This is the Video Game Music Thread

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Can video game music be "good"/"listenable" outside of the game?

Is removing the music from a game like stripping an album of the packaging?

What video game music stays with you?

Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:45 (10 years ago) Permalink

Can it be good? Redneck Rampage! My brothers and I still listen to this when we BBQ, complete with shouting out "Get Off Ma LAAAAAAAAAN!"

As for staying with you, I have the themes to Super Mario Brothers, Metroid and Zelda's outdoor one on instant memory recall.

Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:52 (10 years ago) Permalink

GTA 3 has quite possibly the best soundtrack ever.

Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:54 (10 years ago) Permalink

The "Goal scoring superstar hero" music from the original Sensible World of Soccer is actually the best house track ever.

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:03 (10 years ago) Permalink

8 bit Mega Man music is still with me.

Is there something to be said for the minimalistic music employed here. I should dig up NES sound documentation to show how primitive the facilities employed in these games was.

Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:09 (10 years ago) Permalink

Some of the music on the C64 was actually great. Primitive as anything, but there's a certain charm about the music used in, for instance, Microprose Soccer (uber-chirpy military march).

Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:10 (10 years ago) Permalink

The Diablo music is great.

Keith McD (Keith McD), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:19 (10 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, the Diablo theme for the town was k-grebt.

Also - Nobuo Uematsu's work for Squaresoft.

Ess Kay (esskay), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:27 (10 years ago) Permalink

Haha the only music which bring tears to my eyes is "Cid's Theme" & "Interrupted By Fireworks" from the FFVII OST; plus Public Enemy's "By The Time I Get To Arizona". So, er, yeah. It stays with you. Also : the Cannon Fodder theme.

Ess Kay (esskay), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:31 (10 years ago) Permalink

Tetris music is great.

MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:32 (10 years ago) Permalink

I occasionally found myself humming the music from Quake II...okay, so humming wasn't exactly the word. Oddly, when you put the CD in your standard home audio CD player, it would play. Were there any other PC games that used mixed-media CDs that would also play the soundtrack on your home stereo?

Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:18 (10 years ago) Permalink

isn't there a record on TB6 that compiles gabba made on the sound chip for a commodore or summat?
the music on Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy is fahing acesome. i sampled the Chase HQ spectrum music on a Sean Fah trak i made, swicked.
music on RPGs is often tear jerking; on the SNES Zelda, check out the beatz when you're in da village, well sad.

sf, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:23 (10 years ago) Permalink

Make sure and check out music by the fantastic ROB HUBBARD!

Rahul Kamath (Rahul Kamath), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 15:03 (10 years ago) Permalink

Here's a guide I wrote to the music of Rob Hubbard. Sorry, it's not in HTML yet, but it will give you an idea of where to start in his sizable discography.

http://www.readsatellite.com/temp/robhubbard.doc


Rahul Kamath (Rahul Kamath), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 15:16 (10 years ago) Permalink

surely that kid is too young to be messin' with Ding Dongs?

nutz, deez, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 15:35 (10 years ago) Permalink

I picked up this hip hop breaks record in Portland, OR called "Video Game Breaks" which contains a hip hop version of the Super Mario Bros. dungeon level music.

donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 15:55 (10 years ago) Permalink

Square's Final Fantasy music has always been terrific, and it even has its own particular signatures and qualities, which strikes me as something of an achievement.

Music for Zelda Ocarina of Time was k-fantastic, particularly Saria's song -- which, yes, I have listened to outside of the game context and enjoyed possibly more.

The question got complicated as soon as disc-based systems were introduced and "actual" music could be put on them: Wipeout XL, the Japanese dancing game Bust a Move, and Grand Theft Auto all have "imported" stand-alone studio recordings on them that I enjoy.

nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

Mucho props to the Hubbardster. I recently downloaded an electroclash track and it was basically some Japanese girl singing over a recording of his loading theme to Sanxion, which was one of his best.
When talk turns to music made with the SID (the Commodre-64’s music chip), honourable mentions must also go to Ocean’s in-house composer Martin Galway: mmmmmm, Galway chord sound. Although not half as experimental he had possibly the strongest melodies, possibly because he had more time to work on tunes, rather than the bang-them-out-and-make-them-stand-out nature of the freelancer Hubbard. Galway’s best soundtrack by a mile is the Wizball game music where he was encouraged to wierd out by the Sensible Software boys (also see Parallax). He also made a sublime soundtrack for Rambo, and his ‘Ocean Loading Theme’ helped soothe a million hours waiting while whirring cassettes spun.
Other great tunes where made by the Follin Brothers , Chris Hülsbeck and Maniacs of Noise.
Be sure to check out The High Voltage Sid Collection for a pretty exhaustive archive of almost every SID track ever and details of how to play them on your PC.

Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:01 (10 years ago) Permalink

Pixies covered the theme from "Narc"

donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:01 (10 years ago) Permalink

I covered the theme from 'Delta'!

Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:03 (10 years ago) Permalink

megaman!

Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:16 (10 years ago) Permalink

uh hello... Ecco the Dolphin.
so hauntingly beautiful.

drags, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:21 (10 years ago) Permalink

drive like jehu is a video game reference.

three mile pilot's chief assassin to the sinister has a few obscure video game refs, most notably "androsyn guardian".

gygax!, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:42 (10 years ago) Permalink

I like the music for Chrono Trigger and MUSHA Aleste.

Video game music appreciation site: remix.overclocked.org

Underclocked, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:43 (10 years ago) Permalink

drive like jehu is a video game reference.


huh? Isn't that a BIBLE reference?

Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:44 (10 years ago) Permalink

I really liked the FF7 and Diablo music, but remain somewhat skeptical of it as a whole. (This is largely due to the embarrassing amount of fawning Sega otaku were doing over the theme song to NiGHTS, which sucked so much ass it should have been called "Ass Hoover".)

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:51 (10 years ago) Permalink

!

lucasarts' the dig had great music but i can't remember how much of it was just made of up of wagner excerpts. ("mitch do you like hitler?")

Mitch Lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:55 (10 years ago) Permalink

Re: drive like jehu = biblical reference

well yes...

but if you've ever played that video game where your driving the Ferrari you may know what i'm talking about...

gygax!, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:57 (10 years ago) Permalink

Outrun?

Kris (aqueduct), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:58 (10 years ago) Permalink

Actraiser and Secret of Mana = great

chaki (chaki), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:01 (10 years ago) Permalink

that megaman thing was great

pitchfork!

Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:03 (10 years ago) Permalink

the theme from Arkanoid is crying out for some hip hop beats

the Tekken soundtracks are great - i like Yoshimitus's theme from Tekken 3

blueski, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:07 (10 years ago) Permalink

The Silent Hill stuff is diabolic and good and the closest video games have ever come to the "experimental/noise" section in your local college music shop.

Honda, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:20 (10 years ago) Permalink

Actraiser and Secret of Mana = great

Yes! The music to Secret of Mana is beautiful, especially the main theme (with the flutes), and there's some really nice orchestral writing in Actraiser too -- very rich, intelligent, creative. The SNES is probably my all-time favorite platform for video game music -- it's poised right between the two eras, with a palette that's rich enough to be totally convincing, but not so broad as to lose the distinctive flavor of the old-school stuff. Other favorites for SNES include the usual Mario/Zelda/Metroid suspects, as well as a couple less-known games like Drakkhen and Spiderman and X-Men: Arcade's Revenge, which has some pretty tremendous disco-funk music laden with wah-wah guitar and horn stabs. Mario Paint had some nice ambient music hidden in various sections on the cart.

Other platforms: I haven't played much in the way of Genesis games, but Ecco the Dolphin is definitely right up there. On the NES, besides the obvious ones (i.e. the original versions of the usual suspects above), I was always quite taken with the music to Xexyz -- it had a remarkably haunting and self-consistent soundworld. The opening theme to Marble Madness bears a pleasing resemblance to a section just before the end of the first movement of Debussy's La Mer. And The Adventures of Dino Riki had a charming little jaunty theme in the opening stage.

Phil (phil), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:58 (10 years ago) Permalink

i can't believe there's been all this discussion without any mention of the minibosses. they are the best video game band of all time.

check out especially (free mp3s on that site):

-contra (OH MY GOD)
-kraid/metroid (OH MY GOD)
-ghosts n goblins (etc)
-wizards n warriors (etc)
-mike tyson's punchout! (etc)
-megaman 2 and double dragon (if they've been put online yet, i dunno)
-castlevania

um yeah. up up down down left right left right b a select start!! (i'm talkin 2-player)

geeta (geeta), Thursday, 10 October 2002 01:29 (10 years ago) Permalink

If it sounds like it should be music from an NES Iron Maiden game - it is good. Megaman and Contra seem to be the kings of this sound. Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden are great too. I saw a whole album of thrashy 80s metal renditions of Castlevania tunes and it no doubt rules.

