[PresidentLeever]

Hey everybody. Doing these (one year at a time) over at gamefaqs right now, and will cover sega and nintendo systems separately up until and including the 5th gen probably. Join us!

We're now moving into the 16-bit era for the Sega series (the SMS polls are still going on that system's board in case you missed them):
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/916377-genesis/79068774

Nintendo one is currently at 1987:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/916386-nes/79070941

If you just want to post about your fave OSTs for each system you can do that here too.

[Jorpho]

Do you get a lot of people questioning the point of trying to slice these things up into such narrow categories?

[PresidentLeever]

Only you so far, why?

And I didn't try, I did! The maint point is to highlight more hidden gems per year and show more of the diversity in how a particular sound chip was used, which I couldn't really do in the general poll over at the Classic Gaming board as people wanted it to be about the most popular games and/or ones that they grew up playing.

[FAST6191]

Is Streets of Rage not featured to give some others a chance?

[PresidentLeever]

Streets of Rage is from 1991, that particular poll is for 1988.

[FAST6191]

My bad. Should pay more attention.

Anyway not sure I could whistle any of those despite playing most of them in one form or another, some quite extensively.

[PresidentLeever]

These all have some catchy tunes and most are popular on YT. The links might help you there.

[Spooniest]

I would say Final Fantasy, for the sheer depth and breadth of its compositional variety. Mega Man and Metal Gear tend to stay well within the limits of their respective ideas (Techno Beats for Robots, Marching Band stuff for Military), while Legacy of the Wizard, Zelda II, Doki Doki Panic and Ultima III are interestingly done but do not have that many different tracks to assess.

Final Fantasy I has 21 separate tracks, in total. That is kind of a lot for a NES game of 1987, and it never seems to waste a track. Each song is specifically used for a purpose, throughout the game, and the songs that it does reuse are clear as to why they are being reused. The Castle Of Ordeals and the Northwest Castle may have battles to fight in them, but they are in fact, Castles. Matoya's Cave, the Dwarf Cave, the Waterfall Cave and the Ice Cavern are all caves which don't necessarily have any kind of oppressive strategic placement or weather condition in them.

The Marsh Cave, in particular, is never reused from when you encounter it at said location, until very late in the game at the Mirage Tower, and its focus on a somersaulting and very sinister sequential pattern makes the same point both times; you're in danger of getting lost in here. Watch where you're going.

It's got variety of themes, and uses them well. That's really all you could ask from a soundtrack, and the fact that it was done in 1987 is just impressive on the face of it. Even JRPGs of the time (Dragon Quest, Phantasy Star) really didn't have quite so much variety to their themes. It tends to make FF1's world seem a bit more vibrant and alive.

[PresidentLeever]

You make a pretty good case for it. I haven't played through most of the games from 1987 so I can mainly judge the music on its own, not how well it fits each area or the game as a whole.

MM1 is certainly more than techno though, I mean only Fire Man qualify's as sort of techno-ish to me and it has more of a latin (salsa?) flavor. Cut Man sounds kind of russian and like old anime music, and Guts Man like an old spy movie or something. Select, Bomb Man and Ice Man sound new wave-ish and Elec Man like the Journey song and Space Harrier theme (the latter being mostly synth pop). Wily 1 sounds like 80s hard rock/metal.

For me it was between Robo Warrior/Bomber King (mainly for the fantastic theme song but I also like one of the boss themes and the ending), and Ultima III and I went with RW.

We are now at 1989 for Nintendo (1990 for Sega):
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/916386-nes/79082824

[Spooniest]

MM1 is certainly more than techno though, I mean only Fire Man qualify's as sort of techno-ish to me and it has more of a latin (salsa?) flavor. Cut Man sounds kind of russian and like old anime music, and Guts Man like an old spy movie or something. Select, Bomb Man and Ice Man sound new wave-ish and Elec Man like the Journey song and Space Harrier theme (the latter being mostly synth pop). Wily 1 sounds like 80s hard rock/metal.

You and I might be talking about two different kinds of Techno. It isn't exactly a narrow genre, but it used to be a lot more specific, particularly at the time MM1 came out. All I mean is that it tends towards using an extremely insistent backbeat that never cuts to halftime or changes time signatures and is almost exclusively in 4/4, (Wily Stages 3-4 break this, and have an irregular beat), and has lots of electronic-sounding effects (which is actually quite an achievement, in a game where everything is literally electronic effects). I'm specifically thinking of that bzzt-bzzt-bzzt sound from Fire Man's stage, and the contrapuntal wailing synth that plays over the main pattern during the 2nd section of Dr. Wily's 1st Castle Theme.

If I had to take a guess, I'm thinking of Acid House. Edit: ...Or maybe Industrial.

[PresidentLeever]

Yeah I don't think that makes something techno unless you ignore everything else like what kind of beat, other rhythmic elements, harmony and song structure. Most of the MM1 music doesn't even have a strong beat, lacking a kick drum. But technically it all falls under electronic since it's chiptune and early techno is a bit more vague, more like a mix of electro funk, breakbeats and synth pop. I don't see how "electronic sounding effects" are an achievement when it's the default sound though.

That buzzing sound from Fire Man's stage seems like it's meant to simulate some acoustic percussion used in latin music using the upper notes of the noise channel on the NES which are more tonal. I think the other notes are sometimes making it sound like there's some slight modulation effect on it though which is more common in electronic music.
The backing harmony in that part of Wily 1 sounds like it was meant to be a string pattern except the instrument envelope is pretty stiff, you tend to hear things like that in classical/orchestral style music with a more ominous and intense tone. The main structure is very much hard rock/metal though.

