Chiptune musician releases album on NES cartridge

As far as music distribution methods go, "chiptune" musician Alex Mauer's latest approach may not be the most practical, but it's certainly guaranteed to warm the hearts of his target audience (and no doubt many an Engadget reader as well). Staying true to the 8-bit nature of the tunes, Mauer's gone all out and actually stuffed his new "Vegavox" album onto an NES cartridge, which can be yours for €22 (or just under $30). Just pair it with an nPod or other portable NES and you can pretend for a minute that cartridges actually became as widely popular as you once imagined they would be -- or was that just us?

[Via Digg]

[Paul @ Jul 5th 2007 2:05AM]

Does this mean the pirated version on p2p will be an nes rom instead of mp3?

[Queitsch @ Jul 5th 2007 3:00AM]

...and that much smaller!

[Jukio @ Jul 5th 2007 4:19AM]

Hehe. This is brilliant! And then we can pirate it and listen with emulators ;)

[teel @ Jul 5th 2007 5:02AM]

Too bad the sound emulation on emulators never is 100% accurate even for the most simple soundchips...

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 5th 2007 6:52AM]

I kinda thought the same thing, but yeah, emulators are not always 100% in the sound realm.

Still, I'm down.

[Jamar @ Jul 5th 2007 8:13AM]

"Too bad the sound emulation on emulators never is 100% accurate even for the most simple soundchips..." yeah- that takes care of anyone that wants to pirate this.

[Cooper Simpson @ Jul 5th 2007 9:44AM]

Man chiptunes rock- got over 1000 on my pc :) people tink im crazy for listening to them. Dubmood is the best :p Most chiptunes are in teh demo scence nowadays like with Razor1911 and the music is free. if this guy is in teh demo scence no doubt his music is on his website free anyway so u wont have to use emulators for the cartridges.

[rez @ Jul 5th 2007 11:13AM]

Nice idea !

Well, I feel the urge to spam that news with my own website's url:

http://www.chiptune.com

I think it's not too much off-topic ;)

[Jukio @ Jul 5th 2007 12:54PM]

http://www.kohina.com - Chipmusic netradio! Yay!

[Dave @ Jul 6th 2007 4:51PM]

Is this like the rebirth of some future retro 8 track or something? ;)

It is pretty cool.

[alex mauer @ Sep 18th 2007 6:51PM]

Alex Mauer, creator of the first Nintendo cart music album, has already come
out with his second cart. The new album features more songs (10) and larger graphics (full screen stills). Songs on the new album were composed by Alex Mauer and Phlogiston (a norweigan composer). The cost is $25 including shipping, and it can be ordered from his website - headlessbarbie.com. For a preview check out the youtube videoclips at his site.

ps - vegavox (first nintendo cartridge) is currently sold out! over 125 copies sold