OverClocked ReMix
Encyclopedia
OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-profit organization
dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs with new technology and software, as well as by various traditional means. The primary focus of OC ReMix is its website which offers thousands of free video game music fan-made arrangement
s, information on game music and composer
s, resources for aspiring artists, and a community forum for video game music fans.
The webmaster of OverClocked ReMix is David W. Lloyd (a.k.a. djpretzel), who coined the word "ReMix" to refer to interpretive arrangements, as opposed to a remix
which typically involves alterations to master recordings. Ambiguity regarding the term ReMix is unintentional, since the organization is dedicated to creative rearrangements of classic themes only, not to rearrangements involving changing minor details or plagiarizing
the work of others.
about playing and emulating video games. The format was derived from Commodore 64
arrangement website C64Audio.com (then a host for many fan arrangements); Lloyd chose to expand the focus to all games regardless of game system. Originally coded in basic HTML and sporting an orange color scheme, the site underwent a conversion to a database-driven system in 2001, as well as visual redesigns in 2001 (blue), 2002 (purple) and its current design in 2004 (silver & orange). OC ReMix was located at the subdomain remix.overclocked.org before moving to www.ocremix.org in July 2003. Both domains were hosted for several years by ZTNet, with OCR eventually becoming self-funded and switching to dedicated hosting with LiquidWeb in late 2006. Lloyd registered OverClocked ReMix as a limited liability company
in 2007.
Originally, music submissions were evaluated solely by David W. Lloyd. To better accommodate the volume of music submissions and improve selection consistency, a panel of judges, composed of accomplished artists and contributors to the community, was instituted in early 2002 to assist Lloyd in music selection. Earlier in 2002, a dispute over administrative decisions, including the proposal of a judges panel, caused artists virt
, prozax, and mp to leave OCR to found VGMix, and they demanded that their ReMixes be removed, to which Lloyd agreed. Other artists who left asked that their works stay, although they would not submit future works. Subsequently, some who removed their ReMixes from the site requested to return, and the request was granted with the provision that they not remove their work from the site again. OC ReMix judge Larry Oji (a.k.a. Liontamer) became head submissions evaluator for the organization in June 2006, providing initial evaluation of all submissions and freeing up Lloyd's time to develop the site.
The site's first fan convention
appearance was Otakon
2006 in Baltimore, Maryland. In April 2008, Lloyd and Oji joined Six Apart
's Anil Dash
, MetaFilter
's Matt Haughey
, Reddit
's Alexis Ohanian and FARK.com's
Drew Curtis
for a panel discussion on virtual communities
at Internet meme
convention, ROFLCon
, co-sponsored by Harvard University
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
.
. ReMixes are available individually and through bundled BitTorrent distributions, and are searchable through a database of games, composers, companies, systems and ReMixers. ReMixes are released under a non-commercial, attribution-requiring content policy.
The site approves ReMixes based on standards and guidelines encouraging arrangement creativity and capable production quality. Throughout the years, 165 works have been removed after initially being admitted, generally due to stricter enforcement of the site's standards after the admission of the work. A common violation is a "MIDI rip", which involves obtaining a MIDI transcription of the source material, making minor modifications to it, and passing it off as one's own work. Other violations include stolen or unoriginal recordings, cover version
s, arrangements which differ so far from the source material as to be unrecognizable, and obvious sub-par execution. The website currently hosts several digital albums which arrange entire game soundtracks, created through community collaboration, with new albums added periodically. The site also maintains a database of the skills of members of its community to encourage artist collaboration. Lloyd and other staff also conduct interviews with prolific ReMixers, video game music composers and celebrities about video game music creation.
OverClocked ReMix's discussion forums
and IRC
channel are where the majority of community interaction occurs. Areas of discussion include boards devoted to reviews, works in progress, projects, and competitions, as well as more general boards for discussion of topics less related to remixing.
. The albums range in length from 7 tracks to 66 tracks. All of the albums are hosted on OC ReMix, and are free for download. The first album produced was Relics of the Chozo on September 12, 2003, and the latest is 25YEARLEGEND, released on November 22, 2011.
The musicians of OverClocked ReMix were chosen to handle the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
soundtrack after Capcom U.S.A.
associate producer Rey Jimenez heard the organization's 2006 Super Street Fighter II Turbo tribute album Blood on the Asphalt. Entitled OC ReMix: Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Official Soundtrack, the complete 66-track album was freely released at OverClocked ReMix. Along with several new arrangements, edited versions of Blood on the Asphalt tracks and prior remixes from the site comprise the soundtrack. The remixers arranged the music based on knowledge of the Street Fighter II series alone, as the music for the game was completed before the visuals and gameplay. OC ReMix founder David "djpretzel" Lloyd directed the soundtrack and served as the organization's contact with Capcom "to ensure that working with a large fan community was as close as possible for Capcom to working with a single composer".
Jimenez praised HD Remixs music as "above and beyond our expectations" and OC ReMix's efforts as "one of the most rewarding aspects of working on SF HD Remix". Capcom's Vice-President of Strategic Planning & Business Development, Christian Svensson, described the soundtrack as "impactful" after guests, to whom he showed a demo of the game, praised the remixed music before any other aspect of the demo. In its review of HD Remix, gaming & entertainment website IGN
commended OC ReMix's work as "a great tribute to the original soundtrack". Other entities with favorable reviews of the soundtrack included Eurogamer
, GameSpot
, Official Xbox Magazine
, GamesRadar
, 1UP.com
, as well as long-time game composer "The Fat Man" George Sanger, who referred to the Capcom-OC ReMix collaboration as "Game Audio 2.0". In 2010 OverClocked Remix also released the official albums for the iOS game Trenches and the Xbox Live Arcade
game Return All Robots!. In 2011 the site released the official soundtrack of the game Missile Master, Episode 1: Invasion.
In addition to the albums and remixes, the OverClocked ReMix community has undertaken other projects in efforts to enhance or promote its main website. Some, such as an official Winamp
skin and download manager
(called "OverClocked ReCollections"), were abandoned after long periods of inactivity. Among the successful projects are Chipamp, a Winamp plugin bundle to make chiptune
s and video game music sound formats more accessible, OCR Radio, an endorsed fanmade internet radio
stream of OC ReMixes that is a part of Rainwave
, and VG Frequency, a news blog
covering the game music arrangement fan community.
. OC ReMix has since been covered in reports by sources such as G4techTV
's "The Electric Playground" television show, Spin
magazine, PC Gamer
magazine, 1UP.com, IGN
, Game Informer
magazine, Nintendo Power
magazine, and others.
Several video game industry professionals have praised the OC ReMixes of their compositions, including Alexander Brandon
(Tyrian/Unreal Tournament
/Deus Ex
), Barry Leitch
(Top Gear
), Nicholas Varley (Syberia
), and David Wise (Donkey Kong Country). OverClocked ReMix has also been praised for its work by several industry figures including Doom lead designer John Romero
, Tommy Tallarico
, "The Fat Man" George Sanger, and Jeremy Soule
. Contra 4
associate producer Tomm Hulett stated he hoped the game's music, scored by Jake "virt" Kaufman, would be arranged for OC ReMix in the future.
In late 2002, the first OC ReMix by a veteran professional game composer was released, The 7th Guest
"Fat Dance" by "The Fat Man" George Sanger. In early 2004, this was followed by the second ReMix of its kind, Final Fantasy VI
"Squaresoft Variation" by Jeremy Soule, who dedicated the arrangement to both OC ReMix founder David W. Lloyd and Final Fantasy series
composer Nobuo Uematsu
. In 2005, Sanger provided another ReMix performed alongside Team Fat colleagues and game composers, Dave Govett, Joe McDermott and K. Weston Phelan, entitled Wing Commander "Wing Theme Surf." Tommy Tallarico Studios' Earthworm Jim Anthology marked the first release of OC ReMixes on a commercial video game music album in late 2006. In October 2009, composer Alexander Brandon and ReMixer Jimmy "Big Giant Circles" Hinson collaborated to arrange a track Brandon composed for the game Deus Ex. In March 2010, OC ReMix released its Donkey Kong Country 2
ReMix album, Serious Monkey Business, featuring a closing track performed by the game's original composer, David Wise, alongside Grant Kirkhope
and Robin Beanland
, three composers with ties to Rare's Donkey Kong Country/Land franchise.
Several artists beginning as amateurs, many directly drawn to video game music arrangement by OC ReMix, have seen their interest in video game music catalyze into professional music opportunities, including Dain "Beatdrop" Olsen (Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2
), Jillian "pixietricks" Aversa (Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
), Andrew "zircon" Aversa (Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge), Jimmy "Big Giant Circles" Hinson (Mass Effect 2
) and Danny Baranowsky (Super Meat Boy
).
Beginning in 2008, at the invitation of Tommy Tallarico, OC ReMix promotional CDs have been given away as contest prizes at every performance of orchestral game music concert series, Video Games Live
; OC ReMixes were played in the concert hall before the show at the June 29 and June 30, 2007 Kennedy Center
performances in Washington, D.C.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs with new technology and software, as well as by various traditional means. The primary focus of OC ReMix is its website which offers thousands of free video game music fan-made arrangement
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
s, information on game music and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
s, resources for aspiring artists, and a community forum for video game music fans.
The webmaster of OverClocked ReMix is David W. Lloyd (a.k.a. djpretzel), who coined the word "ReMix" to refer to interpretive arrangements, as opposed to a remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
which typically involves alterations to master recordings. Ambiguity regarding the term ReMix is unintentional, since the organization is dedicated to creative rearrangements of classic themes only, not to rearrangements involving changing minor details or plagiarizing
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
the work of others.
History
Lloyd began the organization under the name of DJ Pretzel's OverClocked ReMix in December 1999 as a spin-off of OverClocked, his 3D webcomicWebcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
about playing and emulating video games. The format was derived from Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
arrangement website C64Audio.com (then a host for many fan arrangements); Lloyd chose to expand the focus to all games regardless of game system. Originally coded in basic HTML and sporting an orange color scheme, the site underwent a conversion to a database-driven system in 2001, as well as visual redesigns in 2001 (blue), 2002 (purple) and its current design in 2004 (silver & orange). OC ReMix was located at the subdomain remix.overclocked.org before moving to www.ocremix.org in July 2003. Both domains were hosted for several years by ZTNet, with OCR eventually becoming self-funded and switching to dedicated hosting with LiquidWeb in late 2006. Lloyd registered OverClocked ReMix as a limited liability company
Limited liability company
A limited liability company is a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions...
in 2007.
Originally, music submissions were evaluated solely by David W. Lloyd. To better accommodate the volume of music submissions and improve selection consistency, a panel of judges, composed of accomplished artists and contributors to the community, was instituted in early 2002 to assist Lloyd in music selection. Earlier in 2002, a dispute over administrative decisions, including the proposal of a judges panel, caused artists virt
Jake Kaufman
Jacob "Jake" Kaufman is an American video game music composer. After starting out creating arrangements and remixes of video game soundtracks, he began his commercial composing career in 2000 with the score to a port of Q*Bert...
, prozax, and mp to leave OCR to found VGMix, and they demanded that their ReMixes be removed, to which Lloyd agreed. Other artists who left asked that their works stay, although they would not submit future works. Subsequently, some who removed their ReMixes from the site requested to return, and the request was granted with the provision that they not remove their work from the site again. OC ReMix judge Larry Oji (a.k.a. Liontamer) became head submissions evaluator for the organization in June 2006, providing initial evaluation of all submissions and freeing up Lloyd's time to develop the site.
The site's first fan convention
Fan convention
A fan convention, or con , is an event in which fans of a particular film, television series, comic book, actor, or an entire genre of entertainment such as science fiction or anime and manga, gather to participate and hold programs and other events, and to meet experts, famous personalities, and...
appearance was Otakon
Otakon
Otakon is a fan convention in the United States focusing on East Asian popular culture and its fandom. The name is a portmanteau derived from convention and the Japanese word otaku...
2006 in Baltimore, Maryland. In April 2008, Lloyd and Oji joined Six Apart
Six Apart
Six Apart Ltd., sometimes abbreviated 6A, is a software company known for creating the Movable Type blogware, TypePad blog hosting service, and Vox. The company also is the former owner of LiveJournal. Six Apart is headquartered in Tokyo and is planning to open a new, U.S.-based office in New York...
's Anil Dash
Anil Dash
Anil Dash is a blogger, entrepreneur and technologist. He is currently the Director of Public Technology Incubator Expert Labs and a partner at ACTIVATE.com, a media & technology consulting firm....
