Video game music...

[disgaeniac]

THE VIDEO GAME MUSIC & SOUNDTRACK/OST THREAD -

So, I'm a *HUGE* fan & lover of video game music

After being around here for a minute -and- talking to & getting to know the rest of you here...I know that I'm *Far* from the only one

At any rate, while thinking about & typing-up this thread - I'm thinking it could work well as kind of a two-fold topic & discussion 

*THE 1ST PART* =

- *ANY* type(s) of funny, interesting, memorable, and/or unusual stories, thoughts, incidents, remarks, experiences, etc, etc, etc. concerning you & music in video games.

I'll start w/ an example:

- I never liked, listened to, cared about, or had even the *Slightest* bit of interest, knowledge, and/or appreciation for ANY Classical music (well...unless you'd count my love of Rhandy Rhoads' (R.I.P.) Classically-influenced guitar-playing, in which he was applying his classical training & doing an *Absolutely* Fan-fucking-tastic (IMHO) job of blending classical music w/ harder-rock 'n' roll/Heavy Metal melodies & riffs)...It would also be very safe & fair to say that I knew and cared much, much, much and more, less about anything at all to do with Opera.

- Then, I played Shadow Hearts: Covenant (full & fair disclosure...far and away one of my all-time favorite games...Ever:)

- The way that one of the main characters (Karin - a sword-wielding female) achieved her "power-ups", was by collecting different pieces of paper (each piece of paper had a bit of the musical score for something called "The Niebelung" (sp?) aka "The Ring" on it)...and the more she got of them = the stronger she got & the more of the piece that was discovered/revealed.

- Long story (a *little*) less lengthy = I *NOW* know that this wasn't just some randomly named & created thing for the sake of the game!

- Wagner's 'story' actually spear-headed quite nicely w/ my interest in Norse (and other) mythology...and...I now also love many, many, many and more different pieces & composers of classical music 

*THE 2ND PART* =

- Simply list some of the *BEST* places/sites that you've found for buying & ordering some video game music -in the USA or otherwise- from:

- Just that - these CD's can run outrageously expensive, and I've come across very few sites that have what I want for anything even close to fair prices...so...if you know of some places - share them w/ the rest of us 

[foxhack]

I sometimes buy stuff from sellers at VGMdb. That's where I got my Rage of the Dragons and Matrimelee soundtracks. Some sellers really jack up the prices so you have to look around.

[jcalder8]

Apart from Mario Bros, Final Fantasy VI and Tetris I normally don't remember any of the music from games.

[kimimi]

- Simply list some of the *BEST* places/sites that you've found for buying & ordering some video game music -in the USA or otherwise- from:

- Just that - these CD's can run outrageously expensive, and I've come across very few sites that have what I want for anything even close to fair prices...so...if you know of some places - share them w/ the rest of us 

"Fair prices" is relative when it comes to game music, and by that I mean that the long and short of it is that it's simply not a cheap hobby! If you're expecting some sort of parity with US CD prices you'll never find it, Japanese CDs cost more at source already so these things naturally only get more expensive as they're passed through a third party. In fact with the awful way bootlegs have proliferated the market cheap CDs are to be routinely avoided - if the price looks to good to be true it's almost certainly a fake, and the fakes are *very* hard to spot if you don't know what you're looking for.

While I'm on the subject of bootlegs, here's a quick guide to spotting them:

• Anything sold by the eBay seller "AnimeCast" is ALWAYS a fake.
• Anything with an "SM Records" or "Ever Anime" logo is ALWAYS a fake.
• Check VGMdb listings - they're incredibly thorough and will almost always have catalogue numbers and scans - if the CD you're thinking of buying doesn't *exactly* match their official listings then it's very likely a fake.

In any case, I'll list a few places that I've personally used to buy VGM -

VGMdb Marketplace
Play-Asia
Yesasia
CD Japan
VGM World
Otokichi Premium

That should get you started

[kingrat101]

When I was little my dad and I played Donkey Kong Country a lot, we also played a lot of music together. My dad's a guitarist and I was primarily a drummer, i asked my dad once if we could learn how to play the DKC music, we eventually learned a couple songs and still to this day if I play guitar I warm up with "Gang Plank Galleon" haha really fun.

I dont generally buy soundtracks the Zelda one I have was a club nintendo reward, I also found the Banjo Kazooie one at a thrift store.
On a side note I also love the Silent Hill soundtracks but dont really have a memory for them since I'm relatively new to the Silent Hill franchise

[disgaeniac]

Thanks Kimimi & Kingrat101!

Never knew that fakes were so prolific or that the Japanese ones were more expensive from the start

[kimimi]

You'll be safe if you buy from any of the stores I listed, they only ever sell official goods. But out in the wilds of eBay/Amazon people often find "bargains" - soundtracks new/sealed for $20 when they've seen other people asking $60+ used and these will be the fakes that I was talking about.

