Genre of the Week (19) “Video Game”

Music Genre

“Video Game” music is any of the musical pieces or soundtracks found in video games. It can range from a primitive synthesizer tune to an orchestral piece, usually such that the older the game, the simpler the music. In recent times, many games have had complex soundtracks similar to those of movies. It is also much more common for video game soundtracks to be commercially sold or even be performed in concerts that focus on video game music. Music can also be an important gameplay element in certain types of video games (like rhythm games).

History

Early video game technology and computer chip music

At the time video games emerged as a form of entertainment in the 1970s (the first generation), music was stored on physical medium in analog waveforms such as compact cassettes and phonograph records. Such components were [Read more...]expensive and prone to breakage under heavy use making them less than ideal for use in an arcade cabinet, though in rare cases, they were used (Journey). A more affordable method of having music in a video game was to use digital means, where a specific computer chip would change electrical impulses from computer code into analog sound waves on the fly for output on a speaker. Sound effects for the games were also generated in this fashion.

While this allowed for inclusion of music of arcade games in the 1970s, it was usually monophonic, looped or used sparingly between stages or at the start of a new game, such as Pac Man or Pole Position. The decision to include any music into a video game meant that at some point it would have to be transcribed into computer code by a programmer, whether or not the programmer had musical experience. Some music was original, some was public domain music such as folk songs. The popular Atari 2600 home system, for example, was capable of generating only two tones, or “notes”, at a time. Some exceptions, such as arcade games developed by Exidy, took steps toward digitized, or “sampled”, sounds.

This approach in game development carried on into the 1980s. As advances in silicon and cost of technology fell, a definitively new generation of arcade machines and home consoles allowed for great changes in accompanying music. In arcades, machines based on the Motorola 68000 CPU and Yamaha YM chips for sound generators allowed for several more tones or “channels” of sound, sometimes eight or more. Home console systems also had a comparable upgrade in sound ability beginning with the ColecoVision in 1982 capable of four channels. However, more notable was the Japanese release of the Famicom in 1983 which was later released in the US as the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. It was capable of five channels, one being capable of simple PCM sampled sound. The home computer Commodore 64 released in 1982 was capable of early forms of filtering effects, different types of waveforms and eventually the ability to play 4-bit samples on a fourth sound channel. Its comparatively low cost made it a popular alternative to other home computers, as well as its ability to use a TV for an affordable display monitor.

Approach to game music development in this time period usually involved using simple tone generation and/or frequency modulation synthesis to simulate instruments for melodies, and use of a “noise channel” for simulating percussive noises. Early use of PCM samples in this era was limited to sound bites (Monopoly), or as an alternate for percussion sounds (Super Mario Bros 3). The music on home consoles often had to share the available channels with other sound effects. For example, if a laser beam was fired by a spaceship, and the laser used a 1400 Hz tone, then whichever channel was in use by music would stop playing music and start playing the sound effect.

The mid-to-late 1980s software releases for these platforms had music developed by more people with greater musical experience than before. Quality of composition improved noticeably, and evidence of the popularity of music of this time period remains even today. Composers who made a name for themselves with their software include Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy), K?ji Kond? (Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda), K?ichi Sugiyama (Dragon Quest), Rob Hubbard (Monty On the Run), Hirokazu Tanaka (Metroid, Kid Icarus, EarthBound), Martin Galway (Times of Lore), Hiroshi Miyauchi (Out Run), and Y?z? Koshiro (Ys). Toward the end of the life of the Famicom, some cartridge games were custom manufactured with additional tone generating chips built into them at the developer’s expense, further expanding to the number of channels for composition. NES games had many different ways of being composed. One for example, is DragonStrike’s music, which was composed on the Commodore Amiga’s program ‘Dr. T’ and was ported onto the NES according to video game musician Frank Klepacki.

The oncoming generation of arcade, home consoles, and home computers would reshape the approach to music in video games.