, MetaFilter
MetaFilter
MetaFilter, known as MeFi to its members, is a community weblog whose purpose is to share links and discuss content that users have discovered on the web.-Community:MetaFilter was founded by Matthew Haughey in 1999...
's Matt Haughey
Matthew Haughey
Matthew Haughey is an American programmer, web designer, and blogger best known as the founder of the community weblog MetaFilter, where he is known as mathowie.- Life and career :...
Reddit
reddit is a social news website where the registered users submit content, in the form of either a link or a text "self" post. Other users then vote the submission "up" or "down," which is used to rank the post and determine its position on the site's pages and front page.Reddit was originally...
's Alexis Ohanian and FARK.com's
Fark.com
Fark is a community website created by Drew Curtis that allows members to comment on a daily batch of news articles and other items from various websites. As of June 2009, the site boasts approximately four million unique visitors per month, which puts it among the top 100 English language websites...
Drew Curtis
Drew Curtis
Drew Curtis is the founder and an administrator of Fark.com, an Internet link dump site. He is also the author of It's Not News, It's FARK: How Mass Media Tries to Pass off Crap as News in May 2007.-Bio:...
for a panel discussion on virtual communities
Virtual community
A virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals...
at Internet meme
Internet meme
The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
convention, ROFLCon
ROFLCon
ROFLCon is a biennial convention of Internet memes that first took place April 25–26, 2008, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The meeting was first announced in late 2007....
, co-sponsored by Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
.
Main features
There have been more than 2,000 "ReMixes" hosted on the site submitted by more than 500 "ReMixers" from a variety of genresMusic genre
A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...
. ReMixes are available individually and through bundled BitTorrent distributions, and are searchable through a database of games, composers, companies, systems and ReMixers. ReMixes are released under a non-commercial, attribution-requiring content policy.
The site approves ReMixes based on standards and guidelines encouraging arrangement creativity and capable production quality. Throughout the years, 165 works have been removed after initially being admitted, generally due to stricter enforcement of the site's standards after the admission of the work. A common violation is a "MIDI rip", which involves obtaining a MIDI transcription of the source material, making minor modifications to it, and passing it off as one's own work. Other violations include stolen or unoriginal recordings, cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s, arrangements which differ so far from the source material as to be unrecognizable, and obvious sub-par execution. The website currently hosts several digital albums which arrange entire game soundtracks, created through community collaboration, with new albums added periodically. The site also maintains a database of the skills of members of its community to encourage artist collaboration. Lloyd and other staff also conduct interviews with prolific ReMixers, video game music composers and celebrities about video game music creation.
OverClocked ReMix's discussion forums
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
and IRC
Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...
channel are where the majority of community interaction occurs. Areas of discussion include boards devoted to reviews, works in progress, projects, and competitions, as well as more general boards for discussion of topics less related to remixing.
Albums and other projects
In addition to hosting individual files, OC ReMix also publishes albums of entire game soundtracks, created as collaboration among groups of remixers. It has currently produced 29 albums, as well as two "joke" albums for April Fools' DayApril Fools' Day
April Fools' Day is celebrated in different countries around the world on April 1 every year. Sometimes referred to as All Fools' Day, April 1 is not a national holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day when many people play all kinds of jokes and foolishness...
. The albums range in length from 7 tracks to 66 tracks. All of the albums are hosted on OC ReMix, and are free for download. The first album produced was Relics of the Chozo on September 12, 2003, and the latest is 25YEARLEGEND, released on November 22, 2011.
The musicians of OverClocked ReMix were chosen to handle the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is a two dimensional fighting game released using the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Arcade download services...
soundtrack after Capcom U.S.A.
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
associate producer Rey Jimenez heard the organization's 2006 Super Street Fighter II Turbo tribute album Blood on the Asphalt. Entitled OC ReMix: Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Official Soundtrack, the complete 66-track album was freely released at OverClocked ReMix. Along with several new arrangements, edited versions of Blood on the Asphalt tracks and prior remixes from the site comprise the soundtrack. The remixers arranged the music based on knowledge of the Street Fighter II series alone, as the music for the game was completed before the visuals and gameplay. OC ReMix founder David "djpretzel" Lloyd directed the soundtrack and served as the organization's contact with Capcom "to ensure that working with a large fan community was as close as possible for Capcom to working with a single composer".
