Which VGM was the first that really made you listen?

[Dissidia]

Final Fantasy, used to listen to midi versions of it because of slow modem internet. Good times. Somehow those midis managed to sound better than the FF7 PC rerelease.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

Street Fighter Alpha, Twisted Metal, Jet Moto 2 and Tekken 3 on the PS1 were the soundtracks that did it for me.

I remember my parent's bought a Playstation and we got all of those games except Tekken at a video store that had a clearance sale on games. Prior to that I never paid any attention to music in games because all we had was an NES and it sounded to me like meaningless beeps and bloops. On the PS1 though, you had CD quality music and you could put the game into a CD player and let the badassery flow forth from thy speakers.

I think my PS1 games spent more time in stereos than in the console.

[Esperado]

the first song the really captivated me was scars of time from chrono cross, but i didnt play the game until years later, so i would say might and magic 7, worlds of xeen , and heroes of might and magic. I would play specific areas of the game just to hear the music and not do what i was supposed to. might and magic games have vastly under appreciated music.

[Necrox]

Music players on the GBA versions of FF1&2, FF4, FF5, and the two GBA Fire Emblem games.

[Aeronaut]

I distinctly remember starting a new Golden Sun file and squinting at my old GBA screen long enough to purposefully get to the point where "The Elemental Stars" is played.

[Melbu Frahma]

I would play specific areas of the game just to hear the music and not do what i was supposed to. might and magic games have vastly under appreciated music.

Gotta second this - I've often dreamed of seeing a M&M6/M&M7 combined arrangement album.

[Final Kingdom]

SotN and Sonic Adventure were the two games that I remember playing and really falling in love with the majority of the soundtrack. I would always hum along to the music when I played those games, but it didn't impact me right away. I remember the music of those two games as being really intricate and way more interesting than other games I was playing at the time. What really got me to listening to VG music was a piano cover video of Sonic the Hedgehog. Hearing someone play almost every part of 16-bit music on a piano really opened up my ears and led me to become a musician.

Once I started listening to VG music for real, I immediately fell in love with Final Fantasy music. Then I discovered Kingdom Hearts, and the rest is kind of history. (I love me some Squeenix, don't judge me.) I find that any game with awesome storytelling has great music too.

[KyleJCrb]

Street Fighter Alpha, Twisted Metal, Jet Moto 2 and Tekken 3 on the PS1 were the soundtracks that did it for me.

I remember my parent's bought a Playstation and we got all of those games except Tekken at a video store that had a clearance sale on games. Prior to that I never paid any attention to music in games because all we had was an NES and it sounded to me like meaningless beeps and bloops. On the PS1 though, you had CD quality music and you could put the game into a CD player and let the badassery flow forth from thy speakers.

I think my PS1 games spent more time in stereos than in the console.

Oh man, Twisted Metal and Jet Moto had such good music. Really glad someone brought those up because those were definitely soundtracks that bring back a lot of childhood memories for me.

[Mirby]

DKC2, definitely. FF4 was another big one, along with FF7 (Battle with the Four Fiends and Still More Fighting still rank among my all-time favorite VG tunes). And some Mega Man X also (and MM2, but for Wood Man's stage, not Wily Stage 1).

[Arrow]

I've been trying to think all the way back to the first VGM that honestly made me listen for extended periods of time, even going as far as loading the game's sound test, and it's probably Richard Jacques' Saturn OST for Sonic 3D Blast. Rusty Ruin Act 1, especially, struck me as an amazingly atmospheric song that made me sit up and take notice. I'd obviously listened to plenty before that as I started gaming with Super Mario Bros. 1 and have fond memories of the Sonic series and Shining Force II on Genesis as well as Sonic CD, but Saturn S3DB is where the paradigm shifted for me.

[Flexstyle]

Rayman. I had the first one for PC, and it was redbook audio. I could just chuck it into my CD player and listen to that glorious soundtrack over and over. I also had a few other games, like a superbike racer and an F1 racer that also had redbook audio. Listened to those things so many times as a kid....

[RiverSound]

Mega Man 2 - Oh man Mega Man 2 rocked my socks.

Hell yes.

Megaman 2, 4 and 6

Coming to think of it, listening to and comparing the songs in these Megaman games with my older brother is actually one of my earliest clear memories.

