Introduction:
The following research began in 2023 and emerged via a growing curiosity and love towards video game music. I grew up in the 1990s when video game arcade machines, consoles, and computers coexisted and constantly evolved with new and exciting technological advancements. As someone who had the opportunity to play many of the available 8-bit and 16-bit video game machines in the United States in what society coined the “Console Wars,” that experience enabled me to develop an appreciation for the respective hardware. (Some people within gaming communities online still use the term "Console Wars," albeit to refer to older and current video game consoles: primarily to initiate arguments and spread toxic behavior by demonstrating the “superiority” of one game console over another.) This appreciation not only applied to the graphical processing capabilities and media formatting (from cartridges to CD-ROMs and exclusively digital releases), but also to the aural possibilities via music and sound effects. In recent years, I have noticed that video game music has created a lasting impact on popular culture and history. Musical artists like Button Masher have received positive recognition and awards for arranging video game music by using video game audio hardware from the 1980s and 90s or approximate emulations. The Library of Congress has also contributed to video game music by officially archiving the “Overworld/Above Ground Theme” from Super Mario Bros, (1985) in early 2023.
I have also noticed myriad instances involving the globality and cultural connections with video game music to Iberia (Spain and Portugal), Latin America, and the Caribbean. Previous discussions on my blog have candidly addressed these connections through games like the Uncharted Waters “Turn-Based Strategy” series, as well as other games from the 1980s, 90s, and beyond. The current research presented in my investigative work aims to illustrate more cultural links in greater detail via an ongoing compilation. I attempt to locate and add video game music (VGM) tracks that incorporate music cultures from Iberia, Latin America, and the Caribbean through genres or instrumentation. [I use “Caribbean” within the context of the current research to refer to the multiple colonial and linguistic influences in the region: Hispanophone (Spanish-speaking), Francophone (French-speaking), Anglophone (British English-speaking), and others.] I consider this music within ethnographic contexts regarding cultural ownership, representation, and creativity by referring to extant and relevant academic literature whenever possible. Concerning the creative aspects involved in video game music, I have written about the basics behind video game Audio Processing Units (APUs) in the 1980s and 90s. The VGM compilation project also seeks to demonstrate the ways in which Latin American communities get represented in video games and video game music, as well as how these communities try to represent themselves in video games by demonstrating cultural respect.
On Linguistic Parameters, Ludomusicology, and the Current State of Video Game (and Video Game Music) Preservation
I write this research primarily for audiences who speak English. With that said, however, I attempt to incorporate a multilingual approach by presenting certain terms or genres (musical or otherwise) in the Spanish or Portuguese languages. I refer to both the European and Latin American variants of these languages to demonstrate their differences in vocabulary and pronunciation.
Literature concerning video game music research, more commonly known in academia as ludomusicology, has existed since the 1990s and has continued to expand throughout the twenty-first century. The etymology for this specific field of study combines ludology—the study of games and play, which refers to different types of games not necessarily exclusive to video games—with musicology, the history of music and music cultures. Current scholarship about ludomusicology examines video game music across multiple disciplines: technology, history, psychology, (Western) music theory, gender studies, and culture studies to name a few. Ludomusicological research often combines these disciplines to contribute to the growing academic interest in video game music: whether to understand the effects concerning interactive play and listening, or to uncover the impact of this music across cultures and generations of people (Fernández-Cortes and Cook 2021).
Researching “classic” video games and their respective soundtracks presents both an intriguing and complex endeavor for ludomusicology. Video game preservation can prove key to both accessing and analyzing this interactive media in the 2020s. Emulation has enabled people to access and play games from over the past fifty years, like arcade and console titles from Capcom, Konami, Sega, Nintendo, Atari, and others in physical or digital (intangible) compilations or online services via paid subscriptions. Some video game compilations have also given consumers the opportunity to play games via previously unreleased tiles in digital formats due to the technical limitations and availability. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration clearly illustrates this last point. Released on multiple next-generation game consoles and computers in 2022, this compilation of over one-hundred games commemorates the five decades of Atari as a one of the first video game companies and its impact on the consumer electronics market: from the Pong arcade in 1972 to the Atari Jaguar in the 1990s, as well as updated versions of select games. Atari 50 also functions like an interactive documentary and museum by including photo galleries and video interviews with people who worked at Atari, including the company founder Nolan Bushnell (b. 1943) (Atari 2022). Atari 50 has since received recent additions to the compilation via Downloadable Content (DLC) and the “Expanded Edition” from 2023 and 2024.
