-pressed to get widespread availability.

Your best bet will be truly independent game stores. They certainly exist. Of course, your potential market shrinks even further.

Like all too many things, economies of scale have lead to a situation where the lone creator has serious problems entering the market. Fortunately the internet makes it easy and financially possible to start selling a product, get a few people to try it out, and use work of mouth to spread the word. Thanks to the Internet I've found bands and games I would never otherwise have discovered.

hey all, if anyone reading this goes, be sure to check out the minibosses - old college friends of mine who play video game rock!

these guys do some rockin' covers as well. I especially love their version of the Contra level music.

mmm, Contra.

don't forget the minibosses.

Generic:
http://www.2xtreme.net/zero-g/generic/sound.htm

The Minibosses:
http://www.minibosses.com/

Guitar Tabs courtesy of Generic:
http://www.2xtreme.net/zero-g/generictabs/

BTW, If you want to hear the rest of the Generic songs ... they're not up because they're looking for webspace. Hint hint, nudge nudge.

The Minibosses also had a really cool contra mix that I could get down to. They did it with live instruments in a pop/punk kinda way. Some downloads at their site to check out:

www.minibosses.com

I was having a discussion the other day about this, how people of a certain age have emotional attachments to video game music, and sometimes it's hard to understand.

One of my favorite labels is an online MP3-only label, Monotonik, they have some cool original chip tunes and some Mario remixes (here's one). Actually look around and there's lots of cool stuff for fans of IDM, electronic music, etc.

Also of interest, there's a music machine that uses the sound chip from the C64 (that's Commodore 64, kids) with MIDI support.

Also check out the Minibosses.

Lots of this stuff around! I never played video games much but that stuff all managed to get stuck in my head anyway..

The Minibosses are a really cool band that's been doing video game covers for a couple years. They have an awesome CD. (Probably technically illegal, I dunno). Contra, Castlevania, Wizards and Warriors, and the GI Joe theme song, among others, all in sort of an instrumental punk-metal thing.

Also, search for the Rabbit Joint and try and find their "Legend of Zelda" song. You will laugh your ass off. "Link...he come to town...come to save...the princess zelda!"
It used to be on MP3.com, but it's gone now. Probably lawyers didn't like it.

>"Weighs just 6.5 ounces -- fits in your pocket" > - That's neat, but not enough to be a major > selling point. Actually, that IS a major selling point. If I'm going to lug this thing into work every day so that i can listen to Minibosess on the way, it better be damn tiny. I've got my laptop (ibook) and palm pilot (visor deluxe) to worry about, and I don't want anything more bulky to bring with me. The iPod will fit very nicely in the pocket next to my palm pilot, and makes it an extremely attractive purchase. I'm probably going to wait for apple to upgrade these a little, or to drop the price to $350 or $300, but I'm definitely going to buy one as soon as it's practicle. If i wasn't still paying off my iBook, I'd have already ordered one.

I bet a guy like you is all ready with the stock answer: The Exception Proves The Rule. This might even be true, but it doesn't mean shit. The recording industry doesn't really care about piracy. They use exceptionally poor assumptions about buying habbits to make all manner of outragious claims that go unchallenged in more typical media outlets. They care only about the bottom line; as well they should being a buisness and all. But like all the monopolies that came before them, they care nothing for their customers, little if at all for their employees. They want to see shareholders profits grow, so they can one day leave via golden boot or paracute. They don't care how. If they must lie, they will lie. If they must beg the government to prop up their hidiously profitable monopoly with a special tax, they will. They'll buy congressmen, they'll lie, they'll tell Tipper they'll make warning lables on music bigger. It has nothing to do with piracy. That's an excuse. When everyone owns and buys your product how do you grow your market? Make it so they must purchase multiples of your product? Whine to the government, that the few people who steal your product are artificially shrinking your market? (As anyone who listens to any mp3 even once would surely have bought the album that spawned it.) The RIAA argues that these few, are really a great many, and their acts are so pervasive only a special tax on EVERYONE can rectify the situation. None of this makes them different from any other large company, but most importantly, this fact doesn't make them right.

Let me see here...your new cd burning software will not burn songs unless they are digitally signed. In what way is this wrong?

Let's say I want to create a mix CD from live concert MP3s. Since this is /., let's say we're talking about the Minibosses, who distribute their unsigned MP3s freely. Will I be able to do it with Roxio's awesome software, without the cracks that will inevitably be released within a week of release?

In the end, no matter how much I like to download music, I have never fooled myself into thinking I was "sharing" among friends. stealing is stealing.

Stealing is stealing, but this isn't stealing. It's copyright infringement. Theft is the act of taking something away from someone with the intent of depriving that person of possessing what you've taken. Copying zeroes and ones while leaving the original data intact is not stealing, and U.S. law (on a good day) has different laws regarding each. All those mp3 lawsuits you keep reading about are for copyright infringement, not theft.

Don't get mad if the cops try to stop you. You whine about how stealing music makes you buy more music.

No I don't. But treating gnutella like a 24-hour all-request radio station does help me make smarter purchasing decisions about my music.

Now someone wants to make it easy for you and you go "no...but, I don't want to have to prove I bought it!" Give me one good scenario on how this is a BAD thing!

How does adding a corpo-funded layer of complexity to CD burning software make it easier for me to buy more music? Sounds like all it does is make it easier for EMI and their colleagues to keep CD prices nutrageously high, just to fund more copy-protection schemes like this one.

A question: How will Roxio prevent users from decoding MP3s into WAV/AIFFs, then burning them? Will it all of a sudden become morally wrong to burn arbitrary AIFFs? Somebody better tell the budding garage bands of the world that they are not welcome to use Roxio software.

< tofuhead >
--

We all know the catchy themes were what kept us coming back for more...

Who wouldnt love remakes of the old songs?

The minibosses



-isnt it strange to be anything at all.... -jeff mangum

If you like Contra, you'll love The Minibosses. Among other classic NES games, they did a cover of the music from the first three levels of Contra, and it's probably the best thing they've done--it's amazing how well it translated to hard rock.

http://www.minibosses.com/

These guys kick major booty. Check out such greats as Contra, Castlevania, Metroid, and more! All up in Mp3 for your listening pleasure.

I saw this over at ArsTechnica a while ago. Once again, they kick ass. And they even play shows..!
/nutt

I am not sure why your character needs no shirt. Perhaps it is so he is not confused with the bad guys, who are aliens disguised as soldiers. I always thought that the reason why this was that at the time killing humans en masse was less palatable than killing aliens, so in the instruction manual they created a backstory to make the game a little more acceptable.

Finally, if you like Contra, you should check out that band The Minibosses, who werementioned on Slashdot yesterday. They do an awesome cover of the music from Contra and the web site has the mp3 for download. It's pretty slow, so you might also want to look for someone who has it on Napster (that's how I found it). And you'll help prove Metallica wrong that Napster is just a tool for piracy by using it to get a legally released MP3!

The bus came by and I got on
That's when it all began
There was cowboy Neal
At the wheel
Of a bus to never-ever land

I thought RIAA WAS the middleman. For examples of what music without the RIAA's blessing is like see The Minibosses.