This is the Video Game Music Thread

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:

http://www.enduro-disks.de/images/illu/output64/output64-cd-cover.gif

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.

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.

It was all vague and genre constraints fly out the window, just in the face of making music that is fun and/or isntantly memorable. My roommate and I used to guess what genres were present in SNES games. Castlevania IV has some intense free jazz that just comes out of nowhere. Yoshi's Island had a few songs that were perfect combinations of old school metal and circus music.

On this note: www.supermadrigalbros.com!

Almost every song from Mystical Ninja/Goemon [N64 again] is a dead set classic.

And of course WipEout, WipEout 2097, and Wip3out/SE.

Some of the music from from Final Fantasy 2 US reminded me of Debusey (sp).

You can also download it here - http://www.grimfandango.net/index.php?section=downloads&page=music

Which is nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNF-bRKvbeA

Megadeth covers the theme to Duke Nukem 3D

kirby's adventure bangs

is there any way to listen to 8-bit video game music/chip tune without playing the game? like, compilations? wikipedia lists some composers, but i haven't been able to track down any collections.

i keep replaying the end of 'machine gun' on the new portishead and i'm DYING FOR SOME XX-BIT

http://www.ocremix.org/ has some apps for playback of ripped tracks from roms and such

the pause screen music in battletoads!!! (NES) it's a short loop, but so great

x-post

thanks for the link. i couldn't find anything that wasn't some 'hillbilly remix,' etc. i wish there were a database with JUST the originals. i guess copyright laws sort of prohibit that, though.

oh, jackpot: http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/

Oh god mega man II end credits track. *SNIFF*

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/Mm2end1.mid

http://www.terrisus.com/pictures/endings/MegaMan2.jpg

hm. listening to all of national themes on Super Dodge Ball is like midi-hymnen.

Get an NSF player and go wild.

That's just for NES, too - there are native rip formats (GYM for Genesis, SPC for SNES, etc.) for pretty much every system ever, and you can listen to them in their all their glory. It's tricky to do the ripping yourself, but most major games have been ripped by somebody already.

It's so weird how you miss the music once you're done with the game. I guess you could find it and download it, but without the context of the game, the effect is of course diminished. It's kind of sad!

Actually, for me, it's the opposite, but I was always into downloading midi and mod remixes of game soundtracks (especially Square's RPGs) back in the day, so I've always had a really positive feeling when it comes to listening to game music outside of the game.

Though I really enjoyed playing Mega Man 2 and 3, I almost definitely have a more fondness for the soundtracks than I do playing the games! In the extreme, I've listened to NSFs of games I have no interest in playing which were great.

Seconding dean's post way upthread re: The Advantage

Actually, for me, it's the opposite, but I was always into downloading midi and mod remixes of game soundtracks (especially Square's RPGs) back in the day, so I've always had a really positive feeling when it comes to listening to game music outside of the game.

way OTM

SMB main theme sounds like bebop with notes taken out.

Switchblade
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VNDlgd647jE
ingame music from 2:00 onwards is ace.

Oh my goodness, I just downloaded Street Fighter II. Ravey Detroitish-mania all around.

Whoops, I meant to say Streets of Rage II

since there's no need to download midi's or winamp plugins anymore, lets make this the youtube videogame music thread!

resident evil 4 "serenity"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S--Wi4v8IfA

adjacent:

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

obsidian blue - "kirby's flight" (2008)

basically a coffee shop beat of the classic between stage jam from kirby. am a big fan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb8WbGIT57E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XruY72JamWc

That Jazz Jackrsbbit music is incredible

Some of this Yuke 2kki soundtrack is like top tier ambient

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whhEMe-xbmY

*Yume 2kki

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoxE1URe8Qs

Here's a pair of recent discovery standouts:

Kota Hoshino the savant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjEhb0DLv3s

Genesis FM synth jam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz7qouHTyRo

That Jazz Jackrsbbit music is incredible

― Sade of the Del Amitri (dog latin)

thought u might like it!

I did, very much

the tetris game for cd-i's new age soundtrack is amusing but surprisingly effective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_SwDWKf-78

i guess i haven't talked about it here, how much great music there is for different versions of tetris. they're all different. hip tanaka did the music for the Nintendo NES version, which is the version the championships are held on. Ján Deák did the music for the 48K speccy Tetris 3 and that's fantastic as well (he passed away far too early in 2014 at the age of 46, I now find). idk who did the soundtrack for "Magical Tetris Challenge" on the N64, but it's some heavy fucking funk, particularly for a game where you're going head to head against Disney characters. peter wagner did the music for T-Maxx, a tetris clone on the Mac. The SAM Coupé version of Tetris has music by Rob Mies that's great (not the Cooking Circle version). and my fave is Wally Beben's C64 version, which is a fucking 26 minute epic and what got me into Beben. Tetris I think lends itself well to music, because it's one of those games where you don't have to worry about the music fitting the game - compare Koji Kondo's music for "Super Mario Bros", which was written to match the music, and Tim Follin's theme to NES Pictionary, which was clearly just a banger tune he had lying around and gave them when they needed a song. Tim Follin is probably the best example of someone who provided great music for crap games, but early game music wasn't particularly tied to the game itself. That's one of the things that made Super Mario Bros. so groundbreaking!