What Music Did You Play When Gaming Back In The Day?

[learnedrobb]

If I wasn't going to listen to the bleeps and blarps of my Speccy, I would usually settle for some Guns n Roses, Kiss, or Iron Maiden. \m/

[Freestyler]

Playstation was the first time any of us heard CD-quality music in-game, and that alone was a massive game changer. getting "real" musicians and bands such as The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Garbage etc to "do" game music was a revelation. Coincidentally it was also the start of my desire to get Videogame Soundtracks!

Beyond setting up my SNES to play through my Stereo so I could record The Secret of Mana's excellent music that is!

[Antiriad2097]

Playstation was the first time any of us heard CD-quality music in-game

...unless you were a PC gamer. Or a Mega CD owner. Or a CD32 owner. Or... you get the idea.

[The Beans]

Playstation was the first time any of us heard CD-quality music in-game, and that alone was a massive game changer. getting "real" musicians and bands such as The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Garbage etc to "do" game music was a revelation. Coincidentally it was also the start of my desire to get Videogame Soundtracks!

I remember being absolutely amazed at hearing Pop will Eat Itself issuing from the telly the first time I played Loaded on the Playstation. It was one of the first games I played on the machine and hearing music by a real band in the game seemed like an astonishing thing at the time. It was definitely new to me.

I never used to listen to music while I played video games back in the 8-bit and 16-bit days.

[The Laird]

Playstation was the first time any of us heard CD-quality music in-game, and that alone was a massive game changer. getting "real" musicians and bands such as The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Garbage etc to "do" game music was a revelation. Coincidentally it was also the start of my desire to get Videogame Soundtracks!

For you maybe, I was enjoying CD quality music on the Mega CD and then the Jaguar well before the PS1 came out (same for those who owned an Amiga CD32, PCE Super CD-ROM or Philips CD-i)

[Mootown]

I always thought dumping a real song from an artist into the cd was a bit of a cop out. I appreciate music composed specifically for the game much more. Stuff like Metal Gear, Panzer Dragoon, SEGA Rally, Thunderforce...And especially C64 and Snes stuff as they had a really unique personality about them

[JazzFunk]

I first hooked up the Acorn Electron's cassette deck to the TV in early 1988, and recorded the Fletch theme, direct from the film (so all overlapping dialogue could be heard). I then dubbed it onto another tape, etc., and eventually had about five or six copies of it in a row, kind of like a disjointed 12" version. Then, it'd be on in the background whilst I played Turbo Esprit, Movie, or that cool Techno Cop demo that Your Sinclair gave away (iirc, also had a demo of Rex, too)

Anyway, some albums listened to when playing certain games, WHY I remember them god knows...:

Andy Capp (C64), Robocop (Spectrum) - Introspective by The Pet Shop Boys
Rogue Trip (PS1) - Return Of the Jedi OST, The Amazing New Electronic Pop Sound Of Jean-Jacques Perrey
Action 52 (MD) - specifically "Mind's Eye" - '93 Til Infinity by Souls Of Mischief, Fear Itself by Casual
Litil Divil (CD32) - N Gats We Truss by South Central Cartel
Shadowrun (SNES) - Hard To Earn by Gang Starr
Prince Of Persia (SNES) - Sons of The P by Digital Underground
Shining the Holy Ark (Saturn) - The Inner Mounting Flame by The Mahavishnu Orchestra
The Need For Speed (Saturn) - Wrath Of The Math by Jeru Tha Damaja
Cyber Sled (PS1) - Sickinnahead by Threat
Cosmic Spacehead and Robocop Vs. Terminator (MD) - Suede's Suede and Off The Wall by M.J.
Rolling Thunder 2 (MD) - Lethal Injection by Ice Cube and Whut! Thee Album by Redman
ReVolt (DC) - Procession by Weather Report
Tony Hawk's 4 (GC) - Street Villains Vol. 1 by Necro, Rhythm Of Life by James Mason
Darius Twin (SNES) - Doggystyle by Snoop Doggy Dogg.

Also spent most of 1989 listening to Bryan Ferry's The Ultimate Collection whilst playing on the Speccy in the kitchen. My mum was/is a MASSIVE fan!

[Freestyler]

Playstation was the first time any of us heard CD-quality music in-game

...unless you were a PC gamer. Or a Mega CD owner. Or a CD32 owner. Or... you get the idea.

