Computer Game MUsic

turnback

Hello all.

I'm writing my masters thesis on computer game music and there's nothing written about it so far academically. I'm wondering if you can help. I'm just looking for anything on computer game soundtracks.. what ones stick in your head, enforce the action in a game, go against the action in any game or generally have never left your head since you were 10 years old playing games like digdug...

I'm looking for anything here. Just throw in what you thought was a catchy/interesting/weird/crap/funny soundtrack to a computer game and why you thought it was so. I'll be very grateful for a reply to this..


Thanks all, and good gaming,,

Optikus

Your a Muppet la la laaah

spacecoyote

well all the grand theft auto games, since the 1st one have always had cool soundtracks.

And i especially like the music and sound effects used in the Worms games.

bubble bobble was also great (game and music, esp. when you were running out of time and the sinister music came on and the bad guy started chasing you!)

gizmo

Off the top of my herd...

The soundtracks for the Hitman series of games have been fantastic with performances by the Budapest and Hungarian Symphony Orchestras.

The Homeworld soundtrack was also perfect in that it created a really hypnotic effect while playing.

The soundtracks for Halo are also noteworthy

They would be three of the best I can think of. You also have the practice of licencing music for games such as many titles published by EA.

You should also look at theme music which has become synomous with the game itself such as that found in the Mario and Zelda series of games.

FillSpectre

Are you talking about all video games from the start. Music would be first linked with attarcting people to the machine as video games were not home entertainment for a good part of their life. Most games just had sound effects up untill the mid 80s. Tunes were also used to cover loading times on home computers. The move over to proper music I would guess was around the sega mega drive time.

http://www.gooddealgames.com/index.html

Those guys might actually be able to tell you when it really started and the movement up to midi music.

Tetris is a memorable tune, Mario had a single released and in Japan they were selling soundtracks albums when it was not "real" music. Space Invaders sound effects was close to a tune.

fuse

spacecoyote wrote:

And i especially like the music and sound effects used in the Worms games.

Yeh the worms games always stood out for me with their sound effects & music.
Guy called Bjorn Lynne made them, he's done loads of games, his site might be of use
http://www.lynnemusic.com/credits.html

Other games with soundtracks I remember, the mario theme, bomberman, lemmings, mariokart, sonic, mousetrap!
Wasn't much of a game fanatic.

You should be able to find rakes of old midi's on the net from earlier games.

Creamy Goodness

seriously check out the soundtracks to the final fantasy series of games.

nothing comes close to them in sheer brilliance and musical bliss.

Nobuo Uematsu (spelling) is one of the composers and also has a band that does 'rock' versions of the songs called "the black mages"

John

The first Metal Gear Solid game for Playstation (not the first ever one mind) had a really good cinematic soundtrack. Went with the whole movie quality of the game. It was released on its own, maybe have a look at that (also has a song in Irish (the main title theme) so that's pretty cool).

Oriel

Don't forget about Tetris!
Also, the Medal Of Honour have great OSTs to them. I listen to them when I go to sleep. You could write about how game OST are taking to be the same as film OSTs nowadays.

S.

FillSpectre

Anybody got a link to the acopella (sp) college group do video game music? Had a look and I couldn't find it

Robbo

Cannon Fodder.

"War! Never been so much fun."

That is all.

Hip

The underwater scene in Donkey Kong Country on the SNES, great ambient tune - very relaxing.

Sauce

The music in Super Mario Bros has to be one of the most recognisable computer game music ever.

As sinecurea said, tetriis is easilly recognisable also

Tobias Greeshman

I'll second the Metal Gear Solid or the PS1, the music added so much to the feel of the game. Some of it was really eerie to really make the game seem so realistic.

Cake Fiend

Rob Hubbard!

Also, Secret of Mana soundtrack is worth checking out.

And the Command and Conquer series, particularly 'Hell March'.

Peter Collins

I'll tell ya a good one, and you can include this in your thesis at no extra charge.

In the music to Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 on the Amiga, halfway through there was a subliminal message.

Through the left sound port (the left speaker) a robotic voice could barely be heard saying "Do not copy this game".

Strange but true.

Peter Collins

P.S. Best music was from Premier Manager on the Amiga, with a lovely sample of Andy Gray shouting "What a lovely bennnnd on that ballll!!!"

tman

Hip wrote:

The underwater scene in Donkey Kong Country on the SNES, great ambient tune - very relaxing.

good call
"life in the mines" was also a fairly lush piece of music

slipss

I'd have to say the most recognisable music from any computer game I've played has to be from Sonic the Hedgehog especialy this http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~mbull/MID/Games/Sonic1-GreenHillZone.mid
its been fukking years since I heard that music I can't believe I found it

- bo -

That Gran Turismo game with the couple of songs by Feeder in it, especially Just A Day. Think the other song was Buck Rogers. Pretty damn cool.

smackbunnybaby

quake had a great soundtrack,i think it was all written by trent reznor of the nine inch nails.
i think if you put the cd-rom of the game into your cd player you can listen to the soundtrack.

im_not_edible

Nope not Trent Reznor, but Chris Vrenna (formerly of Nine Inch Nails, so very close!)
He also did the music for the PC game American McGee's Alice, which is amazing! Such a talented guy!

im_not_edible

Oh, and I quite like the music from the Prince Of Persia games, two different people worked on that.. one was Stuart Chatwood, and can't think of the other guy off the top of my head..

John

im_not_edible wrote:

Nope not Trent Reznor, but Chris Vrenna (formerly of Nine Inch Nails, so very close!)
He also did the music for the PC game American McGee's Alice, which is amazing! Such a talented guy!

Trent did the original Quake game's soundtrack. I think Chris Vrenna did the new Doom game.

impr0v

I can't believe the music from Speedball II on the Amiga has not been mentioned in this thread yet, or the Xenon 2 theme tune from the same platform. Class.

monkeyfudge

The music from R-Type will always be a favourite of mine.

It really brings you into the game and the way it shifts gear into the boss music at the end of a level is really well done.

Shadow of the Beast on the Amiga had some great tunes as well.

CorkMan

Final Fantasy IMO. Metal Gear too.

monument

> Music form Simon the Sorcerer plays in head...

Treebeard

The Metroid games always had good soundtracks, very moody. Especially recommended are the metroid prime games

Pigman II

C64 : Stuff by Martin Galway, Rob Hubbard, Ben Daglish, Jonathan Dunn

Amiga : Stuff from Bitmap Brothers games (eg "Gods, Magic Pockets, Xenon2, Speedball, ChaosEngine" etc)

PC : iMuse (Michael Land & Peter McConnell) from early to mid-90s Lucasfilm adventure games.

BaZmO*

Music from Wipeout on the PS1 was pretty class. It was actually a soundtrack made up from different artists rather than music being speifically composed for the game.
3An instrumental of Firestarter was one of the tracks and you could also play play the Game CD in a regular CD Player to listen to all the tracks. But you couldn't play track 1, oh no, not track 1!!!