Mages Do It With Flare (original) (raw)

the-iron-shoulder asked, "

I’m curious, since you know a lot about games history: do you know if there’s any consensus on what video game had the first “boss fight song,” i.e., the first game to have a different musical piece that plays when the player encounters something we would recognize as a boss? (I’m aware that “what is a boss” is a question in itself, but i guess that’s just part of the whole mix, and hopefully there’s enough you-know-it-when-you-see-it to facilitate the discussion.)

The oldest one I’m personally familiar with is The Legend of Zelda 1986 (which IIRC doesn’t have unique songs for normal bosses but at least has a little entry fanfare for Ganon), but I’m also acutely aware of the fact that I’m more or less completely unfamiliar with anything pre-NES, so I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t something earlier than that, and also just having entry fanfare is, to be honest, kind of weak imo compared to a proper dedicated song. (The oldest one I personally know of that has a song for non-final bosses is Mega Man 1987, but the same blind spot to pre-NES stuff applies.)

Are you able to offer any insight into this matter, please?

"

darker-than-darkstorm:

prokopetz:

thelordanubis:

prokopetz:

That’s an interesting question. Most video games published prior to the NES era tended to lack background music of any description, so they wouldn’t have had anything that could be described as “boss fight music” simply because they didn’t have music. The earliest title I can think of off the top of my head that does have a discernible boss theme is Dragon’s Lair (1983), though that’s kind of an edge case because the arcade version of Dragon’s Lair is more of an interactive movie than a game per se. I’d love to know if anyone reading this post has an earlier example in mind!

Would Sinistar (February 1983) count with its intro speech?

I don’t know what the requesting party’s exact criteria are, but a. they did clarify that they’d prefer to focus on music which plays during boss fights, rather than merely when introducing the boss in question; and b. I feel like going “well, if a musical jingle before a boss fight counts as boss fight music, then surely voice-acted dialogue preceding a boss fight also counts as boss fight music, because it’s audio which precedes a boss fight” is entering “is mayonnaise an instrument” territory.

The earliest one I can remember with actual boss music was NES Rush'n Attack (1985, a few months before the Legend of Zelda), but I can’t say for sure whether it’s *the* earliest. Also, I’m not sure whether most people would call a group of enemies that all die in one hit “bosses”, but the game’s instruction manual did, so I’m counting it.

If you count the entire Rivets Stage of Donkey Kong (July 1981) to be a boss fight, then that may be the earliest example, but I want to check a few things first (namely, my MAME library) :D

Oh! Actually, it might be Vanguard (also July 1981), which doesn’t have music on most stages, but one of the stages that does have music is when you face Gond. (Back in the day I was more familiar with the Atari 2600 version, which doesn’t have any stage music at all, which is why Vanguard didn’t immediately spring to mind)

Given that Vanguard is also one of the earliest games to have a boss at all (at least as we know the term), this is probably it.

inkthecryptid:

copywriteddad:

iregularlyevadetaxes:

Love some miserable Elon in the morning

normally stuff like this feels performative because anyone can talk shit online to someone and most normal people would just ignore it and block you but in this instance its the funniest thing in the world because you know for a fact its getting to him

It is worth noting that he couldn’t even beat the tutorial boss and gave up.

I didn’t even know what PoE 2 was when i saw this post, since I’m his age and am a little behind the times on current gaming (hides my Stardew Valley Year 20 savefile).

But because I have a brain, I discovered how to disable chat in Path of Exile 2 on the relevant reddit in under a minute.

Which is funny, but also, this is the unelected loser deciding what qualifies as essential US government services/employees and getting rid of everything and everyone else.

the-motan:

arias-secret-stash:

batter-sempai:

THERE IS NO DELTARUNE

THERE IS NO SILKSONG

AND THERE IS NO QUEEN OF ENGLAND

Betcha feel stupid now don’t you?

the queen of england coming to the Nintendo switch 2

oh is THAT why everyone was complaining

(via causalityparadoxes)

AHAHAHAHA So I reblogged a Final Fantasy VIII post this morning on which I remarked I’d forgotten the name of Rinoa’s dog.

I could’ve looked it up in five seconds. But I didn’t. And my poor muddled synapses finally came through.

I just awoke from a fibromyalgia nap with the distinct thought: “Oh, RIGHT! The dog’s name is angelo MIGELO!”

ALT

help me

angelosearch:

You know it in your heart to be true.

May I gently suggest we swap out cannonball doggo whose name currently escapes me (oh no!) for Laguna just in case there are a few molecules of actual chocolate in oreos

otherwise i fully endorse this

(via sarasa-cat)

tampire:

Seymour’s Win / Seymour’s Loss

(via auronstory)

bunabi:

bunabi:

ALT

they said it couldn’t be done etc etc [x]

UVW-CWA is a direct-join organization, meaning any video game industry worker in the U.S. or Canada working as an artist, writer, designer, QA tester, or programmer can join, regardless of whether they are freelance or fulltime or whether or not other workers at their company have joined.

Some more from their IGN press release. If there’s anyone at GDC right now: they have a booth with more details. And a zine with membership information. 🥺

(via tresdem)