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90s game music was legit cool.

RickMasters

Member




I don’t really post my own threads much but id figured I may as contribute a little . Without giving away too much of myself on here…. I’m a musician. Produced some pretty succeful records over the years but I E always seen music in video games as something I’d like to add to resume of cool things that I do. May even open my own small games company one day, but who knows what the future holds .


There’s one thing about 90s Japanese games soundtracks that always gets me. Maybe it’s the chords and melodies. Would love to find out what keyboards they are using on some of this stuff… of if they were composing straight off the sound chip. This stuff always ways sound cool to me though. They arrange and compose music in games in a way that had always inspired me.


If you guys are bored just check out some of Capcoms CPS2 compositions. He synths and patch choices are excellent. And they just threw this stuff in a game. I recently been sampling and remixing in a lot of this stuff, mostly for fun but also for my own work reasons. I think Japanese melodic structure is underrated. What I’m thinking is how to translate that into the music I make for eastern audiences but that’s a me thing. ThnbI it’s wanted to make a thread bugging up all the game composers. We alway here about Greg guys who produce the games. The guys who made the graphics look dope…. But let’s show some live to the sound guys in the game industry.audio is a very important part of the overall experience with a game, after all. I know I probably check for sound design more than most in a game as an Audio professional but hey…. We all love a good soundtrack and appreciate good spacial mixing for those surround sound set ups! But that’s only part of it. You gotta have catchy tunes in Your game


Everybody over 35…. Skip to 5:00 to hear something that will really throw you back to the 90s! 😅

This still sound good to me! Post you fave 90s game theme music here. I might throw some of them in the MPC tonight for a fun 😏😉🎹🎹🎼🎵🎵🎶🎶



No mega man though… I’ve sampled mega man that to death! 😁😆
 

RickMasters

Member






Another one ….. it’s early 1996. Ive got my sega Saturn. It’s all about sega rally, VF2, and xmen.



This track here….. Just gets you in the mood to lay out areal combos, tech hits and all major of technical fighting game shit, that baffles and impress and frustrated your friends in the same session.



God I miss that about 90s gaming!



Add your own and I wanna hear some short stories! When, why and what effect it had on y’all.
 

RickMasters

Member
Those 16-bit midi synth tunes were awesome.
Megadrive… revenge of Shinobi… first stage music…. Oh god! 😍🎵🎼🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶



I play the medley from revenge of Shinobi every now and again on the keyboard. Makes great look peice. I may upload it if the mood takes me…. 😉


Never recorded it into software but I know every note by heart!
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Megadrive… revenge of Shinobi… first stage music…. Oh god! 😍🎵🎼🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶



I play the medley from revenge of Shinobi every now and again on the keyboard. Makes great look peice. I may upload it if the mood takes me…. 😉


Never recorded it into software but I know every note by heart!
Revenue of Shinobi has one of my favorite 16-bit soundtracks. I love it.

 
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IAmRei

Member
I've never played the game, but I still hold Chrono Cross's soundtrack in high regard, so much of it stands on it own.


It will add more if you play the game, CC bgm is arguably the best BGM in games. I listen to it since PSX era, even by playing games, find the place where BGM located, and just leave the controller and listen the bgm only.

Other game is octopath travelers. I find the most of the music is very repeatable to be listened daily

Also FF VIII, almost all of them is great.
Also have same nostalgic feeling

If you like mellow piano but somehow relaxing you cant be wrong with i am setsuna

Zwei arges adventure, Thread of fate, Tales of Eternia, Older YS, Xenoblade, for daily isekai feels.

And for neutral bgm daily, i listen to persona 3/4.

Dang, JRPG is the pinnacle of video game music for me.

I listen a lot just to stabilize my stress when i work.
 

IAmRei

Member
90s video game music is very interesting. Konami, Square, Sega and Triace are masterpiece in them. Especially in JRPG, they are timeless and i listen them almost daily basis. Some of them even very emotional for me. FFVIII, persona 2, thread of fate, Tales eternia, GT2, RR4 especially Chrono cross and Chrono Trigger.
 
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Puscifer

Member
It will add more if you play the game, CC bgm is arguably the best BGM in games. I listen to it since PSX era, even by playing games, find the place where BGM located, and just leave the controller and listen the bgm only.

Other game is octopath travelers. I find the most of the music is very repeatable to be listened daily

Also FF VIII, almost all of them is great.
Also have same nostalgic feeling

If you like mellow piano but somehow relaxing you cant be wrong with i am setsuna

Zwei arges adventure, Thread of fate, Tales of Eternia, Older YS, Xenoblade, for daily isekai feels.

And for neutral bgm daily, i listen to persona 3/4.

Dang, JRPG is the pinnacle of video game music for me.

I listen a lot just to stabilize my stress when i work.
Oh trust me, I still want a proper re-release of Lost Odyssey. This song is easily one of my favorites of all time.