Early digital synthesis and sampling

The first home computer to make use of digital signal processing in the form of sampling was the Commodore Amiga in 1985. The computer’s sound chip featured four independent 8-bit digital-to-analog converters. Instead of simply generating a waveform that sounded like a simplistic “beep”, such as FM synthesis, this technique allowed short samples of pre-recorded sound waves to be played back through the computer’s sound chip from memory. It allowed a developer to take a “sample” of a real instrument or sound they wanted at a significantly higher quality and fidelity than was previously available or would come to be available on home computing for several years. This was an early development example of what would later be called wavetables and soundfonts. For its role in being first and affordable, the Amiga would remain a staple tool of early sequenced music composing, especially in Europe.

The Amiga’s main rival, the Atari ST, used the Yamaha YM2149 Programmable Sound Generator (PSG), which was limited compared to the Commodore 64′s SID chip and thus digitized sound was heard on Atari ST only through certain programming tricks that consumed processor time making it impractical for games. This would be corrected in 1989 with the release of the Atari STE which used DMA techniques to play back PCM samples at up to 50KHz. Since it had in-built MIDI ports, the Atari ST was instead used by many professional musicians as a MIDI programming device.

IBM PC clones in 1985 would not see any significant development in multimedia abilities for a few more years, and sampling would not become popular in other video game systems for several years. Though sampling had the potential to produce much more realistic sounds, each sample required much more data in memory. This was at a time when all memory, solid state (cartridge), magnetic (floppy disk) or otherwise was still very costly per kilobyte. Sequenced soundchip generated music on the other hand was generated with a few lines of comparatively simple code and took up far less precious memory.

The previously mentioned hybrid approach (sampled and tone) to music composing in the third generation of consoles continued to the fourth generation, or 16-bit era, of home game consoles with the Sega Mega Drive in 1988. The Mega Drive, (Sega Genesis in the US) offered advanced graphics over the NES and improved sound synthesis, but largely held the same approach to sound design. Ten channels in total for tone generation with one for PCM samples were available in stereo instead of the NES’s five channels in mono, one for PCM. As before, it was often used for percussion samples, or “drum kits” (Sonic the Hedgehog 3). The 16-bit Sega referred to was the CPU and should not be confused with 16-bit sound samples. The Genesis did not support 16-bit sampled sounds. Despite the additional tone channels, writing music still posed a challenge to traditional composers and it forced much more imaginative use of the FM synthesizer to create an enjoyable listening experience.

As cost of magnetic memory declined in the form of diskettes, the evolution of video game music on the Amiga, and some years later game music development in general, shifted to sampling in some form. It took some years before Amiga game designers learned to wholly use digitized sound effects in music (an early exception case was the title music of text adventure game The Pawn, 1986). By this time, computer and game music had already begun to form its own identity, and thus many music makers intentionally tried to produce music that sounded like that heard on the Commodore 64, which resulted in the chiptune genre.

The release of a freely-distributed Amiga program named Sound Tracker by Karsten Obarski in 1987 started the era of MOD-format which made it easy for anyone to produce music based on digitized samples. MOD-files were made with programs called “tracker”s after Obarski’s Sound Tracker. This MOD/tracker tradition continued with PC computers in 1990s. Examples of Amiga games using digitized instrument samples include David Whittaker’s soundtrack for Shadow of the Beast, Chris Hülsbeck’s soundtrack for Turrican 2 and Matt Furniss’s tunes for Laser Squad. Richard Joseph also composed some theme songs featuring vocals and lyrics for games by Sensible Software most famous being Cannon Fodder (1993) with a song “War Has Never Been So Much Fun” and Sensible World of Soccer (1994) with a song “Goal Scoring Superstar Hero”. These songs used long vocal samples.

Similar to the Amiga, this approach to sound and music developments in arcades began to appear in certain specialized arcade system board revisions. In 1991, games like Street Fighter II on the CPS-1 used voice samples extensively along with sampled sound effects and percussion. Neo Geo’s MVS system also carried powerful sound development which often included surround sound.

