Zombies, Run! For Android and ZombieLink – A Review

When I first read about the Zombies, Run! Application, I thought it was a great idea. A fitness/gaming application where the player is a scavenger for a base of survivors in the zombie apocalypse, running to grab supplies and away from zombies.  It was first developed for the iPhone, and, well, I don't have one of those. However, one of the positives in my period of re-employment recently is that I did get an Android phone,and last week (6/14/12) Zombies, Run! Was released for my phone, and I've given it a few test runs (pun intended,) since an injury has me out of the weight room at the moment anyway.  The launch is not without its hiccups, but overall I like the application a lot, and will continue using it. I hate running, but this has motivated me enough to give it a serious try.

I used to joke when asked if I ran "Only when chased." Be careful what you wish for.

Zombies, Run! has a fairly simple interface. There is the base door, which lists Abel Township's (the settlement) population, and allows a quick swipe to open the door and start a mission. There's the mission menu, that displays all unlocked scenarios as well as criteria to unlock certain missions that have requirements. Next is the base upgrade menu, where each of the critical structures in the town are shown, and after each mission, collected items can be allocated to upgrade facilities with a simple drag and drop. There is an options screen with a help system, the ability to choose distance units (miles/km,) credits and the ZombieLink synch settings.  Each mission is a series of audio files telling the developing story, introducing characters, announcing when items have been picked up and cueing sprint sequences with a warning and the groans of approaching undead. Get away, and you keep your loot... get caught and you must drop an item to distract the horde. The game plays without needing to interact with the screen while running, using it to build the base and look at collected supplies later.

The Good

The voice acting in this game is spectacular, on par or better than that found in top-quality animation and AAA-video games. The story is immediately engaging, and finding out what happens next is a great motivator for getting back out there and running around a bit. The zombie chases also motivate a burst of speed, as I found myself not wanting to surrender any items even when my body was protesting that I'm built to lift weights, not sprint. I've always appreciated games that allow you to do some base/city building, and though that aspect is simple, I'm glad it is there. ZombieLink automatically tracks your progress, distance, and story events that happen along each workout for later viewing, as well as tracking in other fitness programs/sites like RunKeeper or Fitocracy. Getting to see the base's population increase as it is made more secure reinforces the idea that the player is assisting a desperate community while going out for a jog/run.

When finding that pack of underwear in the wilds, do you
allocate it to the residential facility... or the Armory?

The Bad

The application is far from perfect, and I've found a few frustrating things, especially considering the relatively steep price tag of $7.99 in an Android market packed with free or $0.99 apps. I think it is worth the price, but the flaws are a little less forgivable than they would be in a cheap/free product. There is an option to use your own music while running, but at launch, it was frustrating to use and sometimes interfered with playing the game.  Though supposedly compatible with WinAmp (though not the default music player on my phone,) the music wouldn't play through Zombies, Run!during my first two workouts. When manually starting a playlist, the music frequently drowns out some of the narration, marring the experience. It is worth mentioning that with today's update and a swap to Android Music Player, these issues seem to be resolved. ZombieLink is great, but seems unfinished, with no maps of my runs, a feature the website suggests should be live. Finally, the zombie chases are great, but they start randomly, so I find myself moving slowly when not being chased, not wanting to be worn out should a sudden chase start up.

I have great hopes for ZombieLink, but it isn't quite there.. yet. And yes, I run slow. Shut up.

The Future

Today's update, in addition to resolving the audio issues I experienced, added a shuffle feature which greatly improved the experience with each story clip or "transmission" playing as an intro/outro to random songs from a custom playlist I made for running. Various stability issues were also addressed, and my experience with the third time playing the game takes my recommendation from a cautious "Yes, but..." to an emphatic "Oh, definitely." There are currently 23 missions available, with a total of 30 promised for the first "season," as well as 5k and marathon training expansions (as I'd like someday to try the "couch to 5k" program, I look forward to this.) The team seems committed to supporting the project, so I am confident that an already great app will only get even better with time. As an experienced gamer, fan of the zombie genre and novice fitness enthusiast, this game hits the right notes. As the application is patched and refined, I think it'll be a great tool for my quest for  being more physically fit. After all, ZombieLand taught us that Rule #1 is: Cardio.

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Blog Gadgets

Music and Video Games - Stuff I'd have never heard if I wasn't a gamer.

