First VGM you ever heard and got you into hearing VGM's

[Binarynova]

I've been loving VGM since I first played Super Mario Bros. But the first OST that really blew my mind and has stuck with me ever since was Crystalis (the NES version of course).

But one fond memory I have, from FFVI, was walking into the Magitek Research Facility in Vector, hearing Devil's Lab for the first time and putting down my controller to listen for a few minutes. I was in awe. Subsequently, "Kefka's Domain" was my first VGM OST purchase.

EDIT: Oh someone mentioned Nintendo Power. I still have my "Play it Loud" OST with selections from Star Fox, Yoshi's Island, A Link to the Past, and a couple others. And it's on my iPhone.

[Sindra]

The soundtrack to the original Sonic the Hedgehog game. I was 6, so I kept dying over and over, but was too stubborn to just give up, so I was listening to the same songs over and over. Kinda ingrained itself into my psyche forever.

[The Coop]

Darius- "Captain Neo"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EoD5D4pfgo

... followed shortly thereafter by Darius- "Cosmic Airway" as I got farther into the game...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6dyfmA3ssk

[Less Ashamed Of Self]

Secret of Evermore - Menu Theme is up there.

The Secret of Monkey Island, Super Mario Kart...

Echoing DKC & DKC2, Plok, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger... all were on a cassette at one point. (Most were rentals? How else was I going to preserve them?)

But the sleeper hit was Earthbound. That one took a good decade for me to really appreciate it's brilliance.

Also; I only skimmed it... has anyone else bitched about the fact that the title of this thread isn't very grammatically correct?

Video Game Music's? Isn't VGM plural because M is already plural?

[AkumajoBelmont]

Definitely when I was seven, The Ballad of the Windfish.

Ballad of the Windfish, man.

That song makes me cry... it's extremely beautiful, and one of my absolute favourites. Especially that unofficial Super Smash Brothers Brawl version... wow.

Now this wasn't the very first VGM track I ever heard, but the 2 tracks that got me into game music was Starlight Zone from Sonic The Hedgehog and The Boss theme from Castle of Illusion.

It was at that point I began recording all my Mega Drive games soundtracks to cassette tape via the Mega Drive's awesome stereo headphone jack.

Those were the days... anything was possible. Damn, I'm getting old...

[Altermentality]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned pokemon yet. Pokemon Red was one of my first video games, and the music was(is) just amazing to me. Some pieces of music from Generation 1 STILL have not been remixed right, imo...

Yeah, it may not be the most phenomenal vgm ever, but it deserves more love than it gets and there's a lot of potential within its simplicity. Especially considering the associations many people of my generation have with it. Those games really ignited my imagination when I was younger, and I'm certainly filled with a strong sense of adventure whenever I hear it again, especially a good remix of it.

[Eino Keskitalo]

My friends had consoles, at home we had a PC without a soundcard. I had heard some great NES and C64 tunes before I really recognized them as a separate and important part of the game goodness.. I believe I enjoyed musics that were good, but can't really name a favourite soundtrack. So I guess mine are 16-bit games:

Street Fighter II, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest and FF4 on SNES. I think Mystic Quest was the point where the penny dropped and I really started paying proper attention to VGM.

Star Control 2 and Pinball Fantasies on PC - not least because of that they both played MOD music on the PC speaker.. (!!!) (Actually, some great beeper melodies:

).

Shining Force II on the Megadrive/Genesis deserves a mention as well.

I'd like to think I was a fan of Castle of Illusion, Wonder Boy III and Sonic the Hedgehog soundtracks on the Sega Master System, but probably not (great as they are). I was a fan of the games themselves, though.

edit: How did I forget Link to the Past?! I like how the beginning of the game has just the rain atmosphere, it kind of makes you pay attention to the soundtrack more. Link's Awakening on Game Boy was great too.

editedit: Hehe, except that it does have music except for a very brief bit in the beginning. Well, nice rain effect anyhow.

--Eino

[Vilecat]

I used to play some games over and over even if I sucked at it, just because I enjoyed the music (Dragon Warrior, Faxanadu, Mickey's Mousecapade, Wonderboy 1&2, etc.) during the 8-bit era.

It's more during the 16-bit era with my Genesis and SNES that I started listening to the songs with the option menu, or by exploring stages. I clearly recall spending hours just swimming around doing flips in Ecco The Dolphin's intro stage, or keeping Sonic 2's Hidden Palace song playing for a good hour.

And then we got our first PC. Diablo's Tristram, Starcraft's Terran theme (the only race I hated playing), Grim Fandango's entire soundtrack... And that's also when I was finally able to play GB and GBC games. Pokemon Blue was my first.

I was thrilled the day I found vgmusic.com. And then about all those game sound files that my Winamp could play with just a plugin or 2. I now make people discover good soundtrack of games I haven't even played.

[zykO]

legend of zelda title theme, 1986

[Zen Frazier]

It was at that point I began recording all my Mega Drive games soundtracks to cassette tape via the Mega Drive's awesome stereo headphone jack.

Those were the days... anything was possible. Damn, I'm getting old...

I used to do that too, loved the headphone jack. In fact I still have my own "gamerip" version of the Dune soundtrack recorded this way years later (line-in to my laptop though, not cassette). There was (is?) a soundtrack rip done by Grawl somewhere but I found the timing of the tracks to be off (i.e. higher BPM than the in-game sounded). I spent so many hours playing Dune I know the rhythm and pacing by heart, and my line-out recorded version captures it exactly as I remember.

Someone above mentioned Shining Force II - this was also one I loved and recorded to cassette. And Streets of Rage. Classic!

[tom1uphat]

Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Back when my best friend got the game, we were about 3 years old. We sucked too much to beat the part in Chemical Plant Zone 2 where you need to climb up the stairs that filled up with the purple water, so we would spend hours on the first two levels of the game. So about five songs will remain ingrained into my mind until I die.

[MisterBiggler]

i mean i couldn't forget tunes from dkc 2 and mario rpg and other games on the snes and genesis but the first game that really got me listening to game ost's was star fox 64, particularly the

. when i heard it, i thought, "are games supposed to sound like this?" i think it was the first time i really paid attention to game music. the strings, the brass, the percussion -- surprised me how much seemingly went into a song for a game.

incidentally, a friend of mine had grabbed the ost soon after this and kindly dubbed me a copy, and i listened to it constantly for weeks on the bus to/from school, while doin' hwk, etc. after this, it was ocarina of time and then i went back old school and started searching for ost's for megaman x games and the dkc's, sonic, secret of mana, etc, but this one got me started.

[noTuX]

My first one was the Underground theme from SMB. For some reason, I liked it. And then, when they remixed it on SMB3, I went crazy. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. So, since then, I've been paying close attention to VGM, but I didn't started collect VGM soundtracks until a couple of years ago.

[Lint]

Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, Zelda 1 & 2, and the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade games music are the first VGM I can recall hearing.

Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire, Super Street Fighter 2, Warcraft 2, and Mega Man X are probably responsible for getting me into listening to the music - well, that and hanging out around the Godfather's Pizza arcade cabinets whenever I could.

I didn't really get into finding/ripping soundtracks until the great time of Napster.