music download

This is one of the games that fueled my search for retro games online, and to the discovery of gods gift to game nostalgists like me: ROMS. Anyway this reminds me of a story that relates to this game, and its music of my childhood. When i was junior high, i had a group of friends whose entire reason for being around each other was because of the video games we loved to play(One of tm was Makio, from the Thunder Force 4 post). I had sleep overs at my other friends house, Jerry, at almost a weekly basis. Super EDF was one of the games that i had brought over for every one to try out(I was the only one with an SNES, Jerry and Makio would not defect from the Genesis camp). During one of the brief and rare moments that we were not playing, or watching someone else play a game, we decided to have an arm wrestling competition. So during the match we would have one of the people not involved play music from the sound test. I was like a little chubby frosted flakes fuled Hulk O' Maniac.

The game itself is quite good, incorporating RPG elements into the selectable weapon systems. Fortunately the music actually does the game justice. Tsukasa Tawada composed the sound track to this game, as well as Pokemon Colosseum. Its too bad that most of the games he composed music for have never made it to western shores.

The music is J-pop influnced, with a futuristic military funk to it. Midnight Intercept is a testiment to the funk; i only wish was as funky to be able to play the bass line.

Tracks of note are:

• Sunlit A Colony
• Name Entry
• Midnight Intercept

There arent that many tracks; but it is a shooter, so its not that unsual. Super EDF Soundtrack

The Thunder Force series is one of the best series of shooters ever released on Genesis, or on any video game system or computer for that matter. A friend from junior high named Makio had this, along with a couple hundred other genesis games ( he was "the kid who had all the cool systems and newest games"; the one who existed in everyones' childhood). I'd go to his house to play video games, and he'd be playing Thunder Force 3(also composed by Toshiharu Yamanishi and Tomomi Ootani) from time to time. The reason why i was reminded of these games is because of an episode of Airwaves (monthly podcast of chiptunes and retro game music) that focused on Genesis (aka Mega Drive) composers. You can find this episode at the Airwaves Archives(episode 18).

Thunder Force 4 was composed by a trio of composers: Toshiharu Yamanishi (last fm), Takeshi Yoshida, Tomomi Ootani. Tomomi Ootani worked on the soundtracks for part 2, and 3 along with Toshiharu Yamanishi. Unfortunately I cant seem to find any other games scores that Takeshi Yoshida has worked on. They have a number of original works of their own, in collaboration, and on their own, that even to this day are being released. The Thunder Force 4 soundtrack is easily the most awesome among the entire series; granted I've never heard Thunder Force 1, though i can only assume it gets better, not worse. With its bass and guitar heavy tracks, with a futuristic twang , they're quite"Metal" and go along well with the theme of destroying giant intergalactic machines enslaving random planet in some far off galaxy. Despite being heavy, there are some Jazzy and J-Pop overtones (more on some tracks than others) and some beautiful synth work that make this score very hard to get sick of.

There are a number of great tracks of note for this game, with goofy names to boot:

• Metal Squad
• Don't Go Off
• Fighting Back
• Space Walk
• The Sky Line
• Silvery Light of the Moon
• Count Down
• Because You Are The Number One
• Remember of Knight of Legend
• Omake 4
• Omake 7
• Omake 9
• Omake 10

These should be listened to, religiously! The rest of the tracks also deserve to be explored, so dont be shy.

Thunder Force 4 Soundtrack

Composed by Syusaku Uchiyama, this soundtrack grew on me quite a bit, as did the game. For me this is one of best Megaman scores since Megaman 3. Its quite poppy, jazzy, and light hearted. But by the end of the game the music take decidedly darker note; more ambient electronic music bordering on drum 'n bass, and gabber core. My favorite tracks include Granade Man, Frost Man, Wily Stage 1, Wily Stage 2, and Title

Megaman 8 Soundtrack

Mr. Uchiyama body of work also includes the scores for Resident Evil 2, and Megaman X3.

Cybernator is a 2-D, side-scrolling, action game relase by Konami in the US in 1994. It was released fairly early on in the life of the SNES, so in comparison to most games of the time on this system, this had fairly impressive visuals, and a great future-funk styled soundtrack. The contols were a bit clunky and slow, but it was a very well made game( as most Konami releases are). This was also the predecessor to Metal Warriors. Check out "Fully Set for Penetration" (great title :P), "Living Possibility", "No Time, No Shield", and "We've Gotta Do It".

Cybernator  Soundtraxck

I certainly hope that all you good people who have stumbled on to my site already know, or heard of, the Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy 4, released as Final Fantasy 2 in the US, is aguably one of the best Final Fantasy games ever released. This is for a number of reasons, the biggest being the story and the music. This game was my first foray into videogame RPG's, and sent me into a nearly 10 year console RPG binge. The score for this game has be remixed and redone by countless people already, including The Black Mages(the side project/band of the oringal composer, Nobuo Uematsu). The music is quite extensive, but do yourself a favor and check out "Dancing Calobrena", "Illusionary World", "Red Wings", and "The Dreadful Fight".

Final Fantasy 4 Soundtrack

Enjoy

Over the years i have come to realize that most of the nostalgia that i have for the games of my youth is trigged by the music. I sometimes find myself humming melodies that i didnt realize came from a game that i haven't played for a decade, or more. This has also given me the curiousity to discover new(old) videogames, and music for games that was never exposed to.

There are many great sites already out there dedicated to archiving game music; the purpose of this mini-archive is to provide, arguably, a sample of some of the best game music ever scored. This is also selection of what I like and/or grew up with, and what I consider to be the best of what i have been exposed to as a life long video gamer. This game music archive by no means all inclusive, nor definative, and I welcome feedback, suggestions, and submissions of your own, if you would like to contribute.

Videogame Soundtracks

Many thanks to SNESMusic.org, Zophar.net, and Akumu from theshizz.org for the nsf and spc files that i encoded to mp3. Also thanks to theshizz community for the videogame soundtracks already encoded by them that i have uploaded here as well.