With Portal being released for free for a short while, it seems a good time in these dark days of the economy to highlight some excellent free games that everybody should try. The only things these vastly varied games have in common is their price tag:

Masq

A stylish black and white ‘decision’ game, Masq creates its own genre with multiple choices and endings set around a struggling business owner. While trying to gain money for your business decide whether you want to sleep with your secretary, hide it from your wife, rob a bank, blackmail the mob and sell out your friend. While the decisions sound over the top they feel grounded with huge consequences behind every action.

5 Days a Stranger

While not as well known as the other entries on this list, 5 Days a Stranger is by no means less impressive. A classic point and click adventure game with murder, mystery and horror (And made by ‘yahtzee’ himself), this game will hook you from the beginning and make you fall in love with the point and click genre all over again.

Farmville

Love it or hate it, Farmville has been an incredible influence on the Facebook gaming scene.  Nurture and grow a variety of produce including: Cabbage, Purple Asparagus, Blueberries, Apple Trees, Rainbow Trees, Snow Cone Trees, Pigs, Ducks and Unicorns. Even if it’s not your thing, everybody should have a go at one of the most successful social networking games ever made.

AlienSwarm

An intense co-operative top down shooter, AlienSwarm exudes a level of quality rarely seen in free games. Alien Swarm is water cooler gold, with tales of sacrifice; selfishness and carnage abound in every match.  It is as close an experience you will get to playing the film Aliens before the new game is released.

Team Fortress 2

Previously a retail game, Team Fortress 2 is now free. No other game shows so much polish, tweaking and balance without carrying hefty price tag. Trading and buying loot keep its quality afloat, but they are not required to have fun in this funny and entertaining game.

Over the last year details on Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer has been a bit of a mystery and Activision has had yet to reveal any detail. Now, we have a full length trailer for you to feast your eyes on.

The new trailer details some interesting perks and kill streaks for you to earn this go around. It should turn your 5 minute gaming session into 5 hours or more. I fondly remember back in the day playing more then 5 hours a night on Modern Warfare 2 for a while there. Infinity Ward is looking to make a splash again and it looks like they just might accomplish that.

With OnLive in the news recently and its latest update online and ready for your time, we have here our feature review of the home console. OnLive is available in the United States and is officially coming to Europe as well during the Eurogamer Expo in September. Now, keep in mind that OnLive is a game streaming service, much like video streaming services like Netflix. What that means is you have to have a constant Internet connection, preferably a broadband Internet connection. So, now that you have that in mind, is the OnLive Micro console for you? Read on to find out.

For $99.99, gamers will receive a rather stylish black box. Inside the MicroConsole is the OnLive controller, some batteries, an HDMI cable and a power cable as well as a short USB cable to get you started. The service supports some Wi-Fi, but it is recommended you have a wired Ethernet connection. With the console coming straight with a HDMI cable you’ll have to have an HDMI port on your HDTV and if you don’t you will have to purchase a HDMI-to-component converter and if you want rechargeable batteries for your controller that is another separate expense as well, so keep those in mind.

Moving on, the black box is pretty stylish and impressive, its small size will easily fit into your entertainment center next to your home consoles. The MicroConsole has HDMI output, optical audio out, headphone jack, an Ethernet port and a power plug the device is still simple in design. The design manages to use less energy then a light bulb and once the controller is synced up, you don’t even have to bother with the MicroConsole again. In the long run it’s the controller you’ll be spending the most time with and it’s a very solid gamepad.  All of the features are here so if you are familiar with the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 controllers you’ll feel right at home. The major buttons are here and it looks and plays great. It’s dual-toned with a sleek black matte finish with orange accents.

Since the controller’s first reveal in 2009, it’s undergone a major design change. The left analog stick sits on the bottom while the d-pad sits on the top part of the controller. The D-pad has been redesigned with precision and the buttons can now be pressed towards the center of each other making it easier to perform those extreme moves in Street Fighter for instance. Outside of that the analog sticks are at a decent height and the face buttons (A, B, X and Y) are all here and spaced evenly like the 360 controller. The trigger buttons have a little more resistance then the 360 controllers making for much less noise.

Games like Batman: Arkham Asylum and BioShock played great though with occasional network errors things can become a bit flustered. Depending on your network connection you could see slight graphics mishaps like colors being distorted at times and changing different shades. It didn’t end up feeling like true 1080p gaming but it’s getting there. The service is continually growing and this is just the beginning for OnLive. On my network things ran smoothly that is when nothing else in the house on Internet is running. The games in the catalog are of older titles, but OnLive is continuing to make deals with publishers specifically more recently with Square Enix to release Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC version) on it. Recently OnLive MicroConsole codes were packaged in the PC version, in promotion with Square Enix, for the recent release of Dues Ex: Human Revolution. Other games like Unreal Tournament III and Homeland, games with multiplayer components, played well but again the lag is something you’ll have to overcome to enjoy these titles.

Of course brighter games like Braid and The Maw for instance fared better visually. It’s the dark games that have issues when it comes too visual clarity. So if you can tolerate the lag issues, graphical fidelity and the rather closed approach too multiplayer gaming and DLC, OnLive is certainly a good addition if you like PC gaming without the need to upgrade. OnLive certainly doesn’t feel like a half-assed service and the company behind the product is continuously looking to create a better environment for gamers adding new features like the recent update and the MicroConsole certainly has a bright future ahead.

This year’s GameCity festival in Nottingham was host to a variety of exciting personalities. Notable was the collection of stellar talent from the world of independent development. Collect them in a room over lunch and many interesting insights into the gruelling world of videogame development are glimpsed.

