Welcome, to the first edition of Retro Thursday!
Today, composers of video game music have all the modern freedoms offered, including an almost unlimited amount of memory to take advantage of. Where as games of the 8-Bit era, like the original Super Mario Bros., were limited by the memory of yesteryears cartridges.
Nintendo cartridges were only 4-6 megabytes in size...which had to be shared amongst all departments!
It's a testament to the talent of composers in the 80's as they managed to pull off some amazing and engrossing music with a fraction of that 4 Mb. Music that pushed Nintendo's 8-bit console and the minds behind the music to their limits.
WIth this week's Retro Thursday, I'd like to spotlight a few NES music tracks that have really stuck with me since the 80's/early 90's and in my opinion, have stood the test-of-time wonderfully. Each track being just as catchy today as it was 25 years ago. These are not remixed/updated chip tunes, these are the original tracks as they were presented in the games.
Game: Silver Surfer (NES, 1990)
Song: Level One Theme
Composer: Timothy John Follin
Game: DuckTales (NES, 1989)
Song: Moon Theme
Composer: Yoshihiro Sakaguchi
Game: Mega Man 2 (NES, 1989)
Song: Dr. Wily Stage 1
Composer: Takashi Tateishi
The track from Dr. Wily Stage in Mega Man 2 is my favorite out of these three in the spotlight today. Do you have a favorite? Stay tuned for more upcoming Retro Thursdays, where all things retro-gaming will be talked about!
Have Your Say!
Are you into old-school game-music? Is there some retro game-music or retro games in general you'd like to see get the spotlight on a future Retro Thursday? Let me know in the comments below!
