Welcome to Slightly Dark
When you were growing up in the 80s and 90s, did you play video games? If you did, you will probably have remembered some of your favorite video game music tunes. Did you ever wonder if there were video game music albums? Maybe you recorded some music to tape, CD, or your hard drive just so you can listen to them. At this site, you will find rare, and out-of-print video game music albums for you to listen. These are actual video game music albums that were published in Japan. In Japan, video game music publishing is big business. Unfortunately, a lot of video game music albums are no longer published, so we hope to bring a little nostalgia to you with rare and out-of-print original video game soundtracks and arranged albums.
Note: We do not put up any albums that are for sale by retail channels (i.e. if you can order an album from Animenation or Gamemusic.com, we do not put it up at this site). If any out-of-print album is reprinted, and we have it on this site, we will take it down immediately. Support the albums you like by buying them.
Latest News
Update - First Queen
Posted By Secret Squirrel at Mon 28 Apr 2008, 6:31 PM
First Queen -- POCH-2207
At SlightylDark, we'll never turn the opportunity to put up another unknown SNES Arrange album. This album contains arranged music from the strategy game First Queen. The composition and arrangement are both by Masaki Sasaki, who hasn't appeared on that many albums, but he did compose the music on the older MUSIC FROM 'DUEL', which we hosted here last year sometime. So if you liked that, you'll definitely want to check this out.
http://www.vgmdb.net/db/albums.php?id=2811
Update - Super Dungeon Master
Posted By Secret Squirrel at Mon 14 Apr 2008, 8:42 PM
Super Dungeon Master -- VINL-1
This week, we have another album from Teioh's recent Japanese p2p windfall. Super Dungeon Master is an album containing arranged music from the SNES game Super Dungeon Master. At one point, we thought we had all the SNES arrange soundtracks, but it goes to show that there are always surprises, and there may even be a few more we haven't discovered. This album is pretty good, with music that spans a variety of styles, so be sure to give it a try. I'm not sure why there's an untitled track of silence at the beginning, but it's real and official, and mentioned on other sites even though it isn't on the case tracklist.
As always, more info can be found at the VGMdb page.
http://www.vgmdb.net/db/albums.php?id=7659
Update - Weltorv Estleia Original Soundtrack
Posted By Secret Squirrel at Mon 31 Mar 2008, 8:48 PM
Weltorv Estleia Original Soundtrack -- APCG-4042
Here's an album that Teioh found on Japanese P2P, and recommends highly. It comes from the Playstation game Weltorv Estleia, and contains original music from the game, though at times you'll swear it was arranged. I listened to it through once so far, and there were some tracks that really impressed me. Be warned that there are 1 or 2 tracks that have a few crackles, and I don't know if they are originally on the CD, or if it was ripped from a scratched disc.
VGMdb page as usual:
http://www.vgmdb.net/db/albums.php?id=1847
Teioh's picked up a bunch of interesting stuff in the last few months, so there'll be some more updates coming soon.
Update - Super Producers Original Soundtrack
Posted By Secret Squirrel at Tue 18 Mar 2008, 10:39 PM
Super Producers Original Soundtrack -- ABCA-56
When I first bought this album, I listened to the first track and some other track, hated them, and put the album away. Sometime later, I gave it another try, listened to it all the way through, and found a lot more to enjoy on here than I expected. It contains music from a Dreamcast game by Hudson where you manage the career of some vocal "talent." Not typical game fare, and something I'd normally avoid. Here's a breakdown of the musical styles on this album:
Vocal -> 01
Trip-Hop -> 02-06
SoundEngine-Remix -> 07
Techno -> 08-12
SoundEngine-Remix -> 13
Digital-Rock-> 14-17
SoundEngine-Remix -> 18
Drum'n Bass -> 19-22
Lounge -> 23-25
Vocal -> 26
As usual, the VGMdb entry has more info.
http://www.vgmdb.net/db/albums.php?id=7130
The artists involved in this one don't have too many other credits that we are aware of.
Update - Gainax Game Collection
Posted By Secret Squirrel at Mon 10 Mar 2008, 10:38 PM
Gainax Game Collection - GXC-001
This week, we have an old album from 1992 containing music from the old NEC PC 98 and the Sharp x68k. The album is comprised of the following games Denno Gakuen I-IV, Super Battle Skin Panik (the image in the booklet looks a little H-ish, but the game looks like some kind of card battle), Princess Maker and Silent Möbius.
Much thanks go to Teioh, who picked up this album from the online Otokichi storefront, so it's a great find. More info can be found (and entered) here:
http://www.vgmdb.net/db/albums.php?id=7297