[RERUNS] C1E52 - "Backtracks" (orig rel 04/01/2020)

2026 Show Notes Addendum: 

 

To round out our second (and final) visit to the realm of backwards VGM (and very closely related non-VGM) on Nerd Noise Radio, let's replay the 2020 original series, which was also a two-parter, but instead of being two "equal billing" parts, it was a one part "episode proper" and then a supplemental Ch F "F-isode" bonus.

In addition to being one of my all-time favorite projects to work on in show history, the series also marked an important turning point in show history as the first installment was our last ever NNR broadcast on the main feed to be produced in GarageBand on MacOS (except for the deliberate call-back that was C1E75 in 2023), and the F-isode was my first ever production in Audacity and Ardour in Linux (then Ubuntu Studio (KDE), now, Fedora (GNOME)).

Original Show Notes below are largely faithful to the original with one MASSIVE exception: the tracklist is now populated with all the relevant track info, where it was originally withheld to keep the mystery and mystique alive.

Lastly: in case anyone is wondering what on earth is happening in the outro: I figured since it would be backwards, and nobody would ever hear it forward unless they either took the initiative to reverse the file themselves, or else find the [quote] "UNBACKED" version on Archive.org, they'd never know what on earth was being said, I decided to forego the standard outro script, and just go nuts. I read a chocolate chip cookie recipe I found online on the spot, and included snippets from every previous episode blooper reel in show history to that point as well as various other sound clips, such as slow-mo vids of my kids, and fresh snippets provided by my brother-in-law Brian Peterson. Anyway, that's what's happening in the outro. I wanted it to be as preposterous and baffling and chaotic as possible!

 

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Original Show Notes (modified to show track names on 04/20/2026):

 

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Today’s broadcast is C1E52 for Wayback Wednesday, April 1st, 2020. It’s April 1st, dear listeners, and we haven’t had a retrospective in AGES! In such dark, uncertain days as we face today, it’s extra important to have a look back at brighter, clearer, saner days as a reminder that as the wheel of time continues to churn, we will inexorably find our way back.

 

So, sit back and relax as we travel back through 2hrs 25min, and 56 sec of Nerd Noise History and Nostalgia on a program we’re calling “Backtracks”.

 

It is certain to be an experience unlike any other!

 

Tracklist (ALL TRACKS ARE PLAYED IN REVERSE - except Intro)!

Track# - Track - Game - System(s) - Composer(s) - Timestamp

A1) Intro – 00:00:00

01) Lifelight (English Language Version) - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Switch - Hideki Sakamoto – 00:02:39

02) What About the Future - Jet Set Radio Future - XBox - Richard Jacques – 00:06:25

03) USA Race 4 - Trickstyle - Dreamcast / PC - Richard Beddow – 00:10:32

04) Mirage - Gran Turismo 5 - PS3 - Kemmei Adachi  – 00:13:41

05) Colour (AtJazz Remix) - N/A (Non VGM) - N/A (Om Lounge 6 [album) - c: Soulstice / a: AtJazz (aka VGM Composer Martin Iveson) – 00:17:21

06) Ai Suru Hito Yo - N/A (Non-VGM) - N/A (Ai Ga Nakucha Ne [album] - Akiko Yano (featuring VGM composer, and YMO Alum: Riyuichi Sakamoto) – 00:23:51

07) Challenge - Chu Chu Rocket - Dreamcast - Tomoya Ohtani – 00:28:12

08) Area 1 - Blaster Master - NES - Naoki Kodaka – 00:31:09

09) Zena Lan (Heavily Armored) - Cosmic Carnage - 32X - Hikoshi Hashimoto – 00:33:07

10) Stage 4 - Chip Chan Kick - PCFX -  Yoshio Furukawa, Masahara Iwata and/or Hitoshi Sakamoto – 00:35:22

11) Rikuo - Night Warriors: Darkstalker's Revenge - Multiplatform - Takayuki Iwai, AkariaKaida, and/or Hideki Okugawa – 00:37:41

12) DA Garden - Sonic CD (JP / EU) - Mega CD - Minoru Kanari and/or Makoto Oshitani – 00:39:16

13) Title Theme - Super Mario World - SNES - Kōji Kondō  – 00:43:26

14) In-Game Theme - Ranquest - Hydra Development Kit - c: John Wedgeworth (yes....as in St. John of Nerd Noise Radio) / a: Jay Cook (of Avalon Dreams) – 00:45:10

15) Aitos - Actraiser - SNES - Yuzo Koshiro – 00:47:32

16) Cold Cave - Out of this World - 3DO - Andrew Dimitroff – 00:49:57

17) Stage 4-3 - Bram Stoker's Dracula - Genesis - Matt Furniss – 00:51:31

18) Coldman - N/A (VGM Karaoke - originally Mega Man and Bass) - N/A (originally GBA) - Original: Toshihiko Horiyama, Naoshi Mizuta, and/or Akira Kaida / Karaoke written and performed by Deirdre Porter (then "Fischer") (aka the great "Pieness 64")  – 00:54:28

19) Yug - Cosmic Carnage - 32X - Hikoshi Hashimoto – 00:56:56

20) Solitary - Shinobi 3 - Genesis - Masayuki Nagao, Hirofumi Muasaki, and/or Morihiko Akiyama – 00:58:29