Around the table were Adam Saltsman (Canabalt), Jonathan Blow (Braid), Chris Hecker (SpyParty), and Paul Taylor (Frozen Synapse). Keita Takahashi (Noby Noby Boy) was also there, but he didn’t speak much.  After brief introductions, talk moved onto Chris’s previous work at Maxim, where he worked with Will Wright on Spore. ‘I worked on Spore for six years, and I’m proud of what I did, but from a creative point, working at a big developer is soul destroying; he explained. ‘Spore could have been the Sistine Chapel of games, but it wasn’t.’

Conversation focuses onto developing from home. ‘Ass-in-chair productivity is hard’ says Chris. ‘I mean I need to make [Spyparty] work. I was laid off in August/September, and since then I’ve been working on SpyParty. I have to take it seriously or I’ll fail at life. Getting it done is the hardest part of being Indie, but the creative control is great. As long as I can afford to feed myself I can do what I want.’

Canabalt; Adam Saltsman’s retro free-running game

Jonathon Blow explained how for him, being at a big studio was never the option. ‘It was never a choice for me. I’ve always been independent. I can’t be motivated about something I’m not interested in.’ For Paul Taylor, it was a case of falling into the industry. ‘I was at uni in 2002, a friend needed sound and music for a game. I realised that he didn’t know what he was doing.’ Taylor’s solution was to create the company Mode 7 with his design partner, where he could offer more direction and do something he actually enjoyed for a living. ‘We made a load of mistakes, but making something terrible is the best way to start.’

A question is thrown into the panel: Why not make games? Adam immediately quips ‘Why would that not be a good way to spend a couple of decades of your life?’ Hecker agrees, explaining how the industry is one of the most exciting to be in. ‘Society needs doctors and comedians equally. Being in film in the 1900’s would have been so exciting, and I see games like that now. We’re at that point, and we could still fuck it up’. Yet, despite this analogy, he doesn’t always see games as a premier art form. ‘I can’t get my head around the rhetoric that ‘games must be the premier art form of the 21^st century. I do see a need to be creative, but I don’t know if it’s possible to speak to the human condition through games. But I hope it is.’

Braid; Jonathan Blow’s critically acclaimed art-house platformer

Blow see’s a deeper picture in the forms ability to educate: ‘It’s very obvious that games teach people things in a way more natural than sitting in a classroom. Videogames do it in a far more natural and interactive way.’ Saltsman counters this, saying games shouldn’t tell you something ‘but ask a question to the audience.’ He explains that it’s difficult to directly teach since ‘you don’t have total control and you can’t impose order and chaos.’ Taylor agrees, explaining: ‘Games are uniquely bad at giving a message, but they’re good at allowing players to explore another person’s idea. You have to expect and allow for that; making a specific agenda will only provoke a negative reaction.’

The issue of collaboration and ‘Game Jamming’ arises, and there’s a split opinion. Hecker is enthused by it, but is dubious as to how it would work. ‘The band idea appeals to me, it would be awesome. But I just can’t see how it would work, and I’m jealous of that!’ Saltsman points out that collaboration occurs a lot in the independent scene, just not in the Hollywood-esque manner people would expect. ‘Every indie game tends to be a collaboration. Super Meat Boy is a collaboration of two friends who make games. ‘We’re bitchy loners’ is kinda the conception we have, but it’s not true’. Of the GameJam idea (developers coming together to make a game in a very short space of time), Jonathan dismisses the trend, saying: ‘It seems a badge of honour in the GameJam community to make a game in four days. That’s not cool. They’re normally bad games.’

Frozen Synapse; a turn-based combat game from Paul Taylor’s Mode 7 studio

From their conversation, it seems clear why these guys have chosen the indie path. Working for the big corps is creatively soul-destroying, and whilst the independent path is difficult to follow, it’s immensely satisfying, and the results speak for themselves. What is a shame then is that games like Braid are so heavily pirated (Blow estimates over a million people have played Braid, whilst just a few thousand have actually paid for it). Considering the creative quality of these games and the risks taken to produce them, more respect should be paid to these small-time heroes of the industry. If nothing else, the panel demonstrated that games are made by real people with real personality, ambition and creative impulses, not machines that speak programmer code. They should be supported at any cost, not just to keep their families fed, but because with the likes of Bobby Kotick controlling the big players, they’re our only hope for fresh gameplay experiences.

At this year’s GameCity festival in Nottingham, independent developer Chris Hecker gave an insightful talk on his current project; the highly ambitious SpyParty. An espionage game that’s actually about spy work rather than explosions and laser-watches, SpyParty is one of the first genuinely fresh concepts to come around in years.

‘I wanted to make a game different from most spy games that are out there at the moment’ explained Chris. ‘If you think about your favourite spy movie, the majority of the story experience is watching them be cool; seducing people and hiding in plain sight. So I wanted less of the explosions, and more of the Sean Connery.’

Hecker until recently was working at Maxis with Will Wright on Spore, but since departing from the company has been working on SpyParty. The core concept is a battle of wits between two players; one taking the role of the spy, the other a sniper looking to take him out. ‘These are two completely separate and distinct roles taking place in the same environment’ explains Chris. The spy is a third-person experience, and must complete various tasks within a room at a party. He is surrounded by numerous other guests, and must complete his tasks without blowing his cover. From an FPS perspective, the sniper looks in through the window of the party and must try to work out which party guest is the spy.

The trick to the gameplay mechanic is the ‘Inverse Turing Test’. The Turing Test is used to test the AI of computers, and a computer that passes it is deemed to perfectly mimic human intelligence. But invert this, says Hecker, and have a human attempt to mimic a computer, and the results are not only achievable but form a game mechanic. In SpyParty, the player controlling the spy must act like computer-controlled NPC characters. Any display of distinctly human behaviour will make it obvious who in a room of ten people is actually the human-controlled enemy.