Yeah, sorry. I meant to say the first real time we heard commercial bands playing the music, as opposed to in-game musicians. It just gave Playstation a "Coolness" factor that no other hardware manufacturer could possibly cope with. Gran Turismo was a good driving game yes, but hurtling around the tracks while The Chemical Brothers was blaring out at you was the experience. Then you had Garbage, Feeder and others... Recognisable tunes! In a videogame!!

I remember being absolutely amazed at hearing Pop will Eat Itself issuing from the telly the first time I played Loaded on the Playstation. It was one of the first games I played on the machine and hearing music by a real band in the game seemed like an astonishing thing at the time. It was definitely new to me.

Yeah, this is it. I know the CD32 et al had a cd drive, and so could play back cd quality audio, but listening to real artists play music was eye-opening. The Next Gen truly felt as if it had arrived with Playstation. It wasn't just about polygons. Not any more.

[AmigaJay]

Yeah, sorry. I meant to say the first real time we heard commercial bands playing the music, as opposed to in-game musicians. It just gave Playstation a "Coolness" factor that no other hardware manufacturer could possibly cope with. Gran Turismo was a good driving game yes, but hurtling around the tracks while The Chemical Brothers was blaring out at you was the experience. Then you had Garbage, Feeder and others... Recognisable tunes! In a videogame!!.

Well there's been commerical artists in games before, even before CD sound, we had sampled licensed music from Betty Boo, Bomb The Bass, Captain Sensible among others.
Of course then early CD versions containing the proper CD tracks - Bomb The Bass (CDTV) , Peter Gabriel (PC CD) Kriss Kross (Mega CD) and Road Rash (3DO) which came out in 1993 in the us had loads of licensed music, so it was always leading upto that point, but yes I do recognise too that Wipeout was one of the major games that had a great soundtrack to it and came out at the right time mid 90s to coincide with the club scene and exploded the Playstation from just being a kids console to something late teens and older would want myself included..it was cool..well for about 2 years then we got all those kids and platform games and it went too mainstream!

[The Laird]

Playstation was the first time any of us heard CD-quality music in-game

...unless you were a PC gamer. Or a Mega CD owner. Or a CD32 owner. Or... you get the idea.

Yeah, sorry. I meant to say the first real time we heard commercial bands playing the music, as opposed to in-game musicians.

My point still stands.

For you maybe, I was enjoying CD quality music on the Mega CD and then the Jaguar well before the PS1 came out (same for those who owned an Amiga CD32, PCE Super CD-ROM or Philips CD-i)

Bomb The Bass - Xenon 2 (CDTV)
Beach Boys - Surf City (CD-i)
Soundgarden - Road Rash (3DO)
Metallica - Vid Grid (Jaguar)
INXS - Make My Video (Mega CD)

etc.

[gman72]

I think Bomb The Bass/Xenon on the Amiga was thew first time i heared a licensed track in a game and it blew me away. I think the Playstation bought in game licensed tracks to the attention of the masses although clearly they had been done on other computers/consoles previously.

[The Laird]

I have to say that I pretty much lost interest in video game music with the advent of the CD consoles.

Give me a decent chiptune over an orchestral score any day.

[gman72]

I have to say that I pretty much lost interest in video game music with the advent of the CD consoles.

Give me a decent chiptune over an orchestral score any day.

Apart from very rare exceptions, for me the Halo soundtrack, Metroid Prime and SOTN i couldnt agree more.

[Vyothric]

I always listened to the music from the game. If it didn't have music, then I just listened to the sounds.

Give me a decent chiptune over an orchestral score any day.

Indeed. I've played Metroid Prime and SoTN and can't remember any of the music, unless they re-used the old Castlevania tunes.

The Chemical Brothers was blaring out at you was the experience. Then you had Garbage, Feeder and others...

This would deter me from playing the game

[Freestyler]

The Chemical Brothers was blaring out at you was the experience. Then you had Garbage, Feeder and others...

This would deter me from playing the game

Hey! It was cool back then!

Seriously though, I don't think it's any coincidence at all that the Playstation had so many Commercial Artists doing music, once you realise Sony held a significant share of the Recording Industry at the time. You can't help wondering what the scene would be like today had Sony not strong-armed its massive multi-industry muscles into Videogaming.

Why pay some scrub artist to "Sound a bit like the Prodigy" when you can license a track everyone's already heard before! GENIUS!