your all time favourite retro video game themes

[Tomahawk]

In this thread I'd like to invite you all on a little journey back to a time where 5.25“ and 3.5“ floppy discs where still common use and a 500mb hard drive was THE thing to have. I'd like to discuss about the all time classic retro video game themes.

The rules for this thread are as follows:
Firstly we're talking not about any in game music, but about the themes of the video games. Nowadays most of the video games' music is defined not only by their theme but even more by their over all soundtrack, like the Wipeout series has defined itself by some of the most beautiful electronic music soundtrack which has ever reached my ears. So please only mention the theme, the music you'll hear when you start the video game, the music that gives a player the first impression about the game.
Please do not only state or list music themes, but also explain why they feel so special for you. What classifies them as an all time classic tune for you? Links to the tunes are welcome as long as no copyright issues are involved.
Open discussion about the music is absolutely welcome.

I'll start with three of my all time classics. Here we go:

Number 1 would be a tune from imo one of the best and funniest adventure games of all time: The Secret of Monkey Island. Not only does this music fit perfectly to the overall game. It gives the listener a kind of carribean feeling which only underlines what the game is all about – pirates, islands in the carribean, treasure hunting. It also features some great mystic passages which point to the riddles you have to solve within the game and the „horrors“ you've got to face (ghost pirates, three-headed monkeys, etc.).

Here's the original tune. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjvD3C_nvBk)
Here's a a great remake by a cool band which has specialised itself on redoing classic video game tunes. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYZXNVHVfhc)

Number 2 is the theme of one of the most funnie RTS games which ever have seen the light of day: Cannon Fodder. Again the tune fits the game perfectly and gives the listener a great first impression of what the game's all about. It made me laugh out loud when I heard it for the first time and it still does everytime I hear it up until today.

Here's the original tune. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4oHQpLLghs&feature=related)
Here's the most ridicolous replay of that tune featuring the original composer, Jon Hare. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7XiXQ6wEyM)

Number 3 is the music of a game which I didn't play that much, but booted up only to be able to hear it's theme music: Chuck Rock. The way they introduced the game by letting that little animated band of Chuck and his friends play it was just awesome and hilarious.

Here's the band playing the tune. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rm0eTagViU)

[Dark_Phantom_89]

Ahh, it has to be the battle theme from the early Final Fantasy games for me. You recognise the game instantly when you hear it and it gives you a great sense of nostalgia.

[Dan Locke]

The Turrican II theme (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fvha_2hAzq0)

Body in Motion, from Wipeout XL (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mcm_tvKG1kE) (Not technically a theme, but still awesome.)

Klaymen's Theme, from The Neverhood (http://youtube.com/watch?v=WreJGBEF5iA)

A lot of old C64 games had excellent music as well.

[Mr Phlanj]

Theme of sadness (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58gHcb5oVUU&feature=related) from Suikoden 1

I've never missed a character as much in a game as i had in this one. if you know what im on about im sorry for running your day :(

EDIT: at the other end of emotion Buck Bumble (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0DDY299Ly4) :D

[mdhay]

Metriod Zero Mission's Brinstar theme;
Worms. (brilliance :D)
MGS.
As you're probably aware, I was never around when a 500MB HDD was revolutionary. :P

[ACE-FLO]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT5_My6X3w4 Sorry, my links are messy.. aint figured out how to make em all neat yet :paperbag... Anyway, its the Japanese tap dance scene from the movie, Zatoichi (2004). Though not really an intro (appears near the end of the movie :paperbag) its worth watching the whole thing. These guys can :rock and i loved their Tengu masks... ME WANT :D

This clip here, well, It's the one I like a lot but I can't think propoerly at the moment (got flu)... and I might remember something I like more later. Hope that aint a problem :)

[SaturnReturn]

As much as I love Zatoichi ACE, it's not really a video game theme is it? You feeling OK?:?

[ACE-FLO]

Aaah, schitt man guess I'm not. I got flu, and somehow thought that 'retro' read 'intro' and thought of Zatoichi dance - got happy - posted and holy crap... my bad man, my bad... Not been schmking either mate, I swear!!! REALLY sorry though mate :(

[SaturnReturn]

Not a big deal. Better luck next time ACE-FLU.;)

How old does something have to be to count as retro? Would Sonic the Hedgehog Green Hill Zone count (the budget Master System version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAZoROzFTjs))? That was my first game on my first console, so for me it isn't just what I consider the theme of that game, but the theme for video games in general. It brings back a lot of memories. I remember taking it round my to Christmas dinner at my God mother's house because I was so excited, even though I had wanted a Mega Drive. I don't just hear that tune, I feel it, every time. So even though it may be an obvious one, it's still my fave.

