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.
"...and thus did the Lord look down upon the populace, and they did lament 'Help us, our Lord, for we are under attack by the Bacterian menace!" And the Lord, loving him some good games, did smile, and utter "Thou shouldst shoot the core!" and departed for the heavens once more. Amen."
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.
I'm 8 years late, but that's because you're playing the later ROM re-release, after Konami figured out the Bubble System was too expensive and unreliable.
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.
According to wikipedia, this countdown was actually copying data from bubble memory to RAM for it to be playable, it actually warms up during the speech-based countdown from 50
The part between 0:11-0:15 has exactly the same melody as a part of the title theme for a Christmas television series that was highly appreciated here in Sweden during the 70s, which was named "Trolltider".
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.
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.
@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.
Il y a 16 ans, j'ai developpe un instrument pour ma these. Et, j'ai utilise cette musique echantillone de ce video comme un musique de chauffage d'instrument. (Et encore, je pense que je vais utiliser pour d'autre dans le cadre de projet.) まさにこの動画をサンプリングして博論で作った機械のウォーミングアップのBGMにした。
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
Alguien sabe quién compuso esto? Suena muy parecido a las obras de Bach. Mi ignorancia me impide determinar si fue compuesto para el sistema por un compositor japonés dentro de Konami o por un gran artista de la música clásica de todos los tiempos.
@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.
Is it just me or does it kinda hold unusually long on the note at 1:23 (count of 13)? I wonder if there's some check or initialization that the bootloader calls up right there.
Hmmm. I believe the warm-up process actually happens before the music begins? I believe the music plays while the Bubble Memory contents are loaded into RAM. Bubble memory is sequentially-accessed (and slow) so the code must be copied into standard RAM and executed from there. Still, it's entirely likely that something is holding up the bus during this moment.
A question though: although it says "WARMING UP NOW" during the countdown, there is a previous "Getting ready" phase with speech but no graphics and its own countdown. Is this graphical and musical part actually the bubble memory still warming up or rather is it the time it takes to copy the ROM image from bubble memory into RAM to run it? Bubble memory has to be read sequentially and is quite slow, so I'm thinking it's actually the loader sequence here.
During the voice countdown, the memory is being brought up to temperature. This phase is temperature-dependent and takes longer in the winter. During the on-screen countdown, the game is being loaded into RAM. This step is deterministic and always takes 100 sec (give or take some init time at the end). So, "warming up now" is a little bit misleading. In fact I wanna say the "getting ready" part is handled by the bubble MCU (which is limited on code space). The visual countdown and morning music are the first things loaded from bubble memory itself, which is why they only appear after the memory is at temperature.
@@evil-wombat Ah, thank you. It does seem like a really strange memory technology to choose for this application (aside from its unreliability) since the game code has to be copied in its entirety into RAM prior to launch, and therefore hobbles the game to exactly RAM size or less. Whereas of course if they'd simply used a disk of some sort which were perfectly commonplace in this era, they could use overlays and get a much more full featured game out of the same RAM size. It's not like bubble memory is more non-volatile in some way than a plain old floppy.
@@evil-wombat And if it was copy protection of a kind they were after (similar to the Kabuki mess), well, that's defeated by the fact that game had to be copied into contiguous RAM in order to run, and so therefore is a case of a minor hack to the bootloader to halt rather than jump into the game in order to copy it. Very curious!
@@andromedaturnbull3512 the financial situation was different at the time. In 1985, silicon ROMs were expensive, and bubble memory prices were coming down. Hard drives and disks were still very expensive and fairly unreliable, with bubble storage being in a good position to fill the gap. It was believed this would eventually be the more economical technology, if trends continued (which they didn't). Also I don't know for sure, but I suspect the game wasn't *all* copied into RAM at once, but that there was some on-demand loading done as you progressed. I suspect this because (a) the game logo continues to slowly load even after the title screen is up (on the ROM version this is faster) and (b) a full backup of the bubble memory to modern storage takes way longer than 100sec, on the same hardware. There are videos out there (search for Bubless). In the HW-emulated version, the bubble emulation module has some activity LEDs, and you can see this continues to blink even after the game is loaded and past the title screen.
