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March 28, 2024, 06:05:44 PM

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Video game music!

Started by bgmnts, May 25, 2022, 11:26:37 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

You might say this tune is a bit of an earworm.


Some people say the music on the Mega Drive version is better, but these are bad people and not to be trusted.

Mister Six

That reminded me of the insanely catchy theme to Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders. This is the Amiga version; the PC one sounds like a Terminator farting itself into oblivion.


Pink Gregory

\m/


happier times


never tire of it


best boss theme

Magnum Valentino

I fucking love video game music and it sends my wife mental when I listen to it in the house. Claims it gives her anxiety, which is weird as she never plays games any more but when she did she was very good at them. There was no beating her high scores on SMB or Tetris (or fucking BOP IT, but that doesn't count).

My favourite soundtrack is probably the PS1 version of Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha (partially reused for its sequels). Here's three excellent songs - check out the extended keyboard solo in this one:


Garuda's stage theme has a fucking deadly drum breakdown about 80 seconds in. This song shreds like absolute fuck:


I don't break drumsticks since I started playing an electric kit, but the last two times I broke a stick on an acoustic kit, I was playing this song, far, far too heavily - just listen to how hard that drummer is sunk into that groove:


What's so great about this soundtrack is, like the Khan Super Session OST for Soul Blade/Edge (and Mario Kart 8!), it's a live band playing for most of the tracks. The musicianship is insane.

I have other videogame stuff to share but don't want it all to get lost in a first post.

Just want to point out though that most of the in-game (non-cutscene) music in MGS2 was composed by Norihiko Hibino and not Harry Gregson Williams - Hibino did all the best stuff outside the main theme.

The Culture Bunker

Is Out-Run too obvious a shout? I'm not sure how many games had the music as much an element of the experience before that. I liked the re-recordings from the 'Coast2Coast' sequel as well.


AsparagusTrevor

There's a lot to choose from in the Sonic games, but the tune from the Doomsday Zone in Sonic & Knuckles is a fuckin banger that still gets me pumped


The boss level before this has a great tune as well

AngryGazelle


Now this is a nice piece of music. Perfect encapsulates the desperation of the endgame.

druss


There might be better music from the series but this one feels like home.

buzby

#39
Quote from: Mister Six on May 25, 2022, 04:08:02 PMAnd of course, how can we forget the bizarrely chilled and catchy RoboCop theme on the Game Boy?

Jonathan Dunn originally wrote it for the C64 version, which was thn ported to the Gameboy. He infamously got nothing out of it being licenced by Ocean to Ariston for their 'Cycle' ad campaign - his MU rep reckoned he'd missed out on £100k of royalties for the 2 years it was used.

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on May 25, 2022, 07:04:00 PMTetris on the C64 (shits all over the later Nintendo version and somehow goes on for 25 minutes without repeating. How did that fit in 64K?):
By that time, C64 musicians had developed ways to store music data algorithmically. One of the first examples of that was Martin Galway's music Parallax:

Of all the musicians who worked on the C64, Galway is my all time favourite ('Galway Is God' is right on the money). He had the perfect combination of programming chops and musical ear to exploit the SID chip to it's fullest - nobody could drive the SID's filter as smoothly as him.

Mikie:

Terra Cresta:

Ocean Loader V2:

Green Beret loader:

Green Beret main theme:


Wizball main theme:

Wizball High Score theme:

Arkanoid main theme:
(on this, he pioneered the use of the SID's 4th noise channel to play back primitive sampled drum sounds, something which others took up and developed further when he moved to the US on to work on PC games work for Origin Systems).

weaseldust

hi i've come to break the thread with a grotesquesly extended post

p47 thunderbolt c64
there's so much c64 music i could post but this is a lesser known one which i think is great. also love turbo outrun, nemesis the warlock, supremacy, outrun europa, after burner...

streets of rage 1 - the last soul

streets of rage 2 - dreamer
a lot of this soundtrack just sounds like 'real' electronic music, you forget you're listening to a soundchip

sonic 2 megadrive - aquatic ruin zone
my favourite game soundtrack probably. also has the best boss music which i've posted about before

overlord, nes

ps1 demo disc music underwater theme
love all of these

kula world - dusk

jade cocoon - sirus village

super smash bros melee - break the targets

deus ex - begin the end combat

starfox adventures - dark ice mines night
david wise the video game music king

mario kart wii - coconut mall
this song puts me in a good mood

snake pass - sog gee's realm
(david wise again)

super smash bros ultimate - king dedede's theme brawl

streets of rage 4 - rising up
whole soundtrack is great, was hard to pick a favourite. haven't even played the game, just love the music

kirby and the forgotten land - fast flowing waterworks
certified banger

also all of the mario and zelda music obviously, knights of the round (arcade), master of orion 2, donkey kong country, worms armageddon, stronghold, kirby 64, sheep ps1, crash bandicoot, spyro, rayman, croc 1, super monkey ball, witcher 3

oggyraiding

Notably shit soundtracks from series which otherwise have good music.



The Yoshi one is horrible but there's something quite sweet about it. The Sonic one is pure garbage.

beanheadmcginty

Huge swathes of the Interstate 76 soundtrack are nicked from existing funk tracks (don't know if royalties were paid or not) but I had no idea this was the case when I was 15 and I thought this was the greatest thing I'd ever heard at the time. It was playable in a normal CD player too, so I used to listen to it constantly.


