Most Iconic Game Sounds/Music

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I was thinking about this while listening to some Final Fantasy music that I... errrm.... found on the floor this one time.... yeah, that's it...

And I was wondering, what song or sound effect or selection of voice acting or whatever does everyone think of when they hear the words "video game" or "Sony" or "Nintendo" or whathaveyou?

Also, what do you feel is the most iconic video game whatsymadoodles out there - ones that even non-gamers would recognize and say "Hey, that's the shirzen-furzen tune from that Whatshisface game"?

Thirdly (and, yes, lastly), what songs/sfx have you heard in a video game and thought, "Whoa, hey, that doesn't fit here"?

For videogames, first thing I think is a musty arcade, cigarette smoke, and wall-to-ceiling carpeting. The instantly recognizable loud music from the Tron machine, with the volume cranked.

On a home console, the intro to the Dreamcast Soul Calibur. Awesome.

Sony:
- the Ridge Racer (original) announcer.. "Genius of a driver" ?? wtf?
- the plodding in-game from Loaded, followed by the Loaded board with lyrics
- Katamari theme
- Paint It Black from Twisted Metal Black
- Blasto saying: "Mommy!" when he falls of a ledge

Nintendo:
- Super Mario Bros theme (with the occassional Capt Lou lyrics)
- Zelda
- the Contra music from the NES

Microsoft:
- Halo theme
- the sound of my 360

Atari:
- Pac Man on the 2600- noise? music? both? all?

Universal noise? Pac-Man dying.

Music that doesn't belong, I dunno, probably the music on my XBox hard drives when I'm playing Burnout or a shooter, and a Beethoven, Mozart, or Sinatra track comes on.

I think I may have mis-understood the thread idea? It's really late... ...

"You must gather your party before venturing forth."

Hmm cool question, right off the top of my head:

-the opening music from the original Super Mario Bros
-The ring collecting sounds from the original Sonic the Hedgehog
-The guitar riffs to the first level of the first Doom
-The sound of a Ring or Amulet drop in Diablo 1 and 2
-The space flying themes for hyperspace and quasispace in Star Control 2
-The opening speech of the Guardian in Ultima 7

For me personally
-The song "Memory" by Sugarcult on Burnout 2. Only seem to get my highest takedown scores when this song is playing. May I never hear it while driving a real car.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

"You must gather your party before venturing forth."

I heard that one a lot.

Falchion wrote:

-The guitar riffs to the first level of the first Doom

Let me add the opening and closing of the doors. I even heard that one pop up outside doom itself.

Dune: The Building Of A Dynasty. The planet Arrakis....

Also very Iconic, and one of the best intros ever.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

"You must gather your party before venturing forth."

For some reason, I have this tremendous urge to punch my computer right now.

Falchion wrote:

-The space flying themes for hyperspace and quasispace in Star Control 2

Definitely... Although, I can probably remember all the other tunes in that game too, if I think a bit.

For my contribution, I'll add the opening theme from Escape from Monkey Island. Some real effort went into the intro to that game. I sure miss LucasArts.

The screaming rock guitars from Duke Nukem. Also, his oneliners never die. On JimTV, a music/youth channel in Belgium, they even use the "You're an inspiration for birth control" as one of their punchlines.

The "grunt around the corner" from Doom.

The Mario "jump" noise.

The deafening cacophony of an arcade is a siren call all to itself

A lot of the voices in Warcraft II and Starcraft could be considered iconic. "Zug-zug," "Battlecruiser operational," and so forth.

The click of reloading/cocking/merely touching a firearm, from every shooter ever.

The ZAP! of Commander Keen's blaster.

The Privateer Music. That stuff will stay with me forever.
The CS AWP noise.
The Diablo II "a ring dropped" noise.
The intro music to Dungeon Keeper.

Also, every Doom noise that has been mentioned so far.

When I think Command and Conquer I think of "Hell March".

When I think great voice acting I think "Homeworld" (yes I know it is somewhat flat but I always felt it added the atmosphere of emptiness and isolation that the game conveyed so well), and the "Legacy of Kain" series.

When I think of Mortal Kombat I think of "Toasty!".

I will always remember the 'I did something right' tune from pretty much every single Zelda game made.

The sound when Mario gets a coin will stick with me forever also.

Dr._J wrote:

When I think Command and Conquer I think of "Hell March".

I have to second that. Hell March rocks.

Great thread.

Songs:

  • Spy Hunter's "Peter Gunn Theme"
  • The hammer tune in Donkey Kong
  • Song from Jungle Hunt/King
  • There's a song in Dragon Quest VIII that has a melody like Gloria Estefan's "I'll Do Anything for You" - not so good
  • Metroid theme
  • Most of the music from Myst (esp. Planetarium theme)

Sounds:

  • "Mighty Blow" from Punch Out (arcade version)
  • The glorpy sound of the Mancubus dying in Doom
  • "Zug-zug" from Warcraft
  • Getting caught sneaking in MGS: "!"

Systems:

  • When I think of ColecoVision, the Mr. Do music always comes to mind, as does the sound of my Zaxxon plane hitting a wall with a glassy crash.

Incongruities:

  • When the Locust swears after fumbling his active reload in Gears.
  • There's a Terran building (Academy?) in Starcraft that when you click on it sounds like someone inside is getting the pear of anguish.

oooh, AWP. Best sound ever. Good call.

I liked the AK sound in that game too. And the silenced Colt. I never really thought about it before, the CStrike had incredibly good weapon sounds -- no idea if they were accurate, but they sounded cool. God, the number of hours I put into that game...

