Summary: <h4><font>Proving once again that reducing something to raw numbers isn't necessarily the best way to appreciate its beauty: Kotaku commits journalism with a grand article about the Homeworld Remastered soundtrack. Also: useful Windows applications, encryption software, and sundry other gaming news.</font></h4><a id="more-5773884"></a><div> <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/id978223252">Subscribe on iTunes</a> | <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/spam-spam-spam-humbug">Subscribe on Stitcher</a> </div><h4>Intro</h4><p><em>Theme from the Castle of Death</em> (<em>Ultima III</em>) by Dan Minut - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5EnSST8nM0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5EnSST8nM0</a></p><h4>Podcast Topic(s)</h4><p>Gaming “news” site Kotaku took a break from posting articles about the history of dicks — penises, just so we're clear, not toxic jerks — in video gaming (<a href="http://kotaku.com/an-abridged-history-of-video-game-dicks-1692489201">http://kotaku.com/an-abridged-history-of-video-game-dicks-1692489201</a>) and inadvertently published a truly excellent article (<a href="http://kotaku.com/how-we-overhauled-the-homeworld-soundtrack-for-a-new-au-1692665327">http://kotaku.com/how-we-overhauled-the-homeworld-soundtrack-for-a-new-au-1692665327</a>) that examined the creation of the soundtrack for Gearbox's <em>Homeworld Remastered</em>. The quality of the article was probably helped by the fact that it was written by Paul Ruskay, who has been doing audio work for computer games since the mid-1990s and who helped shape the sound of the original <em>Homeworld</em> games...in addition to leading the effort to remaster that audio for the recent re-release of the series.</p><p>It's a fantastic look at the process by which the audio for the games was remastered, from the original backup tapes/hard drives to the final version. And it gives this podcast its title; that is how many sound files the remastered <em>Homeworld</em> games contain, and how many folders exist to contain all of them.</p><p><em>Homeworld Remastered</em>, for its part, seems to be a truly excellent collection, based on available reviews. (<a href="http://www.pcgamer.com/homeworld-remastered-review/">http://www.pcgamer.com/homeworld-remastered-review/</a>). And yes, the sound design — which really was, and remains, truly excellent and gives <em>Homeworld</em> much of its unique feel and atmosphere — gets singled out for particular praise.</p><p>Did you all hear about the <em>Super Mario 64</em> tribute that popped up last week? (<a href="http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/27/super-mario-64-browser/">http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/27/super-mario-64-browser/</a>) Unity developer Roystan Ross built a (what else?) Unity-based remake of the original game's first level — Bob-Omb Battlefield — and released it as a free, web-playable game that he called <em>Super Mario 64 HD</em>. If you didn't hear about it...you're now officially hearing about it too late; Nintendo issued a cease and desist order (<a href="http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/31/nintendo-squashes-browser-based-mario-game/">http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/31/nintendo-squashes-browser-based-mario-game/</a>). Mind you, I suppose that was kind of an obvious one.</p><p>There was also a bit of a meme floating around a while back concerning Link, the protagonist — though not the titular character — of the <em>Legend of Zelda</em> games. Basically, as I understand it, the meme centered around whether Link, the character, would work just as well as a female; I don't know if the discussion also focused on whether or not the character of Zelda would work well as a male, because I did not follow it that closely. I did, however, take note of TechRaptor's take on the matter (<a href="http://techraptor.net/content/cant-link-girl">http://techraptor.net/content/cant-link-girl</a>), which basically was to argue that Link <em>can't</em> really be reimagined as a female character</p>