When it comes to music, I like a pretty wide variety of different things, but I don't spend a whole lot of time listening to the radio or watching music channels on TV (not that most of those ever have any music anymore.) As the content of this blog would suggest, I spend quite a bit of my time playing games. Going through the contents of my iPod, I realized that the source of a lot of my favorite music is something I liked when hearing in in a video game once, and then I looked up the artist and purchased albums or individual tracks. As soundtracks for geeky films and TV can only provide so much in terms of exposure to new music, and tabletop roleplaying and fantasy novels don't (typically) have a soundtrack at all, I'm glad to have so many artists that I was introduced to primarily through PC and console games. I'd like to run down a few of those now.

Artist/Song: Bang Camaro - “Push Push” (Lady Lightning)

Game: Guitar Hero 2

"Trogdor" was another great bonus song from that game, but I was already aware of it at the time.

I was first working at a video game store when I encountered the Guitar Hero games, and I was terrible at them. When Guitar Hero 2 was released, our store got a preview copy with a few songs for the in-store demo station. In times when business was slow, I played the hell out of those few songs, and ended up pre-ordering and purchasing the full game when it released for the Xbox 360. I carved through the catalogue of songs in that game bit by bit, unlocking all the bonus songs and being able to play almost every song on Hard. One of the more fun ones to learn was the Arena-rock styled song from Bang Camaro. I don't play much guitar hero these days, but I still listen to that song now and again.

Artist/Song: Louis Armstrong - “A Kiss to Build a Dream On...”

Game: Fallout 2

I'd heard of Satchmo before Fallout, of course, but in the same way I'd heard of Jelly Roll Morton, Bing Crosby, and other artists who I could name but didn't really “listen to.” The amazing opening for this game impressed me so much that not only did I reload it many times to watch again, but I eventually picked up a CD of Louis Armstrong's recordings from the Decca sessions. This CD is representative of a lot of the commonly recognized “greatest hits,” and though I've ripped it to individual MP3s by now, I can say that the gravelly voice and amazing trumpet skills of this musical titan are a major part of any shuffle rotation.

Artist/Song: Alizée “J'en ai Marre”

Game: World of Warcraft

Yep, that is a specific dance move from a specific singer.

Funny thing about this one is, I didn't encounter French Pop star Alizée through her music, at least not initially. As people (or at least, most guys) who have played WoW for any significant length of time would likely recognize, the French pop singer is the inspiration for the female Night Elf dancing animation. In one of the many videos showing the WoW dances and their real-world counterparts side-by-side, I noticed this one and curiosity sent me to Google to find out who she was and what her music sounded like. Surprisingly, I found a few songs I liked quite a bit without any videos of her dancing required, even though I don't speak French near well enough to understand them.

Artist/Song: Poets of the Fall - “War” and “Poet and the Muse” (as Old Gods of Asgard)

Game: Alan Wake

I've mentioned these guys before. Since encountering their music in Alan Wake, the Finnish rock band Poets of the Fall has become one of my very favorite bands of all time. I haven't been to a concert in years, but if these guys have a tour that takes them anywhere near Chicago, I may have to clear my schedule and score tickets. They appear throughout the game both as themselves, and performing two songs as the fictional Nordic Metal Band from the 1970s called Old Gods of Asgard. (Video above is an "Old Gods" power ballad.)  Most of their stuff sounds like a blend between Jethro Tull and Queensryche, clean vocals and dark undertones in the music. Outside of the songs from the games, I am a huge fan of both the newest album, Twilight Theater, and Carnival of Rust from 2006. They also wrote and performed the closing credits to Max Payne 2.

Artist/Song: Jonathan Coulton - “Still Alive”

Game: Portal

Even people who have never tried Portal have likely heard the closing credits song over and over again. The clever lyrics, darkly humorous and in keeping with the tone of the game itself plus the incredibly catchy tune got many geeks to play the song to death and memorize all the words. Mr. Coulton wrote the song, but didn't perform it himself. A little digging online reveals a career built on funny songs with geeky themes, from Zombie Office Workers trying calmly to draft a memo to get the humans to let them in (RE: Your Brains,) to a young nerd who dreams of the day in the future when he can become a cyborg supervillain with a lab in space, because he is humiliated by a girl he likes now (Future Soon.) I've heard most of his albums, and the songs are catchy, well performed and genuinely funny throughout, so long as your sense of humor is twisted.

There are scores of songs from the music games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero that I left off, mainly because most of my favorites from that genre are tunes I already knew about before the games featuring them. Also worth a brief mention is the track from Portal 2, “Exile Vilify” by The National. I played that song again and again to the point of my wife yelling at me right after hearing it. More than one of the Skateboarding games on consoles have had songs on their soundtracks that I've since tracked down, and the Grand Theft Auto series has great music on the various in-game radio stations as well.