I've been getting into retro games recently, in the last month I finished System Shock 2 and Deus Ex, I should give the radical dreamers edition a try soon

 

IAmRei

Member
Oh trust me, I still want a proper re-release of Lost Odyssey. This song is easily one of my favorites of all time.

I've been getting into retro games recently, in the last month I finished System Shock 2 and Deus Ex, I should give the radical dreamers edition a try soon


If i have chance, i would try this game. I wish it ported to pc or modern consoles. And inoue is one of my fave artist as well. I will listen the ost first for now.Thanks!
 

sigmaZ

Member




I don’t really post my own threads much but id figured I may as contribute a little . Without giving away too much of myself on here…. I’m a musician. Produced some pretty succeful records over the years but I E always seen music in video games as something I’d like to add to resume of cool things that I do. May even open my own small games company one day, but who knows what the future holds .


There’s one thing about 90s Japanese games soundtracks that always gets me. Maybe it’s the chords and melodies. Would love to find out what keyboards they are using on some of this stuff… of if they were composing straight off the sound chip. This stuff always ways sound cool to me though. They arrange and compose music in games in a way that had always inspired me.


If you guys are bored just check out some of Capcoms CPS2 compositions. He synths and patch choices are excellent. And they just threw this stuff in a game. I recently been sampling and remixing in a lot of this stuff, mostly for fun but also for my own work reasons. I think Japanese melodic structure is underrated. What I’m thinking is how to translate that into the music I make for eastern audiences but that’s a me thing. ThnbI it’s wanted to make a thread bugging up all the game composers. We alway here about Greg guys who produce the games. The guys who made the graphics look dope…. But let’s show some live to the sound guys in the game industry.audio is a very important part of the overall experience with a game, after all. I know I probably check for sound design more than most in a game as an Audio professional but hey…. We all love a good soundtrack and appreciate good spacial mixing for those surround sound set ups! But that’s only part of it. You gotta have catchy tunes in Your game


Everybody over 35…. Skip to 5:00 to hear something that will really throw you back to the 90s! 😅

This still sound good to me! Post you fave 90s game theme music here. I might throw some of them in the MPC tonight for a fun 😏😉🎹🎹🎼🎵🎵🎶🎶



No mega man though… I’ve sampled mega man that to death! 😁😆

So many good soundtracks out of the era.

Toshinden


Persona



Wild Arms



Alundra


Breath of Fire 3


Einhander
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
Game music has always had some great tunes.
In the 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, now.... there's just so much of it that most remains underappreciated.

The "too many damn games" problem.
Except even worse, because some really bad games might still have great music.
 
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Go_Ly_Dow

Member
I've never played the game, but I still hold Chrono Cross's soundtrack in high regard, so much of it stands on it own.


Chrono Cross is one of the best. The game is great too. I played it for the first time in 2022 and loved it.

I recommend playing the Radical Dreamers remaster on either PS, Switch or PC. Post patch it's good to play. (y)





I’ve never gotten super far into the game, but I’ve spent enough time listening to the OST, I could have finished the game several times over. Might be the GOAT game soundtrack, honestly.
💯
 
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StueyDuck

Member
I know most are bringing up 16bit nostalgia but most gaming music even up to the ps360wii gen was fantastic.

Not sure what the change was or why during the ps4xbone-switch gen but game soundtracks got quite boring and obnoxious, alot of loud orchestral big pieces. And pointless subtle tracks that are barely ear worms.

Sure not all games. Death stranding, nier Automata and persona come to mind as games that still have that awesome old school gaming themes vibe.

But if I ask you to remember the titanfall 2 soundtrack you probably would maybe remember the menu music, maybe 🤷‍♂️.

Again I don't know what sparked the change but most modern gaming tracks are meh. GoW ragnarok I can't remember anything other than the main theme, ocarina of time though I know each theme in every zone and they are all bangers
 
Nuclear Power Trio sounds like the natural evolution of 90s Japanese Arcade/Sega/Konami music.


How did I miss this? I've seen it reviewed on a bunch of metal sites and just kind of glossed over it because of the goofiness. I had no idea it was like arcade music. Threw it on now, and it's absolute fire. Thanks for that.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
It’s also notable that they used to go way over the top for games that wouldn’t deserve it.
There’s Japan-only sports games from that era that have better soundtracks than mainstream games.



Fun fact: the track starting at around 16:56 sounds absolutely identical to a passage in Mario Galaxy’s Gusty Garden track.
 

Dr. Suchong

Member
You can take any neogeo CD soundtrack, and it oblitarates anything composed after 2000.





Best soundtrack ever.

Awesome stuff.
That's probably the weakest aspect of Sf6.
I've put a hundred or so hours into it, and there's nothing sticking in my mind soundtrack wise.
Capcom should have a classic mix of Sf tracks to play, in the same way Tekken 8 has.
 
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