22. Optical Data, mp3s, and Favorite OCRemix Tracks

I love CDs. As a kid they always seemed futuristic, you know? Vinyl was antiques for old people (sorry, mom and dad! Also, I'm old now) and cassettes were too fragile with potential heartbreak. CDs, in contrast, were more stable... as long as you took good care of them. I prided in my pristine ones, panicked at the smallest scratch, and despaired when no amount of tricks could restore my favorite Blondie track.

Until the computer, and with that, mp3s. I was able to burn the music that I (and my parents) owned and it would be legible enough– there were glitches, and it would take me out of the groove if they were bad enough, but it was better than nothing playing at all. (Fast-forward to today, and I really enjoy the glitch genre. Stuff like Shygirl's BB gets stuck in my head. Everything comes full circle, doesn't it?)

Yeah, I also had Limewire and Napster like everyone else. But c'mon, I was still downloading MIDIs and obtaining radio hits weren't that important to me. Specifically, MIDIs of video game tracks I liked. But you can't burn those on a CD– at least not right out of the gate.

And that's how I stumbled upon Overclocked Remix (and the oft-overlooked VGMix). They weren't the legal-gray-area-at-the-time copies of what I was looking for, but... the tradeoff of discovering new games and music genres more than made up for it. It also wouldn't send my parents a scary letter from the courts. (I love my parents! That's why I use a VPN!)

I missed out on a lot of bangers, one-hit wonders, and bands because I was too busy spending several hours getting enough tracks for a Vibe to listen to on the bus.

Here's some I dedicated bandwidth to (and was super annoyed when a call came in and interrupted a download at 95%)– and some more recent songs I have on repeat.

The Go-Tos

I love Final Fantasy. I was really getting into electronica (umbrella term). This combo was my headliner.

• Final Fantasy VIII "Man with Another Trance Machine", by Beatdrop
• Every track Liquid Neon had, but especially "Final Jungle Fantasy"
• Final Fantasy VI "Morning After (Hangover)" by djpretzel
• Final Fantasy X "White Skies (Club Mix)" by bLiNd

The Old Faves

Besides Final Fantasy (mostly 7+), I also partook in a lot of Sonic and Megaman remixes. Something about them translates really well into remixes for me.

• Mega Man 2 "Oxygen Flare" By Quinn Fox.First ROM I ever loaded, so I checked out a lot from MM2.
• Sonic the Hedgehog "Green Hill Zone (Euroclub '95 Mix)" By Rayza
• Sonic & Knuckles "Lava Reach" By Jivemaster
• Mega Man 2 "Chillout" By sedure

Hedgehog Heaven is the first OCR Album I put to CD. Because it could all fit on one CD.

I also had a CD-R dedicated to nothing but Secret of Mana tracks! I'll recreate that in another time, but I will say The Wingless' "Aphrodite Oceanus" is the first track.

• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty "May Fortune Smile Upon You" By Vig. This was a download on a whim; I never played Metal Gear Solid anything and the title had me curious.
• Chrono Cross "Dreaming Still" By Jillian Aversa– came out on Valentine's Day, perfect for my lil sad emo ass...
• Tsugunai: Atonement "Static Wonderland" By Christian Pacaud and ktriton. Not only did it arrive when I was hard up on Xenosaga remixes, but the way it weaves in the different themes... very cool!
• Marathon "Neo-Pacificist" by tycho– yeah, that Tycho (I'm 98% sure). The pleasant surprise when I put two and two together!
• "The Atomizer" by Mustin is delightful.

RetGone (Unless...)

A few tracks I liked have also been "OCRemoved," for various reasons. Overclocked Remix is pretty strict when it comes to submissions, and sometimes artists would issue takedown requests.

• Sonic the Hedgehog / Water Warning (U Can't Breathe 2 This)
• DuckTales / Duck Side of the Moon
• Chrono Cross / Open It Up
• Final Fantasy VIII / Man with the Trance Machine

"Low Productivity, Swimming"

Also, I could have sworn, there was another goofy site where they also did vg remixes, but were so unserious with titles like "One-Winged Toaster Oven," dogshit production, and lyrics like "the blind cavefish survive just fine" (when they weren't edgy and probably didn't age well). But they had fun. and I can't fucking find it

Everything Else

And these are some tracks I discovered later, but still want to note them.

• "JENOVA Celestial" followed by "Frozen Landscape" is my favorite "last workout push before the cooldown" combo.
• Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance "Behold the Winged Cathedral" By Shnabubula. This one is just so weird, I love it! It's fun to have on repeat.
• Xenogears "Pillar of Salt" By Star Salzman. The vocals still blow me away.
• Xenogears "Torn Apart" By Ryan8bit, Xaleph. This is going on my DJ set.