A GameBoy Advance-Themed Concept Album:
YouTube video description contains timestamps for each track.
Musician Notes: Sealed Chamber is an instrumental ode to the legendary Pokemon of the Gen III pokemon games (Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald), specifically Regirock, Regice and Registeel. It's an ambient, dungeon synth-kinda track meant to capture the mystique of the elaborate quest through Hoenn's secret areas - undersea, underground and elsewhere - that the player undertakes to find all three Regis. The instrumentation is 100% Pokemon RSE soundfont (with some effects and such thrown in).
Artist Notes: Digital watercolor and ink pen using Adobe Fresco on iPad. May has heard the legend of three bionic beasts and finally thinks she has come upon the cave of legend. She has searched far and wide across Hoenn to try to find the entrance and after a series of trials, her quest may prove fruitful. What she doesn’t know is that while she searches for them, they stand alert to her presence ready to pounce when the moment is right. Stylized with inspiration from Ken Sugimori for a watercolor aesthetic, my first time working with the medium.
Musician Notes: Inspired by the translucent pink Game Boy Advance model, officially known as the Fuchsia model. Instrument samples are taken from Sonic Advance 3, and the voice samples are from the LingoJam robot voice generator.
Artist Notes: I created this little animation by exporting the frames from Blender, drawing over them in Aseprite, and then exporting them as a gif. I think the gif struggles a little but I’m happy to have gotten to try combining 2d and 3d animation!
If you’re interested in homebrew games for the gameboy family there are a few collections of roms (.gb/.gbc/.gba) on my itch page I try to keep up to date.
Musician Notes: Arr. for voice, jaw harp (x2), shaker, wood handles, bongos, drumkit, & Casio PK-5.
I had the opening lines of the first verse looping in my head for weeks before I finally had time to hash out the rest of it. There really were a metric buttload of remakes on this system; this song cites 38 (though maybe I’m cheating to include Game & Watch Gallery) & that’s just where I stopped researching because I thought I had too much. My nickname for Kirby in verse 3 came from the American NiD commercials, which for some reason used the theme song to the 1960s spy show Danger Man.
Artist Notes: Watercolor on paper and Aida cloth, cross-stitch. As soon as Joey laid out his idea I was inspired to do a mixed-media piece. This is basically a reimagining of the old Pokemon Kanto intro screen, in a forest clearing, with one side cross-stitch/“low res” and the other watercolor/“high res.” I asked Joey what else he might end up referencing besides Pokemon and went from there. (I presented him with a word map before starting the actual design; this piece was an absolute boatload of work. But I’m pleased to say I captured his intended vibe on the first try!) The full piece depicts Nidorino, Kirby, Piranha Plant, and Samus (low res) vs. Gengar, Meta Knight, Baby Mario on Yoshi, and a Metroid (high res). Let me tell ya, stitching on Aida that you’ve already painted is very difficult! But it made for a really cool effect. Thank you for the collaboration (and your patience lol), Joey!
Come listen to my tune about the GBA,
And all the titles on it that you'd already played...
1 is 2, but 4 is 3,
(The real 1's on the GBC!),
I played World with Luigi,
But the voice clips drive me batty!
They all come with the arcade game,
That repetition's slightly lame.
New 2-D came from the chance
Taken on Mario Advance!
Blue is Green & Red is Red.
(Cubone's mother still is dead!)
The Orange Islands canonized
As the "Sevii", I surmised.
Gen 1 happening in Gen 3,
This timeline is real sloppy,
But lots of money sure was gleaned
On FireRed & LeafGreen!
1 is Zero, looking fine
(Though the lifts might not align!)
Revisit Samus's first case
Of fighting pirates out in space.
Meanwhile, Kirby's number two
Game was sold as something new,
The lil' pink Secret Agent Man
Fought off a Nightmare in Dream Land!
Lots more games got remade there:
(Despite Nintendo losing Rare,)
DK Countries 1 through 3,
Plus *five* Final Fantasies!
Even Mother & Earthbound,
Though only on Japanese ground.
Then a batch of 20 more,
All in Game & Watch Gallery 4.
Sure it wasn't the first time games were rereleased,
But it sure built up a habit that has never ceased...
Musician Notes: My concept for this was to sample sounds from doing a GBA cartridge internal battery surgery and use those sounds as instruments. I took inspiration for the form of the song itself from "Clockwork" from Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, a GBA game with both an internal battery and a banger soundtrack.
