Misc. Discoveries

Various discoveries I've made in the videogaming space and elsewhere as of late. Some of it may lean into casual archival work, though a lot of that can be found on the Videos page of this website. Otherwise, these entries mostly focus on "texture matching," but I will continue to add anything else of note I find during miscellaneous research.

At some point I'll also add in a table of contents to this page isn't so unwieldy to navigate!

Play-Play PlayStation "Original Game" Audio Sample Source

Making a note of this here because I'm not sure where else to do so. Might find a better spot on the site at some point. This is also such an obscure thing I don't even know how/where to share it. The Japanese PlayStation demo disc series "Play-Play" sometimes featured original games (as seen in Vols. 5 & 6, possibly later installments as well). A whimsical song accompanied these games which featured various interjections and screeches. The song can be listened to below. The "achoo" sound heard right at the start and at 57 seconds is a sample taken from the first disc set of the Gu-Mantan series, which were Japanese CD-ROM sets featuring royalty-free samplings of various media, including clip art, photo, fonts, and sounds. The sample in question is labeled as "SND024," and "アチョー" within the program menus (meaning "achoo," so it's basically meant to be a sneeze sound). I stumbled across this completely randomly but thought I'd document it. I've shared it with the "VGM & Other Instrument Sources" community, which is trying to catalog one billion different musical sound fonts at a time and is also engaged in a similar number of ongoing conversations. The majority of their information is kept in a Discord server and innumerable private spreadsheets. I did learn that the sound was possibly made with the Roland SC-55 sound module. Regardless, there's no real place to properly make note of this as of yet because it's pretty insignificant. It's of course also possible this has been discovered already, but I have found almost zero information about the "Play-Play Original Game" online to begin with, including the Japanese side of things. I am guessing the other samples contained within the song are on alternate Gu-Mantan discs.

Some day when I figure out how to embed audio files I will include the sample in question!!!


Village of McFarland, WI Public Library Groundbreaking Ceremony Photos

Of course I had to check out this CD containing "approximately 100 images in .jpg format" documenting the groundbreaking ceremony for the Village of McFarland, Wisconsin's public library! This is actually an occasion commemorating the E.D. Locke Public Library's new location, which was established in 1997. The momentous ocassion took place on March 31, 2005, which was seemingly a positively jovial afternoon in the village. Just sort of checked this one out "on a lark" because I love hyper-local mementos like this. It was brought all the way from the eponymous McFarland Public Library to my own local library after I placed an enthusiastic hold on the item. Naturally, I don't think the photos are really hosted elsewhere, so if you see your meemaw or pep-pep in one of the images, feel free to save! Photo collection can also be viewed here.

Village of McFarland, WI Sesquicentennial Photo Collection

Why ANOTHER entry on the Village of McFarland? Well, it just seems like they have been particularly good at documenting their events (and making them available through the library system). I have zero connection to McFarland, but I still find this sort of local history fascinating. This is a photo collection of the village's sesquicentennial (150 year) celebrations from July 2, 2006. Now, at the end of 2024, they're nearing their demisemiseptcentennial! Madness!!! The photo collection can also be viewed and downloaded here. You can also find included in the files a cute slideshow version of all the photos that had been put together.