Jimenez praised HD Remixs music as "above and beyond our expectations" and OC ReMix's efforts as "one of the most rewarding aspects of working on SF HD Remix". Capcom's Vice-President of Strategic Planning & Business Development, Christian Svensson, described the soundtrack as "impactful" after guests, to whom he showed a demo of the game, praised the remixed music before any other aspect of the demo. In its review of HD Remix, gaming & entertainment website IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
commended OC ReMix's work as "a great tribute to the original soundtrack". Other entities with favorable reviews of the soundtrack included Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
, GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
, Official Xbox Magazine
Official Xbox Magazine
Official Xbox Magazine is a monthly video game magazine which started in November 2001 around the launch of the original Xbox. A preview issue was released for E3 2001, with another preview issue for November 2001. The magazine is bundled with a disc that includes game demos, preview videos and...
, GamesRadar
GamesRadar
GamesRadar is a multi-format video game website featuring regular news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides. It is owned and operated simultaneously in the UK and US by worldwide publisher Future Publishing...
, 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
, as well as long-time game composer "The Fat Man" George Sanger, who referred to the Capcom-OC ReMix collaboration as "Game Audio 2.0". In 2010 OverClocked Remix also released the official albums for the iOS game Trenches and the Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
game Return All Robots!. In 2011 the site released the official soundtrack of the game Missile Master, Episode 1: Invasion.
In addition to the albums and remixes, the OverClocked ReMix community has undertaken other projects in efforts to enhance or promote its main website. Some, such as an official Winamp
Winamp
Winamp is a media player for Windows-based PCs and Android devices, written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of AOL. It is proprietary freeware/shareware, multi-format, extensible with plug-ins and skins, and is noted for its graphical sound visualization, playlist, and media library features.Winamp...
skin and download manager
Download manager
A download manager is a computer program dedicated to the task of downloading possibly unrelated stand-alone files from the Internet for storage...
(called "OverClocked ReCollections"), were abandoned after long periods of inactivity. Among the successful projects are Chipamp, a Winamp plugin bundle to make chiptune
Chiptune
A chiptune, also known as chip music, is synthesized electronic music often produced with the sound chips of vintage computers and video game consoles, as well as with other methods such as emulation. In the early 1980s, personal computers became cheaper and more accessible than they had previously...
s and video game music sound formats more accessible, OCR Radio, an endorsed fanmade internet radio
Internet radio
Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...
stream of OC ReMixes that is a part of Rainwave
Rainwave
Rainwave is an interactive radio website that allows users to request, rate, and vote for songs in real time. The site hosts three separate radio streams and focuses completely on video game music.-History:...
, and VG Frequency, a news blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
covering the game music arrangement fan community.
| Album list | ||
|---|---|---|
| class="wikitable" style="width:100%; margin-right:-1em;"> | ||
| Title | Source game | Year |
| Relics of the Chozo | Super Metroid Super Metroid , also known as Metroid 3, is an action-adventure video game and the third game in the Metroid series. It was designed by Nintendo Research & Development 1, programmed by Intelligent Systems, and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console... |
2003 |
| Kong in Concert | Donkey Kong Country Donkey Kong Country Donkey Kong Country is a side-scrolling platformer video game developed by Rare, featuring the character Donkey Kong. It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994. Following an intense marketing campaign, the original SNES version sold over 8 million copies worldwide, making... |
2004 |
| Hedgehog Heaven | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit) Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a 16-bit 1992 platform video game that was developed by Sonic Team members working at the Sega Technical Institute, and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis console. It was released in Japan on November 21, 1992 and in North America and Europe on November 24, 1992... |
2005 |
| Repercussions of Fowl Lamentation | Duck Hunt Duck Hunt is a video game for the Nintendo Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System game console system in which players use the NES Zapper to shoot ducks on screen for points. The game was developed and published by Nintendo, and was released in 1984 in Japan... (April Fools' Day joke) |
2005 |
| Rise of the Star | Kirby's Adventure Kirby's Adventure Kirby's Adventure, known as in Japan, is a platforming video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. It was first released March 26, 1993 in Japan, and was later released in North America on May 1, 1993, and in Europe on... |
2005 |
| The Dark Side of Phobos | Doom | 2005 |
| Chrono Symphonic | Chrono Trigger Chrono Trigger is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. Chrono Triggers development team included three designers that Square dubbed the "Dream Team": Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Square's Final Fantasy series; Yuji Horii, a... |
2006 |
| Blood on the Asphalt | Super Street Fighter II Turbo | 2006 |
| Project Chaos | Sonic 3 & Knuckles | 2006 |
