Episode 349: Retronauts Radio | Jan. 2021 (Patreon)

Good morning (?) and happy new year to everyone! Here's Retronauts doing its best to usher in a happier flip of the calendar for everyone, with a 15-stone first-footer of a podcast. 

This episode is a patron request (thanks Christopher Hansen!), and given its timing, format, and patron-exclusivity, I decided to go all-out and make this one extra special. This is, as you can see from the title, a Retronauts Radio episode—the first one I've put together in more than a year, I believe. As such, it essentially works as a recap of classic game music LP releases for the year gone by; as it turns out, game vinyl was one of the few areas where 2020 didn't suck.

As usual for this format, the music here is taken directly from the source: Rather than scrounge up music files from the internet or download them from Amazon or Apple or something, I have ripped all the music featured in this episode from the actual records in an attempt to properly present it all as it actually sounds. Admittedly, music quality does tend to be annihilated by the harsh MP3 compression of podcasts... but since this is a patron-exclusive episode, where we promise higher bitrate quality, I decided to double the audio quality to preserve as much clarity as possible. You'll notice this episode's file size is a little larger than usual, but not excessively so—I still collapsed the stereo audio to a single monaural channel. My hope is that you can hear the nuances of the music (including a bit of surface noise or the occasional static pop while I was breaking in a newly repaired turntable) much more clearly than you would in a typical episode. It took me about a week and a half to rip all this music, so I'll be kinda bummed if it doesn't come through well!

Of course, you do also have to hear my raspy morning voice in higher fidelity as the tradeoff, but life is full of compromises.

This episode's cover illustration comes to us from John Pading, and you may notice the LPs pictured don't totally line up with the material actually covered in the episode... John drew that a couple of months ago, and some newer releases came in during that time, so Alien Storm and Devil's Crush (pictured) went out the door to be replaced by Ikaruga and Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished. If you are disappointed to hear Ys music... man, I just don't know what to tell you.

So what is featured in this episode? Well, here's the list:

• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night from Brave Wave/Limited Run Games
• Ikaruga from Data Discs
• Life Force from Ship to Shore Phono Co.
• Rush ’N Attack from Space Lab 9
• Vib-Ribbon from Minimum Records
• Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished from Streaming Arrow Records
• Mega Man X 1-8 from Laced Records

I realize not all of these are currently in print (maybe none??), since vinyl tends to be a small-qualities kind of product, but game vinyl (especially heavy-hitters like these) goes back into circulation pretty regularly. A lot of times, "out of stock" records can also be found at partner retailers. In any case, I also know that not everyone is interested in game vinyl! I produced this episode correctly, it will also simply serve as a way to highlight some great game music and touch a bit on those games' history and composers.

Anyway! I would like to put this episode forward as a positive portent for the year ahead. May it be filled with great games, great music, and great things that are even more essential and meaningful.

Thank you for your support throughout the difficult past year! I'm looking forward to getting back into something approaching normal in life and in Retronauts production—until then, we'll still make the best podcasts possible Under The Circumstances.