The beloved video game franchise is nearly three decades old and now, a tech hack lets you remix the iconic 8-bit sounds that shaped Super Mario’s world.
What makes or breaks a video game? Is it the graphics? The gameplay? The characters? Most likely, in fact, around 9 times out of 10, the success of a video game is in the atmosphere. It’s all well and good having a brilliant gameplay idea with the highest definition in all of the pixellated lands, and the characters go a long way in terms of user involvement too, but nothing quite captivates a player like the atmosphere in a game, whether it’s the atmosphere in a survivor title or the quiet moments in between the explosions of an action game, the atmosphere is vital.
And often, the atmosphere is influenced by the music, and no games have proved that law time and time again than the Mario video game franchise. Being Nintendo’s flagship franchise, Mario the Plumber and his green-clad brother, Luigi made their debuts nearly 30 years ago and the success was almost entirely defined by that one catchy piece of 8-bit tuneage. The iconic song said ‘this game is fun, this game is addictive and this game is worthy of your time and money’ and this many years on, it still rings through the hallows of our brains’ memory sectors.
Now, talented hacker, Chris Novello, has not only found a way to keep himself around the delightful music at all times, he’s also designed a way to remix it for himself, with what he has called, the ‘Super Mario Spacetime Organ’.
Quite literally a high tech piano, the Super Mario Spacetime Organ is made up of something called the “Illucia patchbay” which serves as the basis for the sounds and is effectively where they are stored and looped from whilst the other control is the Madrona Soundplane music controller. With the latter piece of gadgetry, you can tap away, playing various clips of sound from both Super Mario’s famous theme tune as well as various sound effects from the game, such as the equally as iconic coin *pling* that occurs when Mario hits one of the many floating boxes in the Mushroom Kingdom, only to be rewarded with a glittering, golden coin.
Watch a video of the Super Mario Spacetime Organ in action below.
super mario spacetime organ (illucia & soundplane) from paperkettle on Vimeo.
Source(s) : laughingsquid, vimeo, chrisnovello
