Game soundtracks

[greg]

This year, I've bought a few game soundtracks. My most recent purchase was the Chrono Trigger soundtrack, which brought back so many nostalgic memories while listening to! I've played that RPG many times; almost as many times as Secret of Mana (which was a yearly December ritual for me in the mid-90s). Last summer, I bought the Final Fantasy VI soundtrack, which is also great. Out of all the Final Fantasy games, 6 had the best music and characters, IMHO. These two soundtracks are the "original sound version," meaning they are the same tracks as played on the Super Famicom's/Super Nintendo's hardware.

The problem with buying soundtracks to these older games is that many of them are not the actual music played on the game hardware, but are instead synthesizer remakes. I recently bought the soundtrack to Pop 'N Twinbee for the Super Famicom, and it sounded more like an anime soundtrack. Not the same! Music from the 32-bit era is pretty much the same, but if you want 8- and 16-bit chiptune music, it seems more difficult to find the original music for purchase.

[Animusubi]

I love any and all renditions, classic, remix, etc of Chrono Trigger's music, and I would say that it's probably one of the best soundtracks of all time (pun intended). Yasunori Mitsuda is an amazing composer. Xenogears and Chrono Cross also have lovely music.

I have a few favorites. SaGa Frontier II, by Masashi Hamauzu is godly, the game was absolute crap, but the music is beautiful, and one of the best. Of course, the music from Suikoden II is also one I hold dear, because it was my first RPG and still one of my favorites.

Other favorites:
Street Fighter Third Strike
Ridge Racer 4
Katamari Damacy
Gitaroo Man
Illusion of Gaia
Parasite Eve
Persona 3
Phantasy Star Online
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles

Single tracks, Panzer Dragoon's theme song is gorgeous. Metal Gear's Snake Eater is definitely a karaoke favorite of mine. Yoshi's Story opening theme is too cute.

[Daniel]

The problem with buying soundtracks to these older games is that many of them are not the actual music played on the game hardware, but are instead synthesizer remakes. I recently bought the soundtrack to Pop 'N Twinbee for the Super Famicom, and it sounded more like an anime soundtrack. Not the same! Music from the 32-bit era is pretty much the same, but if you want 8- and 16-bit chiptune music, it seems more difficult to find the original music for purchase.

Ever tried to dump music from rom files?

[greg]

Ever tried to dump music from rom files?

My dear friend back in Arizona knows how to do this. Unfortunately, it is different for every console. We started working on a shmup soundtrack from various shooting games, such as Gradius 3, Area 88, Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie, Final Soldier, Musha, etc. That was over a year ago, when I was still living there. (I keep nagging him to complete it...) He says he uses a program called JCOM to record SNES/SFC games, but it may not work on old 8-bit NES/FC games. For PC Engine and Genesis/Megadrive games, he just records with his MiniDisc. I need to get an MD player that can record and re-upload to a computer.

[_D_]

You've seen this in concert though haven't you:

http://www.videogameslive.com/index.php?s=home

Fantastic show!

[kndy]

I have a few game soundtracks and I think it's great that more companies are releasing limited editions in the U.S. with the soundtracks. But have some from Japan and those released in the US.

Here are photos of soundtracks that came with games I purchased in the US...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kndynt2099 ... 042943751/

[greg]

You've seen this in concert though haven't you:

http://www.videogameslive.com/index.php?s=home

Fantastic show!

Don't they play a lot of... how should I say.... "normal" stuff too? I figure that those shows cater to more of the mass-market appeal crowd, meaning that I'd have to sit through stuff like Grand Theft Auto, World of Warcraft, and other stuff I can't stand. When I still lived in the States (it's incredible to think that I moved to Japan a year ago, since it feels like ages ago), a friend was interested in seeing this, but I didn't go with him. In fact, I'm not sure he went, either. We just talked about it.

[Armblessed]

Two of my favorites are the previously mentioned Final Fantasy 3/IV and Herzog Zwei. The latter is a relatively unknown Sega Genesis game, but its one of my favorite games of all time. Its a action strategy game where you control a jet that can transform into a robot and you create units like tanks and infantry to take over the map and attack your opponent's base who is trying to do the same to you. I highly recommend it.
I imagine that a soundtrack for Herzog Zwei does not exist(never checked), but I managed to download all the songs from the game from Napster way back when. Wow, remember Napster? Those were the days.
Anyways, Herzog Zwei music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zol5Dmr2qrg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE8_2CLIQPM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEf-jS4qwYM

[greg]

Yeah, Herzog Zwei! I was a SNES kid back then and only played the Genesis at a couple of friends' homes. I am familiar with the game though, at least through watching gameplay videos on YouTube. I never paid attention to the music before, but it is great!

[_D_]

You've seen this in concert though haven't you:

http://www.videogameslive.com/index.php?s=home

Fantastic show!

Don't they play a lot of... how should I say.... "normal" stuff too? I figure that those shows cater to more of the mass-market appeal crowd, meaning that I'd have to sit through stuff like Grand Theft Auto, World of Warcraft, and other stuff I can't stand. When I still lived in the States (it's incredible to think that I moved to Japan a year ago, since it feels like ages ago), a friend was interested in seeing this, but I didn't go with him. In fact, I'm not sure he went, either. We just talked about it.

Not really. The stuff I saw at the concert here spanned all the years from the 1970s to the present including arcade games, NES, SNES, PS, PS2, Sega, Neo Geo, etc. up to current home machines soundtracks. All, in all, very good. It has also been done in concert in Japan to sold out crowds. Sorry you missed out on a very enjoyable evening...