The Early Days
Created in 1958 by computer programmers at MIT, this is considered the first computer game.
What is SpaceWar?
The release of this 8-bit gaming console in 1985 marks a huge shift in the gaming industry, and the history of game music is forever changed.
What is the Nintendo Entertainment System? (NES)
First released for the NES in 1987, this video game franchise is considered to have the greatest game music of all time.
What is Final Fanasy?
The release of this 16-bit console in 1991 marks the true beginning of the 16-bit era.
What is the Super Nintendo? (SNES)
This word describes the volume of the music.
What are dynamics?
Atari's Pong is the first arcade game with this.
What is sound?
This is considered the smallest unit of computer information. It became a way of categorizing gaming consoles in the 80s and 90s.
What is a "bit"?
This was SEGA's 8-bit answer to the Nintendo Entertainment System.
What is the Sega Master System? (SMS)
This CD plug-in was released for SEGA Genesis in 1992, and marked the beginning of a shift toward game storage on disc rather than cartridge.
What is SEGA CD?
How much is going on in the music at a given time.
What is texture?
This soundless gaming system by Magnavox is considered the first home video game console.
What is the Magnavox Odyssey?
Shigeru Miyamoto wrote this himself on a home keyboard before programming it into his game.
What is the "Donkey Kong Ditty"?
Ms. Merk has described the soundtrack of this game, released by Nintendo in 1993, as a "space-opera" (but you probably recognize it from Super Smash Bros).
What is Star Fox?
In Mega Man 2, each villain has one of THESE.
What is a theme?
These two space arcade games from the 1970s used sound to affect the player's psychological state.
What are Space Invader and Asteroids?
These two arcade games were considered equal in popularity upon their release in 1980.
What are PacMan and Defender?
Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto developed and contributed music to these three successful game franchises in the 1980s.
What are Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., and The Legend of Zelda.
Final Fantasy VI, released as THIS in the U.S., is considered to have one of the greatest soundtracks of the 16-bit era.
This musical element is what gives the Mario theme song its fun, bouncy vibe.
What is syncopation?
Before the release of the Magnavox Odyssey 2 in 1978, sound was stored on gaming consoles in this way.
What is hardwired into the console?
Beginning with Atari's POKEY chip in the early 1980s, these sound-generators began to make their way onto home consoles, vastly improving sound quality.
What is a sound chip?
This 16-bit predecessor to the Super Nintendo was released in Japan in 1990, boasting better sound and picture quality than anything before it.
What is the Super Famicon?
With the release of the Sony Playstation in 1995, game sound had entered a new era: now that games were stored on disc, game audio had to be THIS.
What is CD Quality?
Multiple melodies playing at the same time.
What is polyphonic?