7 ms·

Sndtst: 8-bit video game music

65 points by fur0n 12y ago

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
kubiiii 12y ago
Thanks for sharing. Apart from the surge of nostalgia, anyone should listen to the streets of rage soundtrack (1991). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discography_of_the_Streets_of_Rage_series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discography_of_the_Streets_of_R... I used to play the game just to listen to the music. It might sound old fashioned now but it was incredible back then.
- GotAnyMegadeth 12y ago
  F-Zero and F-Zero X are games I used to play just for the music. They are so metal. There is an excellent album with all the music played on real instruments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I9h7SkZICg&list=PLF1AF918F76BDA5A0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I9h7SkZICg&list=PLF1AF918F7...
  - kubiiii 12y ago
    Mute city, classic.
  - xd 12y ago
    You should check out the carmageddon tracks.
  - furyg3 12y ago
    In the same vein, here is a live speedrun of Mega Man X, accompanied by live music as the game is played. They look like they're having a blast playing this music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnQ7bDGhOLI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnQ7bDGhOLI I'd often try to get stuck somewhere just to groove to the music while cleaning my room as a kid.
- ANTSANTS 12y ago
  Streets of Rage 2 is even better, but really, everything Yuzo Koshiro wrote is worth listening to. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzo_Koshiro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzo_Koshiro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYGBqmxoLrg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYGBqmxoLrg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjaW4ZYzVHI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjaW4ZYzVHI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foFbN-KokGE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foFbN-KokGE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRMfy4ONrr4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRMfy4ONrr4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP5j7kBJq8o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP5j7kBJq8o And he's still at it, almost 30 years later!
- Vaskivo 12y ago
  I was just going to recomment that! I've been listening to those soundtracks lately, and It's awesome how different they are from each other. SoR1 has a 80's vibe and is the most "normal". SOR2 is arguably the best, where Koshiro started to explore new grounds. "Go Straight" is a classic, "Jungle base" shows some jungly house and, my favourite, "Alien Power" just evokes weirdness. Also, "Expander" sounds like a preview of the SOR3soundtrack. In SOR3 Koshiro worked with a partner, and developed a system that uses procedurally generated samples. It sounds a bit more harsh, with some break beats and bit more noisy. While not so pleasing to the ear sometimes, it is features some really interesting composition. I recommend "Fuze", "Cycle I", "Inga Rasen" and the stressful "Bulldozer". Also by Yuzo Koshiro, check out out Revenge of the Shinobi. For more FM synthesis goodness, try Thunderforce III in op's link.
- ilitirit 12y ago
  The artist behind the music is kind of a legend in Japan. There was a time when he used to play his productions at club events. Granted, it was Game Music Events, but he's basically the only artist people remember. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dOnOKsaQz0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dOnOKsaQz0
- kstenerud 12y ago
