Video Game Music

[Guybrush]

You're not a fan, I take it? 

Here's a game you might remember. I think I've mentioned it on MB before - Titanic: Adventure Out of Time, an old point and click adventure game released on Windows back in 1996. One of my all time favorite games - never could beat the damn thing as a kid and finally beat it a couple years ago as an adult who was more resourceful and cunning - I always thought as a kid that the point of the game was to stop the Titanic from hitting the iceberg, but the actual point of the game was to prevent the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and prevent the events that would lead to Hitler's rise and World War 2 (yes, really) - and the music for the game is actually rather haunting. One of my favorite soundtracks ever I think, especially for what they had to work with at the time.

And of course, the sparsely populated boat with these ominous songs - and the way they recorded the actors/actresses for the game makes it even creepier:

Since my SNES days, I haven't been much of a Nintendo gamer at all, so the only 3D Mario game I've spent significant time with is Mario 64. But that has some great music.

The Titanic game isn't something I remember coming across, which is weird to me. I'm at least generally familiar with the classics of that genre.

I remember well in the 90s when adventure games came out on CD (or CDs) and contained lots of filmed actors. Phantasmagoria 1 and 2 are the ones I played the most, but I also had the werewolf themed sequel to Gabriel Knight. Just the way they were made was a little icky or made you feel weird, like uncanny valley, so I guess that production style was particularly effective for horror/thriller related stuff.

Seems a bit like a fad and overall, I enjoyed more the games that were more like the classic Lucasart titles 🙂

Gotta say, I've never gotten into Minecraft, but I get the appeal. That song is tight as hell though - very chill piece. With games, I'm a very goal-driven person - so games that allow me a lot of freedom to do whatever without clear cut direction (or rather, indication) on what the next objective is don't really do much for me - games like Minecraft, Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon, and even most open world games just aren't usually my cup of tea (Elden Ring being a big exception).

I love open world games, but am still quite picky about what I invest time in. Elden Ring was an absolute blast! Loved it.

Another old game which had kind of an open world AND great music was the first Little Big Adventure from 1994 🙂 it's one of the more unique and charming games of the 90s for me.

The score was by Philip Vachey I think the name was. My favourite track is probably this one:

Another title I remember was SSI's Fantasy General from 1996 which had this atmospheric gem:

The ability to have the soundtrack play from the game CD was what enabled the great music from these games 🙂 So you kinda had a game disc and OST in one.

[Guybrush]

One of my greatest gaming joys of the 90s was Transport Tycoon which I played until my father's 486 work computer couldn't take all the busses, planes and trains and just crashed.

The midi jazz soundtrack is imprinted on my brain and I love every second of it. For a 2014 re-release, composer John Broomhall re-recorded the soundtrack with real musicians and I've listened to it now and then over the years when the mood strikes me.

This is more than 1 hour and 20 minutes of music. Just drop the seeker / slider somewhere in there and chances are it'll be a banger 😉

[Guybrush]

Are you gonna let me turn this into a tedious 90s nerd monologue? Cause that's fine with me.

A weird work of music that I assume won't make too much of an impression on peeps - but which has been somewhat influential to myself - is the midi music to the Lovecraft game Shadow of the Comet.

It was a flawed game, but I loved the theme AND it was made by Infogrames who also made Alone in the Dark. When playing AITD and rummaging around in the in-game library, we found a book or two referencing SotC and that was so cool.

Anyways, you can hear the song in this awesome intro after the 4:45 mark.

It's by the earlier mentioned Philip Vachey who also made the music for little big adventure posted above.

I like little icky horror-ish tunes and have made some myself and this game may have something to do with that.

[SGR]

I'm almost done fully completing Sonic Adventure 2, and I'm nearly 30. I've been playing this game since I was like 8. Damn.

[.]

Anybody with taste needs to hear this:

[DJChameleon]

This stage in the Duck Tails video game always slapped.

[DJChameleon]

[innerspaceboy]

This stage in the Duck Tails video game always slapped.

Have you seen it live?

[DJChameleon]

Have you seen it live?

I haven't seen that specific performance but there was a guy on YouTube that used to do them live. Lemme see if I can find his version

[Lucem Ferre]

A couple people talked shit in the discord when I said it but MKII.

[Auroras In Ice]

There's such a ridiculous wealth of great game music out there now. Not a big gamer by any means, but a lot of game music has wormed its way into regular listening. Some highlights;

Looking at the thumb, there's no way you can anticipate what directions this track goes in and what ends up in the mix.

Saw Final Fantasy mentioned earlier. FF14 is an absolute goldmine for music. Way too much to even scratch the surface on. The composer behind it all, Masayoshi Soken, is worth your time to look up.

Punishing Gray Raven is another with a consistently great OST.

[Lucem Ferre]

Silent Hill usually has good music.

Cruisin USA has nice music to throw on at a party.