Here’s a brief excerpt written by the developer about the story of the game: “A cargo airplane crashed somewhere above the wast areas of the Amita range. It was carrying a large shipment of beagles headed to the CutLab, a huge animal testing facility.

The Lab is upset about losing it’s precious testing material and is deploying a biohazard division determined to reclaim it’s property. They operate under the strict orders: seize the usable specimens, kill the rest.

We’re sending three of our elite animal rights activists to rescue as many dogs as possible before the Lab’s grunts confine them back to the life of endless misery.”

The game is currently in beta but check it out and let us know what you think!

Download Link

mad_about_crews @ Rotten Tomatoes gives NEUTRALITE a 9/10

NebLJ @ LiveJournal Responds to Level

And some great comments from my CD page.

Also, for those who are interested in what is in the works, I’ve started taking strides down the career path, pursuing a degree in Music Synthesis, and hoping to get my foot into the door of the videogame industry composing and producing original music for titles of all sizes. I will soon have a professional portfolio up at RichVreeland.com for all to view. I’m also working on new material; there are a number of tracks floating around loosely and on compilations (Death Satellite Evasion, Jump Error, Sober Colony, etc) that will all be tweaked and compiled into one album entitled “Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar”. I plan to get it out by the end of this year. For those who wonder what the nature of the album will be, it will revolve around a space civilization. The rest you’ll have to decipher on your own when the album comes out.

Once again thanks for all your support and happy listening!

Link: Geek Mixtape – Episode 4.4

Just an update, some folks were awesome enough to upload pictures of themselves holding the new album in various ways, and here they are! Thanks to XOC, Kirby Pufocia and Cacomistle for being so kind as to pose with their (hopefully) favorite new album.

Also for those who have interest in such a thing, I can confirm that the album is selling relatively well, better than the previous one (Atebite and the Warring Nations) and I have all of you to thank! Hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did putting it together.

I know some favorites are not included on this list. The main reason being, tracker software does not exist for every system (like Turbo Grafx 16). In the future I do intend to learn MML to use some more obscure systems but this is the list of systems you will be hearing on ‘9999′.

current completion ratio: 29.5min/70min

Also, some of you who ordered my carts asked me why I dont have a full length CD for sale. Well, now I have one in the works. My plan is for the CD, titled ‘9999′, to use soundchips from 9 different game systems. The length of the CD will be 70+ minutes. After a lot of thought, I decided the songs MUST be recorded from the real machines. This will probably push the release date back. Also, I intend to invest a lot of money into this CD and have it professionally pressed. This album will be the deciding factor on whether cartridge, or compact disc is a better format to sell chiptunes with. However, the results will not deter me from abandoning either method.

The main benefits of a CD over a cartridge are: length, multiple game systems, and a wider audience. I started the project at the beginning of September 2007, and expect to be done by mid to late 2008. 33% of the songs have been composed, but composing is only the first step. Next comes hardware hacking to make the music play back on real machines. The final steps are recording, and funding the CD pressing process. Please leave comments on my future posts. I will be posting progress reports and chiptune knowledge frequently.

Just got back from my first show, and it went well! Opened for Grand Buffet who I highly recommend checking out (click here). This show was my attempt at testing the performance waters and seeing how they feel, and I’ve decided they feel pretty good! So I’ll be doing a lot more shows hopefully in the future. Stick around to find out when and where they’ll be!

Also, news on the album front, “Level” will be coming out before the end of the year, promise!

- Rich

As far as musication goes, things have been slow the past year in some ways and fast in others. Level has been more or less done with the exception of one track since the beginning of the year. I’ve been working with Shawn on mastering the album since March and we’ve made significant progress. I intend to release it before the end of the year if all goes well. I’m very much interested in releasing it on CD with professional packaging like I did with Atebite, but money is tight so there is a good chance it’ll be coming out on a CD-R. If anyone is interested in donating money to my cause in return for a discounted price (or free even), let me know!

I have one other release I’ve been working on, those who follow my work have probably taken notice of the songs that have begun to pile up featuring a sound that is relatively consistent yet new for me. I speak of “Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar”, which will house songs such as “Jump Error”, “The Solar Prime Elite”, and “Death Satellite Evasion”. This release is set to be … in space.

As I wrap up this post the next II compilation is complete and the final touches are being added for its release. Expect it REAL SOON!

i havent been feeling very right lately, due to becoming a vegetarian, which seems like a necessity for me at this point, i cant even stand the taste of a good ol meat sandwich anymore and im thinking of doing an album of original chiptunes about vegetables, i would want it to be pretty comprehensive, and with some vocals. who knows how that will pan out though, hehe.

if youre anywhere in the maryland area, please try and come to 16 bit genocide, and if youre on the west coast, well your prayers will be answered soon enough. stay cool.