― Kris (aqueduct), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:58 (twenty-one years ago) link
― chaki (chaki), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
pitchfork!
― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:03 (twenty-one years ago) link
the Tekken soundtracks are great - i like Yoshimitus's theme from Tekken 3
― blueski, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Honda, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
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 (twenty-one years ago) link
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 (twenty-one years ago) link
― original bgm, Thursday, 10 October 2002 01:44 (twenty-one years ago) link
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.
― Charlie (Charlie), Thursday, 10 October 2002 02:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Leee (Leee), Thursday, 10 October 2002 02:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
― geeta (geeta), Thursday, 10 October 2002 03:10 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 10 October 2002 04:37 (twenty-one years ago) link
― blueski, Thursday, 10 October 2002 11:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Thursday, 10 October 2002 11:40 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 10 October 2002 14:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
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 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:52 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 10 October 2002 19:19 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 10 October 2002 19:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
― |OBEY|EYE|BO| (deangulberry), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 15:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― original bgm, Tuesday, 20 April 2004 15:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― original bgm, Tuesday, 20 April 2004 15:57 (nineteen years ago) link
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!
― Adam Bruneau, Tuesday, 20 April 2004 19:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 19:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 19:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 19:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― sexyDancer, Tuesday, 20 April 2004 20:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― Elliot (Elliot), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 20:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 20 April 2004 21:50 (nineteen years ago) link
Almost every song from Mystical Ninja/Goemon [N64 again] is a dead set classic.
And of course WipEout, WipEout 2097, and Wip3out/SE.
― Autumn Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 22:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 21 April 2004 00:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 21 April 2004 00:43 (nineteen years ago) link
Some of the music from from Final Fantasy 2 US reminded me of Debusey (sp).
― Acid! Polizei! (ex machina), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 00:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― g--ff (gcannon), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 00:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 21 April 2004 00:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 21 April 2004 00:54 (nineteen years ago) link
You can also download it here - http://www.grimfandango.net/index.php?section=downloads&page=music
Which is nice.
― Muppet Boy, Wednesday, 21 April 2004 01:16 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNF-bRKvbeA
Megadeth covers the theme to Duke Nukem 3D
― kingfish, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 03:36 (sixteen years ago) link
kirby's adventure bangs
― m bison, Saturday, 10 November 2007 06:25 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― poortheatre, Wednesday, 14 May 2008 23:49 (fifteen years ago) link
i keep replaying the end of 'machine gun' on the new portishead and i'm DYING FOR SOME XX-BIT
― poortheatre, Wednesday, 14 May 2008 23:54 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.ocremix.org/ has some apps for playback of ripped tracks from roms and such
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 15 May 2008 00:55 (fifteen years ago) link
the pause screen music in battletoads!!! (NES) it's a short loop, but so great
― 6335, Thursday, 15 May 2008 01:33 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― poortheatre, Thursday, 15 May 2008 01:57 (fifteen years ago) link
oh, jackpot: http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/
― poortheatre, Thursday, 15 May 2008 02:00 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― poortheatre, Thursday, 15 May 2008 02:02 (fifteen years ago) link
hm. listening to all of national themes on Super Dodge Ball is like midi-hymnen.
― poortheatre, Thursday, 15 May 2008 02:08 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Nhex, Thursday, 15 May 2008 21:35 (fifteen years ago) link
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!
― Spencer Chow, Thursday, 15 May 2008 22:25 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Nhex, Friday, 16 May 2008 03:53 (fifteen years ago) link
This is my favourite 'Final Fantasy' related track, totally immense.
WELP i just dug in a little bit and it turns out both the songs we posted were composed by Mitsuto Suzuki, that guy rules i guess
also looks like he did a shoegaze album with the vocalist from the kamekame track: https://www.discogs.com/release/15719043-Mojera-Overkill
― diamonddave85 (diamonddave85), Thursday, 12 January 2023 21:42 (one year ago) link
That Plok track Frogbs posted is so wonderful.
Can't recall what thread this album was mentioned on but this guy is worth bringing up againhttps://shnabubula.bandcamp.com/album/cosmic-diaspora
He has a youtube channel where he does cover versions of videogame tunes
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 28 January 2023 21:30 (one year ago) link
this is gorgeoushttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MygaMv5fVRY
― c u (crüt), Friday, 11 August 2023 17:18 (eight months ago) link
reminds me of this fav of minehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKwI4myq2dk
― ciderpress, Friday, 11 August 2023 17:45 (eight months ago) link
Very good
https://x.com/coney/status/1709597886470562029?s=46&t=ybWek2m57bcE72i3ldMsfA
― (the poster formerly known as Twitter) (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 9 October 2023 14:28 (six months ago) link
interestingly he also did the music for the snes version of this track... sounds like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u55wZLBQPS4
ok beasley was going a little wild with the voice samples on this one. maybe he just didn't give a shit about the genesis version of the soundtrack, or maybe the emulation on the genesis version is off (that happens sometimes). anyway yeah it's not great but i've heard worse honestly lol
― Kate (rushomancy), Monday, 9 October 2023 17:14 (six months ago) link
the Genesis uses FM synthesis which can make for some really harsh sounds. I think the SNES sound chip might be entirely sample-based?