  The two giants of 80s game music are Chris Hülsbeck and David Whittaker. Turrican II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0FaAs4M3d0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0FaAs4M3d0 R-Type (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmEhC91k3MI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmEhC91k3MI Shadow of the Beast: http://retrotracks.net/music/186 http://retrotracks.net/music/186 Xenon 2: http://retrotracks.net/music/73 http://retrotracks.net/music/73 And some of David's more esoteric stuff: Quadralien: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh2TE8VQWZg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh2TE8VQWZg Archipelagos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEVFqu8HQZ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEVFqu8HQZ8
- g_lined 12y ago
  This podcast is a great repository of video game tracks. Though finished now, I enjoyed listening to the interviews and the fact that the episodes have a theme helps them be educational (well, interpreting at the very least). https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/legacy-music-hour-video-game/id405561057?mt=2 https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/legacy-music-hour-video-... Originally from this website but I can't find a link (at least on the mobile site) http://www.nerdist.com/podcast_channel/the-legacy-music-hour-channel/ http://www.nerdist.com/podcast_channel/the-legacy-music-hour...
- sndtst 12y ago
  I agree, this is a great sound test: http://sndtst.com/Streets_of_Rage http://sndtst.com/Streets_of_Rage
empressplay 12y ago
Neat site, but most of these games were 16-bit... all these songs are still under copyright though so I worry for the site's longevity...
- ANTSANTS 12y ago
  You know you can google "mario roms" and find hundreds of sites hosting the actual games (not just the music) that have been up for years, right? I think this one will be fine.
  - devja 12y ago
    You can also find these tracks using Google at higher qualities with proper tags/metadata and a complete set of album art.
  - sndtst 12y ago
    Here's hoping :) If it gets shut down then my total time has only been a few days of programming and about $15 in Amazon S3 bills so I still think it's been worth it. Never counted on other people picking it up as much though, that's been very fun. SNDTST has been played in 95 countries in the last 2 months.
johanx 12y ago
I really like the website interface. By the way you can find many soundtracks here (about 5500 individual songs) in the archives located here: http://www.hotdogstorm.com/bucky/GameMusicArchives/ http://www.hotdogstorm.com/bucky/GameMusicArchives/ They are in NSFE format which can be played or converted to anything else using foobar2000 and the Game Emu Player plugin.
Forchune 12y ago
This reminded me of aersia.net, it has a few playlists with game music. http://vip.aersia.net/vip.swf http://vip.aersia.net/vip.swf http://vip.aersia.net/vip-exiled.swf http://vip.aersia.net/vip-exiled.swf
moron4hire 12y ago
This is the only one that matters: http://sndtst.com/Mega_Man_III http://sndtst.com/Mega_Man_III :)
- lifeformed 12y ago
  And this! http://sndtst.com/Chrono_Trigger http://sndtst.com/Chrono_Trigger
- ndrake 12y ago
  Solstice was just added! :) http://sndtst.com/Solstice http://sndtst.com/Solstice
quux 12y ago
Doom and Doom 2 were 32-bit games...
- Drakim 12y ago
  More and more I've started seeing "8-bit" being used as a synonym for "retro". I don't know how to feel about that.
- Torn 12y ago
  Also Super Mario 64 was, er, 64-bit
- Narishma 12y ago
  Pretty much half of the games in the list aren't 8-bit.
- sndtst 12y ago
  Yeah the "8-bit" part came from a (really cool) newsletter called The Happening from the Kickstarter employees. I don't think I made a claim like that. My only standard was non CD, I don't know why I guess it feels like I'm surfacing great music that is harder to hear again. The best example of this I can think of is http://sndtst.com/Continuum http://sndtst.com/Continuum I had to trick down and build (on OSX) some obscure utilities and libraries to get this specific Amiga MOD rip into a wav format so I could upload it. I've also be encoding these from the the original VGM, NSF, HUE and SPC files with the great library [Game Music Emu](https://code.google.com/p/game-music-emu/ https://code.google.com/p/game-music-emu/) some simple C I adapted https://gist.github.com/jasonsperske/5ce7f90bf591454a08bc#file-sndtst-cpp https://gist.github.com/jasonsperske/5ce7f90bf591454a08bc#fi.... This project is really my chance to play with HTML5 audio, Python and (very limited) C (and to have something fun playing in my car and while I program :)
