8 Bit Masterpieces

There are few things in this life better than music and video games. Both fill my earliest memories. I remember being 4 or 5 and being completely enthralled with both "Weird Al" Yankovic and Intellivision. My obsessions have not faded over the past 25 years and I still spend much of my time listening to music, playing video games or both. I have already gone on and on about my love of Guitar Hero and Rock Band but what about video game music written specifically for the games themselves? Some of these tunes I have lived with for 20 years now. When playing a game, these songs repeat themselves endlessly, embedding themselves deep in the pleasure centers of your brain. It becomes like a Pavlovian experiment - I hear the first few notes of the Legend of Zelda or Super Mario themes and I smile without even consciously knowing it. Please take a second to watch these 2 short videos of Jean Baudin rocking these themes on the 11 string bass!

Zelda


Mario


Video game music, and especially old Nintendo songs, are tied up tightly with nostalgia and they can cause video game freaks to have some pretty serious emotional reactions. Check out this crowd at a show by The Advantage, who are, as far as I know, the premier video game music cover band out there:

They start by cheering and then (I found this incredible) they start chanting along to the instrumental theme of Marble Madness. Marble Madness!! It's not even one of the more popular games of the 80s.

Video game music is now somewhat respectable enough, or at least profitable enough, that classical orchestras perform the songs in concert halls. The Video Games Live tours have been blowing the minds of game geeks for years. This clip is particularly incredible and nostalgia inducing. Starting with Pong, the orchestra touches on the music of several giants of the 8 bit era, causing synapses to fire throughout the audience. It's fun to see the reaction of the crowd as each game debuts on screen - Joust and Ghost & Goblins seem particularly popular. It's also wild to see clips from games I had completely forgotten about like Rastan. I spent so much time playing that game but hadn't thought about it in about 15 years. It's like being reunited with a long lost friend. Now I've probably said too much about my obsession so I will stop here and let you enjoy the madness: