Music in Games

By Owen Smith

Tetris (released in 1984, played 1998)The background music to Tetris is my earliest memory of gaming sound that left a marked impact on me, the music was as addictive as the game and for some reason I never got bored of hearing it. The song is originally known asKorobeiniki and is a popular Russian folk law song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keeSEJG4XzU

Gears of war cinematic trailer:The cinematic trailer for gears of war featuring tears for fears, mad world left a desire to buy and play the game because I loved how the music and the game fit so well, creating a hopeless atmospheric experience while watching.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWrbGEFgI8

Super Street fight 2, guiles theme (released 1993, played 1999)This song left a sinister feeling during and after hearing it and made me feel somewhat evil, Composed by Isao Abe.http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jLJLyneZGKc

Command and Conquer: Red Alert (released 1996 , played 1999)Command and Conquer: Red Alert was one of my all time favourite strategy games andthe song “hell march” is big reason why. When Westwood founder Bret Sperry heard it he immediately said “that’s our theme!”http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Tb-gI_pFog0#!

Mario (released 1985, played 1998)I remember this song well but its effect on me did not stay positive, after a short whileI grew annoyed of hearing it and began to hate listening to it. Probably because at the time everyone I knew was playing it and the sound track repeated that many times takesits toll. Originally produced by Koji Kondo along with six other tracks for the game he stated the this was the hardest one to compose.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcmKPmj9yeE

Skyrim (released 2011, played 2011)Skyrims theme song titled “dragon born” that was played with the trailer left a lasting impression that when combined with the cinematic that played got across a strong impression of an amazing game. Composed by Jeremy Soule's and a choir of 30 people that was layered 3 times to make it sound like 90, did so in a draconic language created by a concept artist called Adam Adamowicz for the game along with a runic alphabet consisting of 34 characters in total.http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2-_g8NZr1tA

Halo (released 2001, played 2001)This sound track was probably the most dominant of all my gaming music experiences. whenever this sound track played I used to got a feeling that spurred me on and gave me a rush while playing. I loved it so much that I downloaded and placed it on my MP3 player at the time, Composed by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6JK3fhYE1w&list=PLAFD8544093E779FE