_asciiker_ 12y ago
Thank you, this really brings back nice memories for most of us over 35 ;)
- blux 12y ago
  And for us over 30 as well :P ;)
Waevian 12y ago
Thanks for doing this. :) Awesome selection.
normloman 12y ago
No love for firefox? It played on safari, but not mozilla.
- houli 12y ago
  Interesting. I had a different experience where it played perfectly on Firefox yet would fail to play on Chrome.
- anonbanker 12y ago
  Not working under Firefox for android as well.
- sndtst 12y ago
  Interesting. I'm really interested in learning more about what you are experiencing. I have been developing this almost entirely in Firefox for OSX and haven't had an issue playing music. I also extensively tested it in Chrome and iOS Safari. Anything you can tell me about your setup? Browser version? OS? flash plugin?(jPlayer has a flash fallback, maybe that's causing issues)
kubiiii 12y ago
There are so many fine music pieces trapped in video games, from composers no one will ever hear of (with notable exceptions). Check battle of olympus "name entry" (sic). Ok its a very simple tune, but that reminds me of François de Roubaix. Battle of Olympus is famous for its soundtrack but you can hardly find anything on the composer.
ndrake 12y ago
I really love this version of the Super Mario World soundtrack by Xoc: https://archive.org/details/xoc_SMW https://archive.org/details/xoc_SMW
- ramayac 12y ago
  "OMG my youth!!!" hahaha, great thanks for the link man!
- kubiiii 12y ago
  Great sounding. I can only imagine the work behind this soundtrack!
- nlh 12y ago
  Speaking of versions of Super Mario, one of my favorites... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcKurvm_0oE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcKurvm_0oE
lifeformed 12y ago
I think the player interface needs some tweaking. Putting the pause/play button all the way in the bottom right corner is... unconventional.
Intermernet 12y ago
Suggestion: Xenon 2 Megablast. Megablast became Bomb the Bass. Great version of Assault on Precinct 13 by John Carpenter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon_2_Megablast http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon_2_Megablast
kristopolous 12y ago
looks like you could use my bootstra/386 theme: https://github.com/kristopolous/BOOTSTRA.386 https://github.com/kristopolous/BOOTSTRA.386
- sndtst 12y ago
  Maybe not for this project, though I will certainly try, but my goodness I want to make something just to highlight this theme, Great Job!
netw1z 12y ago
thanks for this. awesome!
- sndtst 12y ago
  Want a fun Easter Egg? Try and guess a game (by URL) I likely don't have it, but if you go there http://sndtst.com/The_7th_Guest http://sndtst.com/The_7th_Guest you get a page that helps you ask for it to be added (and possibly pester whoever owns the rights to it to let it be uploaded, hint hint The Fat Man)
devindotcom 12y ago
Nice. I made a small page with a dozen or two songs that I'd ripped from games, years and years ago now, and it was one of the few pages on my old site that got regular traffic. People are always looking for a quick handy resource like this and your version is great. Thanks!
_nullandnull_ 12y ago
Great work. Having a download all link would be awesome.
- sndtst 12y ago
  When a song is playing a download link for the OGG and mp3 versions appears to the right of the track. It's really more of an after thought (I created the site primarily as a music streaming site, but the request came up so much I added it.