― c u (crüt), Monday, 9 October 2023 17:47 (six months ago) link
yes it is, and a lot of the instrument samples in SNES games sacrificed their high-end when downsampled, which is why it comes across as muffled but less harsh than Genesis games. Kinda cool that some composers were able to figure out how to make the most of the two different consoles' limitations
― Vinnie, Monday, 9 October 2023 18:03 (six months ago) link
the genesis did have one PCM channel, which you can hear they used the voice samples for. idk why they sound so much worse than the SNES version though. i'm guessing a lower samplerate
― butch wig (diamonddave85), Monday, 9 October 2023 20:18 (six months ago) link
Also the Game Boy Robocop title theme (as immortalized in "Dilbert 3") is surpirsingly well done for such a tossoff game― frogbs, Thursday, January 23, 2014 11:21 AM (nine years ago) bookmarkflaglink
― frogbs, Thursday, January 23, 2014 11:21 AM (nine years ago) bookmarkflaglink
Such a beautiful piece of music. "Dilbert 3" was my first encounter with it lol. It works perfectly there, but I wish I had heard in in its original context as a kid; seems like hearing it now would unlock some powerful nostalgia.
Also I'm willing to bet that the Game Boy Robocop theme is the primary musical inspiration for Oneohtrix Point Never's "No Nightmares" though I haven't seen confirmation of this.
― J. Sam, Monday, 9 October 2023 20:30 (six months ago) link
in the uk that music is famous for its inexplicable use in an ariston ad in the early '90s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUVs7vXNZiw
and yeah the tech specs allowed for way better sample based playback on the snes than on the genesis/megadrive
basically my take is that the two systems had very different capabilities... you look at something like streets of rage 2, and that would've been a lot tougher to do on the snes. on the other hand, a lot of the RPG music, like final fantasy vi, that wouldn't have worked so well on the genesis/megadrive.
― Kate (rushomancy), Monday, 9 October 2023 21:30 (six months ago) link
There can be no worse music thatn Tazmania on the Game Gear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQe4qcrwMKo
― ...eh you get the gist of it (dog latin), Tuesday, 10 October 2023 15:46 (six months ago) link
good call - it has a lot of the same chords doesn't it? and if anyone was gonna draw inspiration from an obscure Game Boy game...
― frogbs, Wednesday, 11 October 2023 15:07 (six months ago) link
This deep cut FromSoftware game called Evergrace has one of the wildest future-music soundtracks I've heard.
I've always wondered if Oneohtrix was familiar since it has some surprising overlaps with some of his more esoteric sounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm17vgmh854
And just last night I discovered he featured a track from it on a BBC 6 playlist! Cool.
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/djmix/oneohtrix-point-never/freak-zone-playlist.p/
― Travisssss, Wednesday, 11 October 2023 18:43 (six months ago) link
I should mentioned the Evergrace composer is Kota Hoshino.
He also did the sequel to Evergrace, Forever Kingdom. This is from 2001 and it sounds like an Animal Collective song.
This guy was on another level.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjEhb0DLv3s
― Travisssss, Wednesday, 11 October 2023 18:51 (six months ago) link
damn, never heard of that before, like if jp massiera wrote PS2 video game soundtracks
today i'm nerding out on the adlib gold, a soundcard that was screwed by creative, maker of the soundblaster (creative and adlib got their fm synth chips from the same source, and that source had mysterious delays in making the new chips for the adlib gold)... so the company was bankrupt by the time it came out. basically the only adlib gold soundtrack anyone knows is stephane picq's "dune" soundtrack (not dune ii i don't think). anyway apparently in the korean demoscene people are writing songs for it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBXhcTEKIuI
also somebody transferred stephane picq's soundtrack to "kgb" in 24/96 fidelity using an OPL3 card (the OPL3 is the FM synthesis chip on the Adlib Gold - the OPL2 is on most of the FM soundcards of the era), worth checking out for you hi-fi heads out there:
https://archive.org/details/picq96khzmasterskgbopl3
i like the kgb soundtrack better than the dune soundtrack myself so this is cool to have
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 13 October 2023 16:26 (six months ago) link
just clicking around on that link reveals a lot of great stuff, thanks for posting that. absolutely love this sound.
I know Stephane Picq from Megarace - perhaps the game itself was not great, but I loved the cutscenes, and the music was incredible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7JgalAgkjE
I was probably like...9 years old when I first heard this. had no clue about techno or electronica or anything else but this blew my tiny little head off
― frogbs, Friday, 13 October 2023 16:37 (six months ago) link
so here's an album of the works of russian composer nikolai kapustin arranged for chiptune
https://sexytoadsandfrogsfriendcircle.bandcamp.com/album/staffcirc-vol-4-switched-on-kapustin
turns out kapustin has a certain notoriety for sounding like kirby music
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 13 October 2023 18:43 (six months ago) link
ok wait _this_ is the worst video game music ever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uifYj8Efaw
― Kate (rushomancy), Monday, 16 October 2023 00:34 (six months ago) link
i'm obsessed with another falcom track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ok9bzDzaS0
i think power metal truly found a home in video game soundtracks
― butch wig (diamonddave85), Wednesday, 25 October 2023 14:47 (five months ago) link
https://www.nts.live/shows/otaku/episodes/otaku-winter-soundtrack-27th-january-2024“Chilling, frigid and wintery scores from the obligatory snow level - featuring music from Final Fantasy, Silent Hill, Stardew Valley, Skyrim…”
― brimstead, Monday, 29 January 2024 23:13 (two months ago) link