Mixing Music With Videogames (A Recipe For Adventure)

[Veepa]

Some people accuse me of being nostalgic for the 80s, because I really enjoy 80s music and I enjoy videogames from the late 80s-early 90s.
I wouldn't say I'm nostalgic.. I just really like this era of entertainment.

Anyway.. I have my turntable next to my NES.. From time to time I get tired of listening to 8-bit tunes over and over.. so I put the volume low.. I don't mute it... I just put it low enough to wear you can't hear the music very well, but you can faintly hear the sound effects.. and I pop a record on.

Now you can't just go throw any game with any type of music.. they have to connect somehow. Here are some of my combinations that I think went pretty well.. If you have done this aswell, please share:

Ninja Gaiden -- Meat Is Murder, by The Smiths
Super Mario Bros. -- Talk Talk Talk, by The Psychedelic Furs
Super Mario Bros. 2 -- The Top, by The Cure
Super Mario Bros. 3 -- Vacation, by The Go-Go's
The Goonies 2 -- The Greatest Hits, by Split Enz
The Legend of Zelda -- Disintegration, by The Cure
DuckTales -- New Clear Days, by The Vapors

That's just a few that come to mind that worked out okay.. Now these album/game combinations don't really have anything in common.. They just kind of felt right. Anyone else?

[max 330 mega]

i particularly love listening to black sabbath when playing shmups. the final track on Vol. 4 syncs up perfectly with the level right before the final boss in strikers 1945 II.

[Julio III]

My immediate thought when I read this goes back to a few years ago when me and a few friends used to play Risk2 over the uni network. Black Sabbath's Paranoid album was the music of choice. Songs like War Pigs and Iron Man will guarantee victory!

[mezrabad]

I used to have a Dragonstomper mix tape. Two thirty minute sides of a 60 minute tape full of John William's pre 1985 soundtrack themes (back when he'd only won half a dozen Oscars or so). What's odd about that, is that I only had my friend's Supercharger (and DragonStomper cassette) for one weekend. I had made the tape in anticipation of borrowing the game so that I'd have the appropriate music for adventuring. (I later used the tape to play Adventure, which I like more than DragonStomper, but it just isn't as "epic".)

[Veepa]

Sabbath, huh? I find that if I listen to something too heavy I tend to start jabbing the buttons down to the tune of the music.

[mills]

The music from those video games are better than the bands you named. I enjoy video game music.

[Veepa]

The music from those video games are better than the bands you named. I enjoy video game music.

Don't get me wrong.. I really enjoy video game music aswell, and I respect it. But sometimes I just like to mix things up, ya know? It makes for a new experience. If I'm playing a game for the first time, or playing the game with intention of really getting into it I don't add my own music.