The Game Composer’s Blog

Video Game Music Quiz

I came across something today that you may want to check out. It’s the most well done video game music quiz I’ve ever come across. Granted, I haven’t come across many but this one easily stands out as the best. Apparently, there are hundreds of game music clips and the site picks them randomly as you go through the quiz. You can find it here:

http://vgmq.garoux.net

Don’t be scared off by the austere look of the site or the fact that you have to register to get started. Registration is instant and the quiz interface is easy to use. About the only problem with using the quiz is the fact that you have to download MP3′s of the music clips. Streaming playback of the clips would be nice, but it’s not a big deal.

So far I’ve been able to identify 2 out of the 40 tracks I’ve heard. Ouch. And one of the pieces I only knew because it came from the game’s cartoon series theme. Double ouch. A lot of my tunes seemed to come from old Nintendo or Playstation games that I’d never played (not having owned many of the older gaming systems). And I realized something. I’m glad I never listened to the music in those games! Most of what I heard was terrible. It sounded like awful low-fi wannabe dance music. I would have been embarrassed to write that music and it gives me great relief to hear how much game music has improved over the last 20 years.

I know there is a great base of fans for much of that music and that may sound heretical, but I have to be honest. Much of the older video game music was simply unacceptable. It seems many current composers would agree with that sentiment though, as the overall quality level of game music has continued to improve since the dark days of the NES.

Maybe I just got a particularly bad batch of random quiz tunes, though. I’ll definitely be playing this some more.

October 8, 2008 Posted by thegamecomposer | Random Fun | game music, music quiz | 5 Comments