Alan N, Thursday, 10 October 2002 01:44 (10 years ago) Permalink

Lest we forget what horrible things occurred when those twunts (whoever they were) attacked and maimed the mighty "Tetris" theme...

Oh, and I can't believe nobody's touched on Hamburg's wonderful L'Age D'Or label - http://www.lado.de/ - who've long been flying the computer-games-done-weirdly flag:

is the one that you want, yes it is - Add N To (X), Jeans Team, Plundersonics et al twist loads of, uh, old Commodore 64 tunes into wikkid shapes.

Charlie (Charlie), Thursday, 10 October 2002 02:33 (10 years ago) Permalink

The end theme to Metal Gear: Solid (a balladic Celtic folk song) ranks as one of the most beautiful pieces I've ever heard.

Leee (Leee), Thursday, 10 October 2002 02:46 (10 years ago) Permalink

are there any good covers of the "marble madness" theme music out there? now that was some haunting shit! especially the aerial levels!!

geeta (geeta), Thursday, 10 October 2002 03:10 (10 years ago) Permalink

Mega Man 2 music owns, every bit of it. FFVIII has a couple good moments, like the Sepiroth theme and the end music if I remember correctly.

Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 10 October 2002 04:37 (10 years ago) Permalink

for Amiga lovers, the Turrican in-game music was hard to beat!

blueski, Thursday, 10 October 2002 11:33 (10 years ago) Permalink

What about "Everyone".

Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Thursday, 10 October 2002 11:40 (10 years ago) Permalink

I will praise and laud anyone who can find me mp3s of the music to Boon-Ga Boon-Ga.

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 10 October 2002 14:15 (10 years ago) Permalink

I am actually going to attempt to steer this thread back towards answering the original questions.... GASP!

I have to be honest and admit that had, say, the Super Mario Brothers theme (which I completely adore) been released completely outside the video game or the industry itself, I would have overlooked as muzak. The nostalgia is the main appeal.

HOWEVER...

The limitations placed upon how much resolution the music could contain back in the day was a big part of its charm today.. the further you go back, the more charming the music is (to me), because of the limitations. It's also educational, and for DSP/IDM enthusiasts especially, provides the most clear-cut case study on the development of computerized music...

Nostalgia obviously figures back into this again of course, but I think electronic music today has been very recently been heavily influenced by ancient video game technology and the music thereof, mainly because this has been the most accessible forum for hearing the odd ancient sounds of its time.

Someone on ILM in a past thread mentioned "Well, if those guys could have made the music back then sound like Styx, they would have, but they couldn't... hence..". Sadly, now that the technology is there to pretty much play fully rendered analog rock music, there's going to be less charm and less reason to be excited about the music of video games today.

NOTWITHSTANDING...

...the fact that the catchiness of video game background music is a key element to a video game's success. This is the understated reason I think recent cutesy Japanese video games have captured the hearts of those who would be bored by all the big sounding sports or racing games.

Just clusterfuck of thoughts here... but I'm curious to hear all y'all thoughts.

donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:46 (10 years ago) Permalink

why 1 and 2 and not megaman 3?!

mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:52 (10 years ago) Permalink

Sean C: I think it used to be a very popular thing to do before the advent of MP3s and larger games. I have at least Lode Runner: the Legend Returns and Lemmings 3D as games I can put in my CD player, and I'm positive there are many more.

Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 10 October 2002 19:19 (10 years ago) Permalink

Now to answer the question! Video game music often stays with me - some of my favorite soundtracks are the Mega Man games, Chrono Trigger, Aero the Acrobat, and Legend of the Mystical Ninja.

Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 10 October 2002 19:20 (10 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...
The Advantage CD is really, realy enjoyable. BUBBLE BOBBLE (!!!)

|OBEY|EYE|BO| (deangulberry), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 15:33 (9 years ago) Permalink

Just played through Earthbound recently and that has some of the strangest (and greatest) music of any game I've played. Whoever composed it got some pretty wild sounds out of the SNES sound chip. (i.e. the REALLY FAT AND NASTY bass sounds in some of the battle music)

Alan N (Alan N), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 15:54 (9 years ago) Permalink

I love how SNES composers were able to work around the limitations of the chip — like in the Follins's music for Plok! they used samples of chords so they could fit in more voices and give the music a really dense texture.

corey, Thursday, 7 July 2011 13:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

Ayatollah Colm Meaney (Princess TamTam), Thursday, 7 July 2011 14:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

Ooh, my favorite Doom music:

You really have to hear these with the original adlib/sound blaster chip sounds.

corey, Thursday, 7 July 2011 15:07 (1 year ago) Permalink

enjoying hitting play on all the 8bit youtube posts on here and letting them mesh together.

owenf, Thursday, 7 July 2011 17:16 (1 year ago) Permalink


based on the music of megaman 2 stage 2

Sébastien, Thursday, 7 July 2011 17:16 (1 year ago) Permalink

I think they're samples, yeah.

Me too, but I think there must be several of them per instrument. "Bramble Blast" would require a separate sample for each bass note. I would love to see the software with which they used to make those tunes.

Boehner & der club of GOP (Ówen P.), Thursday, 7 July 2011 18:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

based on the music of megaman 2 stage 2

haha, that is batshit

hardcore oatmeal (Jordan), Thursday, 7 July 2011 18:06 (1 year ago) Permalink

Mark Morgan's dark ambient soundtracks for the first two Fallouts really make those games, and were just remastered and offered for free download by the composer, some 15 years after the games' original release.

O_O i did not know this *downloads furiously*

lemon kerrang! (jjjusten), Thursday, 7 July 2011 18:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

not video game music per se, but Mafia II from last year might have the best era-specific soundtrack i have ever heard.

http://www.gameculture.com/2010/08/20/complete-mafia-ii-soundtrack-track-list

lemon kerrang! (jjjusten), Thursday, 7 July 2011 18:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

regarding the fallout soundtracks:

kelpolaris, Friday, 8 July 2011 05:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

too lazy to really dig and see if this was somehow posted before, but this whole soundtrack is my video game music jam of all time

preschoolin' life (BradNelson), Friday, 8 July 2011 06:23 (1 year ago) Permalink

preschoolin' life (BradNelson), Friday, 8 July 2011 06:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

this is practically some sweet math rock joint for fuck's sake. no wonder the advantage records work.

preschoolin' life (BradNelson), Friday, 8 July 2011 06:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

-_-

corey, Thursday, 29 September 2011 15:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

haha i was going to post on this thread about 'marble madness' and then i looked upthread and saw that i posted EIGHT YEARS AGO on this very thread about 'marble madness'

geeta, Thursday, 29 September 2011 16:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

i get a lot of rose melberg jive off this, but it could just be standard-fare j-pop vocals

only bummer about it is that this song is so good that you spend the rest of the game hoping something'll trump it

chaningning tatumtum (kelpolaris), Saturday, 29 October 2011 01:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

^ That soundtrack is great. It features a pretty good Illreme song, subsequently got me into the rest of his stuff, which is real, real good.

ste throkes (Ówen P.), Saturday, 29 October 2011 08:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

Lonely Rolling Star is my fav Katamari tune!
This is a close second tho...

zappi, Saturday, 29 October 2011 09:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

Is that Nomiya Maki singing?

corey, Saturday, 29 October 2011 12:09 (1 year ago) Permalink

yes!

zappi, Saturday, 29 October 2011 13:27 (1 year ago) Permalink

"lonely rolling star" is great, i adore it

teledyldonix, Saturday, 29 October 2011 17:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

<3 the katamari soundtrack and esp. this one which kind of makes me swell up w/emotion tbqh:

(⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Monday, 31 October 2011 18:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

could you guys recommend me to anything similar to that katamari song i posted? is that a particular style? i hear lots of j-pop but have never really associated it with anything mentally/aurally aside from figuring it not a too distant cousin from that "gee gee gee" k-pop song.

chaningning tatumtum (kelpolaris), Saturday, 5 November 2011 18:23 (1 year ago) Permalink

i was at an arcade last week and played this korean rhythm game. most of the music was fairly forgettable but i liked this one (despite the lyrics making no sense).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bk1__1RT_Y

teledyldonix, Saturday, 5 November 2011 19:56 (1 year ago) Permalink

youtube embed didn't work

teledyldonix, Saturday, 5 November 2011 19:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

recently I fell in love with Machinarium and its great soundtrack:

...which you can download as a bonus after you buy the game!