Mister Six

The "playable in a normal CD player" thing reminded me of this banger, from the original GTA, produced in-house by Rockstar's Craig Conner:


prelektric

Quote from: buzby on May 26, 2022, 03:12:09 PMJonathan Dunn originally wrote it for the C64 version, which was then ported to the Gameboy. He infamously got nothing out of it being licenced by Ocean to Ariston for their 'Cycle' ad campaign - his MU rep reckoned he'd missed out on £100k of royalties for the 2 years it was used.

This title piece for Robocop was my earliest absolute love for a piece of chiptune, albeit on the 128K ZX Spectrum's AY chip. Sometimes I'd wait for the game to load, just to listen to it without even playing the game. Jonathan Dunn indeed got completely shafted over it. It's an intensely melancholic work and rather incongruous to "Robocop" as a theme, but glorious all the same, and uniquely for a chiptune has the power to make me well up, if I'm in the right frame of mind. The Gameboy's chip version was my wake up alarm on my phone for many years. Utter classic.

In the modern era, where we can have full orchestral scores, I'd have to go with Austin Wintory's work on "Journey". Not only one of the most profoundly affecting games of the last 20 years, it had a stunningly beautiful soundtrack to match. This track being a highlight for me personally:


It accompanies a revelatory moment that utterly had every hair on my body stood to attention. It's out of context though so won't mean much to anyone who hasn't experienced it.

The outro is magnificent as well, sang in several different languages, some of them dead ones.







prelektric

Sorry to double post, but just in case anyone thought I was a wet pansy for the above - this tune, and the soundtrack it sits on, and the people I met because of it, changed my life at the time as a 19 year old for the better. (Long story)



prelektric

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on May 25, 2022, 09:10:48 PMIs Out-Run too obvious a shout? I'm not sure how many games had the music as much an element of the experience before that. I liked the re-recordings from the 'Coast2Coast' sequel as well.

Not at all. "Passing Breeze" was my jam. What was yours?

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: prelektric on May 27, 2022, 06:27:33 PMNot at all. "Passing Breeze" was my jam. What was yours?

Hard to pick, but I think it'd be 'Magical Sound Shower'.

Even the titles alone evoke a strong nostalgic reaction in me.

druss

Quote from: Mister Six on May 27, 2022, 05:48:24 PMThe "playable in a normal CD player" thing reminded me of this banger, from the original GTA, produced in-house by Rockstar's Craig Conner:

Even today it still makes me want to steal cars and shoot prostitutes, love it.

Mister Six

Quote from: prelektric on May 27, 2022, 06:12:05 PMThis title piece for Robocop was my earliest absolute love for a piece of chiptune, albeit on the 128K ZX Spectrum's AY chip. Sometimes I'd wait for the game to load, just to listen to it without even playing the game. Jonathan Dunn indeed got completely shafted over it. It's an intensely melancholic work and rather incongruous to "Robocop" as a theme, but glorious all the same, and uniquely for a chiptune has the power to make me well up, if I'm in the right frame of mind. The Gameboy's chip version was my wake up alarm on my phone for many years. Utter classic.

Weird, I don't remember it being on the Spectrum version at all, but there it is. I remember a digitised Murphy doing the directives at the start, so I can't have been playing it in 48k mode...

willbo

I always thought Streets of Rage's music would be awesome if I ever worked out or went on a run or whatever

I liked the hard rock songs in GTA 1 too - the "set the night on fire" one, even if you never really hear them properly


Dickie_Anders





I like how scary this one is, letting the kiddies know that these are the really fucking hard levels:


Consignia

Quote from: Mister Six on May 27, 2022, 05:48:24 PMThe "playable in a normal CD player" thing reminded me of this banger, from the original GTA, produced in-house by Rockstar's Craig Conner:


Similarly, this beaut has stuck with me around 25 years:


I think I scratched the game disc because of playing it in a CD player too much.

Mister Six

Ha, yeah, I remember the pickup trucks just playing this on constant repeat.

Possibly the most weirdly poignant scoreboard music ever


Mister Six

The Lotus Esprit 2 music was a classic. And those graphics! WOW!


Oh, and the Forest Course isn't that great in retrospect, but it brings back fond memories of the "wocka chicks chum" Tracker bar advert.


Big Yello influences, in retrospect.

The Culture Bunker

Remembered this bit of intro music from back in the late 90s:


prelektric

Quote from: Mister Six on May 27, 2022, 08:33:49 PMWeird, I don't remember it being on the Spectrum version at all, but there it is. I remember a digitised Murphy doing the directives at the start, so I can't have been playing it in 48k mode...

Think the actual synthesised speech was miraculously programmed and blasted out via the standard Beeper in the 48K model. That might explain what you experienced.

The 128K used its internal AY chip for the three channel music on top of the beeper, thus, for those who were really good at this, essentially made it a 4 channel powerhouse (if there was any memory left after the actual game program).

Next time, I will be rhapsodising about the 1220 departure from Newcastle Central station, and the DMU locomotive that is pulling that consort, consisting of four Mark IV coaches, built and designed by Bombardier and CAF - built between 2010 and 2017. Or summat.



Thanks lads.

prelektric

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on May 27, 2022, 08:06:37 PMHard to pick, but I think it'd be 'Magical Sound Shower'.

Even the titles alone evoke a strong nostalgic reaction in me.

Halcyon days my friend, halcyon days...

badaids


This is the best game music ever.  Totally badass from start to finish.