Best chiptune/gaming-inspired music?
Best chiptune/gaming-inspired music?
I'm trying to expand my library of classic game/game-inspired music. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I'm including some music that I particularly enjoy for reference.
Aethernaut - Neo-SF strut from 2064: Read-Only Memories.
20XX from 20XX.
Forest Mystery from World of Horror. A bit esoteric but it's wild.
Thanks in advance for the recommendations!
Have you heard Anamanaguchi?
12Instead of chiptune inspired music, how about music that inspired chiptune ? Yellow Magic Orchestra had an important impact (namely) on '80s/'90s era video game music. Here’s Rydeen (1979).
9Hell yes I'll allow it!
Great suggestion!
4
I don't know how "pure" you want your chiptunes to be, but for my money Master Boot Record is some of the best stuff out there. I would definitely say it's at the very least gaming inspired if not pure chiptunes, and it kicks all kinds of ass. They've done a lot of covers of classic game music - Bloody Tears is a great one, as well as their cover of the Doom theme. But I really love their original stuff too. Internet Protocol is a 10/10 album to me.
Slightly less chiptunes but still absolutely gaming inspired is their side project Keygen Church. Tenebre Rosso Sangue from the Ultrakill soundtrack is probably their best known track. It's sort of a chiptunes adjacent castlevania-metal vibe? It's hard to describe but it absolutely destroys.
8Thank you for the recommendations! I'm starting with Internet Protocol and digging it already!
3
Toby fox has been in my top listens for the last 3 years at least.
EX-LYD is full of bops
Gooseworx is nice
Leon Chang has some good ones.
Ben briggs too.
A_rival
Nick Nitro
I like to throw all the songs of a certain type i like into a spotify playlist and use the playlist radio to add more and find many other artists
7And then listening to those brought me into some EDM electro pop hyper beat ish genre, so:
USAO, Camellia, Meganeko, Shirobon, Zekk, and many more
4
Chipzel has already gotten a mention, but I have to say her stuff is fantastic, especially Chipped of the Necrodancer and Super Hexagon.
Developer Konjak (Joakim Sandberg) did good work on the Noitu Love 2: Devolution soundtrack, which is a free download (zip file) from his website and is very chiptune. The actual link on the website's main page has an errant slash at the end that has to be deleted for the download to work. Some of the album can be found on YouTube if you want a preview.
Another banger chiptune to go for comes from Zircon and the work he did for the Demon Truck Soundtrack, especially The Devil's Mudflap. It's 16-bit Genesis goodness, and the game is pretty fun! Zircon's done stuff for several games and is generally an all-around musical badass.
Herbert Weixelbaum's Tanzmusik on the album 8-Bit Operators: The Music of Kraftwerk is a total earworm. The album is full of good chiptunes, but that one's my personal favorite.
You might also enjoy Adventure by Adventure. Very upbeat and energetic stuff.
Lastly, I have to give a shoutout to Zweihänder. All his stuff is pretty good, and much of it game-inspired.
Enjoy!
7Chipzel has already gotten a mention, but I have to say her stuff is fantastic, especially Chipped of the Necrodancer and Super Hexagon.
Don't forget the Dicey Dungeon soundtrack. I'd love to hear some real-life rendition of Swing Me Another 6.
2
Some radios:
6Anything by Ben Prunty https://benprunty.bandcamp.com/
5Scott Pilgrim vs. The World video game soundtrack by anamanaguchi Undertale and Deltarune soundtracks
5SCvTW is a good gateway into Anamanaguchi, but their other albums are great, too.
3
I'm surprised that Chipzel (of Super Hexagon soundtrack fame) has yet to be mentioned: https://chipzelmusic.bandcamp.com/
4I recently discovered IsabelleChiming and I am in love. They do remakes of classic gaming soundtracks.
https://isabellechiming.bandcamp.com/album/the-legend-of-zelda-remade
https://isabellechiming.bandcamp.com/album/zelda-ii-the-adventure-of-link-remade
...and I wrote the soundtrack to the recent Game Boy Color homebrew game, Dangan GB2, if you're interested... 👀
4IsabelleChiming is easily one of my favorites by far too! She's fantastic.
3
Not exactly like the ones you oncluded, but I really like this one: Challenger - Lemmino
4Ooo I like that. Thanks for the suggestion!
1
If you want to combine chiptune with sea shanties The Longest Johns have an album that is all chip tune version of sea shanties. It's called Commodore 1864.
4these are more rock than chiptune, but very much video game inspired!
4Crawl OST by Alex Yoder. All his other stuff is pretty good as well, but this one is my absolute favorite. Too bad he doesn't release stuff very often.
4Not sure if it's totally your vibe, but Machinae Supremacy is more on the rock/metal side of gaming themed music with a lot of C64 chiptune layers.
"Indiscriminate Murder is Counter-Productive" is one of my faves from them.
3Sidology 1 & 2 are both pretty good. Anthem Apocalyptica holds a special place in my heart, though.
2
Rainbowdragoneyes makes good chiptune music (no fusion). Very underappreciated, it feels like.
Edit: added link
3Old, but I think at least inspired or adjacent: Apparat Organ Quartet - Romantika
3- 3
I like trotus and the Gameboy
2Tokyo Machine!
2I compiled a pretty funky mix out of my chiptune favourites. Check it out if you want to.
1I initially thought you had terrible taste in music after listening to the first song... I had NewPipe set to 2.0× speed.
Whoops!
Thanks for the recs, OP and everyone else.
1