65 points by fur0n 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

Thanks for sharing. Apart from the surge of nostalgia, anyone should listen to the streets of rage soundtrack (1991). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discography_of_the_Streets_of_Rage_series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discography_of_the_Streets_of_R... I used to play the game just to listen to the music. It might sound old fashioned now but it was incredible back then.

GotAnyMegadeth 12y ago
F-Zero and F-Zero X are games I used to play just for the music. They are so metal. There is an excellent album with all the music played on real instruments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I9h7SkZICg&list=PLF1AF918F76BDA5A0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I9h7SkZICg&list=PLF1AF918F7...
- kubiiii 12y ago
  Mute city, classic.
- xd 12y ago
  You should check out the carmageddon tracks.
- furyg3 12y ago
  In the same vein, here is a live speedrun of Mega Man X, accompanied by live music as the game is played. They look like they're having a blast playing this music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnQ7bDGhOLI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnQ7bDGhOLI I'd often try to get stuck somewhere just to groove to the music while cleaning my room as a kid.
ANTSANTS 12y ago
Streets of Rage 2 is even better, but really, everything Yuzo Koshiro wrote is worth listening to. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzo_Koshiro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzo_Koshiro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYGBqmxoLrg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYGBqmxoLrg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjaW4ZYzVHI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjaW4ZYzVHI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foFbN-KokGE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foFbN-KokGE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRMfy4ONrr4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRMfy4ONrr4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP5j7kBJq8o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP5j7kBJq8o And he's still at it, almost 30 years later!
Vaskivo 12y ago
I was just going to recomment that! I've been listening to those soundtracks lately, and It's awesome how different they are from each other. SoR1 has a 80's vibe and is the most "normal". SOR2 is arguably the best, where Koshiro started to explore new grounds. "Go Straight" is a classic, "Jungle base" shows some jungly house and, my favourite, "Alien Power" just evokes weirdness. Also, "Expander" sounds like a preview of the SOR3soundtrack. In SOR3 Koshiro worked with a partner, and developed a system that uses procedurally generated samples. It sounds a bit more harsh, with some break beats and bit more noisy. While not so pleasing to the ear sometimes, it is features some really interesting composition. I recommend "Fuze", "Cycle I", "Inga Rasen" and the stressful "Bulldozer". Also by Yuzo Koshiro, check out out Revenge of the Shinobi. For more FM synthesis goodness, try Thunderforce III in op's link.
ilitirit 12y ago
The artist behind the music is kind of a legend in Japan. There was a time when he used to play his productions at club events. Granted, it was Game Music Events, but he's basically the only artist people remember. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dOnOKsaQz0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dOnOKsaQz0
kstenerud 12y ago
The two giants of 80s game music are Chris Hülsbeck and David Whittaker. Turrican II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0FaAs4M3d0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0FaAs4M3d0 R-Type (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmEhC91k3MI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmEhC91k3MI Shadow of the Beast: http://retrotracks.net/music/186 http://retrotracks.net/music/186 Xenon 2: http://retrotracks.net/music/73 http://retrotracks.net/music/73 And some of David's more esoteric stuff: Quadralien: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh2TE8VQWZg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh2TE8VQWZg Archipelagos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEVFqu8HQZ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEVFqu8HQZ8
g_lined 12y ago
This podcast is a great repository of video game tracks. Though finished now, I enjoyed listening to the interviews and the fact that the episodes have a theme helps them be educational (well, interpreting at the very least). https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/legacy-music-hour-video-game/id405561057?mt=2 https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/legacy-music-hour-video-... Originally from this website but I can't find a link (at least on the mobile site) http://www.nerdist.com/podcast_channel/the-legacy-music-hour-channel/ http://www.nerdist.com/podcast_channel/the-legacy-music-hour...
sndtst 12y ago
I agree, this is a great sound test: http://sndtst.com/Streets_of_Rage http://sndtst.com/Streets_of_Rage

empressplay 12y ago

Neat site, but most of these games were 16-bit... all these songs are still under copyright though so I worry for the site's longevity...

ANTSANTS 12y ago
You know you can google "mario roms" and find hundreds of sites hosting the actual games (not just the music) that have been up for years, right? I think this one will be fine.
- devja 12y ago
  You can also find these tracks using Google at higher qualities with proper tags/metadata and a complete set of album art.
- sndtst 12y ago
  Here's hoping :) If it gets shut down then my total time has only been a few days of programming and about $15 in Amazon S3 bills so I still think it's been worth it. Never counted on other people picking it up as much though, that's been very fun. SNDTST has been played in 95 countries in the last 2 months.

johanx 12y ago

I really like the website interface. By the way you can find many soundtracks here (about 5500 individual songs) in the archives located here: http://www.hotdogstorm.com/bucky/GameMusicArchives/ http://www.hotdogstorm.com/bucky/GameMusicArchives/ They are in NSFE format which can be played or converted to anything else using foobar2000 and the Game Emu Player plugin.

Forchune 12y ago

This reminded me of aersia.net, it has a few playlists with game music. http://vip.aersia.net/vip.swf http://vip.aersia.net/vip.swf http://vip.aersia.net/vip-exiled.swf http://vip.aersia.net/vip-exiled.swf

moron4hire 12y ago

This is the only one that matters: http://sndtst.com/Mega_Man_III http://sndtst.com/Mega_Man_III :)

lifeformed 12y ago
And this! http://sndtst.com/Chrono_Trigger http://sndtst.com/Chrono_Trigger
ndrake 12y ago
Solstice was just added! :) http://sndtst.com/Solstice http://sndtst.com/Solstice

quux 12y ago

Doom and Doom 2 were 32-bit games...

