Starship Rendezvous - Close Encounter

In 1988, Scaptrust released one of the most famous adult games on MSX: Starship Rendezvous. In the Netherlands, editor-in-chief of the biggest Dutch MSX magazine (MCM) Wammes Witkop once denied publication of a review of this game on moral grounds, which afterwards lead to hilarious situations in the game tips section of his magazine. While many more adult games have been made by other companies, such as the Peach-Up series, it's Starship Rendezvous that remains unique among all others.

One of the reasons could be the equally unique musical style of this game. The music, made by Masaharu Iwata and Hitoshi Sakimoto, sounds harsh and extreme at times, but it's exactly this extremeness that added to its reputation of sounding different compared to ordinary FM-PAC music. The music of this game also is quite lengthy, which is usually a trigger for Wolf to do a remix. And so, less than a week ago, he decided it was time for a new remake. In just two days, this was the result: Starship Rendezvous - Close Encounter. The title is not based on any official track title from the game, other than that it's the music heard during the non-spaceship scenes, the 'doing it' scenes, or whatever you'd like to label it. Close Encounter is probably the most artistic name for this!

This version is well over ten minutes in length, the second-longest remix in our database and the longest one based on a single cue. The remix is entirely orchestral, with the final 4 minutes containing variations and (loud) additions by Wolf, making up for a better symphonic experience. Listening over headphones is recommended!

If you have freeware material for our downloads section which you wish to share with MSX fans around the world, please send it to downloads@msx.org and we will consider your submission. Each addition to the downloads section will be announced in a newspost, and if your entry does well enough: the download will be mentioned in the monthly downloads top 10 or in the related downloads top 10.

Relevant link: Starship Rendezvous - Close Encounter (mp3)

Comments (28)

By DamageX

Master (217)

09-02-2009, 04:54

Is the whole thing an adult game or is it just the "Michelle" mini-game? I like the YM2608 version of the ending theme from the NEC PC. I believe the composer is the guy who did Radiant Silvergun also.

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

09-02-2009, 09:49

Great.

The official title of this song is "Work of Digging at Midnight".
I swear I'm not kidding.

I always thought Shinobu Ogawa (Telenet chief composer) did the Starship Rendezvous soundtrack himself,
since 2 musical themes in different songs have been 'borrowed' from the game XZR / Exile.

Well, I'll listen to this one some more.

@ DamageX; no, the 'pleasuring the girls' part can be viewed as being 'boss battles'.
The actual game is a sluggish scrolling arcade-like with only one type of enemy.
In those 'normal' levels, the point is to gather ointments, dildo's etc. to be used while dealing with the girls.
When you find her, you have to shoot the girl to sedate her (?!?) and walk into her.
After that, the boss part starts.

The "Michelle" mini-game is just a bonus; as opposed to the normal 'bosses' which are screen 8 'drawings', that part has digitized pictures of an actual flesh and blood model.

IIRC it can be reached by entering music mode (push [F-2] at titlescreen), swapping disk A for disk B and exiting music mode again.

If that doesn't work (you see a picture of girl 1 with info next to it), quickly swap disks again.
Play stage 1.
When you reach the end of the stage, swap disks once more.
(You can skip to the end of any stage by pushing [ESC] + [F-2] + [F-4] simultaneously.)

By FiXato

Scribe (1743)

09-02-2009, 11:03

And so John spreads his demonic seed again ;p

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10135)

09-02-2009, 12:12

The official title of this song is "Work of Digging at Midnight".
I swear I'm not kidding.
I think I prefer Close Encounter then..

And.. *clicky*

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

09-02-2009, 15:43

@ FiXato: LOL. Beware the hellspawn.

@ wolf_

Well, something interesting has come up.

XZR music staff: Hiroaki Kai, Minoru Yuasa, Hiroto Otsubo, Shinobu Ogawa

XZR II music staff: Shinobu Ogawa, Tenpei Sato

...totally different composers from Starship Rendezvous.

So, someone has been stealin'!
It's absolutely no coincidence; even the tuning of at least one theme is the same.

