Brief History of Music for Games
The limitations in the number of sound channels of the first generation of computers that allowed the users to play video games forced this industry to fall behind in quality compared to the music for films and TV.
The CPC used the General Instrument AY-3-8912 sound chip, providing three channels, each configurable to generate square waves, white noise or both. A small array of hardware volume envelopes are available.
Output was provided in mono by a small (4 cm) built-in loudspeaker with volume control, driven by an unusually powerful amplifier. Stereo output was provided through a 3.5mm headphone jack, not present on some early CPC464 models. In those models, what looked like a standard 3.5" headphone jack was actually used for connecting an external tape recorder, although later models used a five-pin DIN connector for the same purpose.
Playback of digital sound samples at a resolution of a little better than 5-bit, as heard on the title screen of the game RoboCop, was possible through clever programming of the sound chip. This trick was very processor intensive and hard to combine with any other processing (Wikipedia).
One of the most popular games for the 8-bit home computer series Amstrad CPC was Contra. Contra is the first game in the series. Many of the series' conventions such as power-ups, two-player cooperative gameplay and the character's light mobility (including somersaults) were already present in this game. The game is composed of traditional side-view stages that scroll either vertically or horizontally, as well as "3D view" stages in which the player moves towards the backgrounds. The NES version is essentially identical to the arcade version in terms of content, but has longer stages and other modifications. In Japan, the Famicom version uses the VRC2 chip, which allowed for additional background animation and cut-scenes not included in its North American and European NES counterparts. An MSX2 version was also produced that is drastically different from the other two versions. Several computer versions were done outside Japan, by Ocean in Europe for the C64, CPC and ZX, and by Banana Software in North America for DOS based PCs (Wikipedia)
Some sorts of music had been included in games before Super Mario Bros came out (1980) However, the great score created by Kaji Kondo for Nintendo’s title marked the dawn of a new era for video game music.
Arguably the most recognizable theme song in video game music, the Super Mario Bros theme, officially known as "Ground Theme" or "Overworld Theme", has a calypso rhythm as its main musical characteristic (September 13, 1985)
Nobou Uematsu, considered for many as the greatest video game composer, scored in 1987 the soundtrack for the Final Fantasy universe.
All Sounds of Final Fantasy I•II, a compilation of almost all of the music in the games, was released by DataM/Polystar in 1989, and subsequently re-released by NTT Publishing in 1994 (Wikipedia)
Both Super Mario Bros and Final Fantasy employed 8 bit music tracks. Today this audio quality limitations aren't present even in the cheapest mobile phones, but the hardware of the computers at the time were very limited!
The Sound Blaster 1.0 was released in 1989. In addition to Game Blaster features, it had an 11-voice FM synthesizer using the Yamaha YM3812 chip, also known as OPL2. Creative used the "DSP" acronym to designate the digital audio part of the Sound Blaster. This actually stood for Digital Sound Processor, rather than the more common digital signal processor, and was really a simple micro-controller from the Intel MCS-51 family (supplied by Intel and Matra MHS, among others). It could play back 8 bit monaural sampled sound at up to 23 kHz sampling frequency and record 8-bit at up to 12 kHz. The sole DSP-like features of the circuit were ADPCM decompression and a primitive non-MPU-401 compatibile MIDI interface. The ADPCM decompression schemes supported were 2 to 1, 3 to 1 and 4 to 1. The CT1320B variety of the Sound Blaster 1.0 has C/MS chips installed in sockets rather than soldered on the PCB.
Early video game music from the 80s and 90s was composed exclusively using MIDI sounds. But in the late 90s and early 2000s this changed. The PlayStation game “Heart of Darkness” (1998) made history as the first video game to contain music recorded by an actual orchestra. It was composed by Bruce Broughton.
Heart of Darkness main theme, Bruce Broughton, 1998.
The possibility of including CD quality music in video games opened the doors of creativity for many composers that had been limited by the quality of the outdated MIDI sound pallet of the time. Virtually almost any genre could now be included in a game’s soundtrack, as well as other types of composition, such as atmospheric sounds.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance Soundtrack - Spectral Ambience (2003)
Today’s video game music is formed by masterly crafted pieces of interactive music. From classical orchestrations to pop, minimal, electronic music, or a mix of some of these. Famous film composers such as Hans Zimmer have scored video game music and are currently on demand for future projects.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Opening Titles composed by Hans Zimmer (2009)
The latest great addition to the video game music field are the audio middleware software programs. The most popular of these are Wwise and FMod, used by the majority of AAA (triple A) games. These programs serve as an intermediary for implementing the sound FX and music from the DAW to the game's engine through them.
Audio middleware software FMod. Used in games such as World of Warcraft.
Audio middleware software Wwise. Used in games such as Battlefield 1.
Time will tell what’s next for this ever changing part of the musical territory! Would you like me to write a specific music article? Let me know in the comments below :)
