Header Menu

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Namco Taiko Blog (28 September 2017) - Behind the Notechart: FooFoo Cassette



Returning triumphant after his first Xa Ura clear performance (now aim to a Full Combo!), Taiko Team notecharter Sentai Yamaguchi is back for another rendition of this single-song chart feature, which today is starting to broaden the scope to the Autumn Rewards Shop content.

Harunaba's second non-Vocaloid song in Taiko gaming has been charted by notecharter Arihotto (アリーホット), which has been invited in today's blog entry to tell about the reason behind him including the yes-they-are-still-patented trippy barlines(TM). As FooFoo Cassette chimes back to the old-school style of gaming in some way or another, the charter felt that an introduction to the touched gaming tropes for the younger readers is a must!

The earlier gaming consoles that popularized the concept of electronic videogames to the mass markets had two distinctive features that are also reflected in the song and its title; the first of those is the primitive graphical style based on 8-bit systems, once a necessity due to the earliest consoles' processing limitation that still has found its niche place in modern gaming.

The other aspect is the method to access the games with said old consoles, mostly relying on dedicated cassettes to slot into the system's dedicated spaces. Picking up such systems after years of inactivity might result your game cartridges to become dusty over time, so it's not uncommon to spot old-time gamers blowing the dust away if the games did not load properly... Hence the inspiration for Harunaba's song theme and title, with FooFoo being an onomatopoeia to call back to such gesture!

Once your old system has been properly plugged in and the game was up to snuff, the software unfolds upon the player's very eyes...


By taking a closer look at the picture displayed above, it's also possible to spot another graphical difference for the games of yesteryear generations: wire-framing graphical display! While the current consoles' processing power are able to handle a lot of visual geometries and commands at the same time on screen, older systems' lesser power only allowed for simpler forms to be shown under more simple schemes, with one of the most simple visual renderings being pure framework-based models.

For a better example, here's how Don-chan would look like as a wire-frame model!


If you're asking "what has this to do with the trippy barlines(TM) in FooFoo Cassette?", try looking to the model from a certain point of view...

 


So you can see that what I told you was true,...

And there you have it, yet another way to pay homage to old-school gaming in Taiko notechart form!

Link to original post