Could have been a bit like this:

--- AT THE NEXT MSX FAIR ---

O_O --- Hey wolfie_, since I'm not completely drunk yet, can I ask you a favor?

¬_¬ --- That depends on the favor, DemonSeedy.

*o* --- Well, hehehe, see, I'm supposed to make music for this game, but I'm totally out of inspiration.

O_O --- That's tough.

^_^ --- Yeah it sure is. So, would you mind if I, like, borrow your "Aurora Borealis 2" and "Universe:Unknown stage 1" melodies? They're pretty sweet.

o_O --- Jesus Christ dude, you really can't think of something yourself?

@_@ --- N'uh-uh. Totally dry, as I said.

"_" --- Well, go ahead then, but don't tell anybody I said "yes"

^_^ --- Wh00h00!!! Thanks man! Don't worry, no-one will notice!

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10135)

09-02-2009, 16:00

Tho I'd never say 'That's tough.', I'd say 'That's nonsense.'

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

09-02-2009, 16:51

...and the conversation would probably be in Dutch.

But I take it you would say "yes"?

By Huey

Prophet (2696)

09-02-2009, 17:00

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10135)

09-02-2009, 17:00

Err.. no But it would be easy enough for me to inject some inspiration and ideas into you, so at least I'd help..

By Manuel

Ascended (19678)

09-02-2009, 17:38

There are some other interesting musics in this game, e.g. in the demo, IIRC.

By sunrise

Paragon (1091)

09-02-2009, 19:45

Couldnot resist to try it under SYmbos with real mp3 player on real MSX. Amazing

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6091)

09-02-2009, 22:43

Ah, it sounds so good and real!

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

10-02-2009, 03:43

@ wolf_ Thanks dude! That means something.

There are some other interesting musics in this game, e.g. in the demo, IIRC.
Allow me to state that the entire soundtrack f****** rules!

For those interested, here are the actual titles of the songs:

.....................Intro = "Operation in Unsteady Space"
.................Girl info = "The Art of Noise"
.................Stage 1 = "Madness And Its Synergetic Effect"
.................Stage 2 = "Maze Trap!!"
.................Stage 3 = "Bass ...[sorry, cannot read]"
...........Girl fondling = "Work of Digging at Midnight"
...Girl interrogation = "Mysticism"
............Game over = "The Sunset for the Sunrise"
..................Ending = "Don't Forget Your Wonderful Memory"

BTW, the PC-88 version has an extra track which is not on the MSX release.

By RobertVroemisse

Paragon (1330)

10-02-2009, 09:19

Girl fondling = "Work of Digging at Midnight"

That title sounds soooooooooooooooh dirty!!!!!!

By W76NearDark

Paladin (684)

10-02-2009, 09:41

Quite a large newsitem just for one tune.... Cucumbertime?

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10135)

10-02-2009, 10:26

No, just the availability of textual content (history, backgrounds etc.), which we prefer for each newspost. It's just not always there, or people don't submit backgrounds.

By OeiOeiVogeltje

Paragon (1438)

12-02-2009, 22:15

i have never played this game.
how odd.

By LeandroCorreia

Paladin (963)

13-02-2009, 19:17

"Witkop once denied publication of a review of this game on moral grounds, which afterwards lead to hilarious situations in the game tips section of his magazine."

What exactly happened?

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10135)

13-02-2009, 20:50

Well, WW denied the publication of the review, but meanwhile gametips for SRV came in. Iirc it was a time when the MSX magazine also had an MS-DOS section, and Larry was once reviewed. In short: any sexual or pornographic game or gametip was usually enough for heavy published debates between the game reviewer and WW. You'd have to read it tho, it's hard to translate what exactly happened, you just had to be Dutch and you had to be there to follow the show - which was what it actually was: a show, but a nice one, with the game reviewer inventing all kinds of insults for WW like 'boss monster', 'chief-terror', 'hairmonster', 'editorial head' (all referring to WW's long-haired Hippy-haircut).