21) Forest Funk - Super Meat Boy - Multiplatform - Danny Baranowsky – 01:00:09

22) Titan's Ream - DOOM (2016) - Multiplatform - Mick Gordon – 01:02:50

23) The Reverse Will - Silent Hill 2 - PS2 - Akira Yamaoka – 01:11:56

24) Title Theme - Solstice - NES - Tim Follin – 01:14:55

25) Seven O'Clock - Crackin' DJ Pt. 2 - Arcade - c: Hiroshi Kawaguchi / a: Misuharu Fukuyama – 01:17:52

26) Citizens of Luala - N/A (Non-VGM - original chiptune) - N/A (TG16 Sound Hardware) - Strobe (from Battle of the Bits) – 01:19:42

27) In-Game Theme - Youkai Douchuuki - Arcade - Hiroyuki Kawada – 01:22:55

28) Fourth Cause - Psychosis - TG16 - Atsuhiro Moyoyama – 01:25:58

29) Gong Shun Sheng - Dark Legend - Muliplatform - Seiichi Hamada – 01:28:59

30) Stage 5-2 - Bram Stoker's Dracula - Genesis - Matt Furniss – 01:31:23

31) Norfair - N/A (Non-VGM) - N/A (fan-made covers of Metroid OST played on a battery of analog synths) - c: Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka / a: Luminist – 01:33:54

32) Sodden Hollow - Binding of Isaac - Multiplatform - Matthias Bossi and/or Jon Evans – 01:35:22

33) Bloodpool - Actraiser - SNES - Yuzo Koshiro – 01:39:08

34) Unit - N/A (Non-VGM) - N/A (Logic [album] - J-Pop inspirations of VGM) - Logic System – 01:40:29

35) Daisuke - Hotline Miami - Multiplatform - El Huervo (aka Shelby Cinca) – 01:44:56

36) Bulberry Hill - Zool 2 - Amiga - Neil Biggin – 01:47:58

37) King of Speed - Daytona USA - Saturn - Music and Vocal: Takenobu Mitsuyoshi / Lyrics: David Leytze – 01:50:53

38) Trance Parlient in Blue - Night Striker - Mega CD - c: Maasahiko Takai / a: Shuichiro Nakazawa – 01:55:14

39) Cylic (Heavily Armored) - Cosmic Carnage - 32X - Hikoshi Hashimoto – 01:58:32

40) Process Control - Gran Turismo Sport - PS4 - Yasuhisa Inoue – 02:00:27

41) Disrupted Planets (Map 2) - Bomberman '93 - TG16 - Jun Chikuma and/or Keita Hoshi – 02:04:40

42) Mysterious Island - Landstalker - Genesis - Motoaki Takenouchi – 02:06:11

43) Waltz of Water and Bubble - Liquid Kids - Arcade - Kazuko Umino – 02:08:38

44) Old Man's Prayer - Ogre Battle - SNES - Masaharu Iwata, Hiroshi Sakimoto, and/or Hayato Matsuo – 02:10:25

45) The Serpent Trench - Final Fantasy VI - SNES - Nobuo Uematsu – 02:11:44

46) Menu 2 - Shenmue - Dreamcast - Ryuiji Iuichi, Yuzo Koshiro, Takenobu Mitsuoshi, Osamu Murata, and/or Takeshi Yanagawa – 02:13:41

47) ESPIRIT.WAV - Data Wing - iOS / Android - ESPRIT 空想 – 02:15:16

48) The Blazing Sands - Final Fantasy X - PS2 - Masashi Hamauzu – 02:18:26

49) Inside Vah Naboris (1 Terminal) - LoZ: Breath of the Wild - WiiU / Switch / Switch 2 - Manaka Kataoka Yasuaki Iwata, and/or Hajime Wakai – 02:21:38

50) What Can You Do? - Gran Turismo Sport - PS4 - Lenny Ibizarre – 02:23:48

B1) Outro – 02:28:39

 

Music Block Runtime: 02:25:56, Total Episode Runtime: 02:54:06

 

Our Intro Music is Funky Radio, from Jet Grind Radio on the Sega Dreamcast, composed by BB Rights. Our Outro Music is Malo Mart from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on GameCube and Wii, composed by Toru Minegishi, Asuka Ota, and/or Koji Kondo

 

The "Nerd Noise Radio - RERUNS!" channel can be found here:

 

https://www.buzzsprout.com/77944/

 

or here

 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nerd-noise-radios-podcast/id1191400767

 

You can also find all of our audio episodes on Archive.org

 

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Our episodes (and occasionally, other content) can be found on our blog here:

 

nerdnoiseradio.blogspot.com.

 

Nerd Noise Radio is a member of the VGM Podcast Fans community at

 

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Or, if you wish to connect with us directly, we have two groups of our own:

 

Nerd Noise Radio - Easy Mode: https://www.facebook.com/groups/276843385859797/ for sharing tracks, video game news, or just general videogame fandom.

 

Nerd Noise Radio - Expert Mode: https://www.facebook.com/groups/381475162016534/ for going deep into video game sound hardware, composer info, and/or music theory.

 

Lastly, you can also follow us on Twitter at @NerdNoiseRadio.

 

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe used in the outro is “Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies” from the Sally’s Baking Addiction blog. You can find the recipe here: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies/

 

Thanks for listening! Join us again in July or August for Episode TBD - Delicious VGM on "Noise from the Hearts of Nerds"! And wherever you are - Fly the N!

 

Cheers!