Artist Notes: Shot on a Sony a7IV, Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 DG DN, 70mm, 1/40s, f/7.1, ISO 1000. Nothing says cartridge repair more than actually dismantling a cartridge and beginning to conduct surgery. Utilizing photography with a strong key light, contrast of the system on one side and additional cartridges behind it, and some mild post-production to bring out the colors, this piece tells a story of frustration that a beloved game may have seen its last days.
Musician Notes: This song began with the intent to write a dark-step inspired drum & bass track using the Game Boy Advance internal synthesis. I set out researching the best homebrew Tracker/DAW for the console, and discovered that my ancient flash cartridge wasn't fully compatible with the majority of them. As a solution, I used a branch of LSDJ which maintained compatibility with the GoombaGB wrapper for GBA.
I opted for a harsh and bright industrial guitar style to compliment the harsh synth and percussion sampling of the GBA, which may sound familiar to older Revolver Project fans.
All of the percussion and the majority of the synths were originally voiced using the GBA's internal synth and sample abilities. They were then heavily edited on a PC DAW, into the final sounds you hear. Notable exceptions include some bass sounds, which were created using a semi-modular Behringer Neutron.
I hope after listening to this, you'll be inspired to fire up a GBA and play your favorite Metroid or maybe a racer. Just remember to turn a light on if you're playing on an original model, don't let that LCD stay dark. ☻
Artist Notes: AI was pretty much the perfect match for me, as we’ve worked together many times in the past and we always seem to be on the same wavelength. In fact, he suggested “neon lights and cyberpunk” for the theme of the piece after I had already started drawing just that. Other than that, it’s pretty much just a fast-paced super-foreshortened actiony sci-fi piece. The guy is just a random cyberpunk dude I made up, and the drones are supposed to kinda look like metroids.
Musician Notes: I wanted to make a song that really captured the finality of finishing a game on the GBA. In reality it’s more about the experience of completing all your games in general, but since it’s GBA themed I added some flavor. The intro/outro was written on my guitar first, then I made the rest in my DAW.
Artist Notes: Acrylic on canvas, 8 in. x 8 in. I listened to a very early draft of Tim’s piece, which reminded me of the ending screen of Mega Man 2, where he walks away through different landscapes. This evolved into the piece it is now, with a person facing away from the viewer with a guitar over his back, next to a GBA set on a table and showing the message “Thank you!” I’m not particularly strong in figure drawing, so I asked Tim to pose as a reference, and I think that turned out quite well. I also asked him if he wanted the GBA or the curtains a specific color: The GBA is silver like the one he had growing up, and the curtains are OG GBA blurple. Thank you for the collaboration, Tim!
Here at adventure's end I wanted to say thank you to all of my friends
cause together we played every game we could see
oh from Zelda to Final Fantasy
Though I know we're done
I'll remember all the fun
Fighting Metroids and X with a plasma gun
Save the princesss when there's none
What's left to say? (Are there no games left to play?)
We'd just begun
A goodbye to everyone
Verse Accompaniment:
We've played all the games
such a shame
don't know what we'll do
we're not ready for goodbye
Verse 2:
I know that this is hard
but all the times we had
will always be with me
for one last adventure
together then we will see when
we'll keep fighting on in the future
oh I know we'll have one more day
one more way to
take our time
we can stay
for a while
use one more life to
make it count
take it slow
make it real
like it feels, friends
Refrain:
You will always be with me
our one last adventure
goes on in eternity now
Verse Repeated:
Here at adventure's end I wanted to say thank you to all of my friends
cause together we played every game we could see
oh from Zelda to Final Fantasy
Though I know we're done
I'll remember all the fun
Fighting Metroids and X with a plasma gun
Save the princesss when there's none
What's left to say? (Are there no games left to play?)
We'd just begun
A goodbye to everyone
Verse Accompaniment:
We've played all the games
such a shame
don't know what we'll do
we're not ready for goodbye
Musician Notes: Medley of “Pollyanna”, “You Call This a Utopia”, “Unfounded Revenge”, “Porky’s Theme”, & “Theme of Love”, all composed by Shogo Sakai.
Thanks to Starmen.net for the source tracks I used to work out the transition timing.
Support the Tomato patch.
Download the album as a GBA ROM here! Put together by Revolver Project. Readme file and album/track art included in download.
Contributors:
Album title proposed by Error Sparrow (Vapor). Album art by Leo ArcanaXIX, inspired by official GameBoy Color advertisement. Album organized and produced by Leo ArcanaXIX.