Originally released in 1984, Jürgen Muschalek's Decoder is a classic German movie based on the writings of William S. Burroughs (who also appears in it). Hailed as a seminal piece of cyberpunk cinema, the movie faded from public view due to the fact it was no longer in circulation, but has achieved cult status in recent times thanks to DVD and Blu-ray releases – and it's about to get another lease of life in the most unlikely of ways.
German musician Denis Karimani – better known as Remute – has announced that he intends to adapt the movie for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis (thanks, Indie Retro News):
"After releasing music albums as game cartridges for the Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo and Gameboy consoles, Remute is kicking off 2023 with an ambitious, longtime dream project: A Sega Genesis adaption of the German counter-cultural cyberpunk cult movie Decoder.
Decoder, released in 1984 and conceived by german filmmaker Klaus Maeck, is roughly based on writings of William S. Burroughs and tells us about a dystopian society ruled by the 'WORLD' corporation who controls the population with hypnotic sounds called 'Muzak'. But there's FM, a clever dissident, who discovers that by decoding the Muzak, riots and revolution against the looming power of WORLD can be incited."
Described as a "musical visual novel", this project will ship on a physical, region-free cartridge (confirmed to work on original hardware and newer systems, like the Analogue Mega Sg) and will boast a new soundtrack created by Karimani, which uses the console's iconic audio hardware.
Karimani has joined forces with coder Kabuto and graphic artist Alien, both of which worked with him on his cartridge albums Technoptimistic and Living Electronics.
If you like the sound of this unique project, then you can pre-order a copy for 34.99 € via Remute's Bandcamp page; it is expected to ship on March 29th, 2023. There's also a limited 'Plus Edition', which costs 44.99 € and will contain an additional 7" vinyl featuring a brand-new exclusive 'Jaeger Mix' of the Decoder Theme, as well as the original version.