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

14-02-2009, 03:07

with the game reviewer inventing all kinds of insults for WW like 'boss monster', 'chief-terror', 'hairmonster', 'editorial head' (all referring to WW's long-haired Hippy-haircut).
Yes, they had some eternal feud going on.

I think some of the nicknames could apply WW's size too, since he is a very large man.

I remember him being accused by the game reviewer (whom he tended to call the "joystick wiggler" ) to never "even" having beaten Contra.
In the next issue, he said he "ofcourse did, like anyone. What's he talking about?". Hehe.

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

14-02-2009, 04:00

About SRV, in the most northern west of Europe there were 2 MSX magazines called "MCM";

The Dutch "MSX Computer Magazine" and
The Flamish / Belgian, more 'cozy' sounding "MSX Club Magazine".

Both were very good magazines BTW. *

The Dutch mag, as the newspost said, refused to review the game.
The editorial comment about not doing so went something like:

The game "Playhouse Strip Poker" --- click here for MSX2 version well, that's acceptable in the children's room, but this game...
No, no! Really, c'mon, this stuff! :o

The "Club" mag was less 'childish' ;) about it and reviewed SRV.

So did BTW the Dutch "MSX Software Magazine" (not affiliated with the MCM's. Or the "MSX Info Gids", for that matter).

IIRC that magazine broadened itself to the "MSX/PC/SEGA Software Magazine", until it abandoned MSX,
then just became "Software Magazine" and eventually disappeared.

Both MCM magazines survived and fused to MCCM; an MSX dedicated magazine available in regular stones some years into the early '90's. :)

* "Club" magazine reviewed SD Snatcher and published a 100% complete how-to-play of that game in the very next issue.

Actually, there were some really interesting hardware experiments in notably those old "Computer" mag issues which maybe should be documented / translated.
Think like, how to make a mat to psychically run on and connect it on your MSX joystick port and they even gave a standard BASIC game adapted to that to work and train your condition. In the mid '80's, guys. :)

Or how to make real pedals for break / gass instead of fire buttons for F-1 Spirit.

Etc.

By LeandroCorreia

Paladin (963)

14-02-2009, 09:32

I remember him being accused by the game reviewer (whom he tended to call the "joystick wiggler" ) to never "even" having beaten Contra.

That's a serious insult!

By Manuel

Ascended (19678)

14-02-2009, 18:28

So did BTW the Dutch "MSX Software Magazine" (not affiliated with the MCM's. Or the "MSX Info Gids", for that matter).

IIRC that magazine broadened itself to the "MSX/PC/SEGA Software Magazine", until it abandoned MSX,
then just became "Software Magazine" and eventually disappeared.

Um, I think you are confused here. What is "MSX Software Magazine"??? Are you sure you are not confused with "MSX Gids"? The latter became "Software Gids", when it also did PC and Sega stuff, and in the end it just stopped writing about MSX altogether. This was a yellow covered magazine. Mostly run by José Herps and Alfred Debels.

There was also "MSX Info", which is something else again, a magazine owned by Luc Sala.

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

16-02-2009, 10:49

Oh yeah, it was the Software Gids I think.
The one with Alfred Debels as chief editor.

It's a looong time ago, you know.

By FiXato

Scribe (1743)

16-02-2009, 15:27

And MSX Info of course not to be confused with the Dutch "MSX Info Blad" published by Rinus Stoker of Totally Chaos

DemonSeed wrote:
The Flamish / Belgian, more 'cozy' sounding "MSX Club Magazine".

Flamish? Is that a subconscious flame towards the Flemish people?

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

16-02-2009, 16:21

Hmm, shit.

Well if it is, in that case subconscious indeed.

Dudes, my post was typed like 4 hours before my relocation and in a quite drunken state, so please forgive all the errors.

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10135)

17-02-2009, 00:49

So, meanwhile, did anyone actually check the tune on headphones?

By FiXato

Scribe (1743)

17-02-2009, 09:59

*blank stare*

What tune?

Starship Rendezvous - Close Encounter

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