One that's nobody's mentioned yet: "Shoryuken!" from Street Fighter 2.

No one mentioned the "Achievement Unlocked" sound?!

"Do a Barrel Roll"

"Snake? Snake? SNAAAAAAKE!"

And the Metal Gear - You were noticed by a guard sound.

"Greetings mortal. Are you ready to die?" --Hexen, 2nd level.
All FX from Doom I/II (which I still hear used in TV/movies from time to time)
Fanfare from the Final Fantasy series in general.
The music telling you time is running out from the super mario series.
The orgasmic female moan "Yes!" or "Oh yes!" as you score points in Leisure Suit Larry 6.
"HE-BABBA-LAY-HEEE" and "Get over here!" from Mortal Kombat.
The random gibberish spoken by your wingmen in the original Star Fox.

To name a few.

Two immediately came to mind: "Secret Discovered" from Zelda (on the Wii, the way the tinny remote speakers corrupt the sound really bothers me) and "Haduken" from SFII.

When I hear any song from the motorcycle game Road Rage it flicks a switch. When you start to get the faster motorcycles and you have to squint your eyes to see the road way in front of you and some of those hard rock songs are playing, it is awesome.

Good Race car sounds. I just love to drive around like in NFS:Wanted and listen to the sounds of the powerful motor as I drift around a curb.

Desktop Tower Defense - around here now that beginning "WHOO WHOO" sound is like Pavlov's dogs.

Barab wrote:

No one mentioned the "Achievement Unlocked" sound?!

I've got that sound turned off on my 360, I almost forget what it sounds like! I do know I used to equate it with *puh-link!*

- Battle Music from early Final Fantasy games
- Chocobo Theme
- Too many Mario sounds to mention
- "Ice Beam" SF from Iceman in Marvel vs Capcom 2. I saved many a fight jumping around and just using that one move. My friends utterly hate the sound of it.

There are too many to mention in a single thread and Mario and Zelda don't even require mention. A few that come to mind are:

Doom III - ambient sounds, enemy spawns, picking up items, etc.
Hitman series - background music
GTA VC & SA - radio
Half Life 2 - voiceovers

The door opening creaky sound from Daggerfall

The Alien scream in Xcom. I think I've heard that in other games/b-movies since.

Irongut wrote:

The Alien scream in Xcom. I think I've heard that in other games/b-movies since.

The Wilhelm Scream?

For me it's the opening (flamenco-y?) guitar riff from Silent Hill. Cadence Weapon sampled it for his song "Grim Fandango" and I cannot disassociate that music from the creepiness that is Silent Hill.

MightyMooquack wrote:

A lot of the voices in Warcraft II and Starcraft could be considered iconic. "Zug-zug," "Battlecruiser operational," and so forth.

The Warcraft series sound tracks (specifically Warcraft II for me).

Alot of the previously mentioned sound effects are great examples as well.

OldMud wrote:

The door opening creaky sound from Daggerfall

Pretty sure that's a public domain sound effect (much like Tracholio's aforementioned Wilhelm Scream) so you could potentially download and listen to it all you want.

Lots of Street Fighter on the list for me:
* Hadoken, shoryuken, of course
* Sonic boom!
* TIGER!
* Chun-li's YATTA!
* Dan's Oyajii!

Pieces of game music that will never dislodge from my brain:
* The Fellowship theme from Ultima 7
* The overworld music from the C64 version of Ultima 4

I just thought of:

Warrior needs food badly!
Warrior is about to die!

Agemmon wrote:
Dr._J wrote:

When I think Command and Conquer I think of "Hell March".

I have to second that. Hell March rocks.

The only song I can remember from C&C is, "I'm the mechanical man"

necroyeti wrote:

The only song I can remember from C&C is, "I'm the mechanical man"

They should have so put this in the new C&C. That song used to crack me up and would stick in my head for the rest of the day.

I'm getting to be like a stuck record, but what the hell:

  • Streets of Rage II (SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis)
    Pretty much cemeted my interest in electronic dance music.
    .
  • Carmageddon (PC)
    Just listened to the Carma soundtrack in my iTunes collection about an hour ago in fact. (I really should add it to my 360's collection too, for when I'm tearing around the streets in Crackdown.)
    .
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PC)
    Specifically the intro music with the marching, the drill sergeant shouting and that deliciously heavy bass riff - makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck whenever I hear it.

Completely random list follows:

* Monster sounds from System Shock 2; depending on what you heard, you were either safe or really really boned

* Cyberdemon from DOOM; first time I ever had an oh-sh*t moment

* Sam Fischer's goggle sound

* Original Hyrule theme from Zelda

* The bolt-click of the MP5SD3 from the original, non-console Rainbow Six series

* Every sound in Super Mario Brothers

* Fighter from Diablo; "I gotta pawn some of this stuff."

* Bad voice acting from Deus Ex; "I speeeeell my drink!"

* John Madden

* From Battlefield 2, heard more often than I'd like: "Outpost is being overrun."

* Entire soundtrack from Mechwarrior 2, and shame on you people for not saying it sooner

* The two thugs from Max Payne complaining about being cold...before I light them on fire with a Molotov

* Chainsaw bayonet from Gears of War

* HK-47

* Soundtrack of Rome: Total War

* The talk radio station from GTA3

* The sound of a boxer falling to the canvas in Punch Out!

* Sound of exploding car in F-Zero

* Captain Kirk trying to break-up a fight between Spock and McCoy in Star Trek: Judgment Rites; "Will you listen to yourselves?! You sound like children! *pause* Why am I yelling?"

* An M1 rifle clip popping out when empty

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