Great Game soundtracks

[Sucralose Ray Leonard 1,618]

Following on from the COD for £20 thread, i thought id start a thread purely for games that had amazing soundtracks, even if the game itself wasnt that great.

I dont mean your GTA games as they obviously have great soundtracks, but they cheat somewhat. 

Games  with original compositions only. 

My offerings are from the year I got my first PC (not 1st computer). The year was 1995.) oh how i miss thee my DX2 66Mhz!

Crusader: No Remorse

Command and Conquer

(i also loved the install music for windows XP, but i digress) 

 

[A_P 680]

From a fairly modern game the Halo 3 soundtrack is awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIyQVP3IUyg

I recall from my Amiga 500 days there were always great soundtracks. Can't recall specfic ones but this compilation gives a little snapshot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XweF96d8xUk

[mooncat69 767]

Quake II, obviously.

 

[The Generation Game 2,552]

C&C is a good shout (seem to recall Total Annihilation had good stuff as well). I like some of the FF stuff (Red XIII's theme) and Spyro (composed by Stewart Copeland). 

I haven't played much modern stuff so most of my choices would be 8 or 16-bit. 

Edited September 7 by The Generation Game

[sbn 23]

Awesome... 

[shindigger 3,658]

Hours and hours stoned and pissed in N7 1992.

 

[UmBongo 872]

I think we already have a thread on this subject started by @DTMark .

[eight 3,676]

 

[Carl Fimble 4,330]

GTA

 

 

sorry.

[Carl Fimble 4,330]

4 hours ago, Sucralose Ray Leonard said:

Following on from the COD for £20 thread, i thought id start a thread purely for games that had amazing soundtracks, even if the game itself wasnt that great.

I dont mean your GTA games as they obviously have great soundtracks, but they cheat somewhat. 

Games  with original compositions only. 

My offerings are from the year I got my first PC (not 1st computer). The year was 1995.) oh how i miss thee my DX2 66Mhz!

Crusader: No Remorse

Command and Conquer

(i also loved the install music for windows XP, but i digress) 

 

Sorry again, this breaks your rules too :

 

 

[MvR 449]

Rob Hubbard was the man back in the day - 80's C64 tunes. :-

Crazy Comets 

Monty On The Run.

And the poignancy of the Monty game over theme :-

 

 

And from the Arcades. Out Run - Magical Sound Shower.

 

Edited September 8 by MvR

[JoeDavola 7,014]

My first computer/games console was the Commodore 64, got it in about 1991. I had a memory of being round at a mate's house when I was about 8, and him putting on a C64 tape, and this loading music playing. The loading music stuck in my head, I could remember the exact melody, but I never knew what it was called. 25 years passed, and I was never able to find that piece of music that was in my head.

One day earlier this year, I spotted a 3 hour mix of commodore 64 music on YouTube and decided to put it on while I did some housework and other such boring things. One hour and fifteen minutes into the mix, I heard the opening note and recognized it straight away, 25 years on. And here it is:

 

[JoeDavola 7,014]

However, my favorite game soundtrack was Shadow of the Beast, on the C64. It's a game that is famous for it's good soundtrack, and was originally an Amiga game; the Amiga version will have higher sound quality than the C64, and I believe there was a version in the mid 90's that even had a very high quality ochestral version of the soundtrack.

However, the commodore's sound chip (a SID chip), gives it a very unique sound. People have removed the SID chips from commodore's and used them to build synths, so beloved is the sound. The commodore influences the music on it not only via the SID sounds, but it influences the composition of the music itself; the SID chip could only render 3 sounds simultaneously (impressive or the time), so as a result you'll hear lots of arpeggio's instead of chords as a way to fill out the 3 channel sound.

Here's the soundtrack, it's worth listening to the whole thing or even going and watch someone play through the game on YoutTube to see it in the context of the game. If you can't be arsed listening to the whole thing, then listen to track 2 which is 4:50 in....this is the music for the opening level, and is my favorite videogame music ever. The box artwork for the game was stunning too, by Roger Dean who also did some of Yes' album covers.

 

Edited September 8 by JoeDavola

[Mr Miyagi 196]

 

The SID chip in the C64 was quite ahead of it time, it still holds up today. 

[Battenberg 979]

How do you insert the YouTube links?

 

Edited September 8 by Battenberg

[Sgt Hartman 6,702]

My favourites -

Skyrim title music.

Battlefield title music.

Halo (up until the recent offerenings that became just noise). In fact Halo's early music is absolutely outstanding.

[Mr Miyagi 196]

19 minutes ago, Battenberg said:

How do you insert the YouTube links?

 

Just paste in the URL.

[Libspero 2,109]

Classic:

Not quite so ancient:

 

[Thombleached 767]

Lost Eden, shit game but great music

 

Pretty much any elder Scrolls game

 

 

 

 

[Thombleached 767]

Oh and Mario galaxy is brilliant 

 

[Funn3r 805]

I am now a big fan of Reggaeton (genre) which I was newly introduced to by overhearing my son play some game where you drove around town and the music would be whatever was the appropriate station. I think the music I liked was in the Puerto Rican gangland barrio. Talking 10 or more years ago can't remember if it was Need for Speed or early GTA.

[Rave 783]

Plenty I could post, but I maintain that the first level of Space Channel 5 is the best bit of game music ever- and one of the most brilliant game introductions ever, come to that. I got the demo on a Dreamcast magazine disc and loved it so much I imported the game from the US as it wasn't yet on sale in the UK. Disappointingly, the rest of it is good but not anything like as good as the very first section. The good bit starts about 3:00 in:

"Tonight I'm investigating reports that Aliens have invaded, and are forcing people...TO DANCE!"

[whitevanman 2,950]

Original doom

Still gives me nightmares

[Battenberg 979]

I get treated to a lot of the Final Fantasy tunes. One of my sons is a keen pianist and a lover of these games and also a lot of Japanese stuff. The piece above is just one of many that he plays often. 

Edited September 8 by Battenberg