What do you get when you put Queen, Art Of Noise, and quite a few others into a blender with a bunch of classic video game sounds? Probably a bunch of chopped-up CDs, especially if the blender’s set on pureè. If you run the same ingredients through Tony Fox’s mixer, however, the result is I Am Humanoid, Fox’s master-mixing tribute to the arcade games of yesteryear.
One thing that differentiates I Am Humanoid from, oh, say, the recent Scitron Digital game sound CDs is that Fox focuses not just on sound effects, but music. Most of the games whose sounds he used have catchy little musical themes, not just sound effects, and in a lot of ways that fires up the memories more than a simple sound effect never could. Games without music are called into play too, however – “vocals” are provided by the likes of Sinistar, the Berzerk robots, the talking green cyclops from Space Fury, and the sampled superstar voices of Star Trek.
There are three versions of the title track (my favorite is still the original mix minus the extra padding), a tribute to Star Trek (both the game and the original series), and game-specific cuts focusing on such coin-op classics as Jungle King, Astro Blaster, Gyruss and Punch Out!. The whole thing kicks off with a thumpin’ remix of the hard-rock Reactor theme, given an extra boost of kick-ass energy by the “stomp-stomp-clap” rhythm of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” and some samples from Crystal Castles to boot. The tracks that mix and match the sounds from wildly different games are the most effective, but that element is present everywhere; even in the Star Trek-specific track, when Spock’s voice announces “Sector four – intruder alert,” the Enterprise is apparently invaded by Q*Bert and his chattering chums. (Who here wouldn’t love to see a video for that?) And the crazy thing is, it works – there are few things more alien-sounding than the orange one’s garbled “speech.”
There’s an untitled track at the end of the CD, signified on the track list by the dragon from Adventure, and while on the surface it appears to be yet another reworking of the basic “I Am Humanoid” idea, in some ways it’s the best track on the whole disc. Melding a motley assortment of game samples with a Philadelphia-style 70s brass backing, it manages to bring the games together with a sound that those of us who were there 
remember quite well. It’s hard for me to hear it without getting a big grin on my face – which pretty much sums up the whole CD.
Tony Fox’s I Am Humanoid is still available while supplies last from Digital Press.
- Crystal Reactor (2:56)
- Hop To It! (Frogger remix) (2:34)
- I Am Humanoid (Humanoids Love House Music remix) (3:28)
- Tetris Invaders (4:24)
- Phoenix 2002 (3:18)
- Jungle Rush (Jungle Hunt remix) (3:27)
- I Am Humanoid (original version) (4:37)
- Prepare For Battle (Digital Press theme) (3:57)
- A Day @ Tony’s Arcade (Mega Mix) (5:17)
- Welcome Aboard, Captain (Star Trek remix) (4:03)
- Warp Activated (Astro Blaster remix) (2:59)
- I Am Humanoid (Save The Robots remix) (4:54)
- Tony Fox NYC vs. Mario (2:12)
- Storm Clouds Over Gyruss (2:19)
- Mr. Do! vs. Dig Dug (featuring Funky Fygar) (2:54)
- Yeah!! Just Hit Me! (Punch Out!! remix) (4:05)
- ? (3:55)
Released by: Digital Press Records
Release date: 2002
Total running time: 61:22
