'Chipping In' For Japan: Gamers, 8-Bit Artists Pay Back Their Debt To The Rising Sun
Posted by Joshua_Kopstein on Tuesday, Mar 22, 2011
For as long as they can remember, the children of the 1970’s & ’80’s have owed a symbolic debt to Japan. After falling victim to the most destructive display of human-engineered violence the planet has ever seen, the island nation rose from its dark days and gave us its first world-changing post-war export: videogames.
A brief history lesson:
In 1977, Nintendo of Japan sold its first electronic entertainment product, The Color TV Game (they used to be in the playing cards business, believe it or not). Less than a decade later, the company had invaded nearly every American home with the Nintendo Entertainment System, the iconic home console that would single-handedly revive the dying market and catapult video games into the multi-billion dollar industry it is today.
Fast-forward a bit and Japan has become a country synonymous with games: Japanese developers flourished within an exciting new market that would quickly be assimilated by their western counterparts. Companies like Squaresoft (now Square-Enix), Konami, and Namco became some of the first explosively successful third party video game makers. Arcades became a permanent fixture of Japanese culture, outlasting even the most resilient of American game hubs. Games are at home, in the street, in the mall. Even in the bathroom.
Time and again, our craving for games was sated by that wonderful little island nation we once called our enemy. Now the gaijin once raised on joysticks, flickering cathode ray tubes and chirping computer chips are returning the favor in Japan’s time of need.
In addition to the dozens of game companies that have come to the aid of their eastern allies, a music subculture born in large part from the indelible impact of Japanese video game hardware is doing its part to help out.
Last week, UK-based professor and chiptune pioneer Matthew Applegate (aka Pixelh8) teamed up with community site True Chip Till Death to assemble a massive chip music benefit compilation, sporting contributions from a whopping 90 artists from around the globe (and counting).
The compilation hopes to raise $5,000—a humble offering in repayment for the robust video game culture that Applegate and others now owe their livelihood to.
“If it wasn’t for the hard working people of Japan,” Applegate said, “there would be none of this great chiptune music in the first place.”
Check out the album and donate here.
Related:
Is Chiptune A Fad? Final Fantasy Composer Nobuo Uematsu Thinks So
Yo Dawg, I Heard You Like Nintendo Games…
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About the author
Electronic musician and computer culture journalist. Contact: josh ◢at◣ motherboard ◐dot◑ tv