| ReCapitated | Sonic the Hedgehog 3: IceCap Zone (April Fools' Day joke) | 2007 |
| Voices of the Lifestream Voices of the Lifestream Voices of the Lifestream is an unofficial tribute album released by OverClocked ReMix in honor of Nobuo Uematsu's score for the popular video game, Final Fantasy VII. The album was released on September 14, 2007, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII... |
Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VII is a role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was originally released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation and was re-released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers and in 2009... |
2007 |
| Thieves of Fate | Radical Dreamers | 2008 |
| Delta-Q-Delta | Doom II | 2008 |
| OC ReMix: Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Official Soundtrack | Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is a two dimensional fighting game released using the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Arcade download services... |
2008 |
| Summoning of Spirits | Tales series | 2009 |
| Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption | Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy IV is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square in 1991 as a part of the Final Fantasy series. The game was originally released for the Super Famicom in Japan and has since then been rereleased for many other platforms with varying modifications. An enhanced remake with 3D graphics... |
2009 |
| Humans + Gears | Xenogears Xenogears is a science-fiction console role-playing game developed and published by Square for Sony's PlayStation. It was released on February 11, 1998 in Japan and on October 20, 1998 in North America. The game was never released in PAL territories... |
2009 |
| Sonata of the Damned | Castlevania series Castlevania Castlevania, known as in Japan, is a video game series created and developed by Konami. The series debuted in Japan on September 26, 1986, with the release of for the Family Computer Disk System , followed by an alternate version for the MSX 2 platform on October 30... |
2009 |
| Serious Monkey Business | Donkey Kong Country 2 Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is an adventure platform game developed for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System produced by Rareware and published by Nintendo. It stars Diddy Kong and his girlfriend Dixie Kong... |
2010 |
| The Fabled Warriors ~I. WIND~ | Final Fantasy V Final Fantasy V is a medieval-fantasy role-playing video game developed and published by Square in 1992 as a part of the Final Fantasy series. The game first appeared only in Japan on Nintendo's Super Famicom . It has been ported with minor differences to Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo's Game Boy Advance... |
2010 |
| The Root of All Evil | Teen Agent Teen Agent (computer game) Teenagent is a 1995 point-and-click adventure game developed by Polish developer Metropolis Software House. It was released for Amiga and DOS. The player controls teenage boy Mark Hopper who wants to be a secret agent. The CD version was the first game to be released on CD-ROM in Poland.-Plot:Gold... |
2010 |
| Threshold of a Dream | The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, known as in Japan, is a 1993 action-adventure video game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy... |
2010 |
| The Answer | Armored Core series Armored Core Armored Core is a mecha-based video game series developed by From Software for the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Mobile Phone platforms. Armored Core games are Mecha Simulation/third-person shooters, in which the player pilots a large mecha called an... |
2011 |
| Heroes vs. Villains | multiple series | 2011 |
| The Missingno Tracks | Pokémon series | 2011 |
| The Robot Museum | Mega Man series Mega Man Mega Man is a video game franchise from Capcom, starring the eponymous character Mega Man, or one of his many counterparts. The series is well-known and comprises well over fifty releases, easily making it Capcom's most prolific franchise. As of December 31, 2010, the series has sold approximately... |
2011 |
| The Sound of Speed | Sonic the Hedgehog | 2011 |
| Lucid Dreaming | NiGHTS into Dreams... NiGHTS into Dreams... Nights into Dreams... , is a video game released by Sega in 1996 for the Sega Saturn video game system. The game's story follows two children entering a dream world, where they are aided by the main character, Nights... |
2011 |
| Back in Blue | Mega Man 9 Mega Man 9 Mega Man 9, known in Japan as , is a video game developed by Capcom and Inti Creates. It is the ninth numbered game in the original Mega Man series. Mega Man 9 is the first, new home console game in the original Mega Man series since Mega Man 8 and Mega Man & Bass, which were released at least one... |
2011 |
| Around the World | Super Dodge Ball Super Dodge Ball (Nintendo Entertainment System) Super Dodge Ball, originally released in Japan as , is a dodgeball-based sports game produced by Technos Japan Corp. that was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in . It is loosely based on the arcade game of the same name, which was also developed by Technos... |
2011 |
| 25YEARLEGEND | The Legend of Zelda series The Legend of Zelda The Legend of Zelda, originally released as in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Nintendo, and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Set in the fantasy land of Hyrule, the plot centers on a boy named Link, the playable protagonist, who aims to collect the eight fragments... |
2011 |
Reception
The community has grown through word of mouth and mention of the website in several publications and on several websites. The most influential early coverage of the site came in a mid-2002 issue of Electronic Gaming MonthlyElectronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...
