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Has Video Game Music come of Age?

Video game music has come a long way in terms of development and being inputted into video games. Video game music is an important element in gameplay today. Early video game technology however had certain restrictions that did not allow video games then to incorporate as much variety and clarity as present games do. Usually monophonic and used sparingly or in loops between stages, early game music and sound effects were generated from specific computer chips. In the coming years, this trend would change with the coming of advanced game consoles that would allow for digital signal processing and streaming of music in games.

Up until the fourth generation of video gaming, video game music and sound was generally produces using a sound chip. These chips made the characteristic bleeps and bloops and were produces by having a set of instructions read. Different chips had different sounds. Streaming audio in computer video games came with the advent of sound cards. Now, computers became capable of playing re-recorded audio and before long, it was added to cartridges that had games. In the beginning streaming video game music was limited to playing Red Book audio tracks from a CD while the game was in play. Because of the spindle speed limitation of the optical drive technology, this meant that there were audible gaps in playback when a track ended and playback had to begin again.

The problem of streaming video game music was solved by fifth generation home console systems that developed specialized streaming formats for playing compressed audio playback. Eventually dedicated chips would be used to handle decompressing that would require less computing power. This meant that video game music would have the same appeal as popular music since musicians could now independently produce music without learning about programming or game architecture and have it incorporated into the game. Up until today, previously recorded music or music streams specifically made for a game are common approaches to game sound tracks development. Today, it is now possible for example to have, say, a snowboarder listen to music and when he hits a ramp and takes to the air, the music softens and the ambient noise of air and wind blowing gets louder to emphasize his being airborne. When he lands, the music resumes playback to normal ‘volume’ until the next ‘cue’.

Current video game music features in Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 do not represent any major change to how the music is made. While game developers today have many choices on how to develop the game music, it is most likely that nay changes will have little to do with technology and more to do with game development as a whole. Already game music is an entirely new genre and its appreciation has seen it separate from the game itself. The trend is likely to continue.

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