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90s game music was legit cool.

Mobilemofo

Member
Weirdly, I'm a big fan. Of super street fighter 2s music on the SNES...I mean, that thing was good. So good. Also, a shout-out to the soundtrack of Axelay. Beautiful parallax scrolling..
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
On my phone and too lazy to find links, but Sega Rally games have rocking music. That typical 90s electric guitar stuff. Whomever at Sega did those tracks did a great job.

Also Formula One on PS1. The original game. It had some Steve vai and Joe satrianni tracks, but most were done by Psgynosis’ own audio team I think. Awesome tracks. Stateside track is best one.
 
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NeoGiffer

Member
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:messenger_loudly_crying:
 
Video game music until orchestra and whatnot took over was just a whole different type of music. Not everything is really spotify ready, something to actually listen on your headset all day, but it often had its special charme.

Same as eg Daft Punk doing the Tron Legacy soundtrack. Their electronic music is not everyone's cup of tea, it isn't mine always either, but what they created was perfect for that movie and pretty unique and walking the line between epic cinema music and borderline annoying videogame music.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Those 16-bit midi synth tunes were awesome.
I love so much of that synth music. I used to think that those sound chips + their strengths/limitations were what made game music so awesome and unique. That’s true to an extent, but even CD ROM games with redbook audio had kick ass music that puts modern game music to shame.

I think it’s just a very different style and different philosophy. Used to be that game music was very bold and really set the tone and feeling of the whole game. Now it’s more like “film score” background music that sits in the background + you barely notice it.

Sega CD games had some freaking killer soundtracks, I’ll try to post some of my faves later. Lunar, Final Fight CD, and a few select tracks from Vay are up there for sure.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
I love so much of that synth music. I used to think that those sound chips + their strengths/limitations were what made game music so awesome and unique. That’s true to an extent, but even CD ROM games with redbook audio had kick ass music that puts modern game music to shame.

I think it’s just a very different style and different philosophy. Used to be that game music was very bold and really set the tone and feeling of the whole game. Now it’s more like “film score” background music that sits in the background + you barely notice it.

Sega CD games had some freaking killer soundtracks, I’ll try to post some of my faves later. Lunar, Final Fight CD, and a few select tracks from Vay are up there for sure.
I agree. It was pretty amazing what composers were able to do with the sound chips at the time. I kind of feel like we lost as much as we gained by moving to red book audio and voice acting with the CD-based consoles. Especially because how soundtracks moved from being at the front of the action and driving some of the gameplay feel to being more of a background track that only really makes itself known at key points in the story. Having that frenetic feeling from the soundtrack as time was running out felt so much better in the old days.
 
Yes, it was. Which is ironic, because from my end 90s pop music in general was pretty cringe and edgelordy. However, this cultural environment seems to have been the perfect premise for creating exceptional game music, specifically when we're talking about arcade titles and more action focused games.
 

Parazels

Member
Yes, I still remember soundtracks and sounds of many 90s games.

Right NOW I'm playing The Shadow of the Tomb Raider and don't remember any melody from this game!
(the game itself is good though).
 
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deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
I guess that because one guy was responsible for like 10 musics and only the director said the final word on which music would go to the final game, things were mostly palpable before for everyone, including the consumer. Recent times are too much by the numbers, and that doesn't really mean that we don't have soul on the music or it is even bad. It's different, and only a few are iconic. That's it

I mean, Mick Gordon did a incredible job with Doom (2016). Fuck, he turned a real chainsaw into a music instrument. He knows shit. But when the man itself wins a prize for his job and performs live a music from another guy... You know that he knows what to respect
 

Guwop

Neo Member


Spiderman Man and the X-men Arcades Revenge had one of not the best sound track of a game in the 90's. The music in this game was way ahead of it's time. The second song ( Briefing is my favorite )
 
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Solarstrike

Gold Member
Shadow of the Beast II, Amiga 500, by Tim Wright (1990)


Turrican, Amiga, by Chris Hülsbeck (1991)


Batman, Sega Genesis, Naoki Kodaka (1990)




Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Sony Playstation, The Earnies (1999)
 
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