Doctor Octoroc

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Artist's derivation of official Doctor Octoroc logo, designed by Jude Buffum

Levi "Doctor Octoroc" Buffum[1] (/ˈɒktəˌrɒk/ OK-tə-rok[2]) is an American chiptune musician and pixel artist based in Philadelphia.[3]

It draws influence from 1980s pop culture and beyond, primarily video games from console systems made by Nintendo, the artist initially gained notable Internet recognition in December 2008 with his chiptunes album of Christmas songs arranged in the style of different Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games, entitled 8-Bit Jesus.[4]

The album was originally made available on December 8, 2008, as a free nine-track download from DoctorOctoroc.com,[5] as an extension of the track that Doctor Octoroc contributed to the Foundation 9 Holiday Card, featuring ten other chiptunes artists, including 8-Bit Weapon and ComputeHer.[6]

After the small collection of tracks appeared on sites like Kotaku, Joystiq, Boing Boing, and Destructoid, Doctor Octoroc created nine more tracks for an even eighteen tracks total, which he posted to his blog on December 22.[7] The complete physical album became available in a 6-panel digipak, designed by Jude Buffum, and includes an additional bonus track titled "Let It Snoki Doki Panic".[8]

He later made a name for himself as a freelance artist, creating 8-bit and 16-bit parody animations, most notably his re-imagining of the Internet sensation Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (original film by Joss Whedon[9]) as a theoretical NES game.[10] Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Game was released in April 2010 and since then, Buffum has created similar works of animation based on Twilight, Jersey Shore, Glee, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, and Man Vs. Wild.

Music[edit]

As a chiptunes artist, Octoroc uses a modded NES control deck as an instrument via MIDI CC signals that manipulate the console's hardware. He also composes tracks using soundfonts ripped from Super NES and Genesis games.[citation needed]

Albums[edit]

8-Bit Jesus (2008)

After These Messages (December 2010)[11]

Shamroctoroc (March 2011)[12]

In The RP2A Over The Sea (April 2019)[13]

Doctor Octoroc has arranged and composed tracks contributed to Here Comes A New Challenger,[14] Loser: A Sega Genesis Tribute,[15] Iwadon: Hiroyuki Iwatsuki Tribute Album,[16] and a 16-Bit arrangement of the Doctor Who (series 5) theme,[17] as well as a similar arrangement of the opening song for the short-lived FOX TV show, Firefly.[18]

Animation[edit]

As a result of the popularity that ensued after he released Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Game, Octoroc began creating similar animations.

Full length animations[edit]

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Game (April 2010)[edit]

Initially created to visually accompany Doctor Octoroc's 8-bit arrangement of the Dr. Horrible soundtrack,[19] the 8-Bit Dr. Horrible animation became the focus of the project, gaining attention from many of the cast and crew members of the original film. Among them, Felicia Day,[20] Neil Patrick Harris,[21] and Maurissa Tancharoen[22] made positive mention of the animation on Twitter.[23]

The animation was also mentioned by celebrity gossip extraordinaire Perez Hilton, incorporating the moniker "Internet genius" into his description of the creator.[24] In addition, a screenshot from the animation showed up during the 2010 Google I/0 day 2 keynote during a presentation about the beta of YouTube Lean Back.[25]

Animated shorts[edit]

Below is a list of animated shorts created for various websites.

8-Bit Twilight (June 2010)[26]
8-Bit Glee (September 2010)[27]
8-Bit Harry Potter (November 2010)[28]
Jersey Shore: The RPG (December 2010)[29]
Mario's Night Before Christmas (December 2010)
Mario Paint Torture (January 2010)
Man Vs. Wild IV: Infinity Bear Saga (June 2011)[30]
Saved By The Bell Interactive Game (August 2011)[31]
Game of Thrones RPG (August 2011)[32]

Other animations[edit]

