Pc-98/Fm Synth music recommendations?

[Squire Grooktook]

Sorry if there's already been a thread like this, I did a search but couldn't find anything (too common words heh).

I'm kind of on a kick for this thing lately and I'm wondering if anyone has any good recommendations for game ost FM Synth tracks, particularly (but not limited to) stuff from/in the style of PC-98 games (I'm only really familiar with Flame Zapper Kotsujin, Touhou, Rusty, and a few other misc stuff like Grounseed).

[soprano1]

This is not exactly what you are searching for, but this online radio plays all those great tunes. KAI recommended this to me last year: http://gyusyabu.ddo.jp:8000/listen.pls

[KAI]

These:
Misty Blue - Koshiros' best FM album IMO
Attack Rate - Ryu Umemoto + Takami doing FM arrangements of their PC-98 soundtracks
FM Sound Module Maniax - Not exactly an OST, but this is the best FM omnibus album on earth
Ys IV J.D.K. SPECIAL The Dawn of Ys - The (un)official PC-98 soundtrack(?) of Ys IV
D.C.S.F – COMPUTER WORLD - Da Capo's FM arranged album

Let me know if you want more.

[BIL]

Sakuraba's "Reminiscence" off FM Sound Module Maniax is so goddamn good. Elegiac.

[soprano1]

Thanks for those KAI.

[trap15]

There's an FM arrange of the Akai Katana soundtrack on the Nin2-Jump soundtrack release, and it's some solid stuff. Ryu Umemoto's last work.

[louisg]

There's also the Soundshock FM Funk compilation albums put out by Ubiktune.

BTW, I recently discovered this OST and I'm addicted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLhrVioTC4o

Also, if you want, here's a OPL2 FM track (Soundblaster/Adlib) I did last year that has that oldschool feel. It's also recorded off of real hardware:
https://chiptuneswin.bandcamp.com/track/infiltration

[BIL]

There's also the Soundshock FM Funk compilation albums put out by Ubiktune.

+1

Great stuff on both. "Yamaha Action" +1,000,000

Also on Ubiktune, zabutom's "Zeta Force" is fucking amazing. "Blast Off Into Space" detonates my boner.

"a 7-track epic consisting of 16-bit era space shooting sounds executed in a furious series of hyperdimensional energy blasts that intend to capture a sense of videogame elation and final confrontation." <-- word

Not an album but I love this medley captured live. Puyo Puyo, Space Manbow and probably other stuff in there, all sounds great - I keep a rip of it in my VGM folder.

[soprano1]

BIL, is that tappy from Konami?

[BIL]

Excellent question - sadly I've no idea, despite loving much of Mr. Iwase's work. I found the vid after zinger linked to it elsewhere, perhaps he might know.

Another favourite album of mine, Spirit of Stone feat. Hyakutaro Tsukumo, Toshiharu Yamanishi and Tomomi Otani. Frequently the best Tecno Soft soundtrack never made. Lots of fiery rock and metal straight out of Thunder Force II-V, and some of the synths are just heavenly. Has some surprisingly funky trips into left field, too.

[soprano1]

Another favourite album of mine, Spirit of Stone feat. Hyakutaro Tsukumo, Toshiharu Yamanishi and Tomomi Otani. Frequently the best Tecno Soft soundtrack never made.

I'll vouch for the quality of this doujin album, it's really amazing work.

[blackoak]

keep em coming, this is my work music for the next week, hehe

[zinger]

Props for sharing that TAPPY live-set. Very talented guy. Also, the same composers who did the Puyo Puyo 2 OST (covered in the TAPPY-video) also composed the music for a PC98 game called Madoo monogatari A.R.S. Definitely worth checking out, my favourite song starts at 12:40 in this video: http://youtu.be/VymCwRheGI0 (their best work is on the Game Gear, but that's another story!)

It's in the PC98 HOOT set, which of course is a must-have!
http://snesmusic.org/hoot/v2/?system=PC-98

Some other personal PC98 favourites:

38 man kiro no kokuu
Cosmic Psycho
Night Slave
Prince of Persia
Spindizzy II
Star Cruiser
Star Cruiser 2

TREE OF KNOWLEDGE is also an extremely ambitious YU-NO-inspired album by coda and surasshu. Not a personal favourite, but certainly impressive!

http://ubiktune.com/releases/ubi024-yog ... -knowledge

[zinger]

The TAPPY in the video is not Iwase at Konami, by the way. We met a couple pf years ago in the Tokyo subway and shared our FM favourites with each other, hehe. I think he was several years younger than me (in his early twenties, from what I can remember) but we had almost the exact same taste.

[BIL]

Thanks for the confirmation, and the further recs. I don't know nearly enough PC-98 music, or PC-98 games in general really.