@@evil-wombat Thank you so much for that information! I must say, you are incredibly knowledgeable on this and I am grateful for your explanation as a lot of the sources online appear to be conflicting or incorrect. I have never repaired any of the Bubble System based machines although I would definitely like to if I get the opportunity. I suppose it was just before EEPROMs became commonplace that these machines were released and indeed if the alternative was mask ROM, the rationale does make sense. What you mention about some form of incremental loading does also therefore give the technology more of a rationale.
Any Konami arcade game that used the bubble system, only a few titles did. It was kind of a weird intermediate tech, once the price of CMOS RAM came down, bubble memory was obsolete.
@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.
I think so (all 256kb of it). I've seen some HW emulators for the bubble storage, and it seems the "access" LED blinks even after it's done loading...... but based on my understanding this is the whole thing
This can be perfect for a teaser for Project Dream Arena X, we see 8bit konata Izumi, Yoko litner, megaman, and coco chan plus many other 8bit versions of various anime, manga and video game characters staring at the countdown meter, it will say.. Getting Ready.. 2017.. Presented by project exol.
Japan's e-government system was imported from Korea and Japan has now very little market share in digital products. No LCD,no DRAM, no flash/SSDs,no handphones,weak software industry. Who buys japanese game machines when everyone can download free Android game apps?
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.
@Greenbus Nope, I did it back then but don’t these days since I have remote start, necromancer.
I do this too now haha
@@kevin12567thanks for the update lol
Great idea 🎉
"...and thus did the Lord look down upon the populace, and they did lament 'Help us, our Lord, for we are under attack by the Bacterian menace!" And the Lord, loving him some good games, did smile, and utter "Thou shouldst shoot the core!" and departed for the heavens once more. Amen."
lol
If only Gradius ended like that.
Now I want a Gradius themed bible!😄
@@ashkirby8896in the beginning, CHALLENGING STAGE
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.
I'm 8 years late, but that's because you're playing the later ROM re-release, after Konami figured out the Bubble System was too expensive and unreliable.
And also vulnerable to magnetic fields especially the degaussers,speakers and transformer inside the arcade cab.
If you have the "gradiusb" romset, modern mame will actually emulate the Bubble System version, and you get a proper-length countdown :)
If the unit was cold when starting up the boot ROM would start speaking a countdown, until it was warm enough to start this countdown.
Music like this truly makes me wonder what a normal day in the 80s is like
Back in the days where gamers could stand and wait excitedly for the moment they could start Gradius. Isn't it beautiful?
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.
According to wikipedia, this countdown was actually copying data from bubble memory to RAM for it to be playable, it actually warms up during the speech-based countdown from 50
The part between 0:11-0:15 has exactly the same melody as a part of the title theme for a Christmas television series that was highly appreciated here in Sweden during the 70s, which was named "Trolltider".
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.
harmonium It’s not the first time Konami went to Bach for inspiration. Gyruss is another time they used Bach’s music.
@@ThunderFist1978and let's not forget Parodius
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.
This is my daily alarm. I somehow don't dread hearing it yet.
The version used in Detana Twinbee has been my morning alarm for a couple of months now. I don't see myself changing it anytime soon.
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。
@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.
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.
夏の熱い日、小学生だった頃市民プール50円で9:00-11:00が一番だった。プールのとなりにある八百屋の親父が経営してたゲーセンは11:00に開く。10:45分に仲間とプールを切り上げて、11:00ジャストでゲーセンに入ると、電源を入れたばかりの筐体から、このしんみりするメロディーが流れていた。
this tune also appears in Konami's arcade compilation for the DS
Honestly, that is a nice waiting music. Makes it worth standing there and waiting while it boots.
this comment is so old you can fuck it and not go to jail
With the gentleman who invented the Konami Code passing away today, I guess this becomes Mo(u)rning Music.
the good ol' days :) def. the music makes it worth the wait.