For comparison, here are two earlier chiptunes that I do think count as techno, from 1988 and 1990 respectively:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDdDpqxMurM
https://vgmrips.net/packs/pack/misty-blue-nec-pc-8801#15-battle-enix-quest
One segment in this song from 1988 also sounds very techno-like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_rH87kPEqI&t=28s

Industrial is perhaps more vague than techno and the early stuff is very different from the late 80s-90s music and crossover styles, more like a dissolving of structured music itself much like the no wave movement. In a sense it applies since it's a lo-fi electornic aesthetic and a lot of people find it grating, but that's about as far as the similarities go I think.

---

We're now at 1991 for Sega systems:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/916377-genesis/79087059

[Bregalad]

Final Fantasy I has 21 separate tracks, in total. That is kind of a lot for a NES game of 1987, and it never seems to waste a track. Each song is specifically used for a purpose, throughout the game, and the songs that it does reuse are clear as to why they are being reused. The Castle Of Ordeals and the Northwest Castle may have battles to fight in them, but they are in fact, Castles. Matoya's Cave, the Dwarf Cave, the Waterfall Cave and the Ice Cavern are all caves which don't necessarily have any kind of oppressive strategic placement or weather condition in them.

You're overthinking this. FF1 plays music based on the graphic assets it loads. Whenever graphical assets are re-used, the music is re-used as well. You can see this in the disassembly.

[PresidentLeever]

Alright, doing SNES games as well now:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/916396-super-nintendo/79088374

[Spooniest]

You're overthinking this. FF1 plays music based on the graphic assets it loads. Whenever graphical assets are re-used, the music is re-used as well. You can see this in the disassembly.

  Fascinating! Yeah I guess I am overthinking it, but without foreknowledge such as you have, I guess I was presuming too much.

[PresidentLeever]

1992 Sega games:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/916377-genesis/79093087

[DocStrangelove]

About Mega Man 1 Wily 1...

I get a strong Depeche Mode vibe from this one. The chord progression is textbook flamenco, but that is as ubiquitous in modern music as the blues pattern, so it hardly deserves mention. The reason why I mention it anyway is the lovely little detail that the melody on top uses the major second when moving up, but the minor second when moving down again, which gives it just that little bit of extra flamenco touch in my opinion.

As for best music, this is actually my favourite track in the entire Mega Man series, narrowly beating even MM2 Wily 1. It's even my favourite NES tune. One thing that makes MM1 special to me is that it can be almost gloomy at times, in contrast to the more upbeat/colourful nature of all later games. Those were filled with cutesy animal robots while the sparsely populated/more robotic MM1 could feel somewhat lonely and isolated. Now of course you might think why in the world that would be a good thing, or if that was even intended or just a side effect of its relatively unpolished nature.

But still it gives me a mood that none of the later games has, and the bitter-sweet-sad Wily 1 theme absolutely nails that feeling for me.

[PresidentLeever]

Interesting, any particular Depeche Mode song? The main riff and beat sound more hard rock to me. DM has made various songs that are mostly rock though.

Yes MM1 is a bit more serious and less cartoony at times in comparison to later games, I can see that. But as you say it also feels like a result of the aesthetics not being fully developed yet. Anyway, MM1 Wily 1 is a nice tune for what it is and doesn't end up feeling too repetitive as you're playing the game.

My fave from that year has to be After Burner II's title track.

[DocStrangelove]

Interesting, any particular Depeche Mode song?

No particular song, just the feel, the mood of it. If DM played it on a gig (with their instruments and vocals of course) it wouldn't feel out of place at all in my opinion. But that may be just me. It's one of the few game soundtracks that I just couldn't stop listening to after looking it up on Youtube, resonates really well with me.

edit:

Yes MM1 is a bit more serious and less cartoony at times in comparison to later games, I can see that. But as you say it also feels like a result of the aesthetics not being fully developed yet.

I just read an Inafune interview from 2005 about Mega Man Powered Up!, that PSP MM1 remake with the chibi style. My initial reaction to that was "omg what did they do to my Mega Man" but Inafune said that was what he actually wanted the original game to look like. It just looked the way it did because he didn't have the hardware to realise his vision. So I guess MM1 feeling somewhat more serious was completely unintended.

[PresidentLeever]

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that PSP version. It's so... saccarine and sort of sterile at the same time. I might still play it at some point though.
Then again it might represent how he changed his view of what classic Mega Man should be over the years, and after the MMX series.

[Spooniest]

[T]he melody on top uses the major second when moving up, but the minor second when moving down again

So I think what you're talking about is the intervals of the two melodies of the main riff?

Harmny - A  A  B  C# B  A   <---All major 2nds.
Melody - F# F# Ab A  Ab F#  <---F# to Ab is a major 2nd, but Ab to A is minor.

No, wait a minute. Now I get what you're saying, because it takes this riff, then steps down the F# minor scale on all the notes each change, making it into a sequential pattern. Then it does the same thing all over again, with a

A ~ ~ ~ * A - Ab ~ ~ ~ A - F# ~ ~ ~ F# - F ~ ~ ~

Wailing synth line on the top of it. A to Ab (minor 2nd), A to F# (minor 3rd), then another minor 2nd from F# to F.

You "hear" the Ab right before the F# in this wailing note section, because your brain just "wants" it to be there, but it's not actually there