I love to reminisce about the good old MIDI gaming days. The days when I would play an RPG and obsess over midis. There’s some part of me, deep down, that still loves those clangy, high pitched musical notes. Even after I buy the instrumental CD or what have you. I loved games like Thousand Arms, that had an in game jukebox. I could sit and listen to that thing for hours. Admittedly, I never enjoyed the terrible electronic music from those hilariously bad tiger hand-held games toys. Even I have to draw a line somewhere.

I tried to be a cool kid and orchestrate songs in every medium I knew how. I sucked at the piano. I gave up on my flute after only 3 lessons, but that didn’t stop me from trying! When Mario Paint originally came out, I bought the game because I was so psyched at the way you could use the mouse to draw on the TV. How times have changed. I animated some cool stuff though. One time I made yoshi’s head exploded and it was all, “KERSHAWWWW FATALITY.” Nah, I’m just kidding. Or am I?

Mario Paint had a built in synthesizer that was incredibly easy to use. I guess it had to be, what with being geared towards kids. But I digress. I had fun with it. I used to make whole songs out of the pig and face thing. It got on my parent’s nerves, which was a bonus. Come to think of it, I never did see my copy of the game after that one time we moved…hm. But, what? Oh, right. My favorite Mario Paint songs…right.

So what do Mario Paint and my fondness of gaming music have to do with each other? Simple. Some time ago, an amazing person created the Mario Paint composer. It’s a copy of Mario Paint’s sound synthesizer for the computer. I love it, but I’m still terrible at figuring out notes. Thankfully, this article isn’t featuring my crappy stuff. I’m going to post my favorite songs for you all to scrutinize. Hopefully it ignites some of your long lost MIDI lust. Oh, and I promise. There’s no rickrolling or chocolate rain here. I’m also going to link directly to the youtube so you all can see who made it, and comment if you want.

First up is the classic Legend of Zelda overworld music. Aw yeah, this takes me back. I used to sit on the couch as a kid and watch my parents play the original Zelda on Nintendo. I was a little too young to touch their electronics (Or so they claimed. They also said the same thing about their record player. Yes, record player) Such humble beginnings, and look at me now. I love hearing this song in all its incarnations. It’s one of the few that just never gets old.

Okay, I apologize about having 2 Zelda songs on a single list but I will always give mad props to Link’s Awakening. I loved that game until my copy turned into a pile of dust. Even hearing this song makes me cringe a bit. And it’s so well done. Rgah. LISTEN TO IT!!

Donkey Kong Country songs have always stolen my heart. One time I fell asleep playing Donkey Kong Country 2 in one of the bramble levels(those things were such bitches). Ah man. Good times, good times.

Oldschool Kirby games kept me so entertained on car rides. I think I beat one of the gameboy games 3 times on a single road trip down to Florida. Of course, I was using my good ole faithful battery guzzling gray clunker. I loved that thing. I must have spent a fortune in double A batteries. Also kind of surprised my eyes survived all the straining to see the screen in poor light.

I still have my copy of Super Mario RPG somewhere. That game was so much fun. I was so psyched when I found out Bowser would join your team. So I beefed him up into my best character. I always used Mario, Peach, and Bowser. It just seemed right. Oh and, AXEM RANGERS FOR LIFE!

Secret of Mana was the first RPG I completed 100% perfectly. I -wanted- my characters to have the best weapons. The only part I dreaded was that stupid forest of the seasons. I couldn’t ever find my way out of that place. Oh, and the pure land. That place whupped my ass, but then I got such insane exp and I could never go back because of the Mana Tree. Mana trees are always such jerks.

Obligatory Mario Medley. Yeah, it had to be done. I’m a sell out. I’ll just be over here in my kuribo’s shoe.

Mm, Terra’s theme. I’ll always love this song, though I liked Celes and Relm a lot more as characters. The first time I played final fantasy VI on my SNES, I had no concept of how to properly play a final fantasy game in terms of budgeting your leveling time, etc. That first fight with Kefka, he pretty much owned me. I got so frustrated I didn’t play again for a month. But I’m glad I did.

Mega Man. No seriously, just listen to this one. It’s pretty amazing. You’ll notice these last few I’m posting are by the same guy. They don’t have the same depth as a couple of the other ones, but if you notice in the videos, he’s actually using a real version of Mario Paint, so he doesn’t have the benefit of being able to overlay notes, etc. It’s pretty impressive.

Lastly, the Duck Tale’s moon level. A lot of you may not have touched that game, but I believe this was one of the best songs to come out of the oldschool NES gaming age. I wish I could permanently loop this version of the song, too. Le sigh.

So that’s my partial list. There’s a plethora of songs out there, and if you ever get bored, dust off your copy of Mario Paint and make your own. I think it’s a really creative way to reinvent songs. Plus, it makes me squeal with nerdly glee to find a new song that I loved so much in my childhood.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Classic Gaming, Video Game Soundtracks, Downloads, Raves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.