Remember the days of video game music consisting of beeps and MIDI tunes that quite frankly you thought sounded better than anything you'd ever heard before in your life. Back when a very careful programmer could make just about any combination of one tone notes stream together and sound like the theme song from your favorite movie or TV show. For many video gamers two of the most popular video game themes that have been etched in our mind would probably be the themes from Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda, oh how many hours were spent on those two games. You probably didn't think at the time that, 20 odd years later, you have that same tune be the ring tone for your new cell phone!

Today however we look at video game music in almost the same way that we look at theatrical movie scores, perhaps even more so. Let’s face it you spend a lot more time with most video games than you do with even a two hour movie these days. Some of that music you hear is even worth listening to outside of the game. Some of the most notable musical scores are those attached to any of the many Final Fantasy games or any other major role playing game for that matter and it was surely that way for me.

I've spent a good amount of time playing through the world of World of Warcraft and because of that have grown attached to the musical score and can certainly appreciate and listen to it outside of the game. Perhaps listening to video games scores outside of any give games is better since you can listen to the entire score of a certain track that may be limited while playing the actual game. By the way both the soundtrack for the original World of Warcraft game and its expansion The Burning Crusade can be found on my Zune (yes I'm a Zune person not an iPod guy).

Some of the earliest game soundtracks I came across and I believe the first one I had came with Killer Instinct for the Super Nintendo probably as a promo for at the time the most expensive game ever! Later I would get a nice soundtrack to a famous Japanese RPG (and one of my favorite games) Grandia II as the soundtrack came once again packed in with the game.

Much later on I would purchase my first game soundtrack, the soundtrack for Halo. Halo has some of the most inspired, exciting and relaxing game music I've come across in a long time. As it continues today game scores have really reached a new level of excellence.

When Halo 2 came along the soundtrack featured more music inspired by the game and while it’s a great soundtrack it’s not music you hear within the game. Perhaps it showed though how far video gaming in general has come as popular musicians create music based on games they play and appreciate. A long time ago back in the early nineties a game called Mortal Kombat hit the scene and introduced a sort of “dance song” for the game and who could forget yelling “MORTAL KOMBAT!” as the song beat played on.

I'd be remiss in talking about music inspired by video games if I didn't mention Buckner and Garcia and a little album named Pac Man Fever! This album from the eighties featured songs based on Pac- Man, Asteroids, Defender, Donkey Kong, Berzerk, Mousetrap, Frogger and Centipede. Of course if you'd like to hear more about this album it's featured in Episode 24 of Too Old to Grow Up!, which you can find at www.totgu.com.

If you're looking for something a bit funnier you can head over to Palette-Swap Ninja's My Space page and check out some funny songs they've recorded including Padding Your Gamerscore, Three Red Lights and The Viva Piñata Song. These songs are funny mostly because they're true.

I'm sure I missed a lot of great video game scores and music in this brief overview but hopefully I've jogged your memory or got you interested in video game music a little or perhaps if nothing else next time your fragging away you'll at least for a brief moment take a minute and enjoy the music!