[KAI]

Yasuhito Saito's work for Ms. Detective and SHAMHAT (Data West) is very impressive. It's a shame none of his works were released on CD. There's not enough OPN2C love in this world

[Ed Oscuro]

It's not technically what's being asked for, but the two-channel limit makes it sound a bit familiar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVenVXr9980

[LordHypnos]

I'm rather partial to the Mega Drive version of the Star Cruiser intro theme (I have heard the X68000 versions, too, but I prefer the MD a little). I'd love to hear the PC-98 version though, I bet that's really sweet. I didn't even realize there was one (unfortunately it's hard to search b/c I can only find Star Cruiser II PC-98 when I search for Star Cruiser PC-98.

The actually intro cutscene for the MD version is also worthwhile to look up for AMAZING FIFTY POLYGON PER SECOND* ACTION or whatevs. It's kind of entertaining.

* I don't know how many PPS it's actually pushing, but it looks like it's running at like 10 frames per second, and the poly count is very low

[zinger]

Yeah, the MD version is probably my favourite, but the other versions have songs not featured in the MD game and vice versa...

You can preview or even buy the PC98 soundtrack for next to nothing here (Paypal accepted), recorded from original hardware: http://www.amusement-center.com/project ... ct_id=4734

[Ji-L87]

I think the soundtrack to EVE: Burst Error is pretty cool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_ZhXW8 ... F7D200764B

And listening to it takes me me back to when I just got my Saturn and played the EVE games

[LordHypnos]

Spirit of Stone.

Holy shit, I listened through this entire album, with a break in the middle to get a trillion points in Mars Matrix again. What an excellent night
Here's a few other tracks from it:
The Endless Road (Tsukumo)
Midnight Visitor (Yaminishi)
Reality That Disappears (Otani)

The whole album is amazing, though, I recommend all of you FM fans listen through it.

Also I liked how the last three tracks sound like Final Boss, Ending Cutscene, and Credits, respectively (or at least that was my interpretation)

EDIT: Actually, I think HELL HOUND (also Tsukumo) is better than The Endless Road. both are good though

[BIL]

Dream album. ^__^ These might be of interest too (all credit to zinger)

[soprano1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAHhgOs2ebw

Am I doing it right?

EDIT: Thought the video background was cool, here's a quick wallpaper:
http://imgur.com/GjUp9jA

[LordHypnos]

Dream album. ^__^ These might be of interest too (all credit to zinger)

sweet!

So, OP, I'm sure you're already pretty familiar with most well known Genesis / Mega Drive VGM, but just in case, here's some notables that are not quite as well known as Sonic or Streets of Rage series:

Phantasy Star 1 Dungeon Arrange 2 from Phantasy Star IV
It's an arrangement of one of the dungeon themes from Phantasy Star, and I think a quite good one
Retirement from Red Zone
the Red Zone BGM was written and programmd by Jesper Kyd, so that's interesting. Retirement is the gameover music. IIRC the loop is like 6 minutes long which is kind of crazy, and kind of silly, as well. I really like it though.

[blackoak]

have to recommend Undeadline for msx, too. almost all the Compile and T&E Soft msx stuff is really good.

I really like the original msx Aleste. In the game these loop for quite awhile thanks to long stages and copious slowdown, but it really gives you a chance to appreciate all the music. the arrangements are sparse compared to a lot of super intricate FM stuff, but that gives it its own charm imo.

[Squire Grooktook]

Great stuff guys, still working through listening all the stuff in here.

Also yeah, Spirit of Stone is amazing. I had heard that and Claymore beforehand.

[zinger]

Speaking of Tappy, he just released his first solo album the other day, some gorgeous 4OP FM textures in there: http://chip-union.net/?p=1766

[pestro87]

Cosmic Psycho

I recently came across the OST for this game and it's awesome! Some of my favorites are:
Neptune (PC-98)
STG 1 (PC-98)
STG 2 (X68000)

Also found this pretty sweet arrange version of Neptune on YT...:
Neptune (arrange)

...reminded me a bit of Redtailed Cat from Undercover Cops

EDIT: I suspect that the majority of people here are already familiar with the YU-NO OST but I might as well post one of my favorites off the PC-98 OST just in case...

YU-NO - Other World 2 (PC-98)

[zinger]

Yeah, gotta love those slick shuffled funk beats. I have that CD somewhere, and if I remember correctly there were a couple of more arranges that were pretty good. Can't seem to find it now though.

[KAI]

The Collected Ys Music Of Ancient And Modern Times - Mighty Obstacle (YS VI)
Falcom Boss Zanmai - Inevitable Struggle (Legend of Heroes: Zero no Kiseki)

Wish Kamikura would make more FM arrangements.