YTCracker: The Link Music Video (July 2010)
Firewall (November 2010)[33]
16-Bit Doctor Who Series 5 Intro (June 2011)[34][35]
EneMemes (September 2012)[36]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ "Levi Buffum - VGMdb". vgmdb.net. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
  2. ^ "Doctor Octoroc Presents: A Neutral Milk Hotel Chiptune Cover Album". YouTube. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  3. ^ "Doctor Octoroc | Video Game Inspired Music, Art and Life". www.doctoroctoroc.com. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
  4. ^ McWhertor, Michael (2008-12-22). "8-Bit Jesus: The Second Coming Of The First Album". Kotaku.
  5. ^ Boyer, Brandon (2008-12-08). "8-bit Jesus, the NES themed chiptune holiday album". OffWorld. Archived from the original on 2011-04-27.
  6. ^ Crecente, Brian (2008-12-19). "Listen In On A Very 8-Bit Christmas Album". Kotaku.
  7. ^ Bryant, Matt (2008-12-17). "Doctor Octoroc Presents 8-bit Jesus". BadRobotBrain.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-26. Retrieved 2011-07-02.
  8. ^ "Apple iTunes". iTunes.
  9. ^ "Official Dr. Horrible Webpage".
  10. ^ McElroy, Justin (2010-04-07). "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog recreated in 8-bit style". Joystiq.
  11. ^ Caoili, Eric (2010-12-02). "After These Messages: Doctor Octoroc Returns With Chiptune Mixes Of Classic Shows". GameSetWatch. Archived from the original on 2011-03-10. Retrieved 2011-07-02.
  12. ^ Caoili, Eric (2011-03-09). "Shamroctoroc: Chiptunes For St. Patrick's Day". GameSetWatch. Archived from the original on 2011-03-10. Retrieved 2011-07-02.
  13. ^ "Kickstarter".
  14. ^ "Here Comes A New Challenger". Game Music 4 All.
  15. ^ Ruybalid, Anthony (2009-10-12). "LOSER: A Sega Genesis Tribute". Game Music 4 All.
  16. ^ "Iwadon - Hiroyuki Iwatsuki Tribute Album". vgmdb.net.
  17. ^ Simon, Perry Michael (2011-05-26). "A SNES-Style "Doctor Who" Opening Sequence". Nerdist.
  18. ^ "16-Bit Firefly Theme Song (Joss Whedon)". 8-Bit Collective. Archived from the original on 2010-07-19. Retrieved 2011-07-13.
  19. ^ Z, Z (2010-04-06). "Doctor Octoroc Presents 8-Bit Doctor Horrible". Wired.
  20. ^ Felicia Day [@feliciaday] (November 4, 2010). "Dr. Horrible in 8-bit. Best Thing Ever! http://bit.ly/9K2Klr (Official Site: http://bit.ly/apOEFJ That will prolly crash if I link, lol)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  21. ^ Neil Patrick Harris [@ActuallyNPH] (November 4, 2010). "Fans of Dr. Horrible, feast your eyes on: http://www.doctoroctoroc.com/8-bit-dr-horrible/watch.html Brilliant. Muu haa haaa haaaa haaaa!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  22. ^ Maurissa Tancharoen [@MoTancharoen] (November 4, 2010). "I want to marry this http://bit.ly/dwPk41" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  23. ^ ハフマン島, Jeriaska (2010-05-17). "8-Bit Doctor Horrible is Just What the Octoroc Ordered". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on 2012-08-03. Retrieved 2011-07-03.
  24. ^ Hilton, Perez (2010-04-06). "Neil Patrick Harris - Old School Video Game Style!". PerezHilton.com. Archived from the original on 2011-09-02. Retrieved 2011-07-02.
  25. ^ Miller, Ross (2010-05-20). "Live from the Google I/O 2010 day 2 keynote!". Engadget.
  26. ^ Gibson, Megan (2010-07-01). "8-Bit Twilight Eclipse Interactive Allows You to Control Bella, Edward and Jacob". Time.
  27. ^ Benedetti, Winda (2010-09-22). "'8-Bit Glee' gives the TV show an old-school gaming makeover". msnbc. Archived from the original on 2010-09-24.
  28. ^ Dobbines, Amanda (2010-11-21). "Play the 8-Bit Harry Potter YouTube Game for Geeks". New York.
  29. ^ Ward, Kate (2010-10-07). "Jersey Shore: The RPG': So good, Ronnie would smush it". EW.com.
  30. ^ McWhertor, Michael (2011-06-29). "Of Course A Bear Grylls RPG Would Include Copious Piss Drinking". Kotaku.
  31. ^ Harrison, Josh (2011-08-05). "Play The 'Saved By The Bell' Interactive Game". Geekology. Archived from the original on 2012-09-08.
  32. ^ Schaffer, Dean (2011-08-12). "Videogame Music Wizard Doctor Octoroc on 8-Bit Music, Zelda, and, Naturally, Antonin Dvorak". SF Weekly.
  33. ^ McWhertor, Michael (2010-11-16). "The Console War Fought Final Fantasy Style". Kotaku.
  34. ^ "Official Doctor Who Tumblr".
  35. ^ D'Orazio, Valerie (2011-05-27). "The Daily Geek: Sesame Street Zombies, Doctor Who SNES, and Spidey With A Sammich". MTV Geek.
  36. ^ "EneMemes: Rebecca Black vs Nyan Cat". YouTube. 2012-09-19. Retrieved 2014-06-29.

External links[edit]

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