Just to show I'm not talking out of my bottom about Japanese CD prices look at this. It's a link to HMV Japan's listing for a new Final Fantasy music CD - single CD in completely standard packaging, on an established label and from a popular series so there's no problem with availability... yet it retails for $36USD to Japanese people in Japan. So yeah, if this is something you want to get into then you'll have to re-evaluate exactly what "expensive" means ^^~

[disgaeniac]

Just to show I'm not talking out of my bottom about Japanese CD prices look at this. It's a link to HMV Japan's listing for a new Final Fantasy music CD - single CD in completely standard packaging, on an established label and from a popular series so there's no problem with availability... yet it retails for $36USD to Japanese people in Japan. So yeah, if this is something you want to get into then you'll have to re-evaluate exactly what "expensive" means ^^~

Perish the thought!

Never let it be said that I would ever think -even for a second- that you'd ever be talking out of your fanny D'oh! -Lost-in-translation-error 

...I mean...well...umm...argh...that is to say...your..."bum" (is it?) - or..."arse"?

- Seriously, though - how many tracks are on that CD for the $36 USD?

I mean, personally, that's *NOT* a price that I'd be scared away from or offended/intimidated by...

I've seen some OST's (selling on Amazon US *note* some of these sellers, iirc, *were* selling/shipping from Japan)...off of the top of my head - new/sealed OST's for the PS3 games NieR and Folklore; both selling for ~$100 USD  :'(

[kimimi]

I just like to show that there's method in my madness

There are ten tracks on that $36 CD.
 
The Nier price you quoted was WAYYYY out of line, it's on Play-Asia for $36 - link!. Those Amazon sellers were probably trying to take advantage of people's mistrust of foreign websites/lack of knowledge about other sources.

[disgaeniac]

I just like to show that there's method in my madness

There are ten tracks on that $36 CD.
 
The Nier price you quoted was WAYYYY out of line, it's on Play-Asia for $36 - link!. Those Amazon sellers were probably trying to take advantage of people's mistrust of foreign websites/lack of knowledge about other sources.

I may just be ordering that NieR OST from your link, then!

Yet another one for $36...is that a 'standard' "MSRP" for these items in Japan?

I suspect that you're exactly right in why those Amazon prices happened to be so over-inflated

Did you happen to see the Folklore (PS3 game) OST on any of your sites?

If you come across one...I'd be curious what the pricing is on that one, too

Also, is the NieR OST you linked to sealed or used (and, how can you tell)?!

I'm guessing that these sites sell both new & used CD's, right?

Thanks!

[kimimi]

Not seen the FolkLore OST about, but I've not had a proper look yet

Found it! New for $40 - link!

$36 is just a weird coincidence, prices vary quite a bit depending on availability/extras/demand.

Play-Asia, Yesasia and CD Japan only sell new soundtracks, so there's no need to list the condition because they'll always be brand new The others sell a mix, but they always say.

[disgaeniac]

Thanks Kimimi!

[kimimi]

Happy to help when I can

[burningdoom]

Some of my favorite game soundtracks:

-Batman (NES) - Some of the best music on the NES

-Bionic Commando (NES) - Gives Mega Man 2 a run for it's money in the NES music department, even.

-Brutal Legends - I'm a big metal-head, so this game was pretty freaking awesome for me. And the soundtrack is like a tour through metal history. \m/

-Donkey Kong Country - So impressive back then. And still great to this day. The water-level song is especially mesmorizing. And the jungle-level song is so freaking catchy!

-Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - This entry had the most metal stuff on it, not counting the Metallica entry, so I enjoyed it the most out of the main series (I still haven't played GH5, though).

-Guitar Hero: Metallica - It's Metallica...nuff said.

-Halo 2 - So epic. They way it mixes orchestral music and an electric guitar, and they way it's all timed perfectly to the action going on the game. It just gets you pumped while you're playing the game!

-Lords of Thunder - Possibly the greatest video game soundtrack of all-time! So freaking awesome. It's like an instrumental metal album, in a awesome shoot-em up game!

-Mega Man 2 - The NES sound-chip, perfected.

-Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos - I know many people are wondering why I didn't put the first Ninja Gaiden on here instead. Well it's simple, I played a whole lot more of Ninja Gaiden II when I was a kid, because that's the one I owned. And it had spectacular music. I love Year 200X's metal cover of the intro theme.

-Sonic the Hedgehog 1-3 & Knuckles - All of them had great music that just fit the feel of the gameplay perfectly. And they show what the Genesis was really capable of, audially.

-Super Mario Bros. - Timeless. Who under the age of 40 doesn't automatically know the the theme to level 1-1?

-Super Metroid - Very atmospheric music,  almost cinematic. Very well done, especially considering it was a SNES game.

-Tony Hawk's Underground - Lots of different real bands on this game. This was the first time I remember this happening in a game, to this degree at least. I know games like Apocalypse, Twisted Metal 3, and Road Rash 3D (and of course the earlier THPS games) had some real bands doing tracks for them, beforehand. But Tony Hawk's Underground I remember had an impressive number of tracks on it from a LOT of different stuff.

[sin2beta]

A soundtrack I that I think gets overlooked a lot is vector man. The Genesis had an amazing sound chip for a particular type of sound. It did rock and techno like none other: