8-17-02: I guess this day had to come eventually... You probably noticed that the scrolling marquee now says "updated for the last time" instead of "last updated", and if that didn't clue you in, it says in boldface type just above the link, "This page is no longer being updated". It's been five months since the last update, so I'm sure most of my readers have assumed that the site is dead by now. This makes it official. Beginning with the posting of this update, gamemusichits.cjb.net will no longer be updated with any content related to video game music. I may use the web space for something else in the future, but until that happens, the old page will remain to be scrutinized by whoever comes across it, prompting them to wonder what might have been... or something like that.

Why? In three words, I lost interest. I typically have the most free time during summer, but until now this summer has been update-free. I still like game music, of course, but finding cool video game songs and posting them on the site with neat little blurbs no longer appeals to me as much as it did. Getting consent from the sequencers was also a pain, and I'm not even sure my "opt-out" arrangement is legally sound, which is why any future content on this site will likely be generated by me (possibly writing?). Regardless, this site is dead and I'm moving along. Ta-ta!

3-14-02: This has got to be the longest gap between updates yet. That I'm doing this on a weekday stands out even more, because I'm not supposed to have any time on weekdays, owing to school demands. Well, it's 11:00 PM EST and I'm still not finished my homework, yet I'm updating the site. This is really a labor of love... just kidding, I don't have THAT special a relationship with the site. I just figured I'd update now instead of later. Yeah... Anyway, two news items before the new inductees. First, the skinflints at Yahoo! are cutting off my FTP access starting April 2. So I won't be able to update the site as fast. Of course, that's kind of meaningless, because the time I spend making each update makes the time actually spent updating seem negligible. Secondly, I've gotten several emails saying that I've exceeded my monthly bandwidth limit and Geocities had to temporarily shut off the site. If you've experienced problems with this, you're not missing anything... I mean, I'll look into remedying this by moving some of the files to a more complacent host or whatever. Now, the update! As mentioned before, we have a special Falcom-only update tonight. Inducted into the gold award section are "First Step Towards Wars" and "To Make the End of Battle" from Y's I and II, respectively. The newest addition to the silver award section is the "Overworld Theme" from Faxanadu. Finally, "Palace of Salmon" from Y's I has been added to the bronze award section. I hope you're happy, Mr. Singleton... just kidding, I appreciate your input and everyone else's as well. I couldn't reach the sequencers of any of those files, so if anyone knows their (current) addresses, drop me a line at [email protected]. That's all for tonight, folks. Remember, I am alive, well, and still accepting submissions, so keep those emails rolling.

1-1-02: Look, ma, an update! Yup, this is The Silent One wishing you and yours a very happy new year. To celebrate, I'm posting four new MIDI files. Ice Cap Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Dance of Pales from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night debut in the gold award section, while Chemical Plant Zone from Sonic 2 and the Level 1 theme from Demon's Crest have been inducted into the bronze award section. Thanks to all those of you who submitted songs. You may now return to your regularly scheduled partying. Oh, and I'm making the next update a Falcom-themed update, seeing as I've neglected that company in the past.

11-12-01: I've finally found time to do another update. While I could have posted six little "I'm still alive, but I have no time" updates, I chose not to on the basis that every update to this site should be a meaningful one. I have received a few letters suggesting songs to post; I'll get to them in due time (which may mean a few days, a few weeks, or a few months). As for this update, it is my pleasure to announce that most of the removed files are back up. The sequencers of the following files have granted me permission to post their files:

A heartfelt thank you goes out to all of those sequencers. The addresses I found for the sequencers of the following files no longer exist, and so I cannot contact them. These files will be reposted as well:

I have emailed the sequencers of the following files and the seven-day waiting period has passed many times over, so they also will be reposted as dictated by the site's consent policy:

I have not yet mailed the sequencers of the following files, so each will remain inaccessable until I have mailed the sequencer and gotten an answer (or the seven-day period passes). Fortunately, this list is very short:

That about covers it, as I was unable to locate an email address for whoever sequenced the remaining files. You may have already noticed that we have a new section. The Contributors page honors those who have created MIDIs featured on this site. You'll see which songs they sequenced and their webpages, if applicable. Finally, there is a new inductee to the Hall of Fame. The song Leim's Test from Terranigma enters the Hall's silver award section, along with its SPC file. I will have many more songs next time. See ya!

9-21-01: Let's just say that the world has changed drastically since the last update. The terrorist attacks of ten days ago took us all by surprise, and we are still grieving for those who lost their lives. My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones in this crisis. All I can say is to be strong, support President Bush, and do what you can to help the cause, whether you donate to a relief fund, give blood, or just continue buying American products. Now that I've addressed that pressing matter, on with site news. It seems I've made a tremendous legal faux pas. MIDI files are legal, but I totally neglected the rights of the sequencer in posting so many files on the site without asking permission first. If any of you are reading this, I apologize for disregarding your intellectual property rights. Over the past few days, I've traced the email addresses of most of the contributors, and sent them all a copy of this letter:

I plan to use this same letter to request consent before posting any more files in the future. If you read over the letter, you'll see the foundations of this site's new consent policy. The disclaimer at the bottom of each page has also been updated to reflect the policy change. Until I have exhausted all efforts to obtain consent, the following files have been taken off the page:

These comprise most of the MIDI files on this site, but not all of them. I have left those files for which I could not find an email address. Also, I received an early reply from the sequencer of worldrevolution.mid giving permission to use that file. It is now playing as the main page BGM. I checked and saw that several of the email addresses which I contacted no longer exist; look for the files by those sequencers this time next week. Hopefully, this will turn out to be a minor obstacle and I can have most of the files back up in a week. However, I will still yank a file after the seven-day waiting period if the sequencer tells me to. I'm not doing this just to stay on the straight and narrow; I'm doing it out of respect for the sequencers. I doubt that many of you have ever sequenced a game song MIDI before. It's a difficult process, and even more so when you have to figure out the melody by ear, which is most of the time. Please be patient, and remember that all of the SPCs are still up. If you're good, I'll have a new song next week. As for the sparseness of updates, I have no spare time on weekdays because of school, and even my weekends are often taken up. I tend to write rather lengthy update blurbs, don't I? This is a very tired Silent One, signing off.

