AudioPanicRoom

Codemasters were one of the UK’s biggest publishers of budget games, and one of the few companies to still develop original 8-bit computer titles when most publishers had already abandoned that marke…

Manabu Saito was a Japanese musical prodigy, who started his career at System Sacom when he was just 18 years old. His music, often a blend of classical and jazz influences with a great sense of melo…

Like elsewhere in Europe, the late 1980s saw the rise of the Danish demo scene, a vibrant (lol) environment that created some of the most well-known computer musicians of that era. This podcast featu…

Technos Japan’s Kunio-kun series started in 1986 with Renegade, an arcade game that was one of the precursors to the beat’em up genre. From there the franchise developed into multiple spiritual seque…

Ultima is not only one of the most influential series in gaming history, the basic structure of its soundtracks with overworld, town, dungeon, and battle themes has also been the template that many R…

Just another bunch of random stuff which I have been listening to lately. And by lately, I mean for the last 30 years or so. Enjoy the show!

Download Episode #30: Forever Minor (80 MB, mp3) here
…or …

The style of French composer Stéphane Picq is one of the most unique within the world of video game music. Drawing from a wide range of influences, his soundtracks mix elements like ethnic rhythms, e…

IDES was the parent company of labels like Cocktail Soft, Fairytale, or Red Zone and one of the most prolific publishers of visual novels during the 1990s. With musicians like Akira Sato, Yuki Nakaya…

The term ‘chiptune’ was originally coined for a sub-genre of Amiga music that incorporated instruments similar to those found in the music of 8-bit computers like the C64. Popular with the demo scene…

Hiroaki Sano spent much of his early career composing for visual novels of publishers like Discovery or Studio Twinkle. As a master of both FM synth and MIDI arrangements, his soundtracks are pretty …

In the early 90s the C64 gaming market started to dry up as most developers had moved on to 16 bit computers and consoles. This gap was partially filled by a number of disk magazines, like those issu…

Another mixtape with no particular theme. This time we are hanging out with the titular human insects, swing down the highway of funk, and brave the data storm while harboring forbidden feelings for …

Lock up your daughters, get out the air guitar, and crank the volume up to eleven! This is FM Metal, a collection of some of the finest metal tracks to ever grace FM sound chips.

Download Episode #02…

We close out the 80’s with a look at the state of game music in 1989. As usual, the playlist is ordered by release date.

Download Episode #22: Game Music History ~1989~ (159 MB, mp3) here
…or watch i…

Kenichi Arakawa is mostly known for his work on visual novels like Jewel Bem Hunter Lime or the Viper series. He got his start composing in the doujin scene, contributing music to a number of PC-88 d…

Thalamus was a British publisher, mostly known for their small, but fine selection of C64 releases, which included some of the most impressive games on the system. Equally impressive were their sound…

We’re back with another un-themed selection of great tunes. An assortment of orcs, bees, evil aliens, and other delightful things is waiting for you on this edition of Audio Panic Room.

Download Epis…

Welcome to the wonderful world of pinball music! This episode features a fairly eclectic mix of music from real pinball machines, demo scene-influenced Amiga and DOS soundtracks, awesome hard rock fr…

A look at the year 1988 in game music. The year that saw the first CD and MIDI soundtracks, arcade boards started the transition from FM to PCM, and some real classics were released on the NES. Meanw…