At first it sounds a hard and complicated approach, but Hecker assures us it’s all in the teaching methods. ‘Online, people yell at you all the time for being a n00b and then kick you off the server. There’s a steep learning curve in a competitive environment, because it’s not always obvious what to do. You have to learn, and just yelling at new players doesn’t work. Games do an incredibly bad job at mentoring players right now. With SpyParty, I hope to teach this to people.’

SpyParty itself, when you learn the mechanics, it’s an exceptionally rewarding experience. It’s exciting and tense, but this atmosphere comes directly from the core mechanics themselves. At current, there’s no music to drum up the suspense, and the graphics are simply placeholder. There’s also no plot or narrative, which in most games at current is what is used to create the drama. ‘Games really emphasise plot, but it’s actually the least important aspect of an actual game’ says Hecker. ‘One element of a game design isn’t better than the other, but we’re overly focussed on plot. It’s strange and alienating to me. I am focusing on characters, setting, mood and not so much on plot. Just look at Left 4 Dead.’

The similarities between SpyParty and Left 4 Dead are numerous; both being focused on gameplay experience rather than narrative, and both feature asymmetrical gameplay within the same environment (Spy v Sniper/Survivors v Infected). But whereas survival in Left 4 Dead comes through the use of firearms, SpyParty is all about hiding in plain sight. For this experience to ring true, Hecker is producing custom AI and animations for every character in SpyParty, so every NPC will have their own traits and characteristics. ‘I want the game to feel completely magical in a bespoke environment’ comments Hecker.

To say SpyParty is a game of subtlety would be an understatement. Chris starts to play his game whilst the audience participate as the sniper, calling out shots to the volunteer with the controller. At the party Chris has four tasks; he must plant a bug on the Ambassador, contact a double agent with the key work ‘banana bread’, swap over a priceless statue, and retrieve an item hidden in a book. As the binoculars sweep over the windows, it’s clear how long Chris has been working on SpyParty. His skill is impeccable; for as far as we’re concerned the room is full of NPCs. He gives nothing away. As the time counter drops, he suddenly makes a telling human sign. The audience shouts ‘TAKE HIM OUT!’, and with a snap the rifle fires. Party goers scream, and the body of a suited gent collapses. We’d spotted him.

Chris points out that the violence here, being non constant, adds to the feel. ‘SpyParty uses violence to add tension, not as an actual mechanic. Violence is an easy way to add stylised tension, but SpyParty is not an FPS. The Spy cannot harm the Sniper, and the Sniper only has one shot. The core resource her is attention. You have to make consequential decisions with partial information.’

If anything is clear it is that SpyParty is a game of skill. Hecker tells of his love for Counter-Strike, and it shows in his production. Like Counter-Strike, SpyParty is all down to the perfection of the art, and without practice you could never master it. The game may be based on social interaction, but it’s a big mistake to call SpyParty a social game. ‘It’s a gamey game; I’m not trying to make a social game for newbies’ points out Hecker. There’s no denying that; SpyParty may not be a fight to the death in direct combat, but it’s every bit as ‘hard-core’ as the most blood-thirsty competitive shooter.

SpyParty may currently look a bit simplistic in its function and aesthetic design, but it’s far from finished yet. What is clear though is Hecker’s ambition and enthusiasm. From the brief play test, the game has a clear focused goal and does what it does exceptionally well. It’s about time we had a fresh concept, and whilst we’re going to have to wait a couple of years for the finished product to emerge, there’s no doubt SpyParty will cause quite a shake when it finally infiltrates the Indie marketplace.

We’ve all done it at some point. Crowded around a TV, Xbox and Guitar Hero; half a bottle of whiskey flowing through the blood stream and some bizarre cocktail of God-knows-what in our hands, attempting to beat Hysteria’s complicated bass line on expert.

Not all of us try and do this for a living, however. But for a few guys in Brisbane, Australia; the dream of playing Guitar Hero whilst drunk every night is now a massively successful profession. (Well, perhaps not being drunk, but certainly watching others do it from the other side of the bar.)

‘When we were doing a lot of parties at Yug’s old place, we’d turn on Guitar Hero, which we noticed tended to draw the crowd. Everyone would have a drink in their hand. So it went from there I guess’ explains Ben ‘Yahtzee’ Croshaw of the immensely successful Zero Punctuation. Famous for his stick figures and biting criticism against the vast majority of modern game releases, he now works alongside Guy ‘Yug’ Blomberg and a small band of gaming enthusiasts in running the Mana Bar. ‘I think most people have come up with the idea’ notes Yug, ‘but usually this is created when people are drinking, and usually during the hangover the next day everyone’s like ‘What was that stupid idea we were thinking of?’, whereas I woke up the next day and thought ‘This is a brilliant idea!’ And somehow I managed to manipulatively convince my good friends to come into this with me…’ At this, Yahtzee simply states ‘I wanted to see him fail… either way, you crippled mentally or I’d make some money out of it, so win/win.’

The Mana Bar itself is a small hideaway in Fortitude Valley, the entertainment precinct of Brisbane city. Within its walls are five console stations with anything from Rock Band to Street Fighter IV playing, alongside a bar stacked with a massive selection of liquor. It’s definitely an intimate venue, but this certainly adds to the character. Perched on the top of the tables are DVD cases containing the tempting cocktail menu, which features such delights as the Ocarina of Lime, the Princess Peach and the Health Potion (all designed by award winning cocktail mixer Shay Leighton). But how exactly do you turn a crazy idea into a living, breathing venue such as this?