I do not suggest that video game emulation serves as a perfect approach to video game preservation. Video game emulations tend to contain both graphical and aural errors via artifacts not encountered on original arcade, console, or computer hardware. When such hardware gets emulated incorrectly, the result can produce glaring visual inconsistencies and odd aural effects for music and sound. The AtGames Sega Genesis Classic Game Console from 2016, for instance, features detuned soundtracks for Sonic the Hedgehog and thirty-nine other titles from the Sega Genesis game library, in addition to forty other games exclusive to the “plug-and-play” console and not officially published or licensed by Sega. Even though Sega collaborated with AtGames on that specific plug-and-play version to a certain extent, Sega eventually rereleased their own version via the Sega Genesis Mini in 2019 as a miniature console with forty emulated games with HDMI and USB capabilities for U.S. audiences. Sega released the Genesis Mini 2 several years later in 2022 (in Japan) and included sixty games from their library, including several from their Sega CD console extension to the Genesis, which initially enabled Full Motion Video (FMV) interactive cinematics and enhanced music and sound via Red Book Audio. I also do not mean that modern compilations and online gaming services do not contain problems. They, too, can suffer from odd aural situations, like with the strange “stereophonic” approach to the Game Gear titles in Sonic Origins Plus (2023) and aural sputtering with classic games from Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) (2018-Present).
Another factor to consider with ludomusicology lies in the availability and accessibility of video game soundtracks. While some places do offer tangible and intangible video game music to listen to, the selections depend on who controls the media formatting for public distribution. Music streaming services like Spotify feature VGM soundtracks from some video game publishers and developers while excluding others. They have many albums from the Sega Sound Team. Nintendo, by contrast, deviates from the norm by releasing their video game soundtracks in their own way. Nintendo released the Nintendo Music smartphone application specifically for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers in October 2024. People who have access to a Nintendo account and the NSO service can listen to a growing selection of official Nintendo soundtracks. New additions to the Nintendo Music application periodically get released.
Nintendo Music does have its limitations. The available soundtracks often come with several tracks missing. NSO subscribers must also understand that Nintendo applies a different approach to providing credentials for music. Credit goes to the company and not to the composer. That approach must be viewed as a customary business practice for game companies in Japan and should not be misinterpreted within a Western ethnocentric lens.
I intend to continue discussing my VGM compulation research sometime next week or so.
The following research began in 2023 and emerged via a growing curiosity and love towards video game music. I grew up in the 1990s when video game arcade machines, consoles, and computers coexisted and constantly evolved with new and exciting technological advancements. As someone who had the opportunity to play many of the available 8-bit and 16-bit video game machines in the United States in what society coined the “Console Wars,” that experience enabled me to develop an appreciation for the respective hardware. (Some people within gaming communities online still use the term "Console Wars," albeit to refer to older and current video game consoles: primarily to initiate arguments and spread toxic behavior by demonstrating the “superiority” of one game console over another.) This appreciation not only applied to the graphical processing capabilities and media formatting (from cartridges to CD-ROMs and exclusively digital releases), but also to the aural possibilities via music and sound effects. In recent years, I have noticed that video game music has created a lasting impact on popular culture and history. Musical artists like Button Masher have received positive recognition and awards for arranging video game music by using video game audio hardware from the 1980s and 90s or approximate emulations. The Library of Congress has also contributed to video game music by officially archiving the “Overworld/Above Ground Theme” from Super Mario Bros, (1985) in early 2023.
I have also noticed myriad instances involving the globality and cultural connections with video game music to Iberia (Spain and Portugal), Latin America, and the Caribbean. Previous discussions on my blog have candidly addressed these connections through games like the Uncharted Waters “Turn-Based Strategy” series, as well as other games from the 1980s, 90s, and beyond. The current research presented in my investigative work aims to illustrate more cultural links in greater detail via an ongoing compilation. I attempt to locate and add video game music (VGM) tracks that incorporate music cultures from Iberia, Latin America, and the Caribbean through genres or instrumentation. [I use “Caribbean” within the context of the current research to refer to the multiple colonial and linguistic influences in the region: Hispanophone (Spanish-speaking), Francophone (French-speaking), Anglophone (British English-speaking), and others.] I consider this music within ethnographic contexts regarding cultural ownership, representation, and creativity by referring to extant and relevant academic literature whenever possible. Concerning the creative aspects involved in video game music, I have written about the basics behind video game Audio Processing Units (APUs) in the 1980s and 90s. The VGM compilation project also seeks to demonstrate the ways in which Latin American communities get represented in video games and video game music, as well as how these communities try to represent themselves in video games by demonstrating cultural respect.
