[Thor Joachim Haga]

I gotta be honest — I haven’t really played computer games since the 90s (I did an episode of that here). Maybe the odd FIFA tournament in the 2000s, and a Telltale game or two since.

BUT…I’m continually impressed by the scores that come out of them, without having any connection whatsoever to the games. And I’m not talking about the big, boisterous orchestral action music, but rather electronic ones, or with unusual or smaller acoustic ensembles. There are always some gems every year.

I can recommend some, but wanted to hear your relationship to videogame music first.

[Malte Müller]

Same for me, probably around 20+ years ago. Already on the C64 or Amiga I was probably the only person who listened to the music instead of really playing the games 😉 Classics like the still active Chris Huelsbeck, Rob Hubbard and the like (if anyone remembers those…)

But I also listen to them often. Classic but also newer ones. I like Olivier Deriviere oder Austin Wintory a lot.

[Nick Zwar]

I have always had an affinity for computers, and periodically play video games. By that I mean the first video game I ever played was Pong—I don’t think you can get much older than that. (I did not have this game as a kid, but a friend of mine did.)

Back with some friends in the 80s, I played on the NES completely through the first two Zelda games and Super Mario Bros. 3… Then I didn’t play for years. Then, in the late 90s, I played the first two Tomb Raider games, Total Annihilation, and all the Monkey Island games (that were available at the time). Then I stopped playing for years again. In 2017, I bought the then-new Nintendo Switch because I really, really wanted to play Mario again.

The thing with Super Mario Bros. games is… I have to play them completely through… all the way, every level, every star or moon or whatever. And say what you want—they do get insanely difficult at times. At least for such a casual player as myself.

Which inevitably, sooner or later, leads to situations like the one pictured below (from New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe… perhaps my favorite “classic” Mario game), where I curse that §$%§! piece of §%&! “one-wrong-move-and-you-are-dead” plumber! (Yes, that is an actual screenshot of me playing the game in 2019.)

So I have periods where I play one or more games intensively, and then sometimes years where I don’t play any video games at all.
These last few months, I have not really played many video games because I spend my time on other (presumably more important) things—but I still like video games.

As far as music is concerned: yes, some of it has been really great. I mean, by nature, most (though not all) video game music is mood- rather than context-specific, so it is generally not very dramatic music, but rather sets the atmosphere. It must not be too specific or dramatic, because oftentimes it has to be able to be played in a loop, depending on how long a player stays within a certain scene. So it’s different from film scores in many ways. Some of it is quite nice. Grant Kirkhope’s music for Mario + Rabbids, for example, is terrific, with many charming melodies, songs, twists, and turns. The music was performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Nic Raine, so I guess film score fans certainly know these names (James Fitzpatrick was listed as the orchestra manager).

There was some music with a definite “Danny Elfman” touch in an early level of Super Mario Odyssey (I’m pretty sure it was an intentional reference).
I do have a few soundtracks of video games, like the BALDUR’S GATE III soundtrack (which came with the game, which I played a bit last year—but on the PC, not a console), and some of it is indeed very good and very “filmic”.

[Malte Müller]

I did also play Monkey Island in the 90s. Those days with handling a dozend of discs 😉 Also a great old classic is Turrican (wiht music by the already mentioned Chris Huelsbeck)

[Nick Zwar]

Haha… yeah, the Monkey Island scores by Michael Land are great, I actually do listen to them apart from the game. Of course, I also loved the games. I played Ron Gilbert’s THE RETURN TO MONKEY ISLAND (the belated sequel) when it came out and had a lot more fun playing that than I have from watching most movies today.

[Malte Müller]

I actually do listen to them apart from the game.

Me, too 😉 But the contributions by Clint Bajakian and Peter McCOnnell should not be forgotten (although I don’t know who did what). I always thought about playing Return to Monkey Island but didn’t get to fit that in so far sadly…

Speaking of Bajakian did a good Indy game score years ago (although that needs some whittling).

[Thor Joachim Haga]

Land, Bajakian and McConnell are legends. Especially Land. THE DIG is still the best videogame score ever written, as far as I’m concerned.

[Malte Müller]

THE DIG is a classic indeed. Did you actually play that game?

[Thor Joachim Haga]

I did. Several times. It’s also my favourite videogame of all time. Amazing mood. Would have been cool if Spielberg made a film out of it, as he wrote the story.

[Thor Joachim Haga]

One of the foremost videogame composers in the last 10-15 years. His REMEMBER ME (2013) is an interesting experiment (with that post-production tweaking of the orchestral recording), but this one from 2018 a more fulfilling listening experience. Purer and calmer, with chorus. (By the way, I did a Q&A with Deriviere in Cannes 8 years ago, which can be viewed on YouTube here, from about 22:00, for anyone interested).

[Malte Müller]

I discovered Deriviere with his early scores to the OBSCURE games. He seems to be very into the technically side of how music dynamically works within the game itself. Probably quite some work to get an actual listenable album out of that. I got quite some of his scores from his bandcamp but have not yet fully conscientiously listened to them all (same with Wintory’s work). GREEDFALL and A PLAGE TALE are also more classic scores if I recall right.

Will look into that video sometime. If you haven’t you should have such stuff with a short article on the site 😉

[Thor Joachim Haga]

Yes, I’ve thought about “re-packaging” some of those YouTube things into content here, even if they’re old.

I rarely get into those big, orchestral videogame scores, but there are exceptions. Knut Avenstroup Haugen is one. Olivier Deriviere is another. I’m afraid Wintory has never done anything for me.

[Malte Müller]

Knut Avenstroup Haugen I don’t know even by name. I can understand that Wintory is problematic to get into.

[Malte Müller]

Yes, I’ve thought about “re-packaging” some of those YouTube things into content here, even if they’re old.

Just to affirmate that I think this is a good idea! You could even transkript the interviews to give search engines – and nowadays chatbots… – more content. Text content within an video is naturally rather hidden (even if there are automatic subtitles by now and such).

[Schilkeman]

I’m firmly convinced Rare’s success was at least 65% the music for their games, and not the rather floopy, looks-better-on-the-box-than-in-motion gameplay. The soundtrack to Donky Kong Country still makes me feel some kind of way.

[Forfatter]

Innlegg