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
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
― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:54 (10 years ago) Permalink
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:03 (10 years ago) Permalink
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
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:10 (10 years ago) Permalink
― Keith McD (Keith McD), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:19 (10 years ago) Permalink
Also - Nobuo Uematsu's work for Squaresoft.
― Ess Kay (esskay), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:27 (10 years ago) Permalink
― Ess Kay (esskay), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:31 (10 years ago) Permalink
― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:32 (10 years ago) Permalink
― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:18 (10 years ago) Permalink
― sf, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:23 (10 years ago) Permalink
― Rahul Kamath (Rahul Kamath), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 15:03 (10 years ago) Permalink
http://www.readsatellite.com/temp/robhubbard.doc
― Rahul Kamath (Rahul Kamath), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 15:16 (10 years ago) Permalink
The Super Mario Brothers Theme supposedly being played by the London Symphony Orchestra
The Super Mario Brothers Theme supposedly being played by Mr. Bungle
― Rahul Kamath (Rahul Kamath), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 15:27 (10 years ago) Permalink
― nutz, deez, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 15:35 (10 years ago) Permalink
― donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 15:55 (10 years ago) Permalink
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
― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:01 (10 years ago) Permalink
― donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:01 (10 years ago) Permalink
― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:03 (10 years ago) Permalink
― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:16 (10 years ago) Permalink
― drags, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:21 (10 years ago) Permalink
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
Video game music appreciation site: remix.overclocked.org
― Underclocked, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:43 (10 years ago) Permalink
huh? Isn't that a BIBLE reference?
― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:44 (10 years ago) Permalink
― 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
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
― Kris (aqueduct), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:58 (10 years ago) Permalink
― chaki (chaki), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:01 (10 years ago) Permalink
pitchfork!
― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:03 (10 years ago) Permalink
the Tekken soundtracks are great - i like Yoshimitus's theme from Tekken 3
― blueski, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:07 (10 years ago) Permalink
― Honda, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:20 (10 years ago) Permalink
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
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
― Alan N, Thursday, 10 October 2002 01:44 (10 years ago) Permalink
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
― Leee (Leee), Thursday, 10 October 2002 02:46 (10 years ago) Permalink
― geeta (geeta), Thursday, 10 October 2002 03:10 (10 years ago) Permalink
― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 10 October 2002 04:37 (10 years ago) Permalink
― blueski, Thursday, 10 October 2002 11:33 (10 years ago) Permalink
― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Thursday, 10 October 2002 11:40 (10 years ago) Permalink
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 10 October 2002 14:15 (10 years ago) Permalink
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
― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:52 (10 years ago) Permalink
― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 10 October 2002 19:19 (10 years ago) Permalink
― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 10 October 2002 19:20 (10 years ago) Permalink
― |OBEY|EYE|BO| (deangulberry), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 15:33 (9 years ago) Permalink
― 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
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
-_-
― 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
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
― You're welcome child. It was just another day being your God (crüt), Sunday, 11 March 2012 03:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
― 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
Found this wicked DKC2 covers today:
― Moka, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 17:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
― 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
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
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
http://www.mafia2game.com/community/us/features_song_list.php
― costly pussy riot (jjjusten), Thursday, 11 October 2012 01:18 (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
― cocktail onion (fennel cartwright), Wednesday, 6 February 2013 22:57 (3 months ago) Permalink
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