Winifred Phillips, known for her audio pieces on game titles like God of War, The Da Vinci Code, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the upcoming Shrek the Third, has recorded a Super Mario Bros. tribute track to commemorate the 20 year anniversary of the game that redefined the gaming industry and remains as "The Best-Selling Game of All Time" in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Together with award-wining producer Winnie Waldron, Phillips they conjured up the track entitled "Go Mario! (Super Mario Brothers)" to contribute to a game music compilation as a tribute to great game tracks. The track sports a catchy tune of the lovable Mario theme song, accomplished in an a-capella fashion featuring her own voice.

The result: it's a multi-tracked, a-capella piece adorned with classic video game sound effects to create an orchestral feel, but still amazingly faithful to the original NES version.

Winifred's numerous awards include an Interactive Achievement Award for Best Original Score from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, and four Game Audio Network Guild Awards, including the prestigious Music of the Year Award.

She believes, like many composers, that "older video games ... have helped shape our current industry" and "are an important part of our shared heritage." She claimed to be happy to add their track to the game music tribute album coming soon.

Entitled "The Best of the Best: A Tribute to Game Music," the album will be bringing the game industry's best composers together and compile tribute works to music from The Legend of Zelda, Myst III: Exile, World of Warcraft, Metroid Prime, Medal of Honor, Final Fantasy and many more. The album is slated for a May 1 release and should be available at the opening of the Game Music Central website.

 

Thanks to some new partnerships announced by Microsoft Australia during yesterday's Vista launch, a lot of new stuff are in store for Xbox 360 owners down under.

According to The Age, new deals with Telstra and Sanity will give Xbox 360 owners access to over a million  tracks and thousands of movies and TV programs downloadable through the Media Center, which comes with most Vista versions. Users can now access and control the BigPond Movies service via a 360 connected to Vista Media Centre.

Telstra estimates that users with a typical BigPond cable internet subscriber can download a film like The Da Vinci Code in 80 minutes. While BigPond's download offerings are still limited and can only be watched once, Telstra says that the media library is growing rapidly and that negotiations are going on to let users own the films rather than renting them for single use. Prices range from AU$ 1.95 to AU$ 5.95 for new releases, with BigPond customers receiving a discount.

Music junkies also get a little something with the upcoming Sanity service, which will offer over a million tracks for a monthly subscription fee when launched in April. Initially, Xbox 360 users will have to download new music using Windows Media Player on their PCs before streaming the tracks to their consoles. A Microsoft spokesperson, however, suggested at the launch that users will soon be able to download music directly from the Media Center interface on 360.

A dedicated Xbox 360 movie and television download service will still be launched this year in Australia via the Live Marketplace, but with the Microsoft console's limited storage capacity, the Vista option might prove to be more appealing at the moment.

With the Da Vinci Code Fever finally cooling down are you wondering where your next Conspiracy Theory Fix will come from? Don't look now but it's from another book. However, this one doesn't involve a Mary, a descendant of Jesus, a self-flaggelating albino and Tom Hanks with a hairdo inspired by an oil slick-coated furry animal that died while clinging to a rock the size of, well, Hank's head.

The book is called The Xbox 360 Uncloaked written by Dean Takahashi. The title alone suggests the next-gen console's history is darker than the image it projects today. We feature a page from that book that could have made the NY Times list of bestseller (we didn't take the effort to check) showing a memo from the Xbox 360's past.

The memo could be the damning evidence that Xbox 360 code breakers have been looking for all this time. We can't tell you what it says but we printed it here verbatim for your eyes only:

MessageFrom: X And The City

Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2002 7:28 PM

To: X And The City

Subject: X and the City - 10/29/2002

October 29, 2002 – Volume 4, Issue 19

"Who's coming as their Gamertag on Halloween?"

Xenon: We Could Tell You but Then...

Many people have been asking numerous questions about the next generation of Xbox. As we all know, there is a core development team actively working on the Xenon project. As you have also probably noticed, communication about Xenon has been scarce (for example, even the name "Xenon" is confidential and should not be used outside the group). Here is a brief summary of what is and is not happening on Xenon.

First, product-specific information about Xenon is not being shared widely. We have already experienced a significant information leak to one of our key partners, which is unacceptable. As you may know from Xbox 1.0, leaks of this sort can have a major impact on our business profitability. For this reason, if you know information about Xenon, keep it quiet. (BTW, if you leak information about Xenon, you should expect to be fired and prosecuted. 'Nuff said.) If you need information about Xenon, feel free to see Greg Gibson. As contracts get signed and we transition from partner selection to project execution, information will begin to flow more freely. Please be patient.

That said, the Xenon team is not working in a vacuum on the product development. Over the next two months, the product spec and initial architecture options are being reviewed at several levels. First, we are conducting developer feedback sessions to understand the impact of our hardware architecture on specific game engines. Second, we have initiated a Microsoft technical review board with several leads from Windows, Ehome, and Research to ensure that Xenon fits well into the corporate entertainment initiatives. Third, internal Xbox technical reviews will be held to leverage the vast experience (and scars) within our organization. Finally, several end-user reviews (such as focus groups and surveys) are being held to better understand how the product options are perceived by our consumers.

In short, Xenon is moving forward, information is intentionally scarce, and key customer feedback is being incorporated into the project plans. Feel free to contact Greg Gibson with questions and concerns.