‘A lot of hard work and figuring things out that we’ve never had to figure out before’ tells Yug. ‘It was two years between coming up with it and actually opening the bar. You have to understand that myself and Yahtzee hadn’t any experience in hospitality before. It’s all just about taking things one day at a time and figuring out how to do this, how to do that. And that was a very slow, long process, and the process of trying to get a liquor licence is a very long, slow process. But the actual creating the idea we came up with initially to what we have here today is very on the money actually. It’s what we initially had in mind, which is good’.

It comes to Friday night and walking into the Mana Bar reveals just what a phenomenal success it has become. Wall to wall, gamers are crowded around screens watching each other dominate enemies on Super Smash Bros. Brawl or shred solos on Guitar Hero. There’s also a four-way going on at the screen playing Raskulls; a charming little indie title developed locally in Australia. Everyone’s sipping from brightly coloured cocktails and having fun. It’s an atmosphere almost completely departed from any bar you’ve ever been in, with every patron galvanised and united by their love for videogames. Talking of the reaction in the city to the Mana Bar, Yug explains: ‘It’s been overwhelmingly positive. Very few negative responses and they’ve mainly been to do with the size of the venue, and really if that’s the only thing I’m doing wrong then I’m happy with that.’

Yahtzee notes the reaction from other bars in the area, who are apparently ‘very jealous of our clientele’. Yug points out that the Mana Bar ‘brings a very new and different crowd, a very non-violent crowd. We’ve had the owners of other bars come into our venue and go ‘We would kill for these people.’ They’re young. They’re friendly, and they drink like fish.’

Looking at the sheer amount of people attending the Mana Bar, it isn’t hard to wonder how much of this is down to Yahtzee’s reputation among the gaming community. Yug admits that having Yahtzee is an asset to them, especially when promoting overseas where Yahtzee’s brand is huge. But he has plans to ensure the Mana Bar becomes a brand synonymous with a great drinking and gaming experience. ‘We want to get away from that stigma that ‘there’s that little gaming bar in Brisbane’ to ‘The Mana Bar, which state were you talking about?’ But then again, this is another long and painful process, but there will be more Mana bars out there in the future. What capacity and where, I’m not gonna say just yet…’ Such a teasing statement easily brings thoughts of bigger, more extravagant versions of the Mana Bar.

It’s now four months on from the launch of the Mana Bar, and almost every night of its existence has been themed in one way or another. This has been aided by some extremely positive industry support, with support from many major publishers, from Sony to EA. As a result, the Mana Bar is sometimes used as a venue to launch games from. ‘It’s fun doing game launches, having games playable at the bar before release and stuff like that’ says Yug. But what does he feel is his biggest success over the four months? ‘The fact we’re still open!’ he laughs. ‘So many people were saying ‘gaming bar, pfft!’ No one’s going to buy drinks, it’ll be full of pasty white, antisocial, stereotypical fat WoW nerds… (‘And whilst we do have our fair share of those’ adds Yahtzee)… Most of them aren’t. It’s a nice mix’. Yahtzee seems somewhat enthusiastic when he adds that the bar see’s a ‘surprising number of chicks as well’. Yug agrees, noting that: ‘it’s a nice indication that gaming trends have changed away from the stereotypical cliché’.

Travelling from Britain to Brisbane, it’s almost been like a trek to gaming Mecca. It’s a tremendous feeling when you walk through that door though to discover that the Mana Bar is everything it promises. Filled with friendly characters, unique cocktail mixes and events that range from tournaments to Yahtzee’s Trivia Night on a Tuesday, it’s hard not to be jealous of the gamers living in Brisbane. They genuinely have access to something special. We can only hope that the future doesn’t just hold more Mana Bars for wider Australia, but for the wider world…

The often-overlooked chiptune genre has seen a recent resurgence as of late, with the tenaciously vicious yet symphonic beats from yesteryear becoming one of the music industry’s less publicised secrets. In this genre, old, vintage sound chips and synthesisers replace the current high-tech, highly-computerised technology, and this creates a much sharper yet hypnotic sound.

Classical choices for sound chips normally come from older computers and video game consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Commodore 64, and the grossly underestimated Sega Mega Drive. This ability to reuse older equipment and bring it into a newer setting is obviously not a new one, but the way in which chiptune artists view their work and their equipment is different to most genres, they seem to have a much deeper connection to the sonics and capabilities of their devices and honour them before honouring themselves, a trend forgotten about in this increasingly image-dominated music industry.

Perhaps then, that’s why chiptunes are never topping the charts and the genre is supported by a closed niche audience. In effect, the genre and its audience have a kind of kinship that stretches beyond the creation of sound, there’s a further degree of respect, mixed in with nostalgia of the golden age of chiptunes of the 80s and 90s when sound devices like these were the only choice for computerised sound at the time.

“I really got into music heavily on the Amiga 500 using Deluxe Music Construction Set with it’s terrible attempts at emulating Strings and Piano etc, but when the PC came into the home with its artificial samples of orchestral instruments it was far worse. I decided to use the PC not as an instrument but a gateway into other older machines, learn about emulation, schematics and technical documents. There is nostalgia for these kinds of sounds now; these are the sounds a lot of my listeners grew up with in their homes in the arcades. I think it’s a very natural thing for a composer to do, to take the sounds from around them and use them to create music or at least try to emulate the sounds around them, Mozart did this with the birds in his garden, I am doing this with the NES in my living room,” said chiptune artist Pixelh8.

“It’s a game; the machines have natural limitations, cultural associations. What you use and alter to create something new is both a technical challenge as well as a musical one. Chip tunes could potentially be swallowed by “pop” music, it won’t be long before some record exec signs up someone and proclaims to the world “this is what chip tune is” and people will get a very narrow view of it, that is one way it might go. Hopefully it will carry on like it has successfully growing expanding in its range and depth, chip tune isn’t a genre and that is what a lot of people misunderstand it’s a choice of instrumentation. Two chip tune artists can use exactly the same tools but sound completely different, and can create anything from ballads to dance floor fillers.”

