ReMix:Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship "Diamond Worlds" 6:01

By Platonist

Arranging the music of one song...

"Planet 10: Shammy Gen"

Primary Game: Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship (Tradewest , 1990, NES), music by David Wise

Posted 2008-09-09, evaluated by the judges panel


Solar Jetman! I had no idea that it was the third Jetman game and sequel to Lunar Jetman until I wiki'd it just minutes ago; how many more jetmen could the world yet see? Or perhaps jetwomen? I think this NES arcade/shooter will ultimately be the most famous jetperson, due in no small part to a great, catchy score from the one and only Dave Wise. I was being interviewed recently and got one of the standard "bast game theme EVAR!" questions, and while the usual responses came to mind, I ended up picking Wise's theme from Wizards & Warriors; it's a great bit of game music that gets a good amount of attention, but put in perspective with the rest of the composer's work, it really struck me as being a classic gem and representing VGM quite well. Obviously, answers to those types of questions can and should change on a daily if not hourly basis, but my point is that Dave Wise really deserves a lot of credit for being a Western VGM composer who managed to capture the classic sounds of Japanese NES games, as well doing his own thing, and who also survived the transition from NES to SNES to cowrite the epic DKC series' scores. Platonist gives us our first coverage from SJ with this lengthy, Impulse Tracker-made electronica that starts off minimalist but grows from there:

"Another Impulse Tracker piece! this track is more sofisticated than "forest of hysteria" and i tried to keep the tension down as much as a could while making it. the first part is an arrangement of melody where i take the very simple source bassline and put my own material on it, and since it's a line of only 2 chords it might be a little repeative but i won't change anything, as i am perfectly happy with the result thanx to the next part which turns the whole thing around just in time:

the second part is different, there is a part in the source where nothing but a few notes go on for a while (consisting of 4 chords) i made my own bassline out of these and instead of putting 100% original material here i altered the bass line from the first part and turned it into a melody on top of these 4 chords. the rest of the arrangement here is mine (piano etc)"

The intro here develops nicely, with chirpish, minimalist stereo blips percolating over an offbeat bass, until at 0'39" we get some melodic action. There's another drop at 1'37" that adds more dominant melody, with a bevy of chiptunish textures layered over the quantized, mechanized beat. At 2'33" the straight quantization is interrupted a bit with a nice little transition triplet - good, intelligent addition that I liked in particular. Andy writes:

"Platonist's style is really growing on me. It tends to be dry, up-front, minimal, and tight; none of which are negative adjectives in this case. Most electronic music I hear is drenched in reverb and densely layered... I'm guilty of it myself, but it takes some skill to slim down the soundfield to the essentials and still have something that's enjoyable. This remix is very well-crafted in that sense. The drums and the various bubbly synth stabs and arps are excellent, particularly the constantly moving FX at 4:12."

Pretty much; if you dug Jonas' previous mix, this one'll be similarly up your alley, and if you've been waiting for Solar Jetman to finally get some lovin' here on OCR: the sun doth shine.

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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Mirby
on 2011-12-02 07:07:36

Always an enjoyable listen.

I'd say more, but Larry already summed it up... CURSE YOU BLACK DYNAMITE!! :P

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Liontamer
on 2011-12-02 00:59:47

(Arguably) a bit too long, but as I said in my vote, LOVE IT! This is how you do a lot with a little and go the expansive instrumentation route of adding more parts to supplement a short, simplistic source tune.

Criminally under-appeciated.

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Loning
on 2009-07-09 02:39:53

This remix is so great that it is highly enjoyable...even by my girlfriend! (trying to get her into OCR). It is a pretty laid back song and I really love the beat! Similar in funkyness to DHS' Human Race remix.

Great work and keep it up!

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Txai
on 2009-06-16 14:40:44

This is highly enjoyable.

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Platonist
on 2008-12-03 15:18:53
I SOOO used to play this game ALL the time back in the day. I doubt ppl would find it impressive these days but it was SO much fun..

http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/solar-jetman-hunt-for-the-golden-warpship/screenshots

yes indeed, it's a very rare piece of gaming, i too played it alot and that's why i decided to remix it, cause no one seemed to even have heard of it - not even pretzel himself 8O

love the gravity simulation in SJ, it takes true skill to complete this game - skill that i don't have myself - i have only played through this game once (from planet 1-12) without a game over screen .. and it's been on my shelf for over a decade ^^

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WesternZypher
on 2008-12-03 14:51:13

I SOOO used to play this game ALL the time back in the day. I doubt ppl would find it impressive these days but it was SO much fun..

http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/solar-jetman-hunt-for-the-golden-warpship/screenshots

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Shadow Wolf
on 2008-11-03 22:51:09

I'm beginning to realize that I'm quite in love with tracker music. I love the chiptune vibe carried through this whole mix. It's got a great bounce and a nice rythmic thump to it. There's just an energy to these pure synth/chiptune/tracker mixes that I love. They're pretentiously lo-fi, and they don't care if anyone knows it. They're what you'd get if an elitist orchestral mix let its hair down and danced on the table. Pure fun and phat beats. Good work, and nice groove.

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Platonist
on 2008-10-14 10:32:31

=)

you're welcome :-P

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Dafydd
on 2008-10-11 18:17:45

Never played this game before. Thanks to you now I have :)

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Platonist
on 2008-09-29 20:12:43
Proof that you don't need the newest tools to make good music. Almost hypnotic chiptune-esque goodnees. Well done.

indeed and thank you ^^

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Martin Penwald
on 2008-09-29 17:17:16

Proof that you don't need the newest tools to make good music. Almost hypnotic chiptune-esque goodnees. Well done.

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Stellos~Core
on 2008-09-19 16:19:34

I must say, that this is by far one of the best ReMixes I've heard so far. Solar Jetman is very close to my heart (a game of my youth). Shammy Gen's theme is my second favorite theme from the game (neck-and-neck second behind Preludon), so I was truly glad to hear such a well composed ReMix of it.

I've listened to this song for 9 hours straight (throughout an entire workday), and I can easily say it helped me get through the day. I would go so far as to say this song is glorious, and I personally prefer to reserve the use of that word for the REALLY good stuff. Stuff so good it glows.

I look forward to hearing your future SJ ReMixes!

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Platonist
on 2008-09-19 09:25:18

just wanted to add:

i noticed that i mistyped in the submission email..

Shammy Gen is Planet 10 (as i said before in this thread).. not Planet 11 (as it says in the submission thread)

also if you're unfamilliar with the game's awesomeness,

check this guy's videos out:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Ferret5317

he's pretty good actually ^^ nice walkthrough/speedrun/whatever vids

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OA
on 2008-09-15 18:18:11

Nicely textured and cleanly produced, but damn it seems way loud to me. I suppose when everything is so clean you can afford to crank the volume as high as you want. :-)

Great transitions and varied sections, pretty groovy overall.

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SoulinEther
on 2008-09-13 17:50:16

Does a remix such as this up the value of my Solar Jetman cartridge? (It'd better lol)

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship (Tradewest , 1990, NES)
Music by David Wise
Songs:
"Planet 10: Shammy Gen"

Tags (3)


Genre:
Mood:
Instrumentation:
Electronic,Synth
Additional:
Time > Duration: Long

File Information


Name:
Solar_Jetman_Diamond_Worlds_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
6,338,636 bytes
MD5:
7ab72992c668a1f071cba4a28f4dbb8a
Bitrate:
138Kbps
Duration:
6:01

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