Contra

Game Music

Mondo’s CONTRA OST Vinyl Premiering at San Diego Comic-Con

July 18, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

Mondo seems to be continuing with their video game soundtrack releases to vinyl; this time featuring the NES classic Konami shooter-platformer Contra. The new vinyl release will be premiering at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.

Contra was originally composed by Hidenori Maezawa (Goonies II, Adventures of Bayou Billy) and Kiyohiro Sada (Top Gun NES) for the NES version of the game and and arranged by Kazuki Muraoka for the arcade version, though they were all only credited under the Konami Kukeiha Club for years due to Konami’s fear of having their composers poached by other companies. Mondo sticks with the original composing credits for one reason or another. The Mondo release will feature both NES/Famicom and arcade versions of the game’s soundtrack pressed on 180 Gram Red & Blue Half-and-Half Vinyl for $25.

A limited version of the record (pressed on Yellow, Orange & Red vinyl) will be premiering at our San Diego Comic-Con booth (#835), but we wanted to give CONTRA fans the opportunity to pick up the soundtrack online, too. When doors open for Preview Night this Wednesday at 8PM (CT), our Red & Blue version of the record will be available at mondotees.com.

The vinyl artwork was done by Eric Powell, who worked on Mondo’s Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest release; in my opinion the best and most faithful artwork of their Castlevania line. It’s unfortunate Powell couldn’t work on all Mondo video game released, because certainly this Contra art does the game’s visual’s justice. Hopefully the music quality will follow suit.

You can purchase the Contra vinyl release starting tomorrow evening on MondoTees.com. You can also check out the limited edition variant if you’re perusing San Diego Comic-Con this weekend.
Doujin, Game Music, Reviews

Let’s Listen Aggressively: Contra 4 Rocked ‘n’ Loaded (Review)

January 13, 2012 | Jayson Napolitano | 3 Comments Share this

Well, oops. We had a lot of coverage of Contra 4: Rocked ‘n’ Loaded on OSV leading up to the album’s release back in March 2010, but it somehow managed to slip through the cracks when it came to a review. Well, after seeing and talking to many of those involved this past week at MAGFest about the status on their Rockman X arrange album and realizing our boo-boo with the Contra 4 album, I was determined to go back and review it.

And here it is! (more…)
Doujin, Game Music, Indie Music

(Almost) Live From MAGFest 9: Night Two Concerts (Photos)

January 18, 2011 | Patrick Gann | 7 Comments Share this

Alright, MAGFest 9 is officially over, and all the OSV staff that attended are trying to catch up on sleep. To everyone that missed it but lived close enough to have reasonably attended, let me say two things to you:

1) Sorry you couldn’t make it.
2) Thanks for not coming, because parking was terrible and the event has become popular enough now that it has easily outgrown the Alexandria / Mark Center Hilton.

We’re already getting word that MAGFest 10 will take place at a new location (nothing confirmed, just word on the street). And that’s good, because cops showed up Friday night, allegedly because of complaints that the concert area (the size of a large conference room) had far exceeded maximum occupancy and was a fire safety hazard. Saturday night the security staff started to keep count for the larger shows and were offering an additional “viewing room” in Panel 2. At least, signs were up saying this was the case.

The bunch of us from OSV that were at MAGFest will be bringing you tons of coverage from the event over the course of this week. Josh Kopstein already reported on Thursday night’s shows, and I’m here to tell you about Friday night. Included are many wonderful photos of the concert taken by Emi Spicer. Check it all out after the jump! (more…)
Doujin, Game Music

Contra 4: Rocked ‘N Loaded Now Released!

March 5, 2010 | Audun Sorlie | Comments Off on Contra 4: Rocked ‘N Loaded Now Released! Share this

2 months late but who cares?! It’s finally here and ready to ship out. We’ve done plenty of coverage on this CD in the past, with artist interviews and updates on it’s progress along the way. Originally scheduled for release at MAGFest, the production company did a printing mistake and therefor, the team had to switch pressing companies and find a comparable price range.

In case you aren’t totally up to speed on the project, this is a full arrange album of the Contra 4 soundtrack, featuring Andreas “Snappleman” Kotsamanidis, Tony “Prince of Darkness” Dickinson, Dan Behrens from Metroid Metal and ARMCANNON, Marcos “Braincells” Pascoli and Jake “virt” Kaufman, the original composer of the soundtrack! Other awesome contributors show up as well.

You can order this CD at Rocked N Loaded.com for $12.
Game Music

Muscle Men & Silky Whips: Contra & Castlevania Rebirth Soundtracks Announced!

December 30, 2009 | Audun Sorlie | 2 Comments Share this

Man Konami is on a roll these days. Earlier we reported that they were releasing a 19 (!!!) disc Castlevania compilation featuring Vampire Killer on the MSX2 and Castlevania Legends from Game Boy, to name a few. Konami, however, was obviously not satisfied with a mere 19 CDs, so they decided to announce 3 more Castlevania related albums.

First announced is a set of Drama CDs, Akumajo Dracula Radio Chronicle and Akumajo Dracula X ~Nocturne of The Reminiscence based on the story of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and features most notably Shinichiro Miki, the voice of Akira in Virtua Fighter and Sagat in Street Fighter doing voice work. Second and most interesting for the non-Japanese speaking part of the world, is Dracula Densetsu ReBirth & Contra ReBirth Original Soundtrack, a collection set of the soundtracks for Castlevania Rebirth and Contra Rebirth! 33 tracks are announced to be on this album, and will include arrangements from Manabu Namiki.

It’s been noted before that Jason “Chibi-Tech” Nisperos has worked on these titles, so it’ll be exciting to see if he was only doing voice acting or if he had some hand in the music as well.
Doujin, Game Music

Contra 4: Rocked n’ Loaded Roundtable #2: Probotect & Rock

December 19, 2009 | Audun Sorlie | 1 Comment Share this

A few weeks ago we had the first part of our discussion with the Contra 4: Rocked ‘n’ Loaded team about the development and production of these kinds of arrangement albums. It’s easy to take arrangements and remixes for granted, thinking it’s simply a deal of finding a MIDI or listening by ear and replicating it, but in reality, the process is quite a massive undertaking.

In this part, we ventured into the topic of the music production itself, as we last time went into the topic of planning, signing artists and working together. Now get ready to really understand how long it takes to transcribe, learn and record these incredibly detailed melodies, and dealing with being a musical perfectionist.

Come Get Some! (more…)
Doujin, Game Music

Date Locked ‘n Ready: Contra 4 Rocked n’ Loaded Pre-Order Opens!

December 16, 2009 | Audun Sorlie | 1 Comment Share this

After two years of the manliest sweating, bleeding and tear-shed you can imagine, the CD is finally here! You might have read our ongoing production roundtable concerning this project, giving you an interesting insight into all the hard work that has goes into planning and producing projects like these, and if you haven’t, well, you have some catching up to do!

The release date is January 1st, at MAGFest, a gaming convention in Virginia that Original Sound Version will be attending. Jake Kaufman, the composer of Contra 4 is featured on the CD arranging his own work and many of the very best artists in the game arrangement community appear on the album and rock out your favorite Contra 4 tunes, and some old favorites as well. The CD will be $12 USD for North America and $18 USD international shipping included.

So come get some at Rocked ‘n Loaded and check back on Saturday for the next production roundtable!