Keep On Trying Till You Run Out of Cake

While at Funspot, I realized that video games have come a long way. Vector graphics are indeed super cool and I loved revisiting those old musty gems but mostly I was glad to be able to come back home to the modern world where games don't end within seconds of gameplay. Many of the titles there chewed me up and spit me out. Both Bagman & Tutankhamen lasted a total of 15 seconds and left me longing for the security of Super Mario Galaxy and it's nearly endless do-overs. Even the games I did well at were a severe challenge. The handling on Burgertime is so sluggish and stiff it's like driving without power steering.

The music leaves something to be desired too. Many games have minimal soundtracks if they have music at all. There are almost always the requisite blips and boops but I didn't really find any new favorites or any melodies I could even remember on the drive home. These days, some games release their soundtracks on cds and there are travelling orchestras who perform in packed concert halls for people who rarely leave their basements.

After 20 years of playing Mario and Zelda, their themes are hardwired into my brain and just a few notes have me swimming in a sea of nostalgia. It's always fun to play the newest version of an old favorite to see how they modernize and incorporate the leitmotifs into the latest games. I won't get into the whole modern world of video game soundtracks and bands licensing or even writing songs for them, but it's safe to say that in 30 years, the musical world of video games has changed drastically.

One of my favorite songs from the modern era I first heard while playing Rock Band and have since become addicted to. It's from the physics based puzzler Portal which I have only briefly seen but not played. The plot of the game is that you are basically trying to escape from a research facility where you can create two portals in the walls of each room. By jumping in one portal you instantly emerge from the other so if one is on the floor and the other on the ceiling, by dropping through the hole in the ground, you will instantly fall through the hole in the ceiling. it's absolutely brilliant. A robot voice, GLaDOS guides you through the test chambers but, like HAL 9000, something is a bit off and she seems to grow more and more sinister as the game goes on. Like HAL, GLaDOS is eventually disconnected and killed but instead of singing "Bicycle Built for Two" as the curtain falls, she sings this lovely little number, written by Jonathan Coulton.


Portal OST - Still Alive - Jonathan Coulton