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NES: R-O-C-K in the N-E-S? For many gamers, the NES was their first exposure to quality video game music.
Video game music (VGM) has come a long way from its bleeps and bloops of yore. Early arcade games had brief snatches of music, but no real memorable melodies. Out of the early home video game systems, the first real mainstream console to feature consistently memorable video game music scores was the Nintendo Entertainment System. While some view the old-school chiptune sound of the NES era as childish and simplistic, they would be greatly mistaken-- because of the limited range of electronic "instruments" available, these compositions featured truly unique melodies combined with a stylish chunky electronic synth to create a sound many enjoy.

While it's not actually a game, I thought our readers might enjoy taking Jake Mandell's hearing test. It's a free FLASH application that takes about 6 minutes to go through. I'd suggest wearing headphones and turning off the iTunes before starting, though. It's more fun than you think! Hopefully you folks haven't been blasting your eardrums with to many SID files cranked to 11...Link via Gizmodo.

Since discussion on video-game music has been quite the subject I thought I'd bring the following to your attention. A coproduction between Micromusic Netherlands and Productiehuis Oost-Nederland (ON) sprung to life a project with members of the Dutch Riciotti ensemble and conductor Bas Wiegers for a real classical C64 Orchestra. Micro Music and ON approached two of the most experienced C64-composers of the 1980's, Rob Hubbard and Jeroen Tel. The Dutch Ricciotti ensemble will perform their music, with scoring done by Rob Hubbard himself. The game scores that are to be performed include the following Rob Hubbard compositions: Monty on the Run, One Man And His Droid and International Karate. Also Jeroen Tel's Cybernoid II, Hawkeye, Myth and Supremacy will be performed.

Error Macro has a blog up that's so funny it'll have you in tears: The Worst Songs in Videogames. The author has really done some great work here, both in selecting these horrid numbers and actually sampling them for your listening, er, torture? In actuality, these are really hilarious, and it brings to mind all those suits and culturally clueless Japanese business overlords who gave this crap the thumb's up.

Protonic StormTo put it mildly, I'm a big fan of electronic and computer music. Please don't confuse that with techno, dance, trance, or house music. While I have nothing against these other sub-genres of electronic music, I, er, don't listen to them. Think instead of acts like Tangerine Dream (my hero), Klaus Schulze, Vangelis, Jarre, and, to some extent, Kraftwerk. However, my latest obsession is with a genre I've recently discovered: Space Synth. What's great about this genre is that unlike most electronica, these tunes actually have melodies (i.e., you'll be humming them for weeks after you've heard them). I think I've found where all the talent ended up that lost mass consumer appeal in the late 80s! At any rate, I've found a website where you can sample some excellent space synth and see what you think.