Back in the early days of the computer game industry, the music, as well as everything else, had to be painstakingly programmed in by hand. Getting the music to sound anything like a real tune was hard enough, but getting the instruments to sound anywhere near authentic was almost impossible. Thankfully, as the 80’s turned into the 90’s, machines got bigger and better, and with a lot more resources to not only incorporate music, but to make a half decent job of reproducing the instruments as well.
At the time, the market leader in game music quality was the Commodore 64; which had three whole audio channels to play around with; while rivals Spectrum, Atari, Amstrad and PC had to make do with single channel ‘plinky-plonky’ music and sound effects. Then along came the Commodore Amiga (and thanks to stolen blueprints, the Atari ST), with new 16-bit technology, and up to 8 available audio channels to mix down to high quality stereo. In addition, the Amiga (and ST) were fully MIDI compatible; which essentially meant that a computer and a synthesizer would be linked directly to each other at last. It wasn’t long before the seasoned hacks of game audio realised the possibilities of this new solution, and began to experiment.
These are some of the most memorable theme tunes to come out of that five year period, before the CD brought studio sound to the world of gaming. Note: Due to the limitations of the Youtube media available, some of these soundtracks are cut short, are of poor quality, or do not represent the game graphics to their fullest or most fluid. This is the first of two lists which will eventually comprise the 20 best.
Link: Top 10 Soundtracks Created On The Amiga.
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