Nowadays, people have more freedom and time to create what they want to in music, as well as a much greater emphasis on experimentation in order to create something different from the norm, and this is how the chiptune scene has started to flourish recently, with a large multitude of artists spanning from bedroom-dismantlers to globe-trotting performers such as Nullsleep.

“I make music using a game boy mainly because it’s small, portable and sound great. I love playing music, for me it’s like a matter like wood. It’s like I build something without doing anything, I’ll play till the end of my days. The best way to enjoy this type of music is a Microparty, the funniest party ever. Thanks to my game boy I’ve played worldwide and I’ve met people from all over the world.
I can’t ask for anything better,” said chiptune artist Tonylight.

Other artists and groups to check out include Bubblyfish, Jellica and IAYD. Chiptune artists know how to put on a show and utilise technology much better than other musicians, and regularly offer their songs for free on the internet in order to promote themselves and the genre, and there seems to be a mutual respect between listeners and the creators, a much greater balance than the poor state of most music in general these days. In addition, the public’s opinions are actually listened to and acts will take their advice, in a way that is unprecedented with most music at the moment.

“Like most kids growing up I played a ton of video games…(that however has no influence on my music) but when I was about twelve I had been really attached to the sound of old NES soundtracks. I figured that there had to be a way for non-game composers to create this kind of music and I began my search. I was really excited when I found a small music making program that had a feature called “bitcrusher”, but in the end I realized that that was not going to help me do what I wanted to do. I scrapped it, and eventually, when I was fourteen, I found FamiTracker via some forum posts and some MySpace pages. As soon as I downloaded it my heart nearly flew out of my chest,” said chiptune artist IAYD.

“There’s so many new artists emerging in the scene and so many great things are happening everywhere that it’s impossible for me right now to gauge what we’ll be seeing in the next couple years. The chipmusic scene is constantly evolving with the advent of new hardware and software, and the constant music releases coming to the surface along with the new musicians that in the future we very well could be doing something completely different from what we do now. I’m looking forward to the future.”

“I started making chip music because I was attracted to the sounds.  I grew up with the Atari 2600 and the NES, and once I had an internet connection, my brother and I spent a lot of time downloading and watching demoscene productions.  The use of square waves, triangle waves, white noise, and low-bit crunchy samples as the primary forms of instrumentation was appealing to me.  It was a stripped-down aesthetic that I felt could be very expressive,” said chiptune artist Nullsleep.

“Chip music has kept me interested for over 10 years now because I feel like there is still a lot left to explore.  I’m very interested in the themes of appropriation and limitation, which are important aspects of this form of music.  There is this great William Gibson quote, “the street finds its own uses for things,” and that really resonates with me.  I like the idea of taking these old video game consoles and repurposing them as cheap synthesizers and sequencers — totally subverting their original commercial intent.  The fact that this early generation of hardware was quite technically limited also has its appeal.  I think that working within those limitations can actually help focus and foster creativity. It’s impossible to say what the future of chip music is, but I hope that it will continue pushing in interesting new directions.”

The musical mainstream has been in a mood of embracement lately, chopping and changing itself in order to attract a bigger crowd back into music, or actually paying for what they listen to. Acts are increasingly looking for more niche influences in order to flush out their tunes and promote themselves as the new big thing, or stating they have a whole new fresh sound. For example, look at the recent introduction of Crystal Castles, who have obviously been influenced by the sound synthesisers of old and bringing that into their bizarre yet chaotic mix of chopped up vocals and disturbing samples to create a truly mammoth sound. However, Crystal Castles are a controversial bunch. They have been accused of sampling chip music artists without credit, allegedly breaking Creative Commons license terms in some cases. The band have distanced themselves from the chip music scene when approached about it in interviews, but bizarrely claimed to have hacked Atari soundchips into their keyboards, which isn’t physically possible.

Regardless, even love to hate figure Calvin Harris has started to borrow some of the core chiptune beats for his latest songs, most prevalent in his latest self-indulgent piece “I’m not alone”. For further mainstream listening check out DJ Zinc’s remix of La Roux’s Bulletproof for a snippet of chiptune foray, with some delightful bleeps and bloops complementing La Roux’s usual powerful vocals and some dark lower frequency naughtiness from Zinc himself.

“In a way, I’m a bit of an outsider in the chiptunes scene. My work is relevant since I create electronic music with microchips, but not because I don’t use old video game systems to do so. My approach is grounds-up circuit construction, rather than re-appropriation of hardware. That said, the low-bit aesthetic is really inspiring, and our sounds are similar, so we end up playing a lot of shows together. Sometimes that means a string quartet of mine with electronics is juxtaposed with a hardcore dance chiptunes track by another artist,” added Tristan Perich.

“Creating electronic sound from microchips is profound for me. They embody the notion of digital music, which is ultimately sound based on a sample rate and a bit-depth. For me, the bit-depth is always 1, so I restrict my palette to on/off signals. This is conceptually meaningful because the speakers I put on-stage with my musicians become my instruments, played by the on and off pulses of electricity I send to them from my microchips, which I program from scratch in assembly. Microchips are small computers, but unlike a laptop, or even a GameBoy for that matter, they have a direct connection between hardware and software, so that commands in software are realized in tandem by simple commands in the hardware. There aren’t as many layers of emulation between the sound production itself (on/off electricity) and the logic that creates it (realized by gates in the microchip). I find this a nice parallel to how traditional acoustic instruments create sound, like a vibrating violin string,” he continued.

“I’m personally interested in the cerebral direction some chiptunes artists have headed. The chiptune sound palettes are unique, visceral and of our time, and the music doesn’t need to stay limited by the social constraints of the scene as a whole. My own path is to combine it with classical instrumentation in formal compositions. There’s a lot of exciting experimentation to do.”

It may not be incredibly popular at the moment and perhaps isn’t enough to sustain dramatic critical success, but the genre is definitely spreading and all but the most drugged up electronica experts are tipping chiptunes to become a much bigger part of remixes and soul-searching massive bass tunes to come. Evidence of the genre’s slow and steady rise to fame comes from an annual event held in New York City; Blip Festival (http://blipfestival.org). Since its recent creation in 2006, the festival has been gaining momentum and last year it attracted nearly 40 acts to Brooklyn’s new music venue, the Bell House. Furthermore, it was the subject of a recent documentary entitled “Reformat the planet”, a good starting point for all those wishing to explore the myriad world of chiptunes.

“The appeal chiptunes have lies not only in their nostalgic quality but also in the restrictions inherent in their creation. More so than in other electronic music genres, the limitations of early sound chips in particular are adopted, incorporated and even celebrated,” said Joe Sayer, CEO of Massive J Productions. “Anybody can load up a sampler or soft synth and key out a melody in a MIDI sequencer, but few connoisseurs would accept this emulation. A master chiptune artist is expected to interface with hardware directly; the more obscure the better, with sound chips originating from 80s games consoles proving particularly popular.”

To conclude then, chiptunes are surprisingly emotional and joyous creations destined to gradually gain popularity, just waiting for an artist or band to really push it into the limelight in order to fully take off. The sentimentality of the era these tunes represents show a different side to the older dance and electronica scene, but you only have to look at the resurgence of electronica lately to see it’s became incredibly relevant to today’s modern age, and this is where chiptunes could step in and sweep the competition away as people of all ages can relate and enjoy them.

Chiptunes have been about for a while now, so it’s only fitting that we should carry on with the internet tradition of putting things in order of “the top 10 of x” format by counting down the top 10 artists of this form of musical expression.

10. Covox

Covox (Thomas Soderlund) is a solid solo chiptune artist with some funky light beats from other synthesisers and sound devices in order to create a light feel to his music. He hails from the increasingly fruitful Stockholm chiptune scene and has been around since his 2003 7” vinyl EP on Swedish label Rebel Pet Set. His first album dropped in June 2005, entitled “Delete The Elite”, which went on to be sold in China and Japan, as well as his homeland of Sweden. Covox has deservedly also had a lot of global success, going on to play in Japan, Holland, Germany and the US amongst others.

Links: http://www.covox.net/ and http://www.myspace.com/covoxmusic

9. Tonylight

Tonylight (Antonio Cavadini) is another European-based chiptune artist, coming from Milano, Italy. He is very much an experimental artist who isn’t afraid to do something different with his music, and many refer to him as occupying the easy-listening part of the ever elusive chiptune spectrum. Tonylight’s first live set entitled Minimal Dinner took place for Start at the Triennale palace in Milano, and was well received in a genre crowded by dance fanatics at the time, early 2005.

“I make music using a game boy mainly because it’s small, portable and sound great. I love playing music, for me it’s like a matter like wood. It’s like I build something without doing anything, I’ll play till the end of my days. The best way to enjoy this type of music is a Microparty, the funniest party ever,” describes Tonylight. Thanks to my game boy I’ve played worldwide and I’ve met people from all over the world. I can’t ask for anything better.”

Not content with taking the Triennale palace by storm, he hit up Live @ Pulsewave in New York City in 2008 to deliver a newer sound, fresh with more dramatic risks and unique, more frequent samples mixed in with a generally darker overtone, which went down a storm and earned him an invite to the prestigious Blip Festival.

Links: http://www.tonylight.it/tonylight/music.html and http://www.myspace.com/microtony

8. Tristan Perich

Tristan Perich is an interesting artist, who attempts to blur the line between music and art. He is someone who takes his music and the way he delivers it very seriously, and is keen to try new and brave ideas. For example, take his 1-Bit Music album. Essentially, the album is delivered as a small circuit board glued inside a traditional CD case, with a 3.5mm headphone jack for people to listen to it. Coming with 11 songs (including a frankly beautiful cover of Fischer Spooner’s Just Let Go), it’s a very raw yet explosive collection.

“In a way, I’m a bit of an outsider in the chiptunes scene. My work is relevant since I create electronic music with microchips, but not because I don’t use old video game systems to do so. My approach is grounds-up circuit construction, rather than re-appropriation of hardware. That said, the low-bit aesthetic is really inspiring, and our sounds are similar, so we end up playing a lot of shows together. Sometimes that means a string quartet of mine with electronics is juxtaposed with a hardcore dance chiptunes track by another artist,” said Tristan.

“Creating electronic sound from microchips is profound for me. They embody the notion of digital music, which is ultimately sound based on a sample rate and a bit-depth. For me, the bit-depth is always 1, so I restrict my palette to on/off signals. This is conceptually meaningful because the speakers I put on-stage with my musicians become my instruments, played by the on and off pulses of electricity I send to them from my microchips, which I program from scratch in assembly. Microchips are small computers, but unlike a laptop, or even a GameBoy for that matter, they have a direct connection between hardware and software, so that commands in software are realized in tandem by simple commands in the hardware. There aren’t as many layers of emulation between the sound production itself (on/off electricity) and the logic that creates it (realized by gates in the microchip). I find this a nice parallel to how traditional acoustic instruments create sound, like a vibrating violin string,” he continued.

