I was interviewed for What Happened to Chiptune?, a podcast about the lifecycle of the Chiptune scene. We talked about my involvement with the Bay Area scene, my work doing live music visuals, developing the Game Visualizer and Triggerboy, and my general history with game development and thoughts about the past and future of indie games and Chiptunes.

The full interview is below. Episode page and show notes are here.

Some errata and things I forgot to mention:

  • I said my Bar Mitzvah (and the time I got my Genesis) was in 2010 but I accidentally transposed some digits and didn’t correct myself, it was actually in 2001 which makes a lot more sense with the Genesis being end of life! At that time you could still pick up used Genesis cartridges for cheap at FunCo Land.

  • I didn’t explain this well but Raphael “Raizin” Bob-Waksberg from Olde English is also the creator of BoJack Horseman, and Jesse Novak (Tugboat) scored that show. I don’t think I made the connection until just now but Adam Conover is also involved with Olde English, it’s kind of a legendary group.

  • I don’t know why I didn’t think about this when we were discussing Anamanaguchi, but what I said about not getting into their more recent work is not entirely accurate. I somehow forgot when we were speaking but I did really love the soundtrack for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off which they wrote with Joseph Trapanese. I’d call it a Chiptune album among other things (multiple musical styles are present on the album) but I’d say many parts of it are recognizable as Anamanaguchi. This is actually one of my albums that I have been taking the time to digest, I’ve bought a copy of it and have had it on heavy rotation for a while. I’d definitely recommend the album and the show, they are both really well done and are a very fresh take on the property IMO.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the interview if you listen to it. I’d also recommend checking out the other episodes of the show, there’s a lot of really interesting stuff if you have an interest in Chiptunes or the issues surrounding a small music scene in general.