The History of Video Game Music

The History of Video Game Music

In America, video game music is seen as one of the lowest forms of entertainment

and its composers are obscure and unknown to most of those who play the games, while

in Japan, it is a major component of their popular culture, and composers such as Koji

Kondo are treated like famed celebrities. Game music is still not widely considered an

art form, and yet the compositions have become as complex and sophisticated as

arrangements for film and television.

In 1958, engineer William Higginbotham at the National Laboratory made the

very first video game called Tennis for Two. In 1963, MIT student Steve Russell programmed the game Spacewar. In 1972, Magnavox released the very first home

gaming console, the Odyssey. Up until this point, no video games had any sound effects

or music. That same year, the arcade game Pong came out. It was a simulation of a ping

pong game, with two floating paddles and ball that bounced off the walls. A sonar-blip

was emitted every time the ball was repelled by a paddle. In 1978, the Space Invaders

arcade introduced the first sound track in video game history. Only a quickening pulse

can be heard as the aliens get closer and closer to Earth. This was also the first instance of interactive sound for video games, when the music changes while it is playing. 1980 brought the debut of the classic Pac Man arcade. A short, catchy melody plays at the beginning of the game and during cinematics in between levels. 2 Since the whole point of arcades was to get kids to keep plugging quarters in, the tunes were short and easily remembered. When arcades first came out, the music had to be short due to memory constraints. Since synthesized soun...

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6) Deenen, Charles. "Adventures in Programming Music & Sound Effects for Video

Games." Keyboard, November, 1992, pg. 51

7) Game Spot presents: "A Brief Timeline of Video Game Music" - Final Fantasy Apex

http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/vg_music/p5_01.html

8) Game Spot presents: "A Brief Timeline of Video Game Music" - Enter the Dreamcast

http://gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/vg_music/p6_02.html

9) Levels of Sound - Graphic Adventures

http://www.vgmusic.com/information/vgpaper2.html

10) Taxi Transmitter interview with Jack Wall

http://www.taxi.com/transmitter/0305/insider0305.html

11) The Mini Bosses

http://www.minibosses.com

12) NPR Article about the Mini Bosses

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3873034