Wired is has just posted this story about a Polish group that makes music with six networked Game Boys. They're called the Gameboyzz Orchestra Project. A great name - even if 'Gameboyzz' comes straight from a premium rate chat line...
Anyway, this is a weird and interesting idea but it's certainly not new.
Almost ten years ago, a Japanese group named The Electric Family released an album of music created entirely using the SNES game, Mario Paint. There's also a thriving underground scene based around Commodore 64 soundtracks, taking in live events and audio CDs, while old skool coin-op samples have littered electronic music history for the last 20 years (Aphex Twin's cult classic Powerpill Pac-Man for example).
It could even be argued that the electro revival of the last few years has just been an excuse to relive the minamalist bleeps of 8bit computer music without having to admit that you were ever into games.
What is it about retro game music that makes young adult males go weak at the knees? Is it just nostalgia, or are there intrinsic qualities to these sparse compositions?
I remember reading once about how the sounds at the beginning of the movie Alien - the rumbles, blips and whrrrs that accompany Mother switching on the Nostromo's computer systems - were designed to mimic the sounds we hear in the womb. Perhaps the nostalgia that makes us go all gooey at the plink plonk sound of Game Boy music runs deeper than we think...
