8-Bit Pink Floyd: “The Dark Side of the Moon” in Chiptune

Chris in Inspiration

4/8/10

[updated: 5/23/20]

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“Have you ever wondered what Dark Side of the Moon would sound like if Pink Floyd had written it for [Nintendo] instead of for a rock band?” Of course you haven’t, but Brad Smith did.

So, he created “Moon8,” which is the entire album sequenced, arranged, and then played on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. I’ve never been much into Dark Side of the Moon, and don’t know much about chiptune music, but I’ve got heaps of respect for this one.

But props aside, I have no idea what I’m talking about, so I’ll leave the proper critique to G4’s Rick Damigella. “Not only does MOON8 sound good, it transcends sounding like music done for a video game. Sure, the tones are undeniably old-school NES, but nothing has been done to tweak the music to sound like it actually came from a game. This is a chiptunes recreation in its purest sense…

…What I find truly stunning about MOON8 is just how much effort has gone into the recreation of nearly all of Pink Floyd’s instrumentation. This is obviously not something that was cranked out in a weekend to say “hey, look what I can do.” The music is a labor of love, for both the source material and style in which it has been recreated.”