Video game music

Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led to the style of music known as chiptune, which became the sound of the first video games. With technological advances, video game music has grown to include a wider range of sounds. Players can hear music in video games over a game's title screen, menus, and gameplay. Game soundtracks can also change depending on a player's actions or situation, such as indicating missed actions in rhythm games, informing the player they are in a dangerous situation, or rewarding them for specific achievements. Video game music can be one of two kinds: original or licensed. The popularity of video game music has created education and job opportunities, generated awards, and led video game soundtracks to be commercially sold and performed in concerts. Chiptune and Music Macro LanguageAt the time video games had emerged as a popular form of entertainment in the late 1970s, music was stored on physical media in analog waveforms such as compact cassettes and phonograph records. Such components were expensive and prone to breakage under heavy use, making them less than ideal for use in an arcade cabinet, though in rare cases such as Journey, they were used. A more affordable method of having music in a video game was to use digital means, where a specific computer chip would change electrical impulses from computer code into analog sound waves on the fly for output on a speaker. Sound effects for the games were also generated in this fashion. An early example of such an approach to video game music was the opening chiptune in Tomohiro Nishikado's Gun Fight (1975). While this allowed for the inclusion of music in early arcade video games, it was usually monophonic, looped or used sparingly between stages or at the start of a new game, such as the Namco titles Pac-Man (1980) composed by Toshio Kai or Pole Position (1982) composed by Nobuyuki Ohnogi.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related concepts (36)

Related courses (4)

Related lectures (23)

HUM-313: Musicology and history of music C

Ce cours propose d'étudier les rapports entre musique classique et cinéma à travers deux scénarios : a) musiques préexistantes extraites du répertoire classique (Bach, Beethoven, Ligeti, etc.) b) œuvr

HUM-380: Video games and gamification

Ce cours propose d'acquérir des compétences en étude du jeu vidéo et en game design, tout en invitant les étudiant.e.s à mettre leurs connaissances au service d'un projet collectif de gamification d'u

HUM-304: Video games and society

Ce cours constitue une introduction à l'approche sociologique de la culture à travers l'analyse du secteur des jeux vidéo. Il mobilise les principales approches de l'analyse de la production et des pu

In the history of video games, the fourth generation of video game consoles, more commonly referred to as the 16-bit era, began on October 30, 1987, with the Japanese release of NEC Home Electronics' PC Engine (known as the TurboGrafx-16 in North America). Though NEC released the first console of this era, sales were mostly dominated by the rivalry between Sega and Nintendo across most markets: the Sega Mega Drive (Sega Genesis in North America) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES; Super Famicom in Japan).

Chiptune (also known as chip music, 8-bit music, or 16-bit music) is a style of synthesized electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The term is commonly used to refer to tracker format music using extremely basic and small samples that an old computer or console could produce (this is the original meaning of the term), as well as music that combines PSG sounds with modern musical styles.

is a 1995 role-playing video game developed and published by Square. It was originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as the first game in the Chrono series. The game's development team included three designers that Square dubbed the "Dream Team": Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Square's Final Fantasy series; Yuji Horii, creator of Enix's Dragon Quest series; and Akira Toriyama, character designer of Dragon Quest and author of the Dragon Ball manga series.

Reflections of Melancholy HUM-241: Science and literature A

Explores the subtle use of melancholy in Hollow Knight, creating a profound and emotional gaming experience.

Gamification: Introduction and Techniques HUM-380: Video games and gamification

Introduces the history and techniques of gamification in various contexts.

Stress and Strain in Structural Mechanics ME-104: Introduction to structural mechanics

Explores stress, strain, elasticity, fracture, and equilibrium in structural mechanics.