The evolution also carried into home console video games, such as the release of the Super Famicom in 1990, and its US/EU version SNES in 1991. This home console system sported a specialized custom Sony chip for both the sound generation and for special hardware DSP. It was capable of eight channels of sampled sounds at up to 16-bit resolution, had a wide selection of DSP effects, including a type of ADSR usually seen in high end synthesizers of the time, and full stereo sound. This allowed experimentation with applied acoustics in video games, such as musical acoustics (early games like Castlevania IV, F-Zero, Final Fantasy IV, Gradius III, and later games like Chrono Trigger), directional (Star Fox) and spatial acoustics (Dolby Pro-Logic was used in some games, like King Arthur’s World and Jurassic Park), as well as environmental and architectural acoustics (Zelda III, Secret of Evermore). Many games also made heavy use of the high quality sample playback capabilities (Super Star Wars, Tales of Phantasia). The only real limitation to this powerful setup was the still-costly solid state memory.

Other consoles of the generation could boast similar abilities yet did not have the same popularity as the SNES. The Neo-Geo home system was capable of the same powerful sample processing as its arcade counterpart, but was several times the cost of a SNES. The Sega CD hardware upgrade to the Genesis added multiple PCM channels, but few games used this feature and instead streamed music from the CD from a Red Book format. Neither saw the circulation of the SNES.

Popularity of the SNES and its software remained limited to regions where NTSC television was the broadcast standard. Partly because of the difference in frame rates of PAL broadcast equipment, many titles released were never redesigned to play appropriately and ran much slower than originally intended, or were never released. This showed a divergence in popular video game music between PAL and NTSC countries that still shows to this day. This divergence would be lessened as the fifth generation of home consoles launched globally, and as Commodore began to take a backseat to general purpose PCs and Macs.

Though the Sega-CD, and to a greater extent the PC Engine in Japan, would give gamers a preview of the direction video game music would take in streaming music, the use of both sampled and sequenced music continues in game consoles even today. The huge data storage benefit of optical media would be coupled with progressively more powerful audio generation hardware and higher quality samples in the Fifth Generation. In 1994, the PlayStation with a CD-ROM drive supported 24 channels of 16-bit samples of up to 44.1 kHz sample rate, equal to CD audio quality. It also sported a few hardware DSP effects like reverb. Many Squaresoft titles continued to use sequenced music, such as Final Fantasy 7, Legend of Mana, and Final Fantasy Tactics. The Sega Saturn also with a CD drive supported 32 channels of PCM at the same resolution as the PSX. In 1996, the Nintendo 64, still using a solid state cartridge, actually supported an integrated and scalable sound system that was potentially capable of 100 channels of PCM, and an improved sample rate of 48 kHz. Games for the N64, because of the cost of the solid state memory, typically had samples of lesser quality than the other two however, and music tended to be simpler in construct.

The more dominant approach for games based on CDs, however, was shifting toward streaming audio.

MIDI on the PC

In the same timeframe of late 1980s to mid 1990s, the IBM PC platform followed a different path from other computers. Early PC gaming was limited to the 1-bit PC speaker, and some proprietary standards such as the IBM PCjr 3-voice chip. While sampled sound could be achieved on the PC speaker using pulse width modulation, doing so required a significant proportion of the available processor power, rendering its use in games rare.

The resulting vacuum in useful sound performance, coupled with increasing interest in game software as PC clones began to dominate the market, resulted in competition among add-on card sellers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The first two recognizable standards were the Roland MT-32, followed by the AdLib sound card. Both such examples were typically listed in the game’s requirements of the era. Roland’s solution was driven by MIDI sequencing using advanced LA synthesizers, and cost significantly more than other products. This made it the first choice for game developers, but placed it out of the common consumer’s view. The AdLib used a low-cost FM synthesis chip from Yamaha, and was quite affordable.

