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Lisa Miskovsky - the lady behind the Mirror's Edge theme song Still Alive - is apparently a household name in her native Sweden, although has yet to crack the charts around the rest of the world with her musical stylings.
While you sit around waiting for the Castle Crashers multiplayer to start working, why not take the time to grab the game's soundtrack which has been uploaded to Newground.com in MP3 format.
The tracks are released under a Creative Commons licence that allows you to share or remix them as long as you give proper attribution and you don't try to use it for commercial purposes.
As well as listening to the tracks via the site, you can also download them directly using the little floppy disk icon next to the licensing info.
Joyous and free Castle Crashers tunes [Xbox 360 Fanboy]
..and by 'Released' we mean 'put up on a website in a Zip file'. Say what you like about the democratising power of the internet - it does rather suck the glamour out of album launches.
Anyway, what we have here is a cracking little collection of musical experiments created using the KORG DS-10 emulator for the Nintendo DS, for a competition at MP3Death.us/diplodocus.
I listened to all twelve tracks on the way home tonight and it is mainly what you would expect - squirly, twiddly synth sounds and squelchy beats. Some tracks have quite an 8-bit soundtrack feel — Aliceffek's 'Toneworks' is great fun and would not sound out of place on a Commodoure 64 platformer — while the brilliant 'DSTennis' by A Rival is reminiscent of Hexstatic's 'Bass Invader'
The classic sound of a room full of arcade games all going at once started to vanish before the coin-op arcade started its slide to extinction. Game audio and speech got more sophisticated and music evolved into soundtracks, creating a blend different from the early to middle 1980s. But the Arcade Ambience Project has created more than eight hours of mp3s, sorted by year that depict arcades at their height, buzzing, chirping and whirring like a field of crickets on a summer evening.
This little beauty is never going to give the iPod any sleepless nights (or even the Zune, bless it's funny little heart) but for gamers of a certain age — or just music fans who appreciate a classic game when they see one — it has a certain charm.
The Muga is a rugged, but otherwise uninspiring looking MP3 player. Hidden behind that little screen, though, is an emulator packed with 20 classic SEGA Genesis games. Well, 20 Genesis games of which at least six are classics and the others are 'ok', anyway.
It isn't clear if these are hard-coded or if you can load your own 'found' ROMs, but there is an SD slot which can't just be for music, surely?
Muga MP3 Sega Genesis Game Player [GP2X store, via DCEmu]
Nintendo's decision to ditch MP3 support in favour of AAC playback for the Wii seemed a bit silly. Why would you do that to us, Nintendo? Why ruin our Photo Channel and Excite Truck playtime with your legal ass-covering? Turns out it's not as bad as the move's initial wording would have you believe.
...it's important to note that [the new Photo Channel] is an optional download and is not planned as part of any system updates to Wii. If your Photo Channel currently supports music files in the MP3 format, you can retain this compatibility by electing to not update your Photo Channel to version 1.1.So the move's brought about by updating your Photo Channel? And we can still listen to custom redneck soundtracks during Excite Truck? Well why didn't you just say so in the first place, Nintendo! You had us worried sick.Additionally, this update will not have an impact on Wii games which use MP3 music files. These Wii games will not be compatible with AAC files and will continue to use the MP3 file format.
Not that any of you actually use the feature, but starting next month the Wii won't be supporting MP3 playback. Announced as part of some changes due for the Photo Channel, in future the console will only support AAC playback. This will affect current Wii owners during either the next system update, or if you choose to download the new Photo Channel 1.1, which will be available in December. Updates to the Photo Channel seem minor (all it says is you can replace the Channel icon with a pic of your choosing), so this sounds more like a move prompted by whatever copyright/legal reason has Nintendo worried this week.
The Photo Channel Will Change [Nintendo, thanks Leo!]
Playstation Underground members were given a special treat with this week's newsletter. With the arrival (or imminent arrival. I still haven't gotten mine...) of the God of War: Chains of Olympus demo disc, Sony decided to offer gamers a little bonus in the form of a downloadable MP3. So, if you have a hankering to hear the epic music from the demo's "Battle of Attica" click the link below and be transported to the mythic world of Kratos and his monster massacring badassery (yes, I just made that up).
If you're not satisfied with just having Ms. Pac-Man on your iPod, you can now have Mr. Pac-Man on the outside of your iPod. Club Namco is offering this classy leather case for your iPod featuring the the little yellow disc that started a craze. It features a plastic screen guard, a leather strap, a obuns belt clip and Pac-Man himself protecting your controller (don't worry, he can be unsnapped for easy access). Unfortunately, the listing for the item doesn't say which type of iPod this fits, but it is available for $US 29.99 plus shipping. Let those olde school gaming flags fly high!
PAC-MAN Leather MP3 Player Case [Club Namco]
[via the bbps]
