KONAMI BUBBLE SYSTEM COUNTDOWN

[harmoniamonde]

There is a strong influence of J.S. Bach.

In the history, computer games were giving us somewhat religious experiences.

This bubble memory warming up count down is also one of them.

[v96382000]

開店直後、ゲラディウスへ直行してよく聞いたな…。

[Geisttanzer]

Enlightening top comments, as usual.

[Geisttanzer]

Enlightening top comments, as usual.

[poopskinTheLiar]

I kind of want to try to rig up something with my computer so that it plays this while performing the Power-on Self-test. Perhaps I could do it with an arduino?

[5247846]

Believe it or not, guys, in Gradius Deluxe Pack, the "WARMING UP NOW - PRESENTED BY KONAMI" screen can be skipped.

[leonardoliveira]

@5247846 That's because the SEGA Saturn or the PlayStation had no Bubble memory on them... ;)

[tsht]

When I have a long loading on my computer, I can't shake this music off my head...

[nanno623]

このBGMは、アーケード版のもの。

コンセント(媒体スイッチ)を入れる事で、起動するんだよね。

いつ聞いても、懐かしいBGM。

[meman887]

I have the morning music set as my alarm clock on my phone and is just one of those music tracks that actually feels pleasant to wake up to each day.

[Watcher3223]

I have this song looped and recorded on a CD.

The CD is inside a CD player clock radio so, each time it goes off to wake me up, it plays the Konami Morning music.

[kevin12567]

I like to play this song in my car after starting it up on very cold winter days when I need to let the engine run for a minute or two to let the oil circulate before driving off.

[VisioAuri]

Let us pray, my fellow gaming brothers... =)

[Watcher3223]

@VisioAuri

I think you mean "let us PLAY."

[VisioAuri]

@Watcher3223 Amen! ^_^

[redmage87]

I actually play this every Saturday morning when I'm starting up all of the computers on my floor at work. I even try to time myself to finish when the countdown's over.

[Neosophist]

Work started on bubble memory in the late 60's and looked to be the next storage medium in the late 70's with major players like intel looking into the technology. Hard-drives became better and cheaper and this killed off bubble memory.

Bubble memory works better at a fixed temperature so it is pre-heated to between 30c - 40c.

This is why you have a count-down timer on the Konami boards that use bubble memory, the chips are heating up ready for stable use.

[Robobbly]

@Neosophist Lol my dad used to use bubble memory it was quite anoying but much less that this song :D

[zaphod77]

Yeah, the bubble memory used in the arcade board didn't function reliably until it warmed up. So a small routine was written to show the countdown and play the music would run to give time for the memory to warm up to proper operating temperature.

Every time I tried this in mame, the countdown would go too fast, so the whole song wouldn't play.

[RSXemperor]

Dear God,

We thank you for giving us the greatest shooter series ever made, Gradius and pray you convince the powers that be to make another one.

Amen.

[Arcname]

Hear the holy song of the Gradius board.

[MacWii]

What is the propuse to wait 1:30 Minutes to play the game when it could have loaded almost instantly?

[Xkeeper0]

@MacWii It doesn't. It's literally warming up, as the hardware the system uses only runs properly around 40 C.

[MacWii]

@Xkeeper0 WTF? seriously? that is a lame machine no?

Did the Countdown use all the Processing power of the machine, to warm up earlier? (or more?)

[Xkeeper0]

@MacWii It's early 80s technology, back before hard drives were cheap.

Back then processors weren't nearly as prone to heating up like these days', so probably not. I would imagine it was just raw electricity used to juice it up.

[hyphz]

@Xkeeper0 It wasn't the processor that had to heat up; it was the memory. They didn't use standard RAM, they used bubble memory (thus "bubble system") which had to go up to room temperature before working reliably.

[Xkeeper0]

@hyphz I knew that. :C Just that person talking about the processor tripped me up.

And I wouldn't really call 40C "room temperature". 30C, maybe, but it's hard to find reliable stats; some say 30-40, some say 40-50.

[Railfan02]

It's church - like music

[MajikinaSoara]

これも知る人ぞ知る名曲ですよね。ＲＯＭ版だと読み込みが早いの­で殆ど聞けずに終わりますが・・・

[homeofthebadguys]

PRESENTED BY KONAMI.

[xan1242]

Gradius.

[KayinAmoh]

One of the most creative "boot-up" sequences.

I heard the reason they have this is twofold: The board is old, so RAM/ROM checks aren't instantaneous as they were a few years afterwards, and the music playing is also a stall so the board heats up to operating temperatures before play.

