The 8-Bit Veg Out

But, y'know, back up the planet beforehand.

Let's face it, loyal reader – it's Friday, and we both know neither of us is gonna get any work done. Instead how about we both agree to take a little much needed me time to recharge? Shit, it can't hurt!

Me, I'm gonna head over to Hulu and check out 2 Player Productions' epic chiptune documentary Reformat the Planet, which I hear is now streaming. Maybe you should do the same. I mean, it features chip scene titans like Bit Shifter and glomag and Nullsleep and Nullsleep's super-dynamic haircut, so you know there's plenty of good things to see and hear.

Now just 'cause you can watch this film for free is no reason to go all cheap-ass, so if you like what you see don't forget you can pick up your own DVD copy (along with a whole slew of extras) from the fine folks at Fangamer.

And while you're there be sure to browse their amazing selection of apparel and accessories. Which make the perfect gift for the nerdy blogger/podcaster in your life.

I'm just sayin'

Tool Time

"Will said skills pay the bills?"

The nerdcore hip-hop community is alternately accused of overselling the merits of its artists and, mysteriously enough, maliciously hating on its own. (Figure that shit out!) But whether you feel the scene coddles or degrades its talent, the one point with which you'll likely agree is that its creators seldom share their recording and production secrets.

With this in mind artist/producer Klopfenpop recently released a DJ toolkit tailored specifically to the needs of the nerdcore community. Cobbled together from Mortal Kombat, Simpsons and Street Fighter II sound clips, glorious 8-bit noise and vocal hooks from the nerdcore elite like Frontalot and Wheelie Cyberman, it boasts a fine selection of samples with which to build your own geeky remix empire.

Peep Klopf's rundown of the contents:

1. "8-bit scratchscapes"
This is your obligatory variety bag of delightfully scratchable
white noises. These, however, were all generated on the noise
channel of the 2A03 chip found in the NES, recorded and compiled
by myself.

2. "Nerdcore Speechifications"
Your standard acapellas rap sample track, but from only the
finest nerdcore emcees on this one.

3. "Beat Fighter II"
This contains all of the audio from the RAM sampled audio from
Street Fighter II.

4. "Kombat Kuts"
A sampling, albiet not exhaustive, of sounds found in the early
games of the Mortal Kombat series.

5. "The Pimposons"
Speech samples from the TV show The Simpsons.

6. "bleep bloop"
Familiar game sounds created with the 2A03 sound chip found in
the NES recorded and compiled by myself.

7. "Sex, Drugs, and Hip-hop"
Vintage speech samples from various education documentaries from
the mid-twentieth century about sex and drugs. All of these
samples were extracted and compiled from the original source
material by myself.

Klopfenpop's Nerdcore DJ Toolkit Volume 1 is available free of charge from Nerdcore Now. Download it today for a better tomorrow.