“I’m personally interested in the cerebral direction some chiptunes artists have headed. The chiptune sound palettes are unique, visceral and of our time, and the music doesn’t need to stay limited by the social constraints of the scene as a whole. My own path is to combine it with classical instrumentation in formal compositions. There’s a lot of exciting experimentation to do.”

Tristan’s live sets are also eye raising, as when he’s not playing his trademark drum kit in the crowd he’s performing with other artists in his “Loud Objects” collective, where circuit boards are actually soldered live on stage to create music.

Links: http://www.onebitmusic.com/ and http://www.tristanperich.com/

7. Bubblyfish

Bubblyfish may be an old-school artist of the genre and is having a very quiet period as of late, but she is definitely one of the best in the business, coming out of the whole New York scene explosion at The Tank (famous venue for chiptunes) at the same time alongside such esteemed artists as Bit Shifter, Glomag, and Nullsleep. She describes her music as ambient and experimental, yet it normally sounds extremely polished and is a treat for the ears.

Her upbeat and faster tempo track “The Edge of Silence” is seen as a particularly good example of her ability to seemingly effortlessly cross the border between all of the tempos in the spectrum of the genre. Apparently, she doesn’t have much knowledge of videogames and therefore she sees gameboys and such as instruments, which goes some way into explaining her generally more restrained attitude in the scene.

Links: http://www.bubblyfish.com/index.html and http://www.myspace.com/bubblyfishmusic

6. IAYD

“Like most kids growing up I played a ton of video games (that however has no influence on my music) but when I was about twelve I had been really attached to the sound of old NES soundtracks. I figured that there had to be a way for non-game composers to create this kind of music and I began my search. I was really excited when I found a small music making program that had a feature called “bitcrusher”, but in the end I realized that that was not going to help me do what I wanted to do. I scrapped it, and eventually, when I was fourteen, I found FamiTracker via some forum posts and some MySpace pages. As soon as I downloaded it my heart nearly flew out of my chest. The sound is what made me want to write chipmusic, along with the limitations associated with it. In the beginning it was so gratifying for me to have a limited soundset (the NES has five channels and the Game Boy has four), as larger DAWs have such massive and intimidating interfaces. Working around these limitations and squeezing as much sound as you could out of five channels is really something,” says IAYD.

“The aesthetic of chipmusic in general attracted me, too. In the beginning I wasn’t even aware there was a scene for this kind of music; I just wrote small songs with FamiTracker and put them online without knowing there was an established scene of like-minded people doing the same thing as I was. At that point was when I realized I wanted to continue doing this. Chiptune music is my creative outlet, my casual escape from the real world to allow myself full creative freedom. Playing classical music in an orchestra becomes cumbersome and bland, and I enjoy being able to create things that I enjoy listening to and playing. The whole writing process for me is so stimulating that if I didn’t have this platform/medium for my own creativity I’d probably go insane. I enjoy finding new sounds and ways to work around limitations. As for the live performance aspect, I like to make people dance and have fun. There’s so many new artists emerging in the scene and so many great things are happening everywhere that it’s impossible for me right now to gauge what we’ll be seeing in the next couple years. The chipmusic scene is constantly evolving with the advent of new hardware and software, and the constant music releases coming to the surface along with the new musicians that in the future we very well could be doing something completely different from what we do now. I’m looking forward to the future.”

IAYD has his own individual style, hitting the Gameboy’s iconic sound chip with some deliciously vicious “hard-hitting electronic music”. Quite frankly, his music is a sporadic explosion of sound waiting to erupt at any given moment, bringing forth a tidal wave of raw destructive power. “Like A Phoenix” takes you on a journey from romantic harsh via minimal rest bite and straight back onto the addictive and sugar-coated harsh bass that makes up the majority of the song, a feat repeated with the tenacious “Galaxy Smasher”, a true gem of a track. IAYD is synonymous with ear-splitting manic bass and coupled with his young age, he is a big tip for the future of the scene.

Links: http://www.myspace.com/iayd and http://iayd.muxtape.com/

5. Random

Stockholm is home to so many chiptune prodigy’s these days, it’s hard to keep track of who’s who, but one person you should keep your eye on is Random, a very deep and thought-provoking artist who’s not afraid to mix up his genres in each song. His style is mainly within the romanticised hardcore range of the scene, and this has obviously earned him many fans.

However, unlike most artists that clog this style up, he approaches each song with a certain degree of freshness that smashes into you and intoxicates your mind to the simple yet perfect beats. A perfect example of his work comes from the first song on his last.fm page, “Sitges Savepoint”, which features a smashing fade in at the beginning with some superb layering for afters, topped off with a vivid bassline before exploding into a joyous exploration of higher pitched sound.

Links: http://randomizer.se/ and http://www.last.fm/music/Random (First two tracks on the player, first artist in the list)

4. Hellostereo

Hellostereo is a bit different to the rest of the artists listed here, in that he actually sings along to some of his songs and sometimes completely changes his genre between tunes. One second, he could be laying down a sick lick like “Hokkaido Noon 09” with tons of reverb and heavy bass, and the next randomly singing like a distant, chilled out soul in “Get your tongue out of my mouth” over candy-covered beats that never elevates into something stupidly crazy. Hellostereo’s greatest ability is one of restraint, being able to stop himself going completely over-board just before the entrance to the slippery slope of the cheese factory.

Links: http://www.myspace.com/stereohello and http://www.8bitcollective.com/members/hellostereo/

3. Henry Homesweet

Mr. Homesweet is one of those artists that came along to the already established scene, tore it apart, found out what made it tick then stuck that in the middle of his completely mental beats. As a musician, his monolithic sound may be attracting the masses, but he is yet to truly test his range, and seems to lack a certain ability the following two artists possess in expanding the genre to the mainstream.

