vgm Archives - 97.3 wrir - Richmond Independent Radio

Today I’m celebrating my 10th episode by revisiting one of my favorite genres of music: video game soundtracks. 14 years ago I created a mix called “Sega Saturn Megamix” which included a collection of my favorite tracks straight from my game collection (still on my Mixcloud). This new mix is going to include a few of those along with some others I didn’t include the first time.

The music from this era holds a special place in my heart. Game companies had switched over to using discs which allowed for full, CD-quality sound. Composers at the time didn’t hesitate to take advantage of it.

As a kid I noticed that if you placed the games into a normal CD player you could listen to the soundtracks (known as red book audio). While a lot of my friends were probably listening to pop, I was recording game music onto cassettes.

As the son of two jazz-loving parents I was immediately drawn to the fusion featured in games like Sega Rally Championship and Daytona USA. This period was also my introduction to electronic music, through Cold Storage’s work on Wipeout. It was that game that lead me to browse FYE’s “dance” section and pick up Roni Size & Reprazent’s “Newforms”, the first album I purchased on my own and would influence my taste in music forever.

So turn back the clock to 1994 when Sega was making terrible business decisions but great music! I hope listeners enjoy the show and bear with me while I nerd out for two hours.

Tedikuma’s playlist: