Jul 052017
Firearms and fantasy collide in this early-90s cyberpunk RPG series. We begin with the SNES original and its Carpenter-meets-Smash-TV soundtrack, then listen to wildly different takes on the Genesis and Mega CD. Three platforms, three completely distinct games!
SHOW NOTES
0:00:00 – Seattle 2050 (Shadowrun SNES)
0:12:54 – Morgue (SNES)
0:17:06 – Tenth Street (SNES)
0:21:09 – Gunfight (SNES)
0:35:06 – Sleazy Bar (SNES)
0:37:55 – The Cage (SNES)
0:39:28 – Uptown (SNES)
0:49:54 – Downtown Seattle (Shadowrun Genesis)
0:51:42 – Abandoned Building (Genesis)
0:54:19 – Bar 2 (Genesis)
1:02:41 – Intro (Shadowrun Mega CD)
1:04:00 – Silver Moon (Mega CD)
1:05:56 – Tokyo Streets (Mega CD)
1:20:37 – Ending (Shadowrun Revamped)
I turned 40 today. This is the best present I could ask for. Thanks, Elston!
Cheers Chummer, my favorite too.
I would have sworn the Genesis version came first, and I liked that better than the Super Nintendo version I played later, but maybe not. I do think I liked the Genesis version better, though, I think the hacking was cooler, and had a Lawnmower Man aesthetic, which makes sense if Blue Sky did it.
Yay! VGMpire is the best show across Lazertime and this wait was agonizing! 🙂
ShadowRun on the SNES was a game that intrigued me, even though I never bought it as it looked very crude even back then. Still, it’s one of the surprisingly few pure Cyberpunk games on the console, Flashback being the other I can immediately think of. ShadowRun felt very adult at the time and perhaps it would have found a more suitable platform on PC.
Among the more usual fantasy JRPG’s, the dark future setting definitely stood out.
I’m so excited VGMpire is back. I loved Shadowrun for SNES back in the day and the soundtrack is amazing. Harebrained Schemes did an awesome job bringing the series back; I just finished playing through Shadowrun: Dragonfall for the second time, and I think it might be up there as one of my favourite games of all time.
Patrick mentioned that some programmers were trying to recreate the Shadowrun SNES game inside the Shadowrun Returns engine; I think he said they had given up, but they’re actually still developing it. They did an awesome job reprogramming the dialogue keyword system, which was extremely complex for an SNES game. The project is still marked alpha because it’s a bit buggy, but I successfully played through the whole thing. I’d really recommend it for anyone who wants to try the original again in a new context:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=317632217
The Mega CD tracks were amazing! Patrick, I don’t think calling it “PSG” is accurate, since the PSG was a small part of the Mega CD/Mega Drive’s total sound. I REALLY like what they were doing there; they were using the YM2612 FM in conjunction with the MDCD’s Ricoh sampler(and maybe a little PSG too, I couldn’t tell). Really clean sample, kicking FM…….it doesn’t get any better than that for me. Thanks Patrick, for getting this topic covered, and thanks Brett, for another fine episode. I’m sorry commitments haven’t permitted for more, but I’m glad you’re still doing this.
Loved this game and the dystopian cyberpunk genre in general growing up. It may interest you to know, Brett, that the composer, Marshall Parker, also composed Super Solitare for the SNES. When you and Chris were guests on Legacy Music Hour Brent played a track from it and it reminded you of your Weather Channel recordings
Whoa you really Ninja’d this one out, Brelston! Good stuff as always!
Yes! I was hoping for a Shadowrun VGMPire episode. I have not listened to this yet but including music Shadowrun Returns would have been extra special. Looking forward to listening to this.