Fucked up my sleep schedule so let me spend calories to share moment I first came to love video game music with you.
Genesis
I grew up in a white suburbia in Colorado, (this is a core reason to a lot of what I am today.) Being a natural outlier due to skin color, but also practical things like moving schools around every few years, I didn't make many friends. I became attached to video games, but also my own imagination.
I spent a lot of time with an imaginary friend, Adam, and creating scenarios of what it'd be like to take other kids to really cool places found in my mind (maybe they would like me then 😊🤣).
It was early 1998 when my 10-year-old self rented Bomberman 64 from Blockbuster. I remember turning on the game and selecting my first area, Blue Resort. I remember thinking one thing:
"What the heck is this Bomberman?"
As the game was more puzzle-esque and beyond me, I ended up getting bored and falling asleep in the first few stages.
Synthesis
I dreamt of an area I had imagined in my head recently: a Swedish-inspired mountain town with plenty of bakeries and sweets available to share with anyone who I brought along. But this time was different. There was an impact; it had background music. I felt at peace within the little town that night and didn't want to leave.
My family was also fairly deep into music. My dad's CD collection was fairly bonkers for the average person. Yet, I never imagined anything that could fit a situation or a mood that wasn't love or heartbreak. Songs specifically attaching itself to a moment in time and having the capability to create further emotions. It was an incredible synergy I never understood until then.
Legacy
When I woke up sometime later in my dark room, I realized I wanted to capture and replicate that moment forever.
I had a children's tape player & recorder with a microphone. As carefully as a tired child could, I held the mic up to the TV and recorded the song until the tape filled up (all ~20 minutes!!!)
I went night after night for years listening to Blue Resort as a "lullaby". I still remember around 3/4s of the tape in where I re-gripped the microphone and the noise transfers onto the recording. I loved it deeply, and it opened up my eyes to seek out other good video game music in the following years, or in ones long past.
Now, my desire to treasure spectacular melodies manifest itself into OST vinyl collecting. I hope you take some time to appreciate the music in the games you play as well!