9-2-01: It's been awhile, hasn't it? It seems my initial interest in this project has waned a bit, but rest assured that I am still committed to updating the site. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and summer vacation is one of them. I'll be returning to school on September 5, which means I'll have even less time to update the site, especially cosidering my weighty courseload. So that's the news. On the bright side, I have an update featuring several new files for you today! First, there are three new inductees to the hall of fame, and two of them are from PlayStation games! Added to the gold award section is the Decisive Battle theme from FFV. The silver award has been given to "Scars Left by Time" from Chrono Cross. And "Emotion" from Xenogears has received a bronze award. I've also added the Final Fantasy IV Chocobo theme to the bronze section under the appropriate header. That would be a great update in and of itself (and probably the best you could expect during the school year), but there's more for those of you with SPC software. I have added SPCs for FFV's Decisive Battle theme and the FFV chocobo theme. That's a total of six new files. As always, you can get an SPC player at www.zsnes.com; just click on their downloads section and find SPCPlay 0.700 (yes, it's still in beta, but it works just fine). SPCPlay is a commandline player, but it can be made to work with Windows; just email me for details or help. Since I've added SPCs to the site, spcfiles.zip has also been updated. That's all for today, but please, PLEASE send me songs that you've nominated. If you have a fave video game tune that isn't on the site, send it to me at [email protected]. You don't even have to include an explanatory note; a good song should speak for itself. This site has been up since the fifth of July, and I've received ONE submission of two songs, and that was from a friend. Even one song will help tremendously. I'm trying to get word out about this site, so if you happen to have a game music site of your own, email me and we can link to each other. Although I won't even consider an overhaul of the site until I have a bigger user base, the next planned addition is a links page. So keep checking for updates and send in those nominations!

8-15-01: No, I'm not dead, nor have I abandoned the site. I recently returned from a weeklong vacation in NC, where the beach house was supposed to have an Internet hookup. Well, it didn't, so I was unable to even do a token update. But I've got lots of new stuff for you all today. For starters, the individual SPC links now work, except they link to the SPC file in ZIP format, so you'll need WinZip or some other ZIP program to extract them. Next, we have a few new SPC files for songs that have already been placed in the Hall of Fame. There are the Fanfares from Final Fantasy V and VI, the Chocobo theme from Final Fantasy VI, Mog's theme from Final Fantasy VI, and Kefka's theme from Final Fantasy VI (notice a pattern?). These have all, of course, been added to spcfiles.zip. Finally, as an extra special bonus, World Revolution, the second stage final boss theme from Chrono Trigger, has been inducted into the Hall of Fame at the gold level. I'd also like to thank Bryan S (not using his full last name) for his informative feedback email. I'll probably have a few MIDI's from Castlevania, Falcom games, and some of the others you mentioned up by the next update.

7-27-01: So I'm two days late. Well, that's because I've been preparing an extra-large update for all of you. No new songs this time around, but four existing song entries have been augmented to include mixes from different games in their respective series. As of today, we have two variations on the Super Mario Brothers Theme, four variations on the Zelda Overworld Theme, five variations on the Final Fantasy Fanfare, and eight variations on the Final Fantasy Chocobo Theme. That's a total of FIFTEEN new files, not counting the ones we already had. Expect SPCs of many of these songs within a few days.

7-20-01: Looks like I'm establishing a pattern of updating every five days, which can't be bad... except that I don't have much to update with today. I found two nice MIDI files at vgmusic.com; they have been added to the silver award section. These are the Final Fantasy IV Dreadful Battle theme and the Seiken Densetsu 3 theme "Meridian Child." I need submissions, people... maybe there will be more once I get this listed on Yahoo! Anyway, I have an SPC file for Meridian Child, and spcfiles.zip has been updated. There's also a little blurb beside the main page link to spcfile.zip that says when it was last updated. A blurb shorter than the sentence I just used to describe it. :)

7-15-01: All right! We have our first submissions, two Final Fantasy themes from dolphy. They have been placed on the bronze award page. You may also notice that we've got some new site features. MIDIs that have been added during the most recent update are marked with "hollow" bullets. There is a key on each page. Also, each page now has a simple navbar at the bottom that links to all the other pages.

7-10-01: I've come up with a quasi-solution for the SPC problem. All SPC files used on this site have been compressed into spcfiles.zip, which you can get here. I'll add new files as soon as I get suggestions.

7-5-01: The site is up. All my favorite MIDI files are here, but the SPC links don't work, namely because Geocities doesn't accept SPC files. It's pretty easy to use, though, in other regards. Upload speed is quick, too. Take a look at the MIDIs, and if you know a song that you like that isn't here, send it in so I can put it on the site. More updates as soon as I get more files.