Dragon Quest Podcast at Crunk Games

Last year, a couple of months before SCROLL started, my reliable partner Alex Fraioli and I put up a special one-off podcast on our old site, Crunk Games. The subject was the Phantasy Star Online series, since it had just turned 10 years old, and was one of the few game series we can share experiences with (Alex is teetering on the edge of being a lapsed gamer, but he's a great guy, really).

This year, we've done pretty much the same thing, but with Dragon Quest. We sat down -- this time with him in my house instead of vice-versa -- and just went down the list of DQ games, talking about each one. If you've read issue 02, there isn't a whole lot new other than the fact that the guys who wrote most of it are now speaking out loud to each other, and that we speak about Dragon Quest X more, now that everybody knows what it is.

Nevertheless, it was great fun, and now we just need to think of the next series to talk about. Go ahead and have a listen to our new Crunk Games Podcast Special: 25 Years of Dragon Quest.

Covering Famicom Music on a Famicom

Musician Ken Matsuzaka -- who I know best from a series of piano covers -- updated his YouTube page with a new set of videos from a recent live performance. Together with a few friends, they put on a small concert of familiar Famicom chiptunes, except that it was all performed through an actual Famicom. Each member of "NES BAND" controlled a different sound channel with their own keyboard, and pulled off some near-perfect recitations of the music and sound from games like Super Mario, Binary Land, and more. Most chiptune acts are just one guy or gal, so seeing a full band come together to produce the music is extra cool. The above video is a short medley that serves as a nice sampler, but do click through and check out the other ones, particularly the lengthy Dragon Quest III medley.