Banjo Kazooie OST

Back in 1998 Rare released Banjo Kazooie on the N64 console.

 At the time it was released it already had at least three or four years worth of development and a console change, which makes for an interesting backstory. Originally Banjo Kazooie started life as Project Dream on the SNES at some point in the early 90's. It slid onto the N64 at around 1995 when it was deemed too large for the SNES. Project Dream has, as far as I know never been leaked or shown to the public bar this one screenshot printed in.. actually I have no idea where it was printed.

Interesting isn't it? There is more over here at Unseen64 including snippets of information taken from the blog of one Grant Kirkhope, who did the music.

So, you collect golden jigsaw pieces to progress to new levels - fair enough. Ten per level, with one of them being collecting five jingoes hidden throught the level. There are also health bar upgrades in the form of hollow honeycombs hidden, one per level. Lets not forget 100 notes per level which do not save upon exit and re-entry to the level (Which I just read is because  "Saving the collection state of all 100 Notes in each world was apparently too much for N64 hardware." This was apparently changed on the Xbox Live re-release. Weak! Source) In summary, Rare fucking loved item collection,.

And as is the theme with these posts, the actual bit I am archiving/posting to share is the soundtrack. Which is of course awesome. The game is jammed full of unique bouncy tunes that perfectly compliment the levels they go with. Ideally of course you'd be hearing these tunes while playing the game, but I think they have enough merit to stand on their own.

Enjoy!

DDL
Mediafire

Pilot Wings OST

I touched upon the Pilot Wings OST in an earlier post (NSFW), but it's so good I think it deserves a seperate archival post.

Pilotwings was a launch title for the N64 back in 1996 (Or march 1 1997 if you were in the PAL region) It was developed by Paradigm Entertainment in tandem with Nintendo. The gist of the development saga is covered on the wikipedia page. Company is good at graphics, Nintendo approaches them, a game is made. Now that I think about it, that's actually dead on with what they (Nintendo) did earlier on with Starfox on the SNES.

The soundtrack was composed by Dan Hess, and (in my opinion) is nothing less than a masterwork of smooth tunes. Some people have said to me that they find the slow paced music boring so, it's not for everyone clearly. But for me the relaxing tunes go perfectly with the game, even if it is sometimes juxtaposed with my mounting fustration in the cave levels. If you enjoy this you may also like the Chrono Trigger jazz remix album. Track one is over here.

As a side note according to the wikipedia page Paradigm Entertainment was closed by THQ in 2008. Not many companies seem to last long in the video game world. If I have the time I'll make a flow chart some day.

Edit: I found those scans I mentioned. Wait no, somehow I didn't mention them.
The pages below are from Retro Gamer a british magazine which covers the old school, at one point Pilot WIngs 64 got a two page spread and they tracked down some of the people involved in making it.

Click on them for the larger image that you can actually read!

Enjoy!

DDL

Mediafire

Release #105 - New Dominion Tank Police OST

[Strange Scans] is proud to present a soundtrack release! This time it's the UK OST for the New Dominion Tank Police OVA's. The aptly titled 'New Dominion'. The metadata however read Dominion II - New Dominion Tank Police, so we're going with that.

I find it interesting that they managed an english release of this all the way back in 1993. (The same year Ninja Scroll came out) I also find it interesting that Anipuma and Unipuma have blonde hair in Dominion Tank Police  and on the cover of the New Dominion Tank Police soundtrack but not in the insert or the New Dominion Tank Police anime? I know that New Dominion Tank Police was a reboot but whats up with changing a detail like that? Maybe I'm too picky.

Regardless, enjoy - and don't forget to sing along with the insert!

320kb MP3

DDL  
Dropbox

Mediafire
Sendspace

FLAC
DDL 
Dropbox
Mega
Megaupload

Release #095 - Dominion Tank Police OST USA

[Strange Scans] is proud to present, yet another OST release! This one is a bit of an unusual case, it's the Dominion Tank Police OST - but it's not the japanese one with the starndard tracks. It's the tracks exclusive to the american release - the into, puma dance song and the credits song. Or if you want the track listing.

01 We'll Give it Our Best Shot

02 Puma Dance

03 I Adore you

The listed artist is 'Brown Eyes'. I have no idea who this actually is and the credits list the same thing, since Central Park Media aka Manga Corps have been gone since 2009 and this was almost two decades earlier (1992), I have little to no way of checking with anybody on this short of trying to contact the people listed in the credits - if you anything please let me know!

320kb MP3
DDL 
Dropbox

Mediafire
Sendspace

FLAC
DDL 
Dropbox

Mediafire
Sendspace

Release #087 - Black Magic M-66 OST

[Strange Scans] is proud to present it's very first audio release, the Black Magic M-66 OST! I am aware that this has been ripped and released before, I'm not clear on how quality that release was actually. But why not have a crack at doing an OST release? I've put up two versions - one which is a 320kb MP3 rip at 90MB, and the other which is a FLAC at 252 MB. This also includes the insert/notes sheet.

320kb MP3
DDL

Mediafire

FLAC

Edit: I am having trouble hosting this, I will fix it when I can.

Sendspace

Megaupload