Wouldn't mind an alarm clock that plays this in the morning! ^v^
Il y a 16 ans, j'ai developpe un instrument pour ma these. Et, j'ai utilise cette musique echantillone de ce video comme un musique de chauffage d'instrument. (Et encore, je pense que je vais utiliser pour d'autre dans le cadre de projet.) まさにこの動画をサンプリングして博論で作った機械のウォーミングアップのBGMにした。
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.
I want this to play at my funeral.
Sure, it does fit.
This song is my alarm clock sound.
Church music!
Urvy1A ha
asking someone if they like gradius is the same as asking someone if they enjoy breathing AIR
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.
It's depressing when you only really recognize this from a Rockman hack.
Smedis2 What?!
Cross X
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
Believe it or not, guys, in Gradius Deluxe Pack, the "WARMING UP NOW - PRESENTED BY KONAMI" screen can be skipped.
Keyboardmania 2nd Mix has this song; and it even DOES play it on boot too
this should be the music you hear when android decides to update and it is loading
Alguien sabe quién compuso esto? Suena muy parecido a las obras de Bach. Mi ignorancia me impide determinar si fue compuesto para el sistema por un compositor japonés dentro de Konami o por un gran artista de la música clásica de todos los tiempos.
Y pa qué quiero saber eso... grmtbx
Es original de Konami. Se credita al equipo de sonido en general (Konami Kukeiha Club), pero probablemente la autora sea Miki Higashino.
From Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits.
wow!!
everyone ANCIENT PEOPLE
Twinbee and Gradius, both from Bubble System. Nemesis includes in Bubble System, but don't have the Morning Music.
Magical Melodies
Enlightening top comments, as usual.
Gotta love Gradius! Sure wish Akutare saw this...
Nemesis is the name for Gradius overseas in the US and European versions, FYI. ;0)
I REMEMBER THIS FROM KONAMI ARCADE HITS!!!
@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.
yeah, i know. i thinks the only bubble system game the song wasnt in was hyper crash
sounds like the kind of church music that comes up when the mass starts, lol.
@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
음악은 아름 답다 ...
Is it just me or does it kinda hold unusually long on the note at 1:23 (count of 13)? I wonder if there's some check or initialization that the bootloader calls up right there.
It definitely seems to happen on that 13, and only that 13. Almost every video I've seen of this countdown does that.
It looks like warming up complete, then a memory check. It takes 85 seconds to warm up. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_memory
Hmmm. I believe the warm-up process actually happens before the music begins? I believe the music plays while the Bubble Memory contents are loaded into RAM. Bubble memory is sequentially-accessed (and slow) so the code must be copied into standard RAM and executed from there. Still, it's entirely likely that something is holding up the bus during this moment.
@dfgl1029 like those sermons on that they show on the religious channels tv
A question though: although it says "WARMING UP NOW" during the countdown, there is a previous "Getting ready" phase with speech but no graphics and its own countdown. Is this graphical and musical part actually the bubble memory still warming up or rather is it the time it takes to copy the ROM image from bubble memory into RAM to run it? Bubble memory has to be read sequentially and is quite slow, so I'm thinking it's actually the loader sequence here.
During the voice countdown, the memory is being brought up to temperature. This phase is temperature-dependent and takes longer in the winter. During the on-screen countdown, the game is being loaded into RAM. This step is deterministic and always takes 100 sec (give or take some init time at the end). So, "warming up now" is a little bit misleading.
In fact I wanna say the "getting ready" part is handled by the bubble MCU (which is limited on code space). The visual countdown and morning music are the first things loaded from bubble memory itself, which is why they only appear after the memory is at temperature.
@@evil-wombat Ah, thank you. It does seem like a really strange memory technology to choose for this application (aside from its unreliability) since the game code has to be copied in its entirety into RAM prior to launch, and therefore hobbles the game to exactly RAM size or less. Whereas of course if they'd simply used a disk of some sort which were perfectly commonplace in this era, they could use overlays and get a much more full featured game out of the same RAM size. It's not like bubble memory is more non-volatile in some way than a plain old floppy.