On Linguistic Parameters, Ludomusicology, and the Current State of Video Game (and Video Game Music) Preservation
I write this research primarily for audiences who speak English. With that said, however, I attempt to incorporate a multilingual approach by presenting certain terms or genres (musical or otherwise) in the Spanish or Portuguese languages. I refer to both the European and Latin American variants of these languages to demonstrate their differences in vocabulary and pronunciation.
Literature concerning video game music research, more commonly known in academia as ludomusicology, has existed since the 1990s and has continued to expand throughout the twenty-first century. The etymology for this specific field of study combines ludology—the study of games and play, which refers to different types of games not necessarily exclusive to video games—with musicology, the history of music and music cultures. Current scholarship about ludomusicology examines video game music across multiple disciplines: technology, history, psychology, (Western) music theory, gender studies, and culture studies to name a few. Ludomusicological research often combines these disciplines to contribute to the growing academic interest in video game music: whether to understand the effects concerning interactive play and listening, or to uncover the impact of this music across cultures and generations of people (Fernández-Cortes and Cook 2021).
Researching “classic” video games and their respective soundtracks presents both an intriguing and complex endeavor for ludomusicology. Video game preservation can prove key to both accessing and analyzing this interactive media in the 2020s. Emulation has enabled people to access and play games from over the past fifty years, like arcade and console titles from Capcom, Konami, Sega, Nintendo, Atari, and others in physical or digital (intangible) compilations or online services via paid subscriptions. Some video game compilations have also given consumers the opportunity to play games via previously unreleased tiles in digital formats due to the technical limitations and availability. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration clearly illustrates this last point. Released on multiple next-generation game consoles and computers in 2022, this compilation of over one-hundred games commemorates the five decades of Atari as a one of the first video game companies and its impact on the consumer electronics market: from the Pong arcade in 1972 to the Atari Jaguar in the 1990s, as well as updated versions of select games. Atari 50 also functions like an interactive documentary and museum by including photo galleries and video interviews with people who worked at Atari, including the company founder Nolan Bushnell (b. 1943) (Atari 2022). Atari 50 has since received recent additions to the compilation via Downloadable Content (DLC) and the “Expanded Edition” from 2023 and 2024.
I do not suggest that video game emulation serves as a perfect approach to video game preservation. Video game emulations tend to contain both graphical and aural errors via artifacts not encountered on original arcade, console, or computer hardware. When such hardware gets emulated incorrectly, the result can produce glaring visual inconsistencies and odd aural effects for music and sound. The AtGames Sega Genesis Classic Game Console from 2016, for instance, features detuned soundtracks for Sonic the Hedgehog and thirty-nine other titles from the Sega Genesis game library, in addition to forty other games exclusive to the “plug-and-play” console and not officially published or licensed by Sega. Even though Sega collaborated with AtGames on that specific plug-and-play version to a certain extent, Sega eventually rereleased their own version via the Sega Genesis Mini in 2019 as a miniature console with forty emulated games with HDMI and USB capabilities for U.S. audiences. Sega released the Genesis Mini 2 several years later in 2022 (in Japan) and included sixty games from their library, including several from their Sega CD console extension to the Genesis, which initially enabled Full Motion Video (FMV) interactive cinematics and enhanced music and sound via Red Book Audio. I also do not mean that modern compilations and online gaming services do not contain problems. They, too, can suffer from odd aural situations, like with the strange “stereophonic” approach to the Game Gear titles in Sonic Origins Plus (2023) and aural sputtering with classic games from Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) (2018-Present).
Another factor to consider with ludomusicology lies in the availability and accessibility of video game soundtracks. While some places do offer tangible and intangible video game music to listen to, the selections depend on who controls the media formatting for public distribution. Music streaming services like Spotify feature VGM soundtracks from some video game publishers and developers while excluding others. They have many albums from the Sega Sound Team. Nintendo, by contrast, deviates from the norm by releasing their video game soundtracks in their own way. Nintendo released the Nintendo Music smartphone application specifically for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers in October 2024. People who have access to a Nintendo account and the NSO service can listen to a growing selection of official Nintendo soundtracks. New additions to the Nintendo Music application periodically get released.
Nintendo Music does have its limitations. The available soundtracks often come with several tracks missing. NSO subscribers must also understand that Nintendo applies a different approach to providing credentials for music. Credit goes to the company and not to the composer. That approach must be viewed as a customary business practice for game companies in Japan and should not be misinterpreted within a Western ethnocentric lens.
I intend to continue discussing my VGM compulation research sometime next week or so.
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