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Chiptune Friday SPECIAL EDITION: Watch "Reformat the Planet" RIGHT NOW!

2 Player Productions' Reformat The Planet is a feature-length documentary about the rising New York City chiptune music scene. The film debuted at the South By Southwest festival a few months ago and has been making the rounds at various other festivals including PAX later this month. Featuring behind-the-scenes interviews and live performances by a large number of musicians, including several featured here on Chiptune Friday, Reformat The Planet is an excellent film and bound to please anybody who is a fan of music, video games, gadgets, counter-culture, or any combination of the above.

And now, our friends at Pitchfork.tv have put the entire film up on their website so you don't even need to leave your web browser. Click here to watch the film right now.

Chiptune Friday: Helix Nebula

Written by Derrick Sanskrit

It's friday, which means it's time for chiptune! It's also June, which means that the summer concert season has officially begun! Summer may not officially begin for another two weeks, but the sun is beating down on NYC, so let's go outside and rock out with our joysticks out!

To get you in the summer spirit, here's a track by one of my favorite chiptune bands, Anamanaguchi. This Brooklyn trio (sometimes quartet) uses a modified Nintendo Entertainment System to build their beats, then kick the bits up from 8 to 11 with electric guitars and bass (and sometimes a drum set for their live shows). Anamanaguchi's music is exciting and lively, full of warm square waves and fuzzy guitars with crunchy blips and beats. It simultaneously calls to mind the best 8-bit shooters and platformers with its aggressive playfulness. Makes me feel like running around the elementary school playground, hopped up on Pop Rocks, kicking the butts off radioactive goblins that only I can see.

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.