Despite this, his songs are an immense blend between heavy disco harsh with some seriously blood pumping anthems in the mixer, what with “Until I Sleep”, “DanceFloor64” and the massively popular “Simple Pleasures” (which at the time of writing had over 300,000 listeners on MySpace). Henry can bring chiptunes to the mainstream in the UK, and perhaps that’s a good thing, being a part of the youth new mad club scene and literally lighting up every venue he plays.

Links: http://www.myspace.com/henryhomesweet and http://www.purevolume.com/henryhomesweet

2. Pixelh8

Something must be in the water up in Ipswich, as following the fellow midland dweller Henry Homesweet comes the widely renowned Pixelh8. No one else has done so much for the UK chiptune scene or has come as close as him to truly spreading it to the masses, and his work has inspired generations to pick up their handhelds and join in the action over these shores.

Pixelh8 has appeared on Radio 1 multiple times, being on Rob Da Bank, Zane Lowe and Huw Stephens’ shows and all over the BBC spectrum on various other radio and TV stations.

“I really got into music heavily on the Amiga 500 using Deluxe Music Construction Set with it’s terrible attempts at emulating Strings and Piano etc, but when the PC came into the home with its artificial samples of orchestral instruments it was far worse. I decided to use the PC not as an instrument but a gateway into other older machines, learn about emulation, schematics and technical documents. There is nostalgia for these kinds of sounds now; these are the sounds a lot of my listeners grew up with in their homes in the arcades. I think it’s a very natural thing for a composer to do, to take the sounds from around them and use them to create music or at least try to emulate the sounds around them, Mozart did this with the birds in his garden, I am doing this with the NES in my living room,” said chiptune artist Pixelh8.

“It’s a game; the machines have natural limitations, cultural associations. What you use and alter to create something new is both a technical challenge as well as a musical one. Chip tunes could potentially be swallowed by “pop” music, it won’t be long before some record exec signs up someone and proclaims to the world “this is what chip tune is” and people will get a very narrow view of it, that is one way it might go. Hopefully it will carry on like it has successfully growing expanding in its range and depth, chip tune isn’t a genre and that is what a lot of people misunderstand it’s a choice of instrumentation. Two chip tune artists can use exactly the same tools but sound completely different, and can create anything from ballads to dance floor fillers.”

He has released his own software for free on his website, allowing anyone to try their hand at a bit of chiptune creation. Even though he has had such a busy schedule, he found the time to release four albums (three in 2006 and one in 2007), inhabited a certain Mr. Albarn as a fan and made some truly mind-bending tracks. For example, take “The Master”, a true sonic ranger with some severe pulsation and oscillation that will send you into another dimension or the nostalgic romanticism of “Chocolate Milk”, or the tenacious “Girl Fight”. He has something for everyone and is the best UK chiptune artist.

Links: http://pixelh8.co.uk/ and http://www.myspace.com/pixelh8

1. Nullsleep

Nullsleep is an artist that was there from the very beginning of chiptunes in New York City, and has done more than anyone in pushing its influence as far as it can and is the reason you are reading this article. Nullsleep, Glomag, Bit Shifter and Bubblyfish started out together and while they were all very special artists, Nullsleep had the extra kick in order to make his tunes stand out and created a beautiful, psychedelic 8-bit monster that has refused to stop tormenting people’s ear drums ever since, and we love it. Throughout his time as a chiptune artist, he has perfected his romantic, journeying style to consistently deliver something truly special.

Nullsleep is also known for his other contributions to the scene in the form of education for aspiring chiptune artists in actual classes he holds in New York City, and runs the highly popular 8bitpeoples, a site that gives the lowdown on chiptune events and sells music exclusively for chiptune artists, a must in this otherwise label-lacking genre.

Going back to his music, there is no denying his extensive back catalogue, creating eight records and a huge number of tracks. “Ballistic Picnic” is a true exploration through the chiptune sound arena and hides a deeper meaning of sadness and loss behind a veil of happiness and craziness. The unbelievable “Angle of Reflection” was created in 48 hours and also shows some amazing side effects and trebley beats amongst the forever darkly humming bass. “Her Lazer Light Eyes” is a beautiful, sweet, elegant piece for the more chilled out listener. Our final example here before we run out of room is the exquisite “Salvation for a Broken Heart”, which I’m sure anyone can relate to and realise the obvious meaning there.

“I started making chip music because I was attracted to the sounds.  I grew up with the Atari 2600 and the NES, and once I had an internet connection, my brother and I spent a lot of time downloading and watching demoscene productions.  The use of square waves, triangle waves, white noise, and low-bit crunchy samples as the primary forms of instrumentation was appealing to me.  It was a stripped-down aesthetic that I felt could be very expressive,” said chiptune artist Nullsleep.

“Chip music has kept me interested for over 10 years now because I feel like there is still a lot left to explore.  I’m very interested in the themes of appropriation and limitation, which are important aspects of this form of music.  There is this great William Gibson quote, “the street finds its own uses for things,” and that really resonates with me.  I like the idea of taking these old video game consoles and repurposing them as cheap synthesizers and sequencers — totally subverting their original commercial intent.  The fact that this early generation of hardware was quite technically limited also has its appeal.  I think that working within those limitations can actually help focus and foster creativity. It’s impossible to say what the future of chip music is, but I hope that it will continue pushing in interesting new directions.”

So, there you have it, Nullsleep is an artist that just creates raw emotion with his songs, which we will take over style, pure technical ability and commercial success any day of the week.

Links: http://nullsleep.com/ and http://www.myspace.com/nullsleep