In response to some new e-mails I’ve gotten, I added information on the news feed, as well as information on how to add it as a Live Bookmark in Firefox, to the FAQ section. Anyone with any other suggestions should comment here or use the Feedback / Bugs module.

It has also come to my attention, after a few queries about it, that VGMix
no longer has the link to THEIR news feed, which is displayed here,
availible on their mainpage. The VGMix news feed is avalible @ http://www.vgmix.com/rss/releases.php

VGDJ Episode 004 is now available at http://www.vgdj.net

Rayza and Aurora discuss the world of OverClocked ReMix, a community dedicated to
the appreciation and restoration of video game music. This week: INTERVIEW with
djpretzel himself. Pretz gives us the scoop on his latest mixes, upcoming
projects and his musical influences, as well as his motivation for creating the
site and keeping it a success. Aurora’s home from her 2-week west coast stint
and Rayza talks about deceased avian creatures. Rayza also pimps the Unmod
Videogame Review thread and a website dedicated to music from the Amiga system.
Remix Reviews of djpretzel, Darangen and PriZm, and of course, the Russian ReMix
Roulette.

Today, I’d like to bring to your attention a doujin band by the name of
Preludio. Mainly guitar-based, they have a great arrangement
style, awesome technique, and just an all-around charismatic
sound. Their most recent album, For All You FF Lovers,
covers music from every Final Fantasy up to the 9th game. You can
download a demo from their works page, as well as several other miscellaneous MP3s (including their rendition of GT2’s “Moon Over The Castle”). No info as to how to obtain the actual CD yet…there’s a link to a Japanese mail order site here (search for “Preludio”), but I’m unsure as to whether they accept international orders.

Still, what’s on their site should last you at least a little while. Again, it’s
all in Japanese, so you might need Babelfish to get around. Enjoy!

We (meaning Rama and I, pretty much) are going to start going through
themes, deleting the existing gay ones and adding a crapload of new
ones, Sauce’izing each one.

So for now, we are going to change the default theme to BEST and
request any users who are using other themes to change their user theme
to BEST.

This will secure your account from getting b0rked if we delete the theme you are currently using.

GamesAreFun has just put up the weekly hardware and softwares sales from Japan for April 25 – May 1:

Platform – This week’s sales – Total 2005 sales

NDS – 64,247 – 739,557

PS2 – 40,471 – 828,824

PSP – 38,778 – 796,654

GBASP 14,616 – 280,128

NGC – 6,125 – 99,574

GBA – 448 – 9,594

XBX – 271 – 6,360

1. PS2 Mobile Suit Gundam: 1 Year War – Bandai – 33,906 (268,238)

4. DS Nintendogs: Shiba and Friends – Nintendo – 30,463 (113,048)

5. PS2 Baseball L!ve 2005 – Namco – 24,154 (68,006)

6. GC Fire Emblem: Souen no Kiseki – Nintendo – 22,221 (124,294)

7. DS Nintendogs: Dachshund and Friends – Nintendo – 19,971 (72,234)

8. DS Nintendogs: Chihuahua and Friends – Nintendo – 18,483 (64,309)

9. PS2 Rave Buster Darkness Century – Bandai – 16,581 (NEW)

10. PS2 Spectral Force Chronicle – Idea Factory – 12,285 (NEW)

The DS sales over the past couple of weeks have been phenomenal and
have caught it back up to the PSP for total units sold this year. The
DS still holds the a considerable lead over the PSP in overal totals
units sold:

DS overall Japanese sales – 2,236,153

PSP overall Japanese sales – 1,268,906

So to anyone who hasn’t already noticed, I’ve made a few changes. Based on some feedback I got from Rayza
and a few others, I added a new  User Info box, that displays how
many messages you have new AND old (previously just showed messages in
your inbox, whether they were new or not), as well as added a total
hits counter. (I should also note that detailed site statistics can be found under the statistics section of the Site Navigation menu.)

As a result of the new user info box disrupting a few things in the
tables, I’ve decided to change the new default theme to a contrast
version of the old default, with a width of 100% rather than 750 fixed
pixels. Please remember there are still other themes available (3D-Fantasy & Extra Light are seemingly pretty popular as well). I will of course be continuing to update/add/edit themes as time progresses.

Lastly, as a result of the default theme switch, I’ve decided to add a new poll
on how people feel able me changing from GIFs to PNGs. For those of you
who don’t know what that MEANS, PNGs are higher quality than GIFs,
which means they may have a slightly larger file size, but also have
better transparency support than GIFs. HOWEVER, the transparency of
PNGs is incompatible with Internet Explorer and thusly turns up
completely black (or something similiar). As this is still a pilot, and
nearly 90% of our page views have been with PNG compatible browsers,
I’ve begun to wonder how many people would actually care/mind.

Anyway, that’s all I got for now. As always feedback on the site, the
name, the themes, the news, anything really, would be greatly
appreciated, AND encouraged.

Note: At some point in the following couple of weeks I plan to open
a bank account, set up a paypal, and possibly purchase an actual domain.
What that domain will be is still subject to discussion, but if no
other suggestion is presented, ThaSauce.net is still available. After
the domain is registered, and the site transferred, I’ll add a donation
block, at which point any who care to donate, can. Obviously, all money
donated will go solely to site hosting costs and so on and so forth.

OneUp Studios has announced the release of the OneUps first album.
Slated to be released on June 28th, the album looks to contain 16
tracks of OneUps goodness. You can preview demo tracks and order the
CD here : http://www.oneupstudios.com/albums.php?show=9

If ordered before Monday June 13th, they’ll take $1 off each album.

3 new screenshots from City of the Dead. (Romero’s zombie shooter
game.) If you’re a zombie fan, like me, you may want to put the
keyboard cover on before clicking here:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/cityofthedead/screenindex.html?part=rss&tag=gs_pc&subj=6124166

Anime Remix welcomes its 60th remix today, an orchestral rendition of
Rei’s theme from Neon Genesis Evangelion by Jeremy Robson, known best
for his work on the Final Fantasy VII Philharmonic Suites.

Rei IV also marks the first Evangelion remix on Anime Remix.

In the past few days we have also seen new songs from both new and returning mixers.

Newcomer mDuo‘s collaboration with the singular SeattleOvercoat marks
the first Hellsing remix on Anime Remix: Secret Salsa Serenade, an interesting take on a rather Gothic original.

DigiE returns to AR with yet another Appleseed remix, entitled Bringing Home the Appleseed. All songs come highly recommended!