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Chiptunes and Classic Videogame Music - Oh, Say Can You Hear?

Here in the United States, July 4^th is a patriotic holiday, and besides fireworks and parades, the music of the holiday is distinctive and instantly summons some memories. Aside from Christmas and a few cultural festivals, there are few other holidays that do that. I don't usually hear a particular song and think “Halloween” or “Easter”, and if there is an Arbor Day song, I don't know it. Thinking about a particular Independence Day/July 4^th memory and the music associated with it brings me to today's topic. One of the most easily recognizable songs for American Patriotism is, of course, our National Anthem, and being a geek, my clearest memory of the Star Spangled Banner isn't of some sporting event I attended or competed in, and it isn't some formal event where a band or orchestra played a stirring rendition. It is (for good or ill) … this.

One of the greatest and worst moments in early videogaming history. Konami's “interesting” interpretation aside, there have been some really incredible compositions to come out of video games in the last 30 or so years, and chiptune music has been dissected, analyzed, remixed and remastered by literally thousands of aspiring musicians. For those who know a little bit about the geeky, crazy little niche subset of music that includes 8 and 16-bit compositions, there are standouts, and I'd like to talk about a few of the best.

Castlevania (NES) – Composer: Kinuyo Yamashita

The original Castlevania had one of the most remixed, analyzed and familiar songs in video gaming history. If you've ever played the game, I'm sure you recognize it, but you may not know that the song's official name is Vampire Killer, or that it was composed by a woman, which was highly unusual in the videogame industry of the 1980s. So unusual, in fact, that Kinuyo Yamashita was credited under the pseudonym James Banana. I'll also always have fond memories of her soundtrack for the trippy game “Stinger,” which was my first NES game after Super Mario Bros, which shipped with the system.

Legend of Zelda/Super Mario Brothers (NES) – Composer: Koji Kondo

Kondo is well known as a composer for the creation of the two most iconic themes of the 8-bit era of video gaming. In addition to being a composer, he literally wrote the book on overcoming the inherent challenges with sound design on Nintendo's FamiCom system (released abroad as the Nintendo Entertainment System.) In addition to composing the scores for Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda, he returned in some capacity to work on other games in both of those franchises and did a lot of the music and sound for the Star Fox series.

Streets of Rage (Sega Genesis) – Composer: Yuzo Koshiro

Not all of the early great music in videogames first showed up on the NES. Whenever someone says “great music from a video game” I usually first think of Streets of Rage. I discovered these songs before I knew they were from a game, having missed out on the fighting franchise when it first appeared on Sega Genesis. The high energy tunes were inspired by club music the composer heard at the time, and the success of the game has been attributed in no small part due to how memorable the music from each stage is.

Final Fantasy Series (Many Systems) – Composer: Nobuo Uematsu

The “Prelude” composition from the original Final Fantasy game has appeared in most of the games in the most popular JRPG series in videogaming history. It was based on a simple arpeggio found in one of Johann Sebasian Bach's stort pieces, and has evolved over the years from a simple two-voice melody to a fully orchestrated theme that is recognized by millions worldwide. The success of Final Fantasy and its music led to Nobuo Uemastu scoring over 30 other titles, and he, along with several other employees of Squaresoft, formed a band. They named it “The Black Mages.”

I didn't include some of my favorite remixes or any of the post-chiptune music found in games on purpose. I got into Jonathan Coulton based on “Still Alive” from Portal and after hearing Poets of the Fall in Alan Wake, I made sure to listen to all of their stuff. I'll revisit the topic of music from or by artists made famous by video games at a future date, but to hear the themes I've referred to in this article remastered or reimagined, I recommend the amazing music archive OC Remix. The OverClocked Remix site has a hard rock/metal inspired version of Vampire Killers called “CastleMania” that isn't to be missed, and jazz versions of Legend of Zelda and Mario themes as well a thousands of other tracks for download.

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Blog Gadgets

“Weird” Al Yankovic – The Man, the Myth, the Breakfast Cereal.

This week, a geek icon has made his way into the news at the center of a controversy. “Weird” Al Yankovic posted on his blog that he had been nearly ready to announce a new album, he was waiting on artist approval for the final song, which would likely be the big single for the release. As a parody artist, all of "Weird" Al's music is protected from allegations of copyright infringement, but his personal policy is to obtain artist permission before commercially releasing a song based on their work.

