music.wikisort.org - Composition

"Bad Apple!!" is the sixth track in the soundtrack of the 1998 bullet hell video game Lotus Land Story, the fourth entry in the Touhou Project series created by Team Shanghai Alice. The instrumental theme was originally designed to be played during the third stage of the game, as chiptune on the Japanese NEC PC-9800 computer platform, at 161 beats per minute using a frequency modulation synthesis chip.[1] The version from Lotus Land Story that has 1.3 million views on Youtube[2] is from an album named Akyu's Untouched Score Volume 1 and was released on the 21st of May, 2006.

"Bad Apple!!"
Cover art of Lotus Land Story
Song by ZUN
Released	14 August 1998 (14 August 1998)
Genre	Electronic, chiptune
Length	1:22
Label	ZUN Soft
Composer(s)	ZUN

It is notable for leading to a much later remix by Masayoshi Minoshima ^[jp] and singer Nomico and, following the remix, a subsequent accompanying black-and-white shadow puppet-video – commonly called Shadow-art. The video became a minor Japanese internet meme in the late 2000s, correlating with the peak of Touhou's popularity, and experienced a resurgence in the mid-2010s when the black-and-white video was ported to esoteric media such as obsolete hardware, displays created within sandbox video games (e.g. Minecraft), and other unusual media as a graphical test.

Since then, the song's remix has been licensed to various other video game companies who picked up a Touhou licence, as it has been guest featured in many Rhythm games such as Groove Coaster, Muse Dash and even officially licensed spin-offs such as Touhou Spell Bubble as the game's tutorial track and free play song.

Pop song

"Bad Apple!!"
Song by Alstroemeria Records featuring nomico
Released	20 May 2007 (20 May 2007) (Reitaisai 4)
Length	5:17 3:39 (Music video edit)
Songwriter(s)	Alstroemeria, ZUN
Producer(s)	Masayoshi Minoshima [jp]

On 20 May 2007, the day of the 4th Reitaisai convention, a longer cover version featuring the Japanese singer nomico was released on the album Lovelight by the artist group Alstroemeria Records, led by Masayoshi Minoshima ^[jp].[3] It shared little similarity with the original soundtrack, borrowing only a little of melody samples, but nonetheless it was notable as being the only vocal song in the album, and for its lyrics dealing with depression and apathy.[4]

Music video

June 8th 2008, a user in Nico Nico Douga uploaded a video of a crude storyboard based on the remixed music, asking for anyone to animate it.[5] Several animation videos started appearing, with relatively few successes.[6][7][4]

Between October 2008 and October 2009, a collaborative group led by Anira (あにら) created a shadow-art (black and white) animation video based on the storyboard, which was released on Nico Nico on 26 October 2009.[8][3] It quickly grew in popularity as a minor internet meme – as of November 2021, the original Nico Nico upload had been viewed more than 29 million times[9][5] and a YouTube reupload more than 64 million.[10] The video itself shows many of the Windows-era Touhou Project characters up to Scarlet Weather Rhapsody as they transition between one another.[4]

In 2017, the Alstroemeria Records group released a 10th Anniversary Bad Apple!! album consisting entirely of "Bad Apple" remixes.[11]

Use as a graphical and audio test

The song saw a rise in popularity in the mid-2010s, when the shadow-art video was ported to several second-generation video game consoles and graphing calculators – presumed to be incapable of playing back full motion video – for retrocomputing and demoscene competitions. In this way, the video became a graphical equivalent to "Hello, World!" programs.[12]

• In June 2014, the "8088 Domination" demo included a section rendering the "Bad Apple" shadow video on an 1981-era IBM 5150 at 640×200 resolution and 30 frames per second.[13][14]
• In June 2014, about two minutes of "Bad Apple" have been ported to the Commodore 64 as 2000 frames at 12 frames per second on a single side diskette.[15]
• By 2015, "Bad Apple" had been ported to the 1982–Vectrex console;[16][17] along with ports to the 1977–Atari 2600, 1985–Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), 1988–Sega Genesis, and Texas Instruments TI-84 Plus series graphing calculators.[16]
• In 2017 fenarinarsa released an Atari STE demo rendering the video at 320×200 resolution at 30fps with 50 kHz audio.[18][19]
• Also in 2019, an Arduino Mega was programmed to render the video (without sound) at 128×176 resolution and 60 frames per second.[20]
• In 2020, an Amiga AGA demo was released at the NOVA2020 demoparty.[21]

References

На других языках

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[de] Bad Apple!!

Bad Apple!! ist ein knapp eineinhalb minütiges Musikstück des japanischen Spieleentwicklers ZUN und ist das siebte Lied auf dem offiziellen Soundtrack zum Danmaku-Videospiel Lotus Land Story, dem fünften Titel aus der Touhou-Spieleserie, das im Jahr 1998 erschien.

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- [en] Bad Apple!!

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[es] Bad Apple!!

Bad Apple es la séptima pista de la banda sonora del videojuego bullet hell de 1998 Lotus Land Story, cuarta entrega de la franquicia Touhou Project. La pista fue diseñada originalmente para sonar como música chiptune de fondo durante la tercera etapa del juego, disponible en la plataforma NEC PC-9800, yendo a 161 latidos por minuto y usando un chip de síntesis de modulación de frecuencia.[1]

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