Chiptunes?

Peen

I've heard some chiptunes around and thought hey, I could listen to more of that. It's crazy to me that these guys link up Game Boys and make pretty rad music with them. Thing is, I don't know anything about anything in the genre. Can you guys recommend some jumping off points that I could get through Amazon or some other reputable online establishment?

schuss

go to 8bitpeoples and 8bc.com (8 bit collective), that should get you started. Most chiptunes are free.

Oh, and I recommend random, sabrepulse, anamaguchi and spamtron.

John Matrix

Watching the first season of Penny Arcade TV would also be a good starting point as well as providing another excuse to watch it. At the end of each episode they credit the musical artist and the music is almost exclusively 8-bit. Failotron did a lot of the stuff, I seem to recall. Tristan is a particularly good track of his from the first season finale.

DusT_HounD

For paid-for tunes, i quite like Saitone- Overlapping Spiral is one of my favs, but ymmv.

Seconding Sabrepulse, although all of the stuff that i've heard by him was in Bit Pilot.

joshofalltrades

Get the soundtrack to VVVVVV. It's seriously addicting and well-produced chiptune stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBxVdgyv3yk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhgDyWYKn1M&feature=related

That's a little taste of the main theme.

Malkor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFZjpnbEunQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHmYC8a_4cI

edit: From 8-bit peoples of course. Great Website

Also there are soundtracks of old games available as well. Harder to find though.

This is my favorite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_80PQ543rM

AaronKI

I'll second watching PA: The Series. It introduced me to a lot of good stuff by Alex Mauer and Failotron.


http://8bc.org/music/J.+Arthur+Keenes/Colour+Television/ (No youtube version as far as I can tell)

Youtube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgmJ8uQ9MBY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzPfDdfk1VY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmD3yuGxeR4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNspRhZyEX0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka1L5pSMvxE

I don't know what plays XM files and what doesn't, but these are two of my favorites:

http://www.textfiles.com/artscene/music/mods/XM/MODLAND/Gammis/saturn.xm

http://www.textfiles.com/artscene/music/mods/XM/MODLAND/Gammis/moskito.xm


If you're willing to dig up files that aren't MP3s, there are a few hundred thounsand good mod, xm, sid, etc. files out there. Probably my all-time favorite is the loading screen music from Tintin on the Moon by Jeroen Tel for the C64