"Weird" Al's classic look, maintained throughout the 1980s.

“Perform This Way”, based on Lady Gaga's “Born This Way” was written with the intention of being the final song on the new album. When he contacted Gaga's management for permission, he was told initially that she needed to hear the song before giving permission. He forwarded over the lyrics, assuming that if she knew the tune to her own song with his alternate lyrics, this would be enough. Her people sent back a message “She needs to HEAR the song, or the answer is no.” So, assuming the best about others, Yankovic recorded the song, a not inexpensive undertaking. He further offered to donate profits from the song to charity, and the answer came back: “Gaga says no.” The controversy over the situation raged from geek to geek over the internet, and Lady Gaga's manager assumed responsibility, saying that he never actually played the parody for her, she loves it... the answer is now yes. Hmm.

“Weird” Al is an artist that is loved by many, but especially by geeks. He's done several Star Wars parodies, he plays the incredibly nerdy accordion, and of course... his hit “White and Nerdy” hits most items on any geek's checklist of interests. Not all his fans are nerds or geeks (even if we rightly consider him one of “ours”,) Dave Grohl said that he knew that Nirvana had finally made it when “Weird” Al recorded “Smells Like Nirvana,” and Kurt Cobain called him a musical genius. Presidents of the United States liked his version of their hit “Lump” (“Gump”) so much, that they used his words to end the actual song in the live recording. Chamillionaire credited Yankovic for his Grammy for “Ridin'”, saying the exposure from “White and Nerdy” was incredible, with European fans telling him how they'd heard “his version” of the “Weird Al” song.

This isn't the first time that permission, or the lack thereof, has resulted in a scandal. Representatives for Coolio told Yankovic that the artist had given the okay for a parody of “Gangsta's Paradise”, but the artist himself was not a fan of 1996's “Amish Paradise.” This made “Weird” Al change his policy, insisting he needed to hear from the artist themselves regarding permission. James Blunt gave Yankovic the go ahead to record “You're Pitiful”, a parody of “You're Beautiful”, but after the song was recorded and ready to go, Atlantic Records rescinded permission. Rather than defend the song under Fair Use in court, the song was not commercially released, though “Weird” Al performs it live (at least once while wearing an “Atlantic Records SUCK” shirt.)

"If Madonna's allowed to reinvent herself every 15 minutes, I figure I should be good for a change at least once every 20 years."

After 35 years making music, from parodies about food recorded for the benefit of the Dr. Demento radio show in the late 1970s, through the feature film UHF which he wrote and starred in, and to present day, one nerdy favorite has remained current and relevant. He typically outlasts the musical careers of the people who inspire his comedy, and his writing remains clever and his humor typically ages well, even after the original song is forgotten, the parody remains.

My cynical side questions whether the Gaga controversy is truly the work of a manager overstepping his bounds and embarassing the artist he is supposed to represent, or whether this is a case of backpedaling after a public backlash. After all, Lady Gaga was the target of the ire of a lot of “Weird” Al fans after this story broke, and what has Coolio done lately? Seems like being on the wrong side of one of these scandals doesn't work out very well for an artist. What do you think?

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Blog Gadgets

Yo! Nerd Raps! No, really.

 I've talked a little before about my taste in music, but despite the wide variety, I'd still classify more than half of it as what someone would call “mainstream”. Most of the off the path stuff is one or two bands or even just a couple songs in a style that you won't find on any radio station. There's one huge exception to all that, however. Nerdcore hip-hop, also called nerdcore rap.

I went through a time in my life where I pretty much looked down on rappers as musical artists, and I think a lot of that came from a dissatisfaction with the variety of themes used in the songs, and my lack of ability to really connect with a lot of it. Now, as an adult, I've learned to appreciate rap music as a medium, and though I prefer “Old School” to newer stuff, I sometimes even hear something new out of the rap world that I think is really cool. There's still that lingering something, though... so many songs about how much money someone has, casual sex and drug use or drug selling. There can be (and have been) great songs about those topics, but... really? Is that it?

No. That's not it.

I gotta get a copy of this. Waiting on Netflix to hook a geek up.

Off the charts and off the beaten path, there's a movement. It isn't anywhere near mainstream, but there are a lot of fans and some really, really good artists working in it. I'm talking about nerdcore. Rapping about old computer games, programming concepts and webcomics, rhymes with references to Star Wars and Nintendo, beats backed by 8-bit chip synth. Now this, this is something I can relate to. Not only that, but it is different. Rap could use some different.