More recently than that - the intro to FFVIII, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKIrAScANIM) because I thought the music went so well with the video. I was banished to the kitchen to play it so that everyone else could watch TV in the lounge, but I was so amazed with that intro that I dragged my Dad in to watch it so that I could tell him how good it was. Since then his only ever comment about video games is, "The graphics are good". :D

[yeldar2097]

Worms. (brilliance :D)


Definately in my Top 1. Not old enough to have any memories about proper retro but the worms theme tune and the little pre-rendered clips that used to show when you left the game for a while. The music and the theme go so beatifully together: so heroic and awesome yet it knows it's own ridiculousness. I can't help going a little bit :hyper when I hear the theme tune and usually end up singing along in my 'monophonic ringtone' voice :g
la lala la-la lala-la-lalalala :lol

Pokémon on Gameboy is definately up there as well. Any time I fired it up I knew I'd be there for hours on a massive adventure. Good old Pika power ^_^

[Feisar31]

Off the top of my head...

Motor Toon Grand Prix (2):
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRbx_YtB0n0
Go! Go! Go! Motor Toon!

Ninja Gaiden II:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmIbCNSsLqk
For some reason I had this in my head a few days ago. Classic.

[Tomahawk]

Wow, there's been some really nice tunes posted by you guys!

@SaturnReturn
The FFVIII intro theme really rocks, you're right. Whenever I see a intro like FFVIII's I wonder why a simple video game's intro outclasses most of hollywoods movie intros by miles. The way they did it in FFVIII is the way to do it, this is art!

@mdhay & yeldar
Worms' theme music was really good too, you're right. I did enjoy those speech samples like "I'll get you" whenever you blasted a wurm with your bazooka more than the actual music in that game. Those samples were just hilarious.
It's never too late to start playing some good old games guys. Don't feel too young, there's a site somewhere in the web which offers a huge range of abandonware games for free, totally legal. I'll have a look if I can find the link. There's some really good stuf on there.

@Feisar31
Thanks for the link to the Ninja Gaiden 2 theme. That really brings back memories. A true classic!

Here's one more from me:

Not really a retro game yet, but I guess old enough to get listed here. Tenchu - Stealth Assassins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnbD-1MAezk&feature=related). I like japanese inspired music in general, but this blew me away the first time I listened to it. Great hamonies in that tune, perfectly fitting the style of the game and the intro video goes so well with it too. I loved the intro music from Tenchu - Wrath of Heaven (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVEeGtO0Px4&feature=related) too, but I guess that game's really not old enough to class for this thread. ;)

[mdhay]

I think the old Fallout deserves a mention here. I'm not just talking about the intro that Ron Pearlman does, but the ingame music as well. Some of it sends a shiver down my spine that Bethesda's could never do.

[Dark_Phantom_89]

Worms. (brilliance :D)


Ahh, how can I forget the Worms theme? Forget Final Fantasy, Worms is the best - I practically lived off of that game when it came out.

Worms Theme Tune (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moaPl-SqzEc)

[slimjim]

i agree worms is a legend i spent so many hours on that

[Mad-Ice]

:lol Very nice thread idea!

My all time favorite must be the one from International Karate C64:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzlK_JNuOGE

Played live with a Swedish Acapella group:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGciu14uBYg&feature=related

[Tomahawk]

How old does something have to be to count as retro?

I guess everybody has to decide for himself what age defines a game as being retro. For me I'd say it's generally any game from the C=64, Amiga or early PC era, so any game featured on this site (http://www.abandonia.com/en/game/all) I'd rate as being retro for example. Be careful guys: Clicking on that link might result in days without food, drink and sleep caused by intense retro-gaming! 8)

[mdhay]

Alien Trilogy is MINE!!! :g :g

Erm, How am I supposed to play this? :/

[Tomahawk]

It usually helps to read the game's discussion (http://www.abandonia.com/en/forum?url=showthread.php?t=6888). For your Alien Trilogy you might need the dosbox utility (http://www.abandonia.com/en/node/23027) to make it run properly.

[mdhay]

Got it, thanks. Tried playing Desert Strike, it isn't like the Genesis one I remember. :cold

[Dan Locke]

Almost forgot: the Level 1 music for the Japanese release of Castlevania III (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptgaCJSF7j8&fmt=18). Shame that only the Japanese got the VRC6 tunes; everyone else had to make do with watered-down 2A03 garbage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78706bv98S8&fmt=18).

[KGB]

A true classic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h6Vd7CP-wg&feature=related. The first bit sounds like it was still loading, god I hated that noise and when it didn't work you had to rewind the tape!

[Tomahawk]

Now we're getting really retro :lol Here's some more classic C64 themes I can remember:

Commando (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrQuR1LHAVI&feature=related)
I played that game for hours until I found a more or less similar game with 2 player mode - Ikari Warriors. Like the game itself, it's theme music is one of the classic chip tunes of that time. It goes right up into your ear and stays there.