V79, Sunday, 6 November 2011 16:55 (1 year ago) Permalink

ah! been looking for the name of that game all over! i played the demo and dug it lots but couldn't justify paying the $10 asking at the time

NO NUTRITIONAL CONTENT (kelpolaris), Sunday, 6 November 2011 17:06 (1 year ago) Permalink

I bought it back in August when it was a part of the 3rd Humble Bundle, would've been quite mad had I paid 10 bucks and then got stuck on a puzzle :x still - a wonderful game, worth buying on a nearest price drop it gets

V79, Sunday, 6 November 2011 17:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

Some Chrono Trigger songs are very sample worthy. Just realized Wiz Khalifa samples "Schala's theme" on never been:

This ones would make fine samples too:

Also love for Earthbound's Onett:

Moka, Monday, 7 November 2011 20:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

holy shit @ wiz khalifa

fill up ass of emoticon fart (crüt), Monday, 7 November 2011 20:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

earthwrom jim had some fuken WOMP ASS music!

The sham nation of Israel should be destroyed. (Princess TamTam), Tuesday, 8 November 2011 17:16 (1 year ago) Permalink

4 months pass...

skip, Tuesday, 13 March 2012 03:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

YES to Dr. Mario.

skip, Tuesday, 13 March 2012 03:46 (1 year ago) Permalink

holy shit my favorite song of the now

Sébastien, Sunday, 18 March 2012 00:08 (1 year ago) Permalink

just heard of it today while getting acquainted with juke via some random mixes on youtube , it played at the end of that one

Sébastien, Sunday, 18 March 2012 00:12 (1 year ago) Permalink

hah! i knew that wave race 64 tune reminded me of something i recently heard.

bove, Friday, 23 March 2012 21:43 (1 year ago) Permalink

omg bove, that is horrible.

skip, Sunday, 25 March 2012 23:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Found this wicked DKC2 covers today:



Moka, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 17:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

meisenfek, Friday, 25 May 2012 05:01 (11 months ago) Permalink

I really LOVE that lead! It is a Pulse Width modulated sound, (PWM). In addition, PWM is a technique used in modern ovens to regulate the heat in a high precicion (Often using micro controllers pulsing the element of the oven).

Riskteven 4 hours ago

meisenfek, Friday, 25 May 2012 05:05 (11 months ago) Permalink

trippy bakery music

skip, Friday, 25 May 2012 14:08 (11 months ago) Permalink

4 months pass...

just saw a commercial for medal of honor warfighter that used ella fitzgerald's 'after you've gone' as background music. i'm guessing it's taking cues from games like bioshock and fallout (and maybe to some extent gears of war commercials too?) that deploys these really gorgeous 50s + 60s songs. i think they serve different purposes. in bioshock + fallout the music underlines a kinda of ambient nostalgia (fallout is a 50s cold war conception of the future, bioshock this randian dystopia). in medal of honor (+ i think similarly, tho not from same decades, "mad world" in gears of war commercials) made ironic stylistic contrast between action + fps hyper-violence to music's distant, restrained pop.

i think it would be really cool if there was a huge explosion of drawing on those decades for video game soundtracks - i think they made a nice shift in tempo from video game hyper-futurism

Mordy, Thursday, 11 October 2012 01:11 (7 months ago) Permalink

I still say that the mafia ii soundtrack is maybe the best 50's comp of all time.

costly pussy riot (jjjusten), Thursday, 11 October 2012 01:16 (7 months ago) Permalink

LOVE this song. I learned how to play it and if you play it slow on a keyboard w a nice fake accordion setting it's super romantic.

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 11 October 2012 02:42 (7 months ago) Permalink

Also, that guy has videos on how to make sound effects. Check this out

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 11 October 2012 02:44 (7 months ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

cocktail onion (fennel cartwright), Wednesday, 6 February 2013 22:57 (3 months ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaOVNEL92Lc

cracked me up at the time. well it still does but now i like it i think.

teddy dominatrix (dyl), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 01:28 (1 month ago) Permalink

oops

teddy dominatrix (dyl), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 01:29 (1 month ago) Permalink


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