A lot of the tracks are funny, almost all are clever, so the first reaction is typically “So... this is some kind of parody, right?” The idea that people could be doing this kind of music about these kinds of things is ridiculous, who would listen to it? Well, I would, for one. You can look at the YouTube comments for pretty much any nerdcore video, and see comments reflecting the same kind of intolerance and small-mindedness now that what we think of as mainstream rap got a lot of when it first dropped.

Not the kind of rapper who makes you think "street".

Some of the first and biggest nerdcore stars still command tiny audiences as compared to what you'd see in traditional rap or rock fanbases, but they are prolific in this scene. The accepted first use of the term “nerdcore” came from MC Frontalot, who has been plugged by Penny Arcade, covered by other artists and has a movie, Nerdcore Rising, about his tour. Another bigger name is mc chris. He is best known for his track “Fett's Vette”, rapped from the perspective of Boba Fett himself, and his work with Aqua Teen Hunger Force as “MC Pee Pants” and other incarnations of the same character.

I'll at some point likely return to a host of nerdcore artists for individual artist profiles, for the two I mention above as well as some lesser-known talents. MC Lars and YTCRACKER are, in my mind, two of the other “bigger names”, and there's a whole mid-tier set of artists including Nursehella, Beefy, Optimus Rhyme and Jesse Dangerously. A lot of these artists are working hard in a scene that is barely recognized as legitimate, but their fans appreciate them anyway. More than a few of them are featured in the documentary Nerdcore For Life, which was released last year. (Poster is, of course, the image at the start of this article.)

Nerdcore start mc chris in his animated glory.

Rhymes about how you don't get laid because you can't talk to girls? Frontalot did it. A track about how an attractive woman can throw a Vampire LARP into chaos? MC Diabeats did that. World of Warcraft? Oh, yeah, plenty of rappers make music about nearly nothing else, but I favor Fatty (who might be unique in the rap game as a lesbian geek rapping about video games.) There is a lot more to the medium than money, misogyny, guns and drugs. A whole lot more.  

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Blog Gadgets

The SixtyOne. Part Internet Radio, part... MMORPG?

I've written before about my new daily routine as an Unemployed Geek, but I've left out an important part of any given day... my music. I've developed my musical tastes over the years to be something... unusual, as I listen to a little bit of everything, from Top 40 radio, through classical, nerdcore hiphop, Australian Folk-Rock, Christian Country Acid-House, Blues, Oldies... I could fill an article just listing genres... it'd just be boring. My musical taste was once described as “somewhere between eclectic and schizophrenic,” and I particularly like wildly different mixes of music with jarring transitions between songs.

NOT on TheSixtyOne... Unfortunately... after learning about these guys from playing Alan Wake, this Finnish Rock Band became one of my favorites.

My tastes mean that I like a constant influx of music I haven't encountered before. This isn't always easy, especially on a very, very limited income. I've tried a lot of streaming internet radio stations, like Pandora and Last.fm, and I like a lot of what I've heard, but most of it isn't new to me, and my tastes confound the matching algorithms and I don't get quite the right mix. One day, browsing the internet, I discovered a page featuring “websites you should visit, if you don't already.” The hook for one of them in particular drew me in.

Kill 16 indie-rockers and bring me their Vans to complete this quest.

Thesixtyone.com was listed as a Pandora-style site with a focus on new music and... gaming elements? I raised an eyebrow. Sure enough, the site had daily quests, an experience point kind of system, and even achievements. Dialing in on two separate elements of what I like on the internet, blending them haphazardly and making it all work, somehow? Yes, please.

The blend of music on thesixtyone isn't for everyone. There is a LOT of indie-rock, chick rock and other “white boy college radio” stuff on there, not a whole lot for, say, a heavy metal fan. If you like The Decemberists, Tetrastar or other similar artists, you'll find this site is targeted at you. I managed to also find quite a bit of nerdcore rap/hip-hop I'd never heard of, and the entire catalogue of Jonathan Coulton (Of Portal's “Still Alive” closing credits fame) is up there.

The cake may be a lie, but check out his other stuff... this guy is hilarious and amazing.

Some of the tracks on the site are available for download, and about half of those I've encountered don't even charge for the privilege. For those who feel strongly about artists getting paid for their work instead of supporting the recording industry, this site is real solid on that front, with a higher percentage of any digital sales going directly to artists than most other sites I've encountered. If anyone starts using the site and wants to add me as a friend, I'm on there, of course, as DocStout.

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