Giana Sisters (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htzFLsSpdqY)
The Mario Bros clone which was released for C64. The music was composed by Chris Huelsbeck, the guy responsible for many of the really great video game tunes from that time, he's also responsible for the Turrican II theme which was mentioned earlier in this thread.

[Dan Locke]

That was me. While we're on the subject of C64 music:

The Ocean loader theme, version 5 (http://youtube.com/watch?v=DRqvpskK4zc)

The Comic Bakery theme (http://youtube.com/watch?v=nf29ShkoAiA)

The Scumball theme (http://youtube.com/watch?v=9YX_mW_lc5U)

The Cybernoid II theme (http://youtube.com/watch?v=yv5_LsRaPrY)

The Supremacy theme (http://youtube.com/watch?v=RZv0zKiCc78)

I also really like the Infodroid and Shadow Skimmer themes, but they aren't on YouTube.

[Motorsagmannen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9kGaw216HM&feature=related
jenova theme from FFVII, all of FFVII had a great soundtrack, but this is my favorite

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WvubjKUkCI
F-Zero, mute city. sooo catchy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AawQvD8L_h4
a pirate i was meant to be. from the curse of monkey island. best pirate song ever.
basically you can end the song earlier, by choosing the right line when it pops up. but why would you? :P

[As Heaven Is Wide]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VrUp7sQrbk

Rocket knight adventures' stage 6 music always takes me back. Fantastic game too.

Seeing as how ps1 era Final Fantasies are getting mentioned I have to include Freyas theme, although the entire soundtrack is one of my favourites, seriously it's all fantastic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJCMGRCB9iU

[Hellfire_WZ]

Loved Rocket Knight Adventures, one of my favourites on the Mega Drive :)

One theme stands out for me since I started playing games, and that's the theme of the original Grandia. Classic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGiNEaNxOxo

Ahhhh! Just seen there's a new Rocket Knight game coming out on the PSN this month! :D

[As Heaven Is Wide]

Awesome, hopefully it'll keep some of the feel of the original. I never really liked the sequel so much.

To keep this on topic have some Toejam and Earl, funky. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2_uXaR-CCU

[Tomahawk]

Seeing so many PS1 games' themes mentioned here's two more from me:

The theme from Wild Arms (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbiEH5DMx78&feature=related). Starting slow with some very good guitar harmonics it picks up in speed and power. An absolute fantastic song. I remember I bought the game without knowing what it was all about just because of it's intro and theme music. After watching the intro three or four times I began playing the game. I got so hooked with that game that it's disc never left my PS1 until I had it finished. :)

The next one is the theme from Soulcalibur (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aovM1mL2ANw&feature=related). The music itself is good, but not that great. But it fits to the games intro and overall style perfectly imo.

[supersocks]

The theme from Wild Arms (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbiEH5DMx78&feature=related)

Hey! I recognize this was also the "screensaver" music in Wild Arms 2, though not this particular version. The only thing that stuck on my head from that game.

On topic, one pretty random favorite:

Jazz Jackrabbit - Holidaius (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZJ26YreRug)

Don't know why I have this over Medivo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWHu79H6kdM) or even Diamondus (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75HhDf7SjA8). Maybe because it's just so awesome to play on stereos at certain part of the year.

[AG-wolf]

The Turrican II theme (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fvha_2hAzq0)

I have a handful to share, but dont have them organized atm.

I just wanted to post this in response to Dan;
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AM0IAW7QRtU
Unfortunately the Youtube clip still doesn't do it justice; the really thick bass of the original Genesis/MegaDrive only really shines from the physical machine itself :)

[Dan Locke]

That might be due to the machine revision in the video - the first model (the boxy one with the round, turret-like bump on the top) has slightly different sound hardware with a stronger bass sound.

[AG-wolf]

Oh believe me, I'm well aware ;D I'm a huge Genesis fan, and I'm nearly as in-love with the YM2416+Z80 as that dude Tiido Priimägi who has not only written his own music driver suite for the Genesis, but built a modded audio circuit for the Genesis model 2 for clearer sound:

http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=3719.0

I've got one I bought from him sitting aside, waiting until I find a Genesis 2 with the Sony video encoder rather than the cheap Samsung one (the Samsung encoder doesn't allow for an S-Video mod). And he's working on a mod for the original Genesis audio too :)

There's something about that hardware that just sounds so sexy lol

[RedScar]

Don't know if you'd classify this as retro, but I love the entire Ace Combat 5 and Ace Combat Zero music score. To bad the sound track is like $80 :(

[mdhay]

Goddamn, all the Ace Combat soundtracks are good. :D

[Tomahawk]

Here's another great title from one of the best racing game series on the AMIGA: Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge. I remember linking up 2 AMIGAs to be able to play the second part of the series with 4 players simultaneously throughout the whole night and going to school without having slept the next morning. :D

This one's the title from Lotus 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9FV-9pkRK0&feature=related). I didn't find the complete song on youtube, so that link shows some guy playing the song on audiosurf.

