INTERCOM19
Scientifically formulated, psychologically tested, department head approved — video game soundtracks, nostalgia, nerd culture, broadcasting 24/7 from Belmont Labs via an assimilated intercom system.
What began as a modest experiment in audio-induced mood elevation has grown, to the considerable dismay of upper management, well beyond its original scope. Internal memos have used the word "containment." We are no longer using that word.
The details remain disputed, but the timeline is not: at precisely 11:11 PM on an unseasonably humid summer evening, something happened on Corridor 19.
In the weeks prior, staff had reported a persistent, facility-wide ennui. They discussed it frequently, at length, and at volume — directly adjacent to several pieces of extremely delicate psychic audio equipment. The Incident Response Team has since flagged this as "a contributing factor." The Incident Response Team is being generous.
Since that evening, access to Room 19 has been classified as inadvisable. An entity of undetermined disposition has assumed full control of the Corridor 19 intercom system, along with every hard drive, MP3 player, and flash drive on the premises containing audiophile-quality music. Requests for the return of said media have gone unanswered, though one researcher did receive a flawless FLAC rip of a soundtrack that does not appear to exist.
You are currently listening to the recently un-redacted audio output of this entity.
Belmont Labs assumes no responsibility for elevated mood, spontaneous nostalgia, or the sudden compulsion to check whether your basement has always had that door.
Welcome to my love letter for classic gaming and the AV associated with it.
Intercom19 is a project by Xanthey Belmont under the heading of Belmont Laboratories.
This started out with me wanting a nicer way to listen to my video game soundtracks at work. Something that felt more random, more fun, and more alive.
I took what I have learned, professionally, through my careers in tech and radio and combined them into a real radio station with only the music I wanted to hear, when I wanted to hear it.
Different parts of my day called for different types of music, so the station's schedule is designed around that thought process.
Being a big ole A/V nerd, I knew it couldn't just be the music.. so I set out to make something unique. A station that not only played some of the best video game soundtracks ever known, but something that could be pulled up and enjoyed as an entire entertainment package. Not just the audio you love, but real visualizations based on real-life audio hardware and equipment.
You will find several EQ modes, all working with great audio detail and accuracy. Each one has been meticulously crafted and perfected to represent what its real world counterpart would produce.. but with that Belmont Labs flair. We're talking bright colors, game themes, and all of those modes that you wish your Sony SEQ-333ES had back in the day.. and then some.
The Sounds:
Every single track you hear was hand-picked by me for maximum nostalgia and perfect quality. Every track you hear is a FLAC file in the best quality available. As a fun fact for the readers, you might notice that every few songs a new one will come on that makes you REALLY want to get up and move.. this is intentionally designed. These "Pick Up Tracks" are also hand-picked to have that maximum balance of nostalgia and excitement (expect a lot of Konami and Capcom type tracks).
The Visuals:
I took a lot of inspiration from WinAmp for the general visual design of the player and controls, but toned down for the needs of the station. A lot of time and attention was spent on small quality of life details such as the track progress bar. Does a radio station NEED a track progress bar? No, not really.. but maybe that song is 3 minutes long and you just hate it. No problem, watch the fill bar and come back when its over :)
Speaking of WinAmp, skins! Oh yeah, skins galore! I tried to add as many as I could design that had different-enough-themes to be unique. Some might feel like duplicates at first, and some might look unusable.. but there is always a use-case. Trust me. :)
The EQ Modes:
Much like the skins, I wanted this to really feel customizable. I created several more standard EQ skins, things you would expect: Classic, LED Segments, Pixels, etc. These look great on a small screen next to a classic audio/video stack from the 90s (Sony, in my case.)
There are also a few more "specialized" bar skins, such as #2 Pencils, Matrix, and Stretch. These, while completely functional EQs, are more fun looks for your EQ, if you are into that sort of thing.
Wanting something REALLY different? Check out Chameleon, Ribbon, and Fire for some VFX goodness.
I'd like to talk about a couple of the skins specifically, because a lot of work went into these:
Garden: This bar skin is more of a cozy game than an EQ skin. Your music affects the rate of growth, type of plants, and cross-pollination to create unique species of plants. Your garden and your friend's garden will eventually look wildly different than each other.
Piano Keys: This is my approximation of a real keyboard piano, if it were playing the track. Of course this isn't an exact science, and some songs look WAY better than others.. but this is just fun to watch.
Terrain: Ever seen an 80s movie where a space ship is about to crash into an unknown planet? Remember those awesome vector terrain maps? Want that for your music too? Because I did.
Neo-Tokyo HUD: Taking a lot of inspiration from 80s and 90s anime, I created a scene which would look equally at home on a custom Linux desktop, or a bright red motorcycle in pursuit of some Clowns.
D. Prologic II/x: These modes use the real math behind the Prologic matrix decoding algorithm to show which sound patterns are going to which of your surround channels if you are using matrix upmixing to listen to the station. A lot of upmixing is temporal and can be different every single time you listen to the same media, even on official hardware (I used a Harman Kardon AVR from ~2002 to assist in creating these modules). However, this should be exactly how your receiver would choose to distribute the frequencies in your own living room (or nerdy hangout area in your garage, as the case may be).
Usage Tips from the dev:
There are a few undocumented features that you might find useful, here are a few. More to come!
Mute: You can right-click the popout window to instantly mute playback. The stream continues in the background, but the audio silences.
Rendering Resolution: Are you on a low powered device like a SBC, or do you just want to run the visualizations at a lower/lighter resolution? Just zoom your screen. No really, all of the visualizations are built around the current viewport so simply making your zoom 200% will cause them to render at half the size they were before. Trust me, it works.
Check out the Equalizer panel of the settings. There are tons of customization settings for the EQ for power users. If you are familiar with EQs throughout the years, many of these settings will be instantly familiar. If not, have fun playing around!
— Xanthey