GHOSTBLEED: The Bio Horror (ゴーストブリード)

Nightmare Busters Prototype Tracks, by Gonkaka

13 track album

Today, 103 Records presents a special treat: the long lost soundtrack to Nincom’s first ever game, Nightmare Busters!

More well known as an arcade-style 3D action game for Zony’s original FunCentre console, the game’s true origins date back to the mid-to-late 80s; Nincom, newly founded and hungry to prove themselves, set out to make a cutting edge, horror themed title centred around two brave toys named Copper and Little Red Hood, who had to save their owners from far more malevolent playthings still bitter about being abandoned many years ago. Unfortunately, the project’s scope far outweighed what technology was able to replicate at the time; the graphics and animations were too process intensive, for one thing, and the idea to have fully unique enemies in every level proved to be a strain on the memory. Even the music was somewhat hamstrung by ambition; this was the first time the various members of what would become Nincom’s in house band and sound team, Gonkaka, had worked with the Yomeha FY5212 sound chip- or any sound chip for that matter- and it showed in both the roughness of the sound programming, as well as the fact that almost every song used entirely different soundbanks and waveforms. The collapse of the project threatened to destroy the company before it even got off the ground, but thanks to a last minute developer partnership with Gesa North, the company was able to prove their worth (and learn some valuable technical insight) by aiding with the development of their surreal, existentially horrific space shooter “Schadenbergiana”. But you all know that story, surely?

Through our continued publishing partnership and working relationship with both Nincom and Gonkaka, we are able to secure the original sound files for the unproduced arcade version of Nightmare Busters, and are happy to present them for your listening pleasure; devout old timer or fresh face newbie alike, the origins of Gonkaka’s long career are an essential listen for any fan of the band!

Forever Nightmare (Nincom Logo)

We Loved, Once (Attract Mode)

The Busters (How to Play/Continue)

The Beatthings (Stage Introduction)

Nightmares Don’t Shuffle (Copper In-Game BGM)

Nightmares Can’t Disco (Little Red Hood In-Game BGM)

Bitter Beatthings (Regular Boss Battle)

Spiteful Beatthing (Final Boss Battle)

Nightmare Beatthing (True Final Boss Battle)

Tears for the Brave (Bad Ending/Name Entry)

Sweet Dreams, Old Friends (Good Ending)

Against the Dark (Stage Clear)

Perish Greatly (Game Over)

released August 21, 2017

project directed and concept art created by Decon Theed

music composed by Shinji Namiki, Fumie Saso, Takayuki Mitsuyoshi, and Denji Koshiro

cover designed and produced by Dio Maxwelle

DOWNLOAD INCLUDES: FULL RES SCANS OF THE SKETCH AND FINAL VERSIONS OF THE COVER, AN EARLY PIECE OF NIGHTMARE BUSTERS PROMO ART, AND 12 PIECES OF NIGHTMARE BUSTERS CONCEPT ART

2018

In Never Say Never Again, Super Villain Maximillain Largo challenges James Bond to a round of “Domination”, a competitive realtime strategy game that combines elements of Risk and Missile Command with betting and electrical shocks as feedback. The game uses a pair of screens on each player’s side to display information as well as a transparent display between them. The whole thing fits very well within the Architecture of Villains. It’s also interesting how frequently Risk-style war games occur. This is the third we’ve seen after Eschaton and Nuke ‘Em.

(Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a clip from the movie on YouTube otherwise I would’ve included it here.)

Elsewhere: Labyrinth of Cemetery (Famicom, 2013) This is an eerie land known only as Elsewhere. Can you help Muscadine escape the Great Graveyard or will she become its newest resident? Six stages of platforming action and exploration.

My entry for the 2013 My Famicase Exhibition! (link goes to the 2012 show)  I’ve been wanting to get into Famicase for years so this is a minor dream come true for me!

Tumblr won’t upload the longer gif with more “gameplay footage”—please do check it out HERE at my main art blog (along with some more photos of the game).

redo of an earlier mock-up

2018

Witness all of Famicase 2018′s brilliant designs ⊟ 

All 250 entries from this year’s My Famicase Exhibition – Meteor’s showcase of cart designs for made up Famicom games – are now available for you to click through and enjoy! This is way more convenient than opening a million tabs from Twitter’s #famicase hashtag, and you can get a better sampling of the contributions from Japanese artists. Plus, there are descriptions for all of the concepts, though you may need to open Google Translate for some.

The designs we featured above come from Anna Dittmer, イイヌマ, ヤマダユウス型, 廸, NEKONOKO, イズ, Dima Goryainov, rayzones, Chris Furniss, and Liam Higgins. You can see all of the cartridges on display at Meteor’s game shop and gallery in Nakano, Tokyo until May 13.

► THE NEW CLUB TINY IS HERE  Support Tiny Cartridge!

There are too many amazing Famicase designs ⊟ 

I wanted to feature my favorites from this year’s My Famicase Exhibition – the annual showcase of Famicom cartridge designs for made up games, hosted by Tokyo game shop Meteor – but there are too many splendid pieces to pick from. By the time I got through half of the designs posted on Twitter with the Famicase hashtag, the number of open tabs I had threatened to crash my web browser, so here are ten standout cartridges I’ve found so far, including a number from friends of the site we’ve talked about here before.

The artists we’ve featured above, starting from the top left: Duncan Corrigan,  @pyong_pyong, Adam Tierney, Austin DuBois, William Greenawalt,  Philip Summers, Jordan Rosenberg, Sebastien, @data_doge, and Cory Schmitz.

Meteor will have around 250 Famicase designs up for display at its gallery until May 13. It’s my dream to one day make it to one of these, so if you’re in the area, please do not miss this opportunity to pay Meteor a visit!

► THE NEW CLUB TINY IS HERE  Support Tiny Cartridge!

HOSHIBACKYARD | “Game idea about investigating a school that has gone crazy”