[KIGO1987]

Goddamn, all the Ace Combat soundtracks are good. :D

Go back to Ace Combat 2. Even better. :)

[Tomahawk]

I'm bumping this thread again cause I've stumbled upon a real music masterpiece from the good old AMIGA days:

LSD - Jesus on E (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7PX3JAF_5Q)

Not really a video game soundtrack, but an all time classic AMIGA music demonstration for you to enjoy...

[Chill]

I have others, but my # 1 would have to be: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence.

The second half of the Garden Forgotten By Time level is my all time favorite track in that game...

And this idea of a thread was purely genious... ;)

EDIT: This may be a farely NEW game... whoops...

[AG-wolf]

Magical.
Sound.
Shower.


Still haven't gathered any links or compiled any kind of small list lol

[Dan Locke]

Forgot about that one!

Man, what an awesome song.

[infoxicated]

I find all of the music used in TimeSplitters 2 to be really enjoyable - particularly in the Siberia and New Tokyo levels, although I'm not sure it could be considered retro yet. :)

My favourites from the Amiga days would include a top down racing game called Indy Heat - the music in that is brilliant. A French friend of mine who was really into retro video game music managed to find that music for me about five or six years ago, but I went and left it on my PC at Sony and forgot to take a copy.

[AG-wolf]

@rob: http://www.exotica.org.uk/wiki/Indy_Heat
AMP, Unexotica, and a couple other sites usually have download links. Was this the game? There only seem to be two songs

[Tomahawk]

Indy Heat.... I remember that game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q--mx6E7LwQ) back from the AMIGA days. Especially liked playing it together with a friend of mine, some awesome racing duels we had... On the NES it was later called Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat. I've seen that you can download the full game from various sites, seems like it might be abandonware now...

I've got 2 more music masterpieces from the old AMIGA demoscene which everyone who was active back in the days will remember:

Spaceballs - State of the Art (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPSst20JEcE&feature=related)
Spaceballs - 9 Fingers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nln80hiP5AY)

Which reminds me I must have my old AMIGA demo collection somewhere down in my cellar. Might be just the time to dig those back up and remind myself of what miracles the kids back in the days were able to pump out of a 7mhz machine... :g

Oh, an does anyone of you remember this game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w-tiRnac2k&feature=related) from the Bitmap Brothers? The ingame music featured a lot of speech. IIRC this was one of the first games to have decent speech samples with it's music...

[infoxicated]

Heh! Yeah, I remember that. For a time The Bitmap Brothers could do no wrong on the Amiga. :)

[Tomahawk]

Yes, they did some wonderful games, but their downfall begann when the released Gods (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ-GRHWgzG0&feature=related). The music of this game was good, the graphics nice, but it's gameplay and the single-sided and repetitive level design flawed the whole game and scratched their good reputation immensly.

[Dan Locke]

I actually thought that Gods was much, much better than Xenon 2 - not that I actually liked Gods to begin with! The only Bitmap Brothers game that I ever liked was The Chaos Engine, although I haven't played Speedball II, which is supposed to be even better.

Oh, and Gods was very popular when it came out. I have a hard time believing that it damaged their reputation at all.

[Tomahawk]

Dan you're right. For most gamers Gods was a very popular game when it was released in 1991. Because of it's many riddles, secret passages and the opponents featuring a first basic approach of AI a lot of people seem to think of it as a JnR classic. Me and my mates didn't really like the game at that time though. We were used to playing the action games like Speedball II or Xenon 2 from the Bitmap Brothers. Gods, their first JnR, just didn't seem to fit to the image and the kind of games we were used to from them. It did not damage their reputation in the overall gamer scene though, I confess I was talking bollocks here... :paperbag

[Tomahawk]

I'm trying to bring this thread back on track after my thoughtless and one-sided bollocks posting about the image of the Bitmap Brothers...

Here's some more tunes which brought back memories from the good old days:

The intro music from Pinball Illusions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Kg3f7QDjA&feature=related). I really loved playing the Pinball games (Dreams, Illusions, Fantasies, ...). Spent hours in front of my AMIGA 1200 trying to set new records and having awesome duels with my mates back in the days. The ingame music were also fantastic, remember Steels Wheels from Pinball Dreams or Speed Devils from Fantasies?

Here's another one from the AMIGA demoscene: The 40k intro by Lego (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6bbi_xUbhE&feature=related) with it's fantastic chip tune. The music alone would be far more than just 40k big nowadays... Enjoy it!