ZEN ALBATROSS

Zen Albatross is a chipmusician, artist and journalist from Brooklyn, NY who likes to write about art, airships, bleeps, bloops and other swell things.
Aug 29
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Handmade Music Returns to NYC

Handmade Music, the every-once-in-a-while DIY electronics science fair that doubles as an all-ages concert returns to NYC tonight with a workshop and free circuitbending party/exibit courtesy of Lower Manhattan gallery space Culturefix. 

On the lineup this time: The Neurohedron, a metal dodecahedron that encases a nonlinear sequencer, Modal Kombat, a piece that uses custom software to control classic videogames with guitars, and performances from my NYC chiptune chums Kris Keyser, DaPantz and AdamGetsAwesome, with special guests Square Wail from Seattle.

Don’t miss it:

Sunday, August 29th
7 PM - 10 PM
Culturefix NYC
9 Clinton St, New York, NY
FREE


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Aug 23
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Chip music is coming to Seattle’s Penny Arcade Expo in a big way this year. If you’ve been to PAX before, you’ve probably seen Lo-Tek Resistance, the annual chiptune street busking performance held (unofficially) in front of the convention center by members of Crunchy Co Records. Featuring chip artists local to the Seattle area (and some special guests from afar), Lo-Tek has quickly picked up a lot of attention among PAX attendees and organizers. This year marks a milestone for the event, and I’m proud to announce that I’ll be performing with Fighter X, Spamtron, Knife City and Seanbad at PAX’s very first official Chiptune Music Showcase, taking place in the Jamspace room of the Washington State Convention Center on Saturday, September 4th at 1PM.
In addition to that, Crunchy Co will be running a chiptunes panel on Friday, September 3rd at 11AM in the Wolfman Theatre. Now’s your chance to learn how chip music os made and performed from some of the world’s top 8-bit artists. Panelists will include Peter Berkman of Anamanaguchi, Nickolas Walthew of Fighter X and Gabe Hayward of KGHB.
Last but certainly not least, 2 Player Productions, creators of the massive, soon-to-be-released chiptune documentary Reformat The Planet will be having their own panel and screening Penny Arcade TV, their documentary series on Penny Arcade creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins on Friday, September 3rd at 5PM in the Serpent Theatre. Make sure to say hi and pick up a copy of the RFTP DVD.
Check out this thread for more info. See you there!

Chip music is coming to Seattle’s Penny Arcade Expo in a big way this year. If you’ve been to PAX before, you’ve probably seen Lo-Tek Resistance, the annual chiptune street busking performance held (unofficially) in front of the convention center by members of Crunchy Co Records. Featuring chip artists local to the Seattle area (and some special guests from afar), Lo-Tek has quickly picked up a lot of attention among PAX attendees and organizers. This year marks a milestone for the event, and I’m proud to announce that I’ll be performing with Fighter X, Spamtron, Knife City and Seanbad at PAX’s very first official Chiptune Music Showcase, taking place in the Jamspace room of the Washington State Convention Center on Saturday, September 4th at 1PM.

In addition to that, Crunchy Co will be running a chiptunes panel on Friday, September 3rd at 11AM in the Wolfman Theatre. Now’s your chance to learn how chip music os made and performed from some of the world’s top 8-bit artists. Panelists will include Peter Berkman of Anamanaguchi, Nickolas Walthew of Fighter X and Gabe Hayward of KGHB.

Last but certainly not least, 2 Player Productions, creators of the massive, soon-to-be-released chiptune documentary Reformat The Planet will be having their own panel and screening Penny Arcade TV, their documentary series on Penny Arcade creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins on Friday, September 3rd at 5PM in the Serpent Theatre. Make sure to say hi and pick up a copy of the RFTP DVD.

Check out this thread for more info. See you there!


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Aug 20
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Aug 17
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Aug 14
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Aug 09
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Shael Riley & TDIB Putting The Finishing Moves On Their Next Album

 

Equal parts chiptune artist, guitarist and experienced singer-songwriter, Shael Riley and his band The Double-Ice Backfire, unlike many acts unwittingly branded with the silly and somewhat ignominious label of ‘nerdcore’ music, don’t simply aim to appeal to an audience of geeks jonezing for lyrics jam-packed with videogame references. Sure, there are parts where a working knowledge of the Mortal Kombat franchise comes in handy. But instead of making it the soup du jour, the pop rock tunes of DIB’s first album, Songs From The Pit uses this and other decidedly ‘nerd-friendly’ themes to add character and charm to a much larger portrait of deeply personal and highly relatable quandaries of young adulthood.

