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 - 20 Years Ago Today: June 25,1989
Posted By Carl at Fri 26 Jun 2009, 4:28 PM
June 25, 1989 -> June 25, 2009
Two Albums Came Out Today!
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Album Info: TATSUJIN ~TOA PLAN GAME MUSIC SCENE ONE~
Catalog Number: H24X-10005 (CD)
Original Arcade music from 4 games by ToaPlan Software.
Games featured and Favorite tracks: Wardner (To the Underground), Dash Yarou (Den), Tatsujin (Sally), Hellfire (Ready To Go~Captain Lancer, Egypt is also kick ass).
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Album Info: Storm of the Meiji Restoration
Catalog Number: H29E-20004 (CD), 26CE-1004 (Cassette)
The fourth KOEI Arrange album, featuring the duo Yoko Kanno and Mitsuo Yamamoto. It's high-synth versions but not fully live.
The booklet (and most websites) show the 11 official tracks, but there seems to be an unlisted bonus 12th track as well.
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Update - 20 Years Ago Today: June 21, 1989
Posted By Carl at Mon 22 Jun 2009, 3:20 PM
June 21, 1989 -> June 21, 2009
One Album Came Out Today!
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Album Info: Game Sound Deco ~G.S.M. Data East 1~
Catalog Number: D25B-1002 (CD)
Lots of great arcade sounds in this collection, and from beat-em-ups to side-scrolling shooters to a couple of Pinball machines even!
Fighting Fantasy has some gritty sounds to match the tough streets, and Robocop doesn't need much explaining, it's freaking Robocop! Good melodies and 80s attitude here. Since Data East made both an Side-Scroller Robocop and a Pinball game for Robocop, I'm not sure which of those machines this music is from.
Cobra Command has a mixture of moods, from a lighthearted opener to some killer action packed blitzs, and one section even has a harpsicord melody like Castlevania. My favorite here is on Track 7 starting at 1:12.
The cool part of Torpedo Alley starts at 2:49, it's hilarious!! 5:14 starts another great segment. We need some doujin remixes of those two sections! The pinball database says the music is by David Thiel. He also did the last track on the album, Time Machine, which has some horrible 80s voice clips to make you cringe (Gag me with a spoon!)
Stadium Hero is a baseball game with some nice cheerful tunes, although I couldn't find any composer info. Act Fancer is a futuristic side-scrolling flying shooter, some pretty cool tunes here also.
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Update - 20 Years Ago Today: June 05,1989
Posted By Carl at Fri 5 Jun 2009, 7:41 AM
June 05, 1989 -> June 05, 2009
One Album Came Out Today!
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Album Info: Kunio-kun Sound Collection - Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari
Catalog Number: C228-5008 (CD)
Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari is a side scrolling beat-em-up also known as River City Ransom and Renegade. The characters from the Kunio kun series also starred in the Dodgeball and Volleyball games on the Famicom.
On this album are the original arcade sounds and then arrange/upgrade sounds afterwards. The Dodgeball tracks at the end are pretty good, but for the originals of Renegade only the short Intro Theme stood out to me. The arranges are decent, but overall kind of a mediocre album IMO.
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Update - 20 Years Ago Today: May 25,1989
Posted By Carl at Mon 25 May 2009, 12:19 PM
May 25, 1989 -> May 25, 2009
Two Albums Came Out Today !
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Album Info: All Sounds of Xak - The Art Of Visual Stage
Catalog Number: H24X-10003 (CD)
It's PC-88 time with the Microcabin sound team. This is Ryuji Sasai's first published album, and he later joins Square to work on SaGa, Rudra no Hihou, Tobal No.1, etc. Many of Tadahiro Nitta's other early works which include Illusion City, Fray, Elm Knight have now been made available through the EGG Music digital download service.
There's great battle themes, tracks 12~15 are a solid block of rocking action tunes to get your blood pumping. Tracks 31~35 are another crazy block of boss battling jams.
