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The thread of awesome arcade game music...

D

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Ever since discovering MAME a few years back, I finally was able to hear all those soundtracks that are drowned out by a cacophony of white noise in the typical arcade of those era. So I figure I'd make this thread and ask what are everyone's favorite tracks from arcade games?

Some of my favorites:

Ninja Warriors - Daddy Mulk - Zuntata (Taito's inhouse band) performing this song live, it's considered one of the best game songs of all time in Japan according to an HG101 poll... Zuntata is pretty awesome, and I wonder if they are still around ever since SE's buyout of Taito. I miss the days of Japanese in-house bands like Kukeiha Club and Zuntata... we will always have JDK though I guess.
Outrun - Magical Sound Shower - of course I was gonna have some Outrun on here
R-Type Leo- Stage 2 - this game had a very interesting soundtrack... based on early 90's house music, fans of SoR would love this
Battle Garegga - Stage 1 - another game with awesome, EDM influenced soundtrack
Battle Garegga - Stage 5 (even if the video says stage 4)
X-Men - Junk Factory
Dangun Feveron - Stage 2 - having a Disco-themed shmup is like the best thing ever, this may be one of the very few times you'll hear disco in a game...
ESP Ra.De. - Raging Decide (boss)
Street Fighter Alpha 2 - Rolento
TMNT - FIRE! (Stage 1) - this one will make you nostalgia HARD!
Cruisin World - Euro House - when I played this game at the local arcade I'd always change the music to this :P
Fatal Fury Special - Duck King

and of course, no arcade game music thread would be complete without this...
 
I came in to post Outrun and Ninja Warriors.

Leaving immensely pleased.

Edit: I'll go ahead and suggest Winning Run from Super Hang On.
 
More stuff, now coming from Data East with their classic hori-scroll shooter, Boogie Wings! Data East's classic sound team, Gamadelic, was comprised of a handful of great game musicians, whose invention and consistency in execution helped to create some of the more interesting arcade game soundtracks of their time.

You may not have known this, but these now-displaced Gamadelic graduates have gone on to find fame in the game music industry on their own. Shogo Sakai was one of the later members of the sound team, and now he's the top musician at HAL Laboratory!

Holy shit: someone beat me to posting Aurail. You get full props, Rory, because that's one cool soundtrack from Shinichi Sakamoto. Great game, all in all.
 
 
Bad Dudes was one of my favorites back in the day:

Bad Dudes arcade

I also liked Ninja Spirit, one track in particular, I think it was on the second (forest) stage? Will try to find it.

Edit: here it is:

Ninja Spirit forest stage

The whole Ninja Spirit soundtrack was great, but this track was my favorite. Not sure where this was recorded from (MAME I guess), but I seem to recall this song having more pronounced bass. Something I've noticed with other games; having the music play through speakers in an arcade cabinet produces a very different sound than playing through MAME.
 
My favorite jazz-fusion SEGA soundtrack, actually, would have to be the one from Thunder Blade. Very sophisticated use of jazz chord progressions and FM-synth-ready arrangement, but also a great selection of triumphant themes to blow shit up to!
 
Stop making good music topics, everyone. Stop it.

So as not to get lost in links, I'm going to choose only new stuff. Check VGMDb.

http://vgmdb.net/album/30034 Bayshore Midnight 4: the famous series/comic adaptation is Koshiro's most overlook contribution, especially given its trance leanings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUeTo9XGTmY

http://vgmdb.net/album/19950 Music GunGun 1: Taito remixes, people. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTVLoyPCipA

http://vgmdb.net/album/21448 I don't think Border Break Air Burst is much more than comfort food, but it's fun to hear Sega go crazy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWFzI25ZFjU

http://vgmdb.net/album/7814 Samurai Spirits: Flash makes me sad in a lot of ways. The music doesn't contribute to that. (None of my favorite tracks are illegally posted somewhere.)

Lyte Edge said:
There's a shit-ton of SNK music I love, but it would be cheating to link to the superior ASTs. :)
Click to expand...

Beaten! Still: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdqfNpVWXZQ A New Poem Southern Thailand Wants To Tell is such a great rivalry track. No subtlety at all.

And I can't forget 2002 Unlimited Match (it counts as new!)'s Foxy Theme. Falling Of The Nightingale is like a Namco theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8PfSDCRfJg
 
Metal Slug, as a franchise, is just chock-full with great music. But Inner Station blew me the fuck away with its jazz-rock style and perfectly-crafted melody. One of the defining musical pieces of the Neo-Geo library!

I could say the same for Judgement, Living on the Deck, Midnight Wandering, and Ridge 256.

DJSharpeCheddar said:
Quartet - Stage 1

Try not to shit your pants.
Click to expand...
Oh fuck why did I forget about this. One of the greatest game theme pieces ever composed and arranged.
 
Dragoon En Regalia said:
Metal Slug, as a franchise, is just chock-full with great music. But Inner Station blew me the fuck away with its jazz-rock style and perfectly-crafted melody. One of the defining musical pieces of the Neo-Geo library!

I could say the same for Judgement, Living on the Deck, Midnight Wandering, and Ridge 256.

Oh fuck why did I forget about this. One of the greatest game theme pieces ever composed and arranged.
Click to expand...

No kidding. There are so many great tracks, I almost forgot to post the best one.

Metal Slug 3 - In the Void

The music of the track itself is fantastic, but the best part is how it fits the action of the level perfectly. Its starts off with a heroic anthem as you start the level flying in your jetslug / helislug / motherf****ing rocketeer jetpack, then changes it up about a minute in when you swoop down to strafe an enemy convoy. The tone darkens near the end when the mini-boss appears. It accentuates the action perfectly!

See for yourselves
 
Lyte Edge said:
Power Instinct Matrimelee - Let's Go, Necromancer!
 - This got its own MUSIC VIDEO. Not gonna be topped here, folks. LOL.

Power Instinct Matrimelee - It's the Little Things that Make Me Happy
Click to expand...

When I first played Matrimelee on a Neo, I couldn´t believe my ears. That OST is godly, and you posted precisely my two favorite tracks.

Also some more NeoGeo goodness.

Geese Howard Theme from Fatal Fury 1. Still the best version IMO, and this was only 1991 in the early years of the hardware.
Big Bear Theme from Fatal Fury 2 / Special.
Andy Bogard Theme from Fatal Fury 2 / Special.
Duck King Theme from Fatal Fury 2 / Special. This just screams 90s to me.
Rhytmic Hallucination from KOF 97.
Krizalid theme from KOF 99.

Just some from the top of my head. I´ll post more later.
 
wondermega said:
this is the thread that I have been waiting for, since joining NeoGaf lo those many lonely years ago.

Thank you
Click to expand...
You're welcome, my friend.

So who likes Enduro Racer? Never mind the quality of the actual game, because the main theme itself is the perfect arcade racing game theme to race along to. Supreme amongst his craft, Hiroshi Kawaguchi took this theme one step further and developed multiple sections of awesomeness into it. It actually feels like a swingin', hill-hopping rock-boogie that fits along perfectly with the pace of the game.

And it has one of my favorite melodies of all-time.
 
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