Distributed originally in very limited quantities on audio cassettes, Songs From The Pit never had a proper release. But with the help of some generous fans, Shael & Co. will be giving the album 10 new tracks, a professional sound makeover and a physical release, entitled Ultimate Songs From the Pit. You can donate to their campaign on Kickstarter to help them cover the album’s duplication and distribution costs and also claim some neat limited-edition swag for yourself.


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Aug 02
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Bayonetta / Bioshock 2

Bayonetta / Bioshock 2

Brutal Legend

Brutal Legend

Super Smash Bros / Resident Evil 5

Super Smash Bros / Resident Evil 5

Sin & Punishment 2: Star Successor

Sin & Punishment 2: Star Successor

Pixel artist junkboy re-envisions recent games like Bioshock 2, Super Smash Bros  and Sin & Punishment 2 as 8 and 16-bit titles with these pixel art game mockups. These ‘de-makes’ strip away the polished CG of modern games, replacing it with gorgeous pixel art that mashes up new IPs with the aesthetics and gameplay mechanics of old.

I really wish some of these were real. Bayonetta as a Castle Shikigami-type bullet hell shooter? Hell yes.

See the rest here.

(via TinyCartridge)


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Bayonetta / Bioshock 2

Bayonetta / Bioshock 2

Brutal Legend

Brutal Legend

Super Smash Bros / Resident Evil 5

Super Smash Bros / Resident Evil 5

Sin & Punishment 2: Star Successor

Sin & Punishment 2: Star Successor

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Aug 01
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A generous collection of scrambled Nintendo logos, the kind that appears when the pins of a cartridge (esp. on homebrew carts) don’t line up correctly or are dirty or otherwise unreadable on the original Game Boy.
I’ve been having this problem quite a bit lately due to a faulty pin connection on one of my LSDJ carts. Luckily, chiptune tech dealer Nonfinite was in town to perform at last night’s amazing Game Boy 21st birthday bash at Pulsewave and was nice enough to replace my glitchy cart free of charge! What a nice fellow.
Still, there’s a special kind of beauty in these glitched-out logos. In a way, I’m kinda starting to miss seeing them.
(via IAYD)

A generous collection of scrambled Nintendo logos, the kind that appears when the pins of a cartridge (esp. on homebrew carts) don’t line up correctly or are dirty or otherwise unreadable on the original Game Boy.

I’ve been having this problem quite a bit lately due to a faulty pin connection on one of my LSDJ carts. Luckily, chiptune tech dealer Nonfinite was in town to perform at last night’s amazing Game Boy 21st birthday bash at Pulsewave and was nice enough to replace my glitchy cart free of charge! What a nice fellow.

Still, there’s a special kind of beauty in these glitched-out logos. In a way, I’m kinda starting to miss seeing them.

(via IAYD)


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Jul 30
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The Nintendo Game Boy Is Now Old Enough To Drink

That’s right, folks. They sure do grow up quick, don’t they? Of course, it wouldn’t be proper for our good friend the DMG-01 — whose status as a retro icon was earned by setting innumerable milestones in portable gaming and even helping revive interest in chiptune music — to experience his 21st without having a huge party full of friends, booze and killer tunes.

Luckily, The Tank is throwing a such a bash in celebration of the 8-bit wunderkind’s coming of age: Tomorrow night at Pulsewave, NYC’s monthly chiptune showcase, we’ll be partying it up in honor of Gunpei Yokoi’s favorite son with live musical performances from SadNES, Nonfinite and Battle Lava and visuals by NO CARRIER! As if you needed convincing. After all, you wouldn’t wanna miss your 8-bit buddy’s 21st birthday, would you?

For more Game Boy history, check out the article I wrote last year celebrating 20 years of Game Boy.


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Jul 26
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These animated pixel art landscapes by artist Mark Ferrari are programmed entirely in HTML5, using color palette cycling to create the illusion of movement. 

Click here to see them in action and read more on Motherboard.

[Thanks, Hank!]


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