Shinji Hosoe
Running UP! (Arrange Version)
Running UP! (Megamix Version)
These are remixes of the theme to Dirtfox. I have never played Dirtfox. I don’t know what Dirtfox is. (It’s apparently an arcade overhead racer.) I only know that the soundtrack I found at Book-Off was just 300 yen so I thought “hey why not?”
I’m glad I picked it up, it’s a fun, bouncy soundtrack with a good, upbeat theme. Although the theme is pretty much all the soundtrack is. It opens with the “Arrange Version” of the main theme, continues with the two versions of the theme actually hear while playing the game, and then concludes with the “Megamix Version.” Aside from that, there are just three other tracks, none of which top a minute in length.
Shinji Hosoe went on to do the music for Ridge Racer by the way, so I guess racing game music is in his blood.
Darrell Harvey, Rex Baca & Kip Martin
Dungeon Master (Mega Mix)
Chaos Strikes Back (Mega Mix)
I stumbled upon this one in Osaka and it immediately unleashed a flood of memories. I actually never played the original Dungeon Master, my family didn’t have a computer when it came out. However, my friend had it for his Apple IIGS, and I would sit and watch him play it for hours on end. I don’t think either of us were ever able to really wrap our heads around the game, we were both probably eight or nine at the time, but we just loved the look of it, and it would always inspire me to draw my own dungeon monsters, demons and heroes. Now that I’m a grown-ass adult with a (slightly) better understanding of dungeon-crawling RPGs, I really should try it again sometime.
I was surprised to see that the game had a soundtrack release (especially in Japan) as I didn’t recall the version we played having any music at all. Turns out that the game was released for the FM Towns computer in Japan, which came with a CD_ROM drive. And the version of Dungeon Master that was released for the FM Towns took full advantage of said drive, packing a Redbook audio soundtrack on the game disc.
Since you can play Redbook audio on any standard CD player, it’s kind of funny that they decided to released the soundtrack for the game and it’s Chaos Strikes Back expansion pack on a regular CD. I guess that might be why they included the above “Mega Mixes,” which were not featured in the games themselves?
Finding out that a few Western games made it over to Japan on CD for the FM Towns makes me want to scour the used racks for those games to see which others might have obscure soundtracks tucked away on Redbook audio. Wonder if there are any hidden gems there!