I remember letting the stage select music from Megaman 4 loop over and over, hanging out in Wily stage 1, dancing to the Flash Man theme etc.

I must have been 4-5 years old at the time, way before I even knew anything about commercial music and pop songs on the radio and whatnot. So VGM is officially the first kind of music that really made me listen.

Edited November 18, 2013 by RiverSound

[AngelCityOutlaw]

Oh man, Twisted Metal and Jet Moto had such good music. Really glad someone brought those up because those were definitely soundtracks that bring back a lot of childhood memories for me.

Hell yeah. The main theme to the first Twisted Metal was one of the first songs I remember learning to play by ear on guitar and Slickrock Gorge from Jet Moto 2 is still among my favorite rock tracks in video games ever.

I recently downloaded Jet Moto 2 on PSN....damn, that game was hard. It would be amazing if they rebooted it F Zero GX style.

[Mak Eightman]

1. Battle toads & Double dragon

2. Megaman - Cutman stage

3. AMAZING music from "ike ike hockey" and "goal 3" (nekketsu/kunion)

Actually I started to listen music from any game i play after Battle toads and double dragon. More then that, I choose game to by because of music sometimes.

edit: memory... kinda hard to remember something. But now I think Tetris was the first one, I was 7-8..

Edited November 18, 2013 by Mak Eightman

[Tables]

One of the first games I remember getting was Pokemon Yellow, and that whole game made a huge impact on me, but the music especially. There were many times where I'd just do nothing but just let the music go - and that's why I stood still on Route 4 for hours, or fell asleep to the sounds of Saffron City (yes, the battery died... it sucked at the time but hey as a kid you have plenty of time to make up lost process).

Other music that caught my attention as a kid: Crash Bandicoot, Jet Moto (hell yes whoever mentioned it), Super Smash Bros., Donkey Kong 64, Banjo Tooie, and Majora's Mask (I didn't play Kazooie or Ocarina until later in life, go figure). Oh and the Metal Gear Solid OST... I never played the game itself until my late teens, but that soundtrack burrowed its way into my mind just from hearing my step-dad play the game. Even now, that little Konami jingle (the Policenauts one) gives me nostalgic shivers

Edited November 18, 2013 by Tables

[Argle]

Rayman. I had the first one for PC, and it was redbook audio. I could just chuck it into my CD player and listen to that glorious soundtrack over and over.

the Rayman soundtrack was astonishing back in the early 90s, given that many PC games were plodding along with horrible General MIDI soundtracks. Even to this day it sounds polished and high quality.

[Doulifée]

Flashback on genesis.

[GrapplingHook]

Toss up that's a bit hard to call, because I played/heard them all around the same time.

Either Donkey Kong Country, Mega Man X, or Sonic & Knuckles when their respective consoles were getting cheaper and my poor friends and I started to have access to them.

X had a sound test, and I very clearly remember being upset that X 2 didn't.

[SystemsReady]

Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The first few times I hit Icecap Zone, I found myself starting the game in the morning before walking to class just so I could listen to the theme and get it stuck in my head!

So naturally, the first OCRemix album I came across was Project Chaos. :3

[Annie Felis]

I never wanted a video game soundtrack until I played Final Fantasy 7. Yeah, that seems rather late, but I was stuck playing crap shovelware on Genesis until I could buy things with my own money. Otherwise, if I had gotten a SNES like all the other kids, probably Secret of Mana, FF6 or Super Metroid.

[wildfire]

For me, I think it was Ecco 2: The Tides of Time for Game Gear. Terrible game, great (but short) soundtrack. My search for a Vortex Future remix was what brought me to OCR in the first place, and since I couldn't find one it ended up being my first full remix.

[DarkSim]

5. Pinball Fantasies

This one (originally an Amiga title) also played MOD music right through the PC speaker. The boombastic intro tune made a huge impression and I was mighty pleased to have another game playing great music without a sound card. Digital Illusions came from the demoscene which shows in the excellent soundtrack.

--Eino

So glad you mentioned this! One of the first games that came to mind for me was Pinball Dreams, also on the Amiga. I've tried to remix 3 tunes from that soundtrack, but every time I don't feel like I can do them justice. Same with Zool 2, which had a fantastic soundtrack as well. Digger T Rock on the NES was hard as nails, but the soundtrack made it all worthwhile. I later found out it was composed by none other than (Sir) David Wise.