. OC ReMix has since been covered in reports by sources such as G4techTV
G4techTV
G4techTV was a cable and satellite channel resulting from a merger between Comcast-owned G4 and TechTV. The headquarters is based in Los Angeles...
's "The Electric Playground" television show, Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
magazine, PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
magazine, 1UP.com, IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
, Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
magazine, Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
magazine, and others.
Industry reaction
According to a 2005 interview, the organization has never received negative feedback from a game composer or game publisher, and Lloyd stated, "Like all communities surrounding fan works, we're out, first and foremost, to honor that which we love, and I think the concept and goals have been well received all around."Several video game industry professionals have praised the OC ReMixes of their compositions, including Alexander Brandon
Alexander Brandon
Alexander Brandon is a US musician, former member of Straylight Productions, who composed music mostly for games produced by Epic Games, or games based on Epic technology, including Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, Tyrian, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and the cancelled game Jazz Jackrabbit 3D...
(Tyrian/Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament is a futuristic first-person shooter video game co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. It was published in 1999 by GT Interactive. Retrospectively, the game has also been referred to as UT99 or UT Classic to differentiate it from its numbered sequels...
/Deus Ex
Deus Ex
Deus Ex is an action role-playing game developed by Ion Storm Inc. and published by Eidos Interactive in 2000, which combines gameplay elements of first-person shooters with those of role-playing video games...
), Barry Leitch
Barry Leitch
Barry Leitch is a video game music composer, responsible for the music in a large number of games spanning multiple consoles and personal computers. Most notable is his work from the Lotus Turbo Challenge, Top Gear, and Rush video game series....
(Top Gear
Top Gear (video game)
Top Gear , is a 1992 racing video game for the Super NES, published by Kemco and developed by Gremlin Graphics. Not only does it mark first game in the Top Gear racing game franchise, but it is also one of the first racing games to be released on the Super NES...
), Nicholas Varley (Syberia
Syberia
Syberia is a 2002 computer adventure game conceived by Benoît Sokal, developed by Microïds and published through The Adventure Company. It follows the protagonist Kate Walker as she attempts to wrap up a sale on the behalf of her law firm...
), and David Wise (Donkey Kong Country). OverClocked ReMix has also been praised for its work by several industry figures including Doom lead designer John Romero
John Romero
Alfonso John Romero is a game designer, programmer, and developer in the video game industry. He is best known as a co-founder of id Software and was a designer for many of their games, including Wolfenstein 3D, Dangerous Dave, Doom and Quake...
, Tommy Tallarico
Tommy Tallarico
Tommy Tallarico is an American video game music composer and musician. He is best known as the co-creator of the concert series Video Games Live...
, "The Fat Man" George Sanger, and Jeremy Soule
Jeremy Soule
Jeremy Soule is an American composer of soundtracks for film, television and video games. He has won multiple awards and has been described as the "John Williams of video game music" and "a model of success" for Western composers. He has composed soundtracks for over 60 games and over a dozen...
. Contra 4
Contra 4
Contra 4 is a 2D action game for the Nintendo DS and the eleventh original installment in the Contra series. The game was released in North America on November 13, 2007...
associate producer Tomm Hulett stated he hoped the game's music, scored by Jake "virt" Kaufman, would be arranged for OC ReMix in the future.
In late 2002, the first OC ReMix by a veteran professional game composer was released, The 7th Guest
The 7th Guest
The 7th Guest, produced by Trilobyte and released by Virgin Games in 1993, is an FMV-based puzzle video game. It was one of the first computer video games to be released only on CD-ROM. The 7th Guest is a horror story told from the unfolding perspective of the player, as an amnesiac...
"Fat Dance" by "The Fat Man" George Sanger. In early 2004, this was followed by the second ReMix of its kind, Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VI
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square , released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a part of the Final Fantasy series. Set in a fantasy world with a technology level equivalent to that of the Second Industrial Revolution, the game's story focuses on a...
"Squaresoft Variation" by Jeremy Soule, who dedicated the arrangement to both OC ReMix founder David W. Lloyd and Final Fantasy series
Final Fantasy
is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
composer Nobuo Uematsu
Nobuo Uematsu
is a Japanese video game composer, best known for scoring the majority of titles in the Final Fantasy series. He is considered as one of the most famous and respected composers in the video game community...
. In 2005, Sanger provided another ReMix performed alongside Team Fat colleagues and game composers, Dave Govett, Joe McDermott and K. Weston Phelan, entitled Wing Commander "Wing Theme Surf." Tommy Tallarico Studios' Earthworm Jim Anthology marked the first release of OC ReMixes on a commercial video game music album in late 2006. In October 2009, composer Alexander Brandon and ReMixer Jimmy "Big Giant Circles" Hinson collaborated to arrange a track Brandon composed for the game Deus Ex. In March 2010, OC ReMix released its Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is an adventure platform game developed for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System produced by Rareware and published by Nintendo. It stars Diddy Kong and his girlfriend Dixie Kong...
ReMix album, Serious Monkey Business, featuring a closing track performed by the game's original composer, David Wise, alongside Grant Kirkhope
Grant Kirkhope
Grant Kirkhope is a British video game music composer, known for writing the soundtracks for numerous games by Rare, such as Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong 64.-Biography:...
and Robin Beanland
Robin Beanland
Robin Beanland , sometimes credited as R. Beanland or simply "The Bean", is a British video game music composer for numerous Rare titles, such as the Killer Instinct franchise, Conker's Bad Fur Day , and many others...
, three composers with ties to Rare's Donkey Kong Country/Land franchise.
Several artists beginning as amateurs, many directly drawn to video game music arrangement by OC ReMix, have seen their interest in video game music catalyze into professional music opportunities, including Dain "Beatdrop" Olsen (Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2 is an arcade game in the Dance Dance Revolution series of music video games. It was produced by Konami and released through Betson Enterprises. The game was released in Japan in August, 2007, while the North American version was released several months later. The...
), Jillian "pixietricks" Aversa (Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword is the second official expansion pack of the turn-based strategy video game Civilization IV. The expansion focuses on adding content to the in-game time periods following the invention of gunpowder, and includes more general content such as 11 new scenarios, 10 new...
), Andrew "zircon" Aversa (Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge), Jimmy "Big Giant Circles" Hinson (Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 2 is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on January 26, 2010 and for PlayStation 3 on January 18, 2011...
) and Danny Baranowsky (Super Meat Boy
Super Meat Boy
Super Meat Boy is an independent video game designed by Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes and developed by Team Meat. It is the successor to McMillen and Jonathan McEntee's October 2008 flash game Meat Boy. Super Meat Boy was released on the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade in October 2010, on...
).
Beginning in 2008, at the invitation of Tommy Tallarico, OC ReMix promotional CDs have been given away as contest prizes at every performance of orchestral game music concert series, Video Games Live
Video Games Live
Video Games Live is a concert series created and produced by industry veterans and video game composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall. The concerts consist of segments of video game music performed by a live orchestra with video footage and synchronized lighting and effects, as well as several...
; OC ReMixes were played in the concert hall before the show at the June 29 and June 30, 2007 Kennedy Center
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C...
performances in Washington, D.C.
External links
- Official Website (RSS)
- djpretzel's Homepage
- Chipamp - OverClocked ReMix-sponsored video game music sound format plugin bundle for Winamp
- OCR Radio - Official OverClocked ReMix radio stream
- VG Frequency - Official OverClocked ReMix blog
- VGDJ - Official OverClocked ReMix podcast