The AdLib card was usurped in 1989 by Creative’s Sound Blaster, which used the same Yamaha FM chip in the AdLib, ensuring 100% compatibility, but also added 8-bit 22.05 kHz (later 44.1 kHz) digital audio recording and playback of a single stereo channel. The Sound Blaster constituted the core sound technology of the early 1990s, a combination of a simple FM engine that supported midi, and a DAC engine of one or more streams. Only a minority of developers ever used Amiga-style tracker formats in commercial PC games, (Unreal) typically preferring to use the MT-32 or AdLib/SB-compatible devices.

The last major development before streaming music came in 1992: Roland released the first General MIDI card, the wavetable SCC-1, and General MIDI with wavetable samples quickly usurped AdLib as the standard. Developers increasingly made a compromise in light of the variety of hardware around by then, and the increasing use of General MIDI: instead of writing one sequence for each supported sound device, to use MIDI sequencing as a common music standard, with sampled sound effects. This allowed a large variety of cards to be supported from the same data(usually a sequence written for SB or MT-32). However, different products used different sound samples, and further, the samples were mixed at different relative volumes, meaning that no single sequence would be accurate on every other General Midi device.

All of these designs and workarounds in the products reflected the high cost of memory storage which rapidly declined with the optical CD format.

Pre-recorded and streaming music

Taking entirely pre-recorded music had many advantages over sequencing for sound quality. Music could be produced freely with any kind and number of instruments, allowing developers to simply record one track to be played back during the game. Quality was only limited by the effort put into mastering the track itself. Memory space costs that was previously a concern was somewhat addressed with optical media becoming the dominant media for software games. CD quality audio allowed for music and voice that had the potential to be truly indistinguishable from any other source or genre of music.

In fourth generation home video games and PCs this was limited to playing a Red Book audio track from a CD while the game was in play (Sonic CD). However, there were several disadvantages of regular CD-audio. Optical drive technology was still limited in spindle speed, so playing an audio track from the game CD meant that the system could not access data again until it stopped the track from playing. Looping, the most common form of game music, was also problem as when the laser reached the end of a track, it had to move itself back to the beginning to start reading again causing an audible gap in playback.

To address these drawbacks, some PC game developers designed their own container formats in house, for each application in some cases, to stream compressed audio. This would cut back on memory used for music on the CD, allowed for much lower latency and seek time when finding and starting to play music, and also allowed for much smoother looping due to being able to buffer the data. A minor drawback was that use of compressed audio meant it had to be decompressed which put load on the CPU of a system. As computing power increased, this load became minimal, and in some cases dedicated chips in a computer (such as a sound card) would actually handle all the decompressing.

Fifth generation home console systems also developed specialised streaming formats and containers for compressed audio playback. Sony would call theirs Yellow Book, and offer the standard to other companies. Games would take full advantage of this ability, sometimes with highly praised results (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night). Games ported from arcade machines, which continued to use FM synthesis, often saw superior pre-recorded music streams on their home console counterparts (Street Fighter Alpha 2). Even though the game systems were capable of “CD quality” sound, these compressed audio tracks were not true “CD quality.” Many of them had lower sampling rates, but not so significant that most consumers would notice. Using a compressed stream allowed game designers to playback streamed music and still be able to access other data on the disc without interruption of the music, at the cost of CPU power used to render the audio stream. Manipulating the stream any further would require a far more significant level of CPU power available in the 5th generation.

Some games, such as the Wipeout series, continued to use full redbook CD audio for their soundtracks.

This overall freedom offered to music composers gave video game music the equal footing with other popular music it had lacked. A musician could now, with no need to learn about programming or the game architecture itself, independently produce the music to their satisfaction. This flexibility would be exercised as popular mainstream musicians would be using their talents for video games specifically. An early example is Way of the Warrior on the 3DO, with music by White Zombie. A more well-known example is Trent Reznor’s score for Quake.

An alternate approach, as with the TMNT arcade, was to take pre-existing music not written exclusively for the game and use it in the game. The game Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and subsequent Star Wars games took music composed by John Williams for the Star Wars films of the 1970s and 1980s and used it for the game soundtracks.

Both using new music streams made specifically for the game, and using previously released/recorded music streams are common approaches for developing sound tracks to this day. It is common for X-games sports-based video games to come with some popular