The Greatest Game Music

Reviews of truly outstanding game music

  • Soundtracks
  • Composers
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  • Music Genres
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Descent Soundtrack (Mac)

Descent Soundtrack

Descent Soundtrack (Mac), Johann Langlie / Brian Luzietti / Larry Peacock / Jim Torres / Tim Wiles, 1995

Among the titles that ushered in the new era of 3D gaming during the mid-1990s, Descent sometimes gets a bit overlooked. Two years after Doom, Descent took the depiction of three-dimensional spaces in video games to the next level. Through the framework of a space flight simulator, Parallax Software gave players six degrees of freedom to shoot their way through a series of off-world mines. Another first was the use of (almost) exclusively 3D graphics to depict the game’s world, instead of bitmaps. It was no wonder that Descent was able to pull off such technical feats – its co-creators Mike Kulas and Matt Toschlog had previously worked on another revolutionary 3D title: Ultima Underworld. Critical acclaim and strong sales figures rewarded Parallax Software’s daring, leading to a number of ports and sequels – and enough fan devotion to crowdfund a prequel decades later!

Tracing the creation of the Descent soundtrack is a mildly confusing affair, thanks to the game’s various ports. The original PC release came with a MIDI soundtrack composed by Ken Allen, Brian Luzietti, Larry Peacock, Leslie Spitzer, Jim Torres and Tim Wiles. Some of these artists had previously worked on other titles by publisher Interplay, while other composers don’t seem to have had much of a career in games outside of the Descent franchise. The score was heavily influenced by industrial music bands of the day like Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly, with this particular genre reaching its peak of popularity in the mid-1990s. The Mac and PlayStation ports released later on used CD audio, including arranged versions of some of the PC MIDI compositions, as well as licensed tracks by Nivek Ogre and Type-O Negative.

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Tagged With: 1995, Brian Luzietti, First-Person Shooter, Jim Torres, Johann Langlie, Larry Peacock, Mac, Mixed Music Genres, Parallax Software, Tim Wiles

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Soundtrack

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Soundtrack

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Soundtrack, Ron Jones / Brian Luzietti, 1997

The Star Trek: Starfleet Academy soundtrack is a prime example for how – and why – the conventions of Hollywood film music have been so deeply ingrained in orchestral game music right from the start. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was part of the short-lived craze surrounding games based on full-motion videos in the mid-1990s. And if your game looks like a film, it makes sense to also make it sound like a film.

And so, developer Interplay decided to use a live orchestra to record Starfleet Academy‘s soundtrack. In 1997, this was quite a novelty. Still, a live orchestra was integral to capturing the Star Trek franchise’s trademark romantic spirit of bold spacefaring. Interplay even went one step further and hired Ron Jones to write the Star Trek: Starfleet Academy soundtrack. Jones had done outstanding work on Star Trek: The Next Generation and would be able to maintain the Star Trek franchise’s characteristic sound.

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Tagged With: 1997, Brian Luzietti, Interplay, Orchestral, PC, Ron Jones, Simulation/Strategy

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1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1999 2000 2008 2012 Action Adventure Adventure Akihiko Mori Battletoads (Franchise) Chiptune Chunsoft David Wise Electronic Electronic Arts Fighting First-Person Shooter KOEI Michael Giacchino Might and Magic (Franchise) Mixed Music Genres Mobile N64 NES Orchestral PC Platformer PlayStation PlayStation 2 PlayStation 3 Racing Rare Rock/Metal RPG Sega Genesis Shoot'em Up Simulation/Strategy SNES XBox 360 Yoko Kanno