#tamayo kawamoto

[fancypantsrecords]

Zuntata - RayForce | Zuntata Records | 2023 | Black/

[whosyourfavevoicedby-polls]

[bancho-zx]

【PC Engine SuperGrafx】 Ghouls 'n Ghosts | 大魔界村 ~Opening / Attract demo

// Music: Tamayo Kawamoto | 河本圭代

// MiSTer FPGA // TurboGrafx16 core // Y/C Composite // Sony KV-13TR20 CRT TV

[archiesonicretro]

Game review: Dai Makai Mura / Ghouls N Ghosts (Sharp X68000 version)

Title: Dai Makai-Mura

Japanese Title: 大魔界村

Release Date: 22 April 1994

Platform: Sharp X68000

Developer: Capcom

Publisher: Capcom

Genre: Platform Action

Number of Players: 1

Music Composer(s): Tamayo Kawamoto

——————————————————————————

Gameplay conducted using WinX68K High Speed Emulation.

"The game that brought spookiness to the platformer genre."

Daimakaimura. The game that brought spookiness to the platformer genre.

Sharp X68000. In the 90s, while most people in the West played on the Amiga, Atari ST and IBM PCs, all of which tended to get substandard arcade conversions, the Japanese were better off as they had their eyes on three computers. The Fujitsu FM Towns series, the NEC PC-98 series, and the most notorious of all - the Sharp X68000 lineup.

The FM Towns being the king of bringing CD media to PC gaming.

The NEC PC-98 series being responsible for bringing Touhou, Policenauts, various Japanese ports of Western games, and being the granddaddy of the hentai revolution where so many games on the PC-98 would be filled to the brim with porn.

The Sharp X68000 is, as the cool kids say these days, the official GANGSTA of PC gaming due to its reputation for arcade perfect ports, which is why there are so many games with arcade-perfect X68000 conversions. This, Strider, Final Fight, and many more.

Daimakaimura on Sharp X68000 is one of them.

——————————————————————————

Daimakaimura or Ghouls 'N' Ghosts as it was known in the west is the sequel to the very popular Makaimura or Ghost 'N' Goblins, in case you didn't know. The game has you set out as Arthur, our knight in shining amour. Battling demons in the hope of getting his kidnapped (again) woman back from the devil, or at least something that resembles him. Arthur must battle his way throughout eight tough platform stages, taking on all manner of zombies, ghosts and ghouls. But wait! 

You reach the end and guess what?  Yep, the bastards send you right back to the beginning to find the magic ring, which you need to defeat the last boss. Why this couldn't be told to you at the beginning of the game, I don't know. So off you set, AGAIN!  As if once wasn't hard enough. 

Thankfully, there are many weapons for Arthur to pick up that will help him on his quest. As well as the weapons, there's also the magic amour that can perform different magic depending upon which weapon you are holding.

Gameplay-wise, it's nothing more than you would expect from a Sharp X68000. Absolutely arcade-perfect.

The music? Well, being a Sharp X68000, players can configure what sort of sound would play from it. You could play it via the internal sound chip, or via the Roland SC-55 and/or MT-32 MIDI modules that upgrade the sound by a margin I can't tell, because I don't own a X68000. X68000 systems are really unreliably expensive, and the 5.25-inch floppy disks these games come on are rather fragile or have a really short shelf life.

This Sharp X68000 version is the absolute BEST version money could buy if you lived in Japan in 1994 and had a load of cash to spend. But for everywhere else, the Mega Drive version (programmed and published by Sega) is still the king.

PROS:

Being a Sharp X68000 conversion (don't forget the X68000 is a series of computers), it plays just like the Capcom arcade machine

The music, whether it be played back via the internal sound chip or the Roland MIDI modules, sound absolutely GREAT

The graphics are exactly the same as that on the Capcom arcade machine

High level of playability

Challenging enough to make gameplay last throughout the month...

CONS:

...but enemies can be a bit brutal

You get the sense the Capcom intentionally wanted to make people break tens of controllers during game production...

...and you have to play the game TWICE to get the game's true ending, which did piss people off; but Capcom could get away with it because the game is a stone-cold tough-as-balls arcade classic

Verdict:

An excellent game which is as flawless as the arcade machine.

Here is my scoring system for this game.... actually, there is no point in grading this game on gameplay, graphics, and all the other criteria because this is a rare specimen I get to play. Sharp X68000 version of Ghouls N Ghosts would have gotten a 10/10 for me, but if a new player were to play this expecting a Mario-style platformer a-la Super Mario Bros. on the NES, they're really going to be disappointed. Saying that though, it plays absolutely well, just as solid as the arcade machine, and that's all that matters when it comes to reviewing Sharp X68000 games.

So overall, Daimakaimura on the Sharp X68000 gets a score of...

9/10.

[posthumanwanderings]

[arcadebroke]

[songsofgaming]

Ghouls ‘n Ghosts - The Crystal Forest

[smsggsts]

(1991) Ghouls'n Ghosts

alright renditions of the iconic tunes

[snesgsts]

(1992) Yuu Yu no Quiz de Go! Go!

god this is good. the basslines. the sound selection.

the everything.

just. #rec

try out “Egypt” if nothing else. (but really give the entire thing a listen)

[arcade-gsts]

The Speed Rumbler

yeah some of these synths are really rough. 

the writing is really nice though. “Stage Clear” is super delightful omg

I’m almost certain that several tracks dive into odd time as well...

most of the tracks have a vaguely jazzy vibe to them.

“Chaser (Stage 2, 6)” is the highlight here imo

[fancypantsrecords]

Ayako Mori & Tamayo Kawamoto - Capcom Game Music | G.M.O. Records | 1986 | Black

[doshmanziari]

Hello. My second album, entitled MAGNO, is out today and available on Bandcamp. Give it a listen, let me know what you think, and consider purchasing it to my support my art practice. It’s $7 for twenty tracks -- which are mostly pretty good!

From the album’s description:

MAGNO is a compilation of pieces written over the past seven or so years which I feel complement one another with their moods, ensembles, and structures. The album's name, as with numerous track titles, is made up, and evokes for me imagery alike the album art's oculus, which shows a rounded cosmos beyond a material framework. Because of the wide span of time, there are certain disparities -- perhaps, to some, flaws; or indicators of a changing craft. In several pieces, there are vestiges of older sounds: for example, the ‘keyboard’ solo in “Carpet of Gold”, or the coda for “Signs of Water.” You might also pick out a few playful musical references to others' work here and there. I began writing -- naively putting together -- music at a time when dance music felt to me still exciting and central, and so my output then was EDM-oriented. Although MAGNO's material can rarely be categorized as straight EDM (whatever that might mean to you), I think its emphases on motor rhythms and large, resonant leads and pads reveal those origins. My musical inspirations (not always apparent) and thanks go to: Rei Harakami, Yasuhisa Watanabe, Isao Tomita, Johann Sebastian Bach, Allan Holdsworth, Mirco de Govia, Dirty Loops, Masashi Hamauzu, Pat Metheny, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Steve Reich, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ryo Yonemitsu, Lyle Mays, Shinji Hosoe, Domenico Scarlatti, Tamayo Kawamoto, and Yuji Takenouchi.

The album art is by Jason Baum, a talented pixel artist who goes by GnosticBeaumont elsewhere.

[bancho-zx]

【Genesis | Mega Drive】 Ghouls 'n Ghosts | 大魔界村 ~Attract demo

// Music: Tamayo Kawamoto | 河本圭代

// MiSTer FPGA // MegaDrive Nuked-MD core // Y/C Composite // Sony KV-13TR20 CRT TV

[videostak]

from Yūyu no Quiz de Go! Go! on the Super Famicom, 1992

[posthumanwanderings]

Tamayo Kawamoto: RayStorm - Track 48