For the same compositions but on different synths, Xak MSX Original Soundtracks is a 146 minute set, which includes both PSG and FM Sound sources. While the Xak PC-88 Remastered Soundtrack at EGG Music contains 14 more tracks than this album.
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Album Info: All Sounds of Xavas
Catalog Number: H28X-10004 (CD)
DATAM Polystar label's second release for today is from another PC-88 title: Xavas. The back of the booklet says the composers are Hiromi Okamura and Koise Nobuhito, while some websites also list Kiichi Suzuki as a composer as well.
I love the delaying echoes on Monster Battle, and Final Shooting sounds quite interesting. The Falgana Provinces and The Maramaya Provinces have their own funky little grooves too.
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Update - 20 Years Ago Today: May 21, 1989
Posted By Carl at Thu 21 May 2009, 8:26 AM
May 21, 1989 -> May 21, 2009
Five Albums Came Out Today !!
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Album Info: Ganbare Goemon 2
Catalog Number: 140A-7704 (CD), 096T-3704 (Cassette)
Kicking off a trio of very affordably priced Konami albums today is a Famicom game from the lovable Ganbare Goemon series. Each track has a medley of multiple tunes, so don't skip over anything!! It's a fast paced speed run through this classic Tour-de-Nippon, which also happens to be Michiru Yamane's first published album! Off to an excellent start already!
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Album Info: Gradius 2 - Gofer no Yabou Episode II
Catalog Number: 140A-7705 (CD), 096T-3705 (Cassette)
This game is also known as Nemesis 3, and the MSX sound just works so well together with Gradius music that it feels like a natural match. I absolutely adore the opening segment of Close Quarters, and how can you not like a track named Trust Me I will Save You.
The ending theme, Give My Heart to You, is legendary for a damn good reason - because it's damn good. Even the Bad Ending theme (The Suggestion) is good, so you can't loose either way.
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Album Info: F-1 Spirit + F-1 Spirit 3D Special
Catalog Number: 140A-7706 (CD), 096T-3706 (Cassette)
Lots of energetic Kukeiha Club flavor on this overhead view racer. Hot Summer Riding could be blended right in with the Nemesis 3 album above! Random Approach has an aggressive Gradius flavor to get the rally drivers on the offensive.
The sequel 3D Special shows a lot of rival compeition though, as Turn on The Run and Hot Road have very strong Outrun feelings to them, so this was probably meant to be a direct competitor to Outrun.
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Album Info: Thunder Cross
Catalog Number: 276A-7703 (CD), KICA-2306 (Reprint CD)
Right from the opening this album gets off to a rocking start with a studio performance of Skywalker. The originals then proceed on their onslaught of coolnes with First Attack, Machine Graveyard, and Great Battleship. The Konami shooting sound is displayed well on Final Base.
The Hot Chase tracks might have been good on their own, but following such greatness like Thunder Cross will reduce about anything into a 2nd rate category by comparison. They're hyper speed paced with frentic action, and Ice Won't Let Me Go almost seems like Metal Slug.
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Album Info: Strider Hiryu -G.S.M. CAPCOM 2-
Catalog Number: D25B-1001 (CD), 22P6-0049 (Cassette)
Now we switch from Kukeiha Club to Alph Lyra, for the 2nd entry in the Capcom GSM series. While the opening arrange track doesn't do much for me, the latter piano half of Moon over St.Petersburg is more interesting.
For Strider Hiryu sounds, this arcade version is where it's at, the music in the various home console ports just pale in comparison. This was really high tech and futuristic sounding at the time. The ending theme is still memorable and has quite an impact.
Then the side scrolling beat-em-up Tenchi wo Karau takes over as you brawl your way through the rest of the disc. The trancy number on Theme of Shadow Warrior Dong Min is great, while the Staff Roll is highly rewarding and full of optimism.
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