Drakim 12y ago
More and more I've started seeing "8-bit" being used as a synonym for "retro". I don't know how to feel about that.
Torn 12y ago
Also Super Mario 64 was, er, 64-bit
Narishma 12y ago
Pretty much half of the games in the list aren't 8-bit.
sndtst 12y ago
Yeah the "8-bit" part came from a (really cool) newsletter called The Happening from the Kickstarter employees. I don't think I made a claim like that. My only standard was non CD, I don't know why I guess it feels like I'm surfacing great music that is harder to hear again. The best example of this I can think of is http://sndtst.com/Continuum http://sndtst.com/Continuum I had to trick down and build (on OSX) some obscure utilities and libraries to get this specific Amiga MOD rip into a wav format so I could upload it. I've also be encoding these from the the original VGM, NSF, HUE and SPC files with the great library [Game Music Emu](https://code.google.com/p/game-music-emu/ https://code.google.com/p/game-music-emu/) some simple C I adapted https://gist.github.com/jasonsperske/5ce7f90bf591454a08bc#file-sndtst-cpp https://gist.github.com/jasonsperske/5ce7f90bf591454a08bc#fi.... This project is really my chance to play with HTML5 audio, Python and (very limited) C (and to have something fun playing in my car and while I program :)

_asciiker_ 12y ago

Thank you, this really brings back nice memories for most of us over 35 ;)

blux 12y ago
And for us over 30 as well :P ;)

Waevian 12y ago

Thanks for doing this. :) Awesome selection.

normloman 12y ago

No love for firefox? It played on safari, but not mozilla.

houli 12y ago
Interesting. I had a different experience where it played perfectly on Firefox yet would fail to play on Chrome.
anonbanker 12y ago
Not working under Firefox for android as well.
sndtst 12y ago
Interesting. I'm really interested in learning more about what you are experiencing. I have been developing this almost entirely in Firefox for OSX and haven't had an issue playing music. I also extensively tested it in Chrome and iOS Safari. Anything you can tell me about your setup? Browser version? OS? flash plugin?(jPlayer has a flash fallback, maybe that's causing issues)

kubiiii 12y ago

There are so many fine music pieces trapped in video games, from composers no one will ever hear of (with notable exceptions). Check battle of olympus "name entry" (sic). Ok its a very simple tune, but that reminds me of François de Roubaix. Battle of Olympus is famous for its soundtrack but you can hardly find anything on the composer.

ndrake 12y ago

I really love this version of the Super Mario World soundtrack by Xoc: https://archive.org/details/xoc_SMW https://archive.org/details/xoc_SMW

ramayac 12y ago
"OMG my youth!!!" hahaha, great thanks for the link man!
kubiiii 12y ago
Great sounding. I can only imagine the work behind this soundtrack!
nlh 12y ago
Speaking of versions of Super Mario, one of my favorites... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcKurvm_0oE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcKurvm_0oE

lifeformed 12y ago

I think the player interface needs some tweaking. Putting the pause/play button all the way in the bottom right corner is... unconventional.

Intermernet 12y ago

Suggestion: Xenon 2 Megablast. Megablast became Bomb the Bass. Great version of Assault on Precinct 13 by John Carpenter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon_2_Megablast http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon_2_Megablast

kristopolous 12y ago

looks like you could use my bootstra/386 theme: https://github.com/kristopolous/BOOTSTRA.386 https://github.com/kristopolous/BOOTSTRA.386

sndtst 12y ago
Maybe not for this project, though I will certainly try, but my goodness I want to make something just to highlight this theme, Great Job!

netw1z 12y ago

thanks for this. awesome!

sndtst 12y ago
Want a fun Easter Egg? Try and guess a game (by URL) I likely don't have it, but if you go there http://sndtst.com/The_7th_Guest http://sndtst.com/The_7th_Guest you get a page that helps you ask for it to be added (and possibly pester whoever owns the rights to it to let it be uploaded, hint hint The Fat Man)

devindotcom 12y ago

Nice. I made a small page with a dozen or two songs that I'd ripped from games, years and years ago now, and it was one of the few pages on my old site that got regular traffic. People are always looking for a quick handy resource like this and your version is great. Thanks!

_nullandnull_ 12y ago

Great work. Having a download all link would be awesome.

sndtst 12y ago
When a song is playing a download link for the OGG and mp3 versions appears to the right of the track. It's really more of an after thought (I created the site primarily as a music streaming site, but the request came up so much I added it.