Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon - Large Tree at Izumo Shrine
Although it's difficult to pin down the exact song on the "Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon" soundtrack that first compelled me to set up my tape recorder and try to record the music, this song is definitely one of them. "Chiptunes" are songs that are played off of a video game, using the console's music creating hardware. These are the songs that people usually think of when they think of video game music, and for good reason. The majority of video game consoles, from the Atari 2600, to the NES and SNES, to the N64, did not have enough memory space to hold polished, studio-quality recordings on their soundtracks. As a result, soundboards had to be designed to read simple MIDI files and emulate sounds directly. These are the "bloops" and "bleeps" that people think of when they remember video game music.
I won't be posting many chiptunes due to their inherent simplicity and repetition, but I'll probably be making exceptions for the soundtracks of the "Ganbare Goemon" video game series that this game belongs to. Ganbare Goemon has long been known to have excellent soundtracks, and the N64, coming at the end of the chiptune age, had advanced considerably in its emulating power (the sequel to this game, "Goemon's Great Adventure" had such good chiptunes that they were almost indistinguishable from later studio recordings). This song, called "Large Tree at Izumo Shrine" was one of my favorite tracks while first playing the game back in 1998, and it's a good sample of the Japanese-style instrumentation that the Ganbare Goemon series composers became known for. It was this game that first got me interested in game music and everything Japan-related.
Enjoy the song that first pushed me over the edge into irreversible dorkitude!
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