A Musical Game History in under 40 Minutes

Muxtape.com is a new site that lets users upload and arrange twelve songs to share with friends a la the ubiquitous 80’s mix tape. I couldn’t resist trying to pare down twenty years of game music to just twelve songs and blips.muxtape.com is the result. This is more of a personal collection than the ultimate final word in game music (note the lack of Final Fantasy) so don’t go stompin’ all over me. Set up an account and make your own!

That said, I did aim to feature as many different consoles as possible while hitting on musically important milestones. The A Capella rendition of “Dreams Dreams”, for example, is fairly important as it may be the first time an original vocal track composed specifically for a game was rerecorded and used in another game. Michiru Yamane and Yuzo Koshiro’s “Invitation of a Crazed Moon” from Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is a more personal milestone. I never thought two of my favorite composers, whose career highlights are so far apart in years, would ever work together.

Take a listen. Just click on the song title and after a few seconds of buffering it’ll start playing. Click again to stop. That muxtape.com is pretty ingenious stuff. Let me know what you think and definitely link me if you’ve got a muxtape of your own!