The podcast show VGMporium runs a large series of episodes on Video Game Music including MSX audio systems. One of the latest episodes covers the OPLL FM soundchip.
VGM, or Video Game Music, is a world on its own in computer gaming. You'd probably remember a bunch of chiptunes from the past as they just stuck in your head. Even years later, it still makes you swing. There are a lot of dedicated web resources that take you back to those good times. In this feature we're having a look at VGMporium that recently did a whole episode on just the YM2413, better known as OPLL, or MSX-Music, found in the FM-PAC and MSX2+ and Turbo R machines, as well as some arcade titles and ofcourse the Sega Mark III.
Starting in January 2022 with episode #1, VGMporium is currently running 86 episodes at the time of writing on anything game music. Ranging from specific games, systems, or authors, to collections of themes. For example, there is a focus on "shop themes", spanning multiple episodes on that the alone. In episode #56, the focus is on Konami's Baseball game Pennant Race for MSX and the Sharp X68000, with chiptunes from Yuji Takenouchi aka TECHNOuchi.
In episode #86, the show puts the OPLL soundchip in the spotlights. This Yamaha soundchip found its way in several keyboards and computers. For the MSX it was the FM-PAC that introduced this chip as "MSX-Music" to the system. It quickly became a standard, and many MSX games supported this audio extension. The show spends a good amount of time on several games that did. Games such as Greatest Driver, Xak II and Core Crisis are covered paying special attention to its composers. Besides Shigeru Tomita, Takuhiko Uwabo, and Tadahiro Nitta, you'll also find our very own John Hassink in that list.
The show plays the opening/tutorial stage tune from -the still in development- shmup Core Crisis by John Hassink, which was composed in TriloTracker. Other composing work of John gets mentioned as well. The author of the show is not shy with superlatives about John, for good reason. An impressive list of song credits makes John a true audio master. Just check out his YouTube page, which is packed with his chiptune compositions and arrangements.
You can find VGMporium at Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Twitter.
