(2023-OCT-20 UPDATE: Xona Music is Reborn! See this post for an updated and more complete history of our music.)
Xona Music is our own music, composed by our musician, Matthew Doucette (Xonatron), who composed music in the demoscene, for game mods (such as Unreal Touranment maps), and remixed songs. Here are a few examples:
Like A Wind Remix (1999-2000):
This was done years ago, either 1999 or 2000, in Fast Tracker 2, using samples from a Sega Genesis emulator. The entire song was transcribed with individual notes; There are no loops.
The original song was composed by the amazing Yuzo Koshiro.
In an interesting turn of events, our first video game Decimation X became Japan's #1 top rated Xbox LIVE Indie Game and the first game to knock us off our pedistal to #2 was Protect Me Knight, produced by Ancient Corp., a company Yuzo Koshiro started! I considered this to be an honor. Since that time, we have had many top games in Japan:
Top rated XBLIG games in Japan (May 8th, 2011):
- REVOLVER360
- まもって騎士 (Protect Me Knight) (Yuzo Koshiro's game)
- Score Rush (Xona Games)
- Decimation X (Xona Games)
- Decimation X3 (Xona Games)
Here are the current ranks. Click but be warned that some hackers have knocked us illegitimately from our rankings. Read more here: Xona Games Targeted For Rating Manipulation Abuse, Twice.
We have three games in the top 5, but none have beaten out Yuzo Koshiro's game!
Here's the original, in case you were wondering how close this was. I can't compare to Yuzo Koshiro even with a remix! The Revenge of Shinobi - Like A Wind Remix - Yuzo Koshiro: http://youtu.be/3oWIlGb_Iu4.
Whiplashed - JFK Whiplash Gumball 3000 Remix (2002-2003):
This is a song I composed in 2002 or 2003 with Fruity Loops 3.
It is a remix of "Whiplash" by JFK, but contains extra composition. Not all notes are original works by JFK. If JFK has any problems with this video, I will glady and quickly take it down. I am just a fan.
I first heard of "Whiplash" from the Mischief 3000 Episode II underground car racing video by Teckademics, which features the Gumball 3000 rally.
Turns out Dustin, the creator of the Mischief series digs my remix:
hahaha. Funny when I edited the Mischief 3000 trailer back in '02 I never thought this song was going to be a hit! Good remix man! - Dustin, creator of the Mischief series
And here's "Whiplash" by JFK, in the Mischief 3000 Episode II trailer I first listened to it in. "Mischief 3000" (2002) - Gumball 3000 movie trailer: Whiplash by JFK starts at 0:48: youtu.be/uZnNSFizpoE?t=48s.
Popcorn Remix (2002-2003):
This is a song I composed in 2002 or 2003 with Fruity Loops 3.
It is a remix of "Popcorn" originally by Gershon Kingsley in 1969 and later by Hot Butter, an instrumental cover band, in 1972. (If Gershon Kingsley or Hot Butter has any problems with the content of this video, I will glady and quickly take it down. I am just a fan.)
I first heard of "Popcorn" from Digger, a PC game by Windmill Software. Check out digger.org for in-depth information on Digger. Here's a video of Digger, notice the 4 color CGA graphics: Digger (PC): youtu.be/7kz0_KWIMEU.
Hell's Gate (2001):
This is a tracker song I composed in 2001 with Fast Tracker 2 for an Unreal Tournament (1999 version) capture the flag map, called Hell's Gate, that was unreleased.
If you are the map designer of Hell's Gate, please connect with me! I have lost your contact over the years!
Inspiration (2000-2001):
This is a tracker song I composed in 2000 or 2001 with Fast Tracker 2. It was inspired by Yuzo Koshiro's Streets of Rage intro music, a video game for the Sega Genesis.
Dot-Calm (2002-2003):
This is a song I composed in 2002 or 2003 with Fruity Loops 3. The name is pronounced like "dot-com", and the spelling came from an early Xbox LIVE commercial which shows many gamers meeting up and playing online, all with cool gamertags (and even voice modification). One of the guys had a Gamertag "Dot-Calm". I loved it. Hence this techno track's name!
Inspiration came from Fatboy Slim - Right Here, Right Now, which I first heard in Ray Chan's 3D rendering portfolio demo. Ray's a good friend of ours and was our first graphics artist for our first game company, Saw Tooth Distortion!
That is all.