Adrian Belew was very impressed by the creativity found in video game soundtracks apparently and wants to do one himself according to his facebook page. GOG.com includes FLAC and MP3 downloads of the soundtracks with many of the games purchasable in their shop (download-only shop, but unlimited downloads and no DRM, that's their gimmick). The Interplay games also include the soundtracks, though only in MP3 sadly, but that's better than nothing, especially considering they don't charge you extra for them. And yes, they're a licensed distributor of games. They have ALL the Interplay classics on there if you're missing any (and optimized to work on newer systems out of the box to boot). Not trying to advertise the page (which has its fair share of flaws as well, mostly concerning the forums and page layout), just informing you, in case you're wondering.
Final Fantasy XIV has some great music. I don't play it myself but I love it when my GF spends time in this area:
Well, since GTA was mentioned by TS, I suppose I can mention not only scores made specificaly for the games but also soundtracks made from available songs of different artists and my list in this case starts with Need for Speed Underground and Need For Speed Underground 2 along with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4, Tony Hawk's Underground 2 and Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. And of course not to forget monumental Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. Continuing with old games definitely Battletoads & Double Dragon, Contra Hard Corps, Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Half-Life, Quake 3 Arena, Legand of Zelda A Link to the Past, Command & Conquer, Soldier of Fortune, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, Duke Nukem 3D.
Can we expand the thread to "arcade games" instead of just "video games" so pinball can be included? I think the music for Black Knight 2000 is as quintessentially "80s" as it gets, and is one of the best soundtracks ever composed for an arcade game. It was written in part by Dan "Toasty" Forden, who did the soundtracks for the Mortal Kombat games, though the voice of the Black Knight was the game's designer, Steve Ritchie. Revel in the late 80s MIDI goodness:
SNES - Donkey Kong Country (So good!) PS3 - Uncharted Drakes Fortune. NES - MC Kids (laugh if you want, awesome 8bit music) Dreamcast - The Next Tetris 360/PS3 - Saints Row 2 (The Mix 107.77) PS3 - LittleBigPlanet PS3 - SuperRubaDub (Yup, keep laughing) PSP - Locoroco To name a few...
*bump* This might be of interest to collectors: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Soundtrack on Vinyl Announced - IGN »
How did I miss this thread!?!? Shoutout to Toby Fox; not only is the soundtrack phenomenal, but it's all written and (mostly) performed by him, in addition to the majority of the game being created, conceived of and designed by him. Stunning work. ~~~~~ For anybody who loves older games but the chiptune sounds are getting old, there are artists specializing in covering video game music. One such individual is the great Smooth McGroove, who performs one-man (in a sense) multitracked acapella covers. I love Mega Man, so here's a selection:
And of course if acapella isn't your bag but you want to hear video game music in new forms, there's always OCRemix, a community of muscians and gamers who have reinterpreted the bleeps and bloops in literally thousands of different ways: OverClocked ReMix: Video Game Music Community »
Anyone see the Nintendo infomercial on The Jimmy Fallon show the other day? Anyway, here's the real Shigeru Miyamoto playing the Mario theme with The Roots. Get ready for a geekoid overload!:
I'm not sure about the pressing quality of that specific release, but it's clear the Data Discs team puts a lot of effort into the transfer of each album, since their site usually lists the sources used. For example, they went to great lengths on the first Streets of Rage soundtrack, even getting original composer Yuzo Koshiro to provide high resolution files, and Yoshitaka Azuma contributed several alternate synthesiser versions of the songs that make up the Panzer Dragoon soundtrack to be included as bonus content. A lot of their artwork is also taken from the archives of Sega in particular, though I do have concerns about the gimmick of having patterned vinyl affecting the overall sound of certain titles...
GREAT compilation of some of Taito's arcade game soundtracks, all created by their in-house band Zuntata:
Auf Wiedersehen Monty (1987) The power of the awesome SID chip! My mum bought this for me in '87. I was six years old. Out of the vast catalouge of C64 games and their soundtracks this one always stays with me. Huge nostalgia.
"You're Not Here" by Akira Yamaoka (from Silent Hill 3) ! There is a lot of great alternative rock music in this iconic horror game, but this song stands out and is the most popular one from the series
Akira Yamaoka's soundtracks for Silent Hill 3 and 4 deserve to be regarded as classic albums in their own right. Great composition and vibe between them. It's also not for nothing that Steven Wilson even gave him a shout out a number of years ago for his sound design on those games.
Great thread that brings back a lot of memories! Some of the most memorable soundtracks for me were Dune II, Frank Klepacki's original Command and Conquer score, and the jazzy soundtrack to Transport Tycoon. Also, Trent Reznor's soundtrack for Quake still manages to get me slightly queasy recalling the early-3d induced motion sickness, and the generally mildly unpleasant atmosphere of that particular game. I'm sure that every single one of them has planted something that's reflected in my present tastes in music...
The first game soundtrack that I ever bought was the one to FFVII. It was four cd's of music, and it was incredible! There's a band called The Minibosses that do NES tunes. They're really good, you should check them out on Youtube!
My favorite video game soundtracks of all time, courtesy of Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda respectively:
Excellent soundtrack to a more recent RPG. Varied styles of music throughout. The game's creator and score composer, Toby Fox, did virtually all the work on this game save for a few character designs.
