It's something I've been planning on doing for quite some time now. In fact, it's even something that has been a part of the official Channel 1 outro script since C1E41, the opening episode of Season 3 (calendar 2019).....
.....and now, after more than a year later, we're finally getting around to it! I'm talking about the Archive.org-ONLY Super Bonuses and Remixes!
What are these, you ask? Well, say, I have a bunch of omake from putting together an episode that I don't want to go to waste, or say that I had an alternate version that never saw the light of day, or say that I wanted to take an existing episode, or whatever, and put a different spin on it, but DO NOT want to share this alternate version on the podcast feed for fear of cluttering it up with redundancy - these are the kinds of things that will appear in the Super Bonuses and Remixes.
But wait, isn't that what Channel F is for? Wasn't Channel F the outlet for betas and bonuses, etc? Well, yes. And I still plan to use it for those purposes - for all-new content on the show. Not for the same episode you just heard, but with a twist.
Perhaps it will help to give tangible examples. As such, I have links to the first three Super-Bonuses, accompanied by brief descriptions of each. The first two both relate to, and could be considered "Remixes" of The Golden Episode (C1E50a and C1E50b). The third is a lost alternate version of the music block to C1E51 ("The Birthday Episode").
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1) Golden Episode REMIX #1 of 2: Music-Only (both parts). Just shy of six hours of pure music. It includes the music from both parts 1 and 2. The format is the mini-blocks from the original episodes, unmodified, and in order, follow by a fresh mini-block of all the incidental bumper music that played in the background of all the speaking portions. The run order is blocks 1-10 of part 1, then bumper music of part 1, and then all the same from part 2.
I'm not going to upload parts 1 and 2 independently, though I DO have those files created. If you would like to to listen to the music of just the one part or the other, I do welcome you to email me at nerdnoiseradio@gmail.com, or message me in the comments, or get a hold of me on social media requesting those files, and I'll provide you a OneDrive link.
In any case, if you wanted an extended play music collection, without all the talking, here's the link (including show notes with full time-stamps!):
https://archive.org/details/goldenepisodepts1and2completeallmusic
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2) Golden Episode REMIX #2 of 2: STORY MODE! The opposite of REMIX 1. Just shy of three hours long, it's the stories of episodes 1-49, plus a truncated outro, presented in order. No more "hear half the story in part 1, and the other half in part 2, a little bit at a time in-between music blocks". This is the entire story, uninterrupted, and in order.
The only music is the music that plays in the background during the speaking portion, which is the same as the background music that played in the original episodes with one exception: the outro. The outro is a significantly paired back "summary version" of the outro to part 2, plus a new tracklist that I cobbled together from the original recordings for the "episodes proper". The first half uses the same bittersweet ESPIRIT.WAV part 2 outro music that you heard in the original episode, but the second half uses the more triumphal Diagamblic music we used for the part 1 outro.
Both intros are missing, as this jumps straight into episode 1. But if you wanted an uninterrupted, unbroken version of the episodes 1-49 story, "the story of our first half"....then here's the link (including timestamps):
https://archive.org/details/thegoldenepisodestorymode
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Lastly, 3) between what was said of C1E41 in the Golden Episode pt 2, and what was said in the outro to C1E51 (the Birthday episode), you heard the tale of how the 40 track C1E51 music block was originally a 30 track music block instead, that originally was made all the way back in September of 2018, and eventually grew and evolved for the birthday project. Well, I thought I would share what that music block originally sounded like with just the original 30 tracks.
I had lost the original file, so I had to recreate it from scratch. But I tried to make the transitions as close to the original as possible, as close as possible to precisely what that original music block from all the way back in fall of 2018 would've sounded like.
This is detailed more fully in the show notes (which I DEFINITELY recommend you read), but in brief, 29 of the 30 here remained in the final episode. The outlier is the Ninja Gaiden track. And the 29 common tracks appear in the same relative order in both versions. Sure, there are extra, and different tracks sandwiched in-between them in the final version. But the 29 common ones, don't change order themselves.
So, this is the chance for you to hear the original vision of what would eventually go on to become C1E51. Also, as a bonus, there was one track that was added later, and then later removed again prior to the release of the final episode. So I included it after the music block is over, after a few seconds silence. It's a track from The Ninja on the Mastersystem. No, the Ninja theme to the tracks removed was not a deliberate plan on my part.
Here's the link to that (music block-only, no intro or outro), including expanded show notes and timestamps:
https://archive.org/details/bonusbirthdaymusicblockoriginal30
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So, I hope after reading about (and listening to) these, you'll understand why I didn't want to put them up on the podcast feed as Channel F "F-isodes". We just heard closer to 10hrs of content on Channel 1 three months ago from The Golden Episodes. How much sense does it make to share an additional 9hrs of what is essentially the same content so quickly? Likewise, the Birthday episode was nearly 3hrs once all was said and done, and just came out a month ago. Should I really share an hour and a half of it on the main feed all over again?
The answer is no.
I want to keep the Channel 1 and Channel F outlets clean and not clutter them up with cruft. And yet, on the other hand, I also want to have an "almost underground" sub-outlet for playing around with the extras and with the twists. So, Archive.org it is. It also is a way to generate a little extra excitement and a little extra value to Archive, which is, in general terms, a pretty dead outlet for me otherwise, being essentially up til now merely a repeater for what's on the pod. But for long-term legacy purposes, I don't intend to get rid of it. This brightens it up a bit. It's not quite an "exclusive club" per se, as no actual invite is required. Anyone can go to the page and listen. But since other than this inaugural post to introduce it, I won't really be advertising Super Bonuses, it creates this nice sort of "underground club" to be tuned in to and on the look out for new exclusive content once in a while.
I'll usually work in some small hint in the episode proper cluing you in to maybe go have a look. And I'll also tell you that my next planned Super Bonuses will be shortly after April 1st, and in regards to this year's upcoming April Fool's episode that I am -VERY- excited about. And though I don't have any set in concrete plans at the moment beyond those, I would wager that in the general timeframe of any "Best of 20XX" or maybe "Listener Picks" episodes would probably be a pretty good time to maybe take a peek.
Beyond that, I can't tell you any more because even I don't know any more yet. There are no other hard plans beyond in the days or weeks surrounding April 1st, but anything could come at any time. So you'll just have to stay tuned.
Also, in addition, I'll let slip the open secret that I often finish regular Channel 1 and Channel F episodes early, sometimes way early, and will sometimes silently slip them out early on Archive, as soon as they're done, rather than when they're supposed to release. So that's another reason to stay tuned in - the chance of possibly getting very early access every so once in a while. Of course, that cuts both ways. Sometimes I forget to release an episode at its regular release time, and end up releasing it on Archive way late. For instance, as of this writing, C1E51 has not even made it to Archive yet. While I'm in there, putting these Super Bonuses up, I suppose I'll put C1E51 up as well.
Anyway, that's "Super Bonuses" and "Remixes", and all the rest. Archive.org-ONLY, and with no fanfare or advertisement on social media or Blogspot, other than this inaugural introduction, and any super duper incredible circumstances that I cannot yet even fathom. So other than this once, this will all be underground, and hush hush, and will be pretty unpredictable and irregular.
So, happy hunting, listeners! And in the meanwhile, enjoy these initial offerings, and don't forget that April 1st and surrounding times will be a hotspot for this. I hope to hear back from some of you that you checked them out. And if you ever do discover a future one by accident, I totally welcome a "hey! I saw what you did there!" about it. :-)
Meanwhile, take care, dear listeners....and FLY THE N!!!
-St. John (Nerd Noise Radio)
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