@@evil-wombat And if it was copy protection of a kind they were after (similar to the Kabuki mess), well, that's defeated by the fact that game had to be copied into contiguous RAM in order to run, and so therefore is a case of a minor hack to the bootloader to halt rather than jump into the game in order to copy it. Very curious!
@@andromedaturnbull3512 the financial situation was different at the time. In 1985, silicon ROMs were expensive, and bubble memory prices were coming down. Hard drives and disks were still very expensive and fairly unreliable, with bubble storage being in a good position to fill the gap. It was believed this would eventually be the more economical technology, if trends continued (which they didn't). Also I don't know for sure, but I suspect the game wasn't *all* copied into RAM at once, but that there was some on-demand loading done as you progressed. I suspect this because (a) the game logo continues to slowly load even after the title screen is up (on the ROM version this is faster) and (b) a full backup of the bubble memory to modern storage takes way longer than 100sec, on the same hardware. There are videos out there (search for Bubless). In the HW-emulated version, the bubble emulation module has some activity LEDs, and you can see this continues to blink even after the game is loaded and past the title screen.
@@evil-wombat Thank you so much for that information! I must say, you are incredibly knowledgeable on this and I am grateful for your explanation as a lot of the sources online appear to be conflicting or incorrect. I have never repaired any of the Bubble System based machines although I would definitely like to if I get the opportunity. I suppose it was just before EEPROMs became commonplace that these machines were released and indeed if the alternative was mask ROM, the rationale does make sense. What you mention about some form of incremental loading does also therefore give the technology more of a rationale.
Gradius.
thats an awsome song. its in twinbee, i have for mame
@Neosophist Lol my dad used to use bubble memory it was quite anoying but much less that this song :D
Gradius and TwinBee
Oh this isn't Gradius exclusive, but just Konami in general?
Any Konami arcade game that used the bubble system, only a few titles did. It was kind of a weird intermediate tech, once the price of CMOS RAM came down, bubble memory was obsolete.
play backwards to go to sleep
@MacWii It doesn't. It's literally warming up, as the hardware the system uses only runs properly around 40 C.
@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.
where the "Presented by Konami"?
the song wasnt in nemesis, though
The whole game loading at once huh?
I think so (all 256kb of it). I've seen some HW emulators for the bubble storage, and it seems the "access" LED blinks even after it's done loading...... but based on my understanding this is the whole thing
This can be perfect for a teaser for Project Dream Arena X, we see 8bit konata Izumi, Yoko litner, megaman, and coco chan plus many other 8bit versions of various anime, manga and video game characters staring at the countdown meter, it will say..
Getting Ready.. 2017.. Presented by project exol.
@5247846 That's because the SEGA Saturn or the PlayStation had no Bubble memory on them... ;)
Why does it have to warm up?
but it sounds like somebody died :(. what game was it for, gradius. i have nemesis on mame, and its not there.
Is this taken from an actual Bubble System board (with the Gradius ROMs)?
PRESENTED BY KONAMI
GETTING READY! 50
GETTING READY! 49
etc.
GETTING READY! 48
GETTING READY! 46
wow like koanmi
100 Seconds?
it for nemesis i own the arcade game
KONAMI BUBBLE SYSTEM COUNTDOWN
is only gradius use bubble sys?
The only other Bubble System game I know off the top of my head is TwinBee, but I know that there are others.
Don't know why my comment was deleted, but Galactic Warriors is another Bubble System game.
July
Wha...what is this.
When you gotta warm up the game "cartridge" before you read it, and even then it's hella slow.
lol graduis
Japan's e-government system was imported from Korea and Japan has now very little market share in digital products. No LCD,no DRAM, no flash/SSDs,no handphones,weak software industry. Who buys japanese game machines when everyone can download free Android game apps?
People who want to play Zelda?? People who want good controls??
Japan is not advanced in digital technology,anyway. It had to import its e-gov system from Korea.