Jackson toured the facility. "He didn't moonwalk," Hector said. "He was walking around on crutches and he was apologetic about that -- he said 'I'm really sorry' and all that. But he didn't have to apologize. We were just happy to have him." Then, as Hector tells it, one of the Sonic 3 developers asked whether Jackson would like to write the music for the new game. What happened next is still in dispute.

Just like the good old days.

"21,000+ Game Music MIDI files." From NES to Xbox 360.

"The complete soundtrack to Super Mario World, covered by one man using dozens of instruments. Roughly in game order, faithful to the originals, with some bizarre artistic license thrown around. A private hobby made public."

A free collection of Super Mario Brothers and Final Fantasy songs on piano.

A fantastic Flash animation featuring music made entirely of the sounds from the Game Genie startup screen.