Background

There was a time in the early history of video games when it was technologically impossible or infeasable to include music in games. Cassette tapes and phonograph records that stored music in analog waveforms were too expensive and impractical to use with popular arcade systems. So game creators looked to digital means for video game sound.

The period from 1975 - 1980 saw the development of computer chips capable of producing simple sound effects and brief monophonic loops of music. Adding music to a game meant that it had to be transcribed into code by a programmer. Arcade games Space Invaders (1978), Pac-man (1980), and Rally X (1980) represent the height of video game sound and music during that period.

Then, a new generation video game consoles and home computers revolutionized the scene. The 8 and 16-bit eras introduced more advanced programmable sound generators (aka sound chips) capable of producing polyphonic digital music consisting of 4 or more sound channels. The consoles and computers that defined the era include:

• Commodore 64 (1982)
• Nintendo Entertainment System (1983)
• Commodore Amiga (1985)
• Sega Master System (1985)
• Atari 7800 (1986)
• Sega Genesis (1988)
• Nintendo Gameboy (1989)
• Super NES (1990)