Cheap Dinosaurs

Chip Music, Game Music

River City Ransom: Underground Updates with New Soundtrack

November 17, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on River City Ransom: Underground Updates with New Soundtrack Share this

Back in July of this year, the game River City Ransom: Underground was hit with DMCA strikes due to issues regarding its soundtrack and music. One of the subcontracted composers, Alex Mauer, stated Conatus Creative used Mauer’s music without fair compensation or permission, and thus issued the DMCA strikes against the game, which temporarily took it off Steam. Conatus Creative has affirmed consistently that Mauer’s claims have zero legal basis, but decided to make a completely clean break from Mauer and have an entirely new soundtrack composed for the game.

Yesterday, Conatus issued an update on the River City Ransom: Underground Kickstarter that stated that the new soundtrack had been completed, and that the game has been updated on Steam to include the new music.

We’re excited to release Dino Lionetti’s new soundtrack for River City Ransom: Underground! Dino, one of the talents behind Cheap Dinosaurs, co-composed the original soundtrack for the game. Now he’s back with an all new rendition, blending hints of classic Technōs groove with subtle, catchy, and cohesive tunes we think you’ll love.

Lionetti was also a subcontracted composer on the original soundtrack with Mauer and Rich “Distasterpeace” Vreeland. Dino confirmed the updated via Twitter as well.

now it can be told: i spent the last few months working on a new soundtrack for river city ransom underground, and now it’s out.

— ✨✈ (@cheapdinosaurs) November 16, 2017

To celebrate both the holidays and the update to the game, River City Ransom: Underground will be on sale at 50% off on Steam until this coming Monday, the 20th. If you haven’t picked up the game yet, you can now do so on the cheap and check out the brand new chiptune soundtrack by Dino!
Game Music

River City Ransom: Underground Soundtrack to be Replaced

July 19, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on River City Ransom: Underground Soundtrack to be Replaced Share this

Many of you may have heard of the ongoing DMCA debacle concerning Alex Mauer, the original composer for Starr Mazer and Starr Mazer DSP, as well as several other games Mauer was a contributing composer & arranger on. One of those games, River City Ransom: Underground, as also been hit with DMCA strikes which resulted in it’s being pulled from steam for the better part of the last week. Although developer Conatus Creative have assured the public that everything is legit on their end with regards to contracts and compensation and that the DMCA strike in false, they have decided to cut their losses and replace the soundtrack for River City Ransom: Underground to avoid ongoing issues.

It is out of respect for those many creators (of the entire Kunio-kun franchise) that I have chosen to commission a new soundtrack to replace the music from RCR:U. I believe it’s the best chance that RCR:U has of achieving a “clean break” from any negative associations with Alex Mauer’s wrongful claim. – Daniel Crenna, Producer

River City Ransom: Underground‘s soundtrack was originally contracted with composer Rich “Distasterpeace” Vreeland (Fez, Hyper Light Drifter), who subcontracted Dino Lionetti (Cheap Dinosaurs, Autoscroll) and Alex Mauer to assist with the game’s music under the alias “Lexi & The Cheap Disaster”. Vreeland has documentation, confirmed by Conatus, that Mauer was paid in-full for contributions made to the game’s soundtrack though Mauer contests this and has used the accusation as a right to DMCA the game on Steam and any video media using tracks Mauer contributed on. By law, Valve was required to take the game off Steam as a result in order to maintain their “safe harbor” status until the strike is proven false, much like what happened with Starr Mazer DSP earlier this year.

In the post on the game’s Steam forums, Crenna does not go into detail as to whether Vreeland and Lionetti will be involved in any replacement music for the new RCR:U soundtrack. I have reached out to Conatus to confirm any additional details regarding the replacement soundtrack and will update this article with any response.
Chip Music, Software

This Week in Random – High Dinos and Chrome

May 7, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on This Week in Random – High Dinos and Chrome Share this

For This Week in Random, it’s all about chiptunes and browser extensions!

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High Strangeness OSV by Cheap Dinosaurs

Chiptune savants Cheap Dinosaurs have released their newest album since last year’s “Triangle Trash” mini-album; a soundtrack for the indie game High Strangeness that’s described as a “a hybrid of 8 and 16-bit games… A 12-bit adventure”.

The inspiration of the game comes from many Action-Adventure and RPG games of yesteryear. The game’s core ability is to switch between 8 and 16-bit worlds and the player uses their generational differences to solve puzzles and explore the universe.

High Strangeness was released on this past Tuesday for the WiiU and Steam. The 17-track album released this past Monday at $6.00 (or $1 for individual tracks), making it the largest album to date from the band and should prove to be good listening for retro game music fans.

High Strangeness OSV – Bandcamp | CheapDinos.com

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Game Music Appreciation – Google Chrome

http://gamemusic.multimedia.cx/

This site allows you to listen to music for classic video games. You can listen to a vast amount of video game music (in the form of chiptunes) directly in your Google Chrome web browser and it will sound precisely the same as it did on the original console.

Pretty much everything it says on the box – a streaming program that allows you to stream an extremely extensive variety of game music soundtracks straight over Google Chrome, all for free. You can search for specific game albums, search by composer, search by console or just throw caution to the wind and play from random albums at-will; all without the need for separate programs to be open. A neat option for all of us!
Game Music

MAGFest 12 Concert Line-up Announced

November 16, 2013 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on MAGFest 12 Concert Line-up Announced Share this MAGFest 12 Concert Line-up Announced

Clear your calenders for the first weekend of 2014 and get ready to rock out to some phenomenal videogame music! The twelfth annual Music and Game Festival, also known as MAGFest 12, has released the performance roster for three of its upcoming videogame music concerts. The event will be taking place in National Harbor, Maryland and will run from January 2, 2014 through January 5, 2014. Two of these concerts are chiptune showcases, which will be held on Friday and Saturday afternoon. The Friday night concert will be what is known as an Electronic Dance Music (EDM) Battle concert. A total of six different DJs from the VGM community will be participating to perform their repertoire for this EDM Battle. The line-up for the upcoming concerts include some new acts and a number of returning artists.

The MAGFest 12 performance roster is as follows:

Friday Chiptune Showcase (12 PM – 2 PM)

– Trey Frey
– Chipocrite
– A_Rival
– Danimal Cannon

Friday Night EDM Battle (10 PM – 2 AM)

– bLiNd
– Benjamin Briggs
– DJ Cutman
– Grimecraft
– Totentaz
– Flexstyle

Saturday Chiptune Showcase (12 PM – 2 PM)

– Awesome Force
– Auxide
– Rainbow Dragon Eyes
– Cheap Dinosaurs

More information and updates on MAGFest events, tickets, hotels, special guests, and performers is available on the official MAGFest website at http://www.magfest.org/. A handful of us from Original Sound Version will be attending MAGFest 12 to cover the events and concerts as well. It’s looking like a great line-up for this concert series. Hope to see you there.
Chip Music

Cheap Dinosaurs Have A New Album, And You Can Plant It

October 17, 2011 | Joshua Kopstein | Comments Off on Cheap Dinosaurs Have A New Album, And You Can Plant It Share this

Photo: Emi Spicer

Fans of chiptune prog rock outfit Cheap Dinosaurs have no doubt been gritting their teeth in anticipation of an official release from the esteemed super-group, which contains members of Chromelodeon, Animal Style and Brown Recluse. Now, after an extremely limited physical release back in 2009, it’s finally here: From singalong favorites (familiar to those who have seen the group play at MAGFest) like “Tagalog” and “Stroll” to the surprising polyrhythms and crooning ambience of lesser-known tracks like “Cup” and “Beech,” Cheap Dinosaur’s debut sports 9 synth-heavy progressive jams that twist like the limbs of a tree branch and itch like poison oak.

Which is just as well, because the album’s packaging is full of seeds, letting you grow some plants of your own. In collaboration Philadelphia-based “trans-digital” record label Data Garden, Cheap Dinosaurs’ debut release can be planted into the ground to sprout actual flowers. Just copy down the download code from the back and plant the screen-printed package into a thin layer of soil. With just a few weeks and some TLC, you’ll have blue lobelias blooming from your biodegradable music purchase. Listen below, and check out Data Garden for more eco-friendly releases.

Buy/Download: Cheap Dinosaurs – Cheap Dinosaurs (MP3/FLAC, Seed Paper)

<a href="http://store.datagarden.org/album/cheap-dinosaurs">Cheap Dinosaurs by Cheap Dinosaurs</a>
Chip Music

Ancient Technology For Cheap Dinosaurs Music Video

February 22, 2010 | Audun Sorlie | 1 Comment Share this

Cheap Dinosaurs recently won my choice for best chip music album of 2009, and for very good reason. Dino and Bucky, the 2 bad dudes behind the glorious music keeps putting on the most awesome shows and ideas out there, be it as Cheap Dinosaurs doing original songs or as Auto-Scroll doing game arrangements.

Recently they released a music video for the song “Tagalog” from the Cheap Dinosaurs CD. The video is entirely shot by LJ Frezza with the Game Boy Camera which came out in 1998 for the original Game Boy. To do this they inserted the camera cartridge into a Super Game Boy and ran the feed from the SNES into a computer. Pretty awesome results!

I wish I had the creativity to think of these things when I was younger. The only thing I used my Game Boy Camera for was taking pictures of my most private areas and using them as the face for the bosses in Space Fever II which was featured on the cartridge. And with that I think I already said too much.
Chip Music, Game Music

MAGFest 8: Night 1 Chiptunes Concert

January 2, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 7 Comments Share this MAGFest 8: Night 1 Chiptunes Concert

[Above: Rising star Coda DJs during virt’s set]

We heard a lot of chiptune artists at the New Year’s Eve party, but there was a lot more to hear and love following last night’s three-act set ending with the epic performance by Metroid Metal. Things were off to a late start, as the chiptunes concert began at around 2:00 AM and went well into the morning, but despite my aching feed, ringing ears, and sleepless state of being, I stuck through it. For you!

The evening featured a long lineup of artists, including NAXAT, Dauragon, Inverse Phase, virt, Zen Albatross, Animal Style, and Cheap Dinosaurs in that order. There were some highs and some lows, but for the most part, I couldn’t complain, as there was lots of variety to be had and even a few surprises.

Find out what happened at last night’s chiptune concert after the jump. (more…)