[Watcher3223]

Not exactly.

This occurs only on the Konami Bubble Memory System.

Bubble memory is a type of magnetic non-volatile data storage that fell out of favor in the 1980s when hard drives became cheaper, more practical, and better performing.

Bubble memory operates at a temperature of up to 40 Celsius, or 104 Fahrenheit, so a warm up period is required for the bubble memory element to function correctly.

[JimHawkwind03411]

Is this taken from an actual Bubble System board (with the Gradius ROMs)?

[lolzorater]

Judging from the countdown speed and the unstable looking boot up sequence, it very well might be.

If it is, this is quite an arcade collectible. Most Bubble System boards are broken down.........

[Teraforce88]

This has to be from an actual Bubble System board. I say this because if you emulate a Bubble System board via MAME, the countdown is MUCH faster. (The numbers decrement 4x/second, as opposed to 1x/second here on the actual board). The Gradius logo is "painted" much faster in the MAME emulated version, as well.

[shalpp]

It's probably from one of the Konami Arcade Hits collections

[poopskinTheLiar]

Looks like it could be, in MaME the countdown goes much faster, and in the video there's some graphical artifacts.

[DarkLink8759]

lol this is cool... for painting on squares

[miiwii93]

sounds like the kind of church music that comes up when the mass starts, lol.

[stainglassfox]

@miiwii93 I see what you mean, like a fugue?

[miiwii93]

@stainglassfox yes! its funny to think too because it sounds like the start of church and this is playing as the start of the machines power-on lol

[13457907463]

i loved the music

[dfgl1029]

sound like something from church music.

[figment1988]

@dfgl1029 like those sermons on that they show on the religious channels tv

[Enicmon]

Me like it :)

[Enicmon]

Sounds like Bach...

[figment1988]

this tune also appears in Konami's arcade compilation for the DS

[CoryWorld1992]

did konami made this music.,or is just soming that they just borrow from the classial music library.

[miiwii93]

the song wasnt in nemesis, though

[Bloodreign1]

Glad they put the bubble rom countdown in Gradius Collection for PSP on the original Gradius where it belongs, makes the game that much more special.

[miiwii93]

but it sounds like somebody died :(. what game was it for, gradius. i have nemesis on mame, and its not there.

[MegaFanatic187]

It's also on Twinbee.

[miiwii93]

yeah, i know. i thinks the only bubble system game the song wasnt in was hyper crash

[gabxrevolution05]

Twinbee and Gradius, both from Bubble System. Nemesis includes in Bubble System, but don't have the Morning Music.

[miiwii93]

thats an awsome song. its in twinbee, i have for mame

[leslielove]

it for nemesis i own the arcade game

[WTGDMan1986]

Nemesis is the name for Gradius overseas in the US and European versions, FYI. ;0)

[WTGDMan1986]

Gotta love Gradius! Sure wish Akutare saw this...

[Akutare]

You rang? This was also on my PSP version of GRadius Collection.

[WTGDMan1986]

You know, I was going to review the game on Gamespot this morning, but ran out of time and had to go to one of my classes. I'm in college, so there's not enough hours in the day.

It's also no surprise the Gradius series has a history of easy final bosses, though. :0P

[Akutare]

Heh heh.. True.

Wanna know what is sad?

Not many gamers have heard of GRadius. When I mention Gradius or any SHUMPS. I get a big WTF or "Is that like HALO?!"

[WTGDMan1986]

Ouch! They probably didn't know that Gradius was first created back in the '80s when shmups like 1942, Defender, Robotron and Galaga were king.

[Akutare]

Indeed.

Now adays.. people just want FInal Fantasy, Halo and Kingdom HEarts. It's sad.

[Intersonus903]

To be fair, the games you've mentioned are great games.

But, what is sad are that great games from the past are largely ignored by the unenlightened player merely because they aren't graphically impressive.

But, there is a positive: more copies are available to those that do appreciate them.

For me, my NES is just at home as my XBox on my home theater system, which is on a video uploaded on YouTube.

[Akutare]

As I was always told.

"More for us!"

Im lucky to find a copy of Gradius Portable at EB Games.

[Intersonus903]

And, as you can always say to an ignoramous:

"You just don't know what you're missing."

All your base are belong to us.

[miiwii93]

asking someone if they like gradius is the same as asking someone if they enjoy breathing AIR

[rx7qt]

the good ol' days :) def. the music makes it worth the wait.

[Hafk]

Honestly, that is a nice waiting music. Makes it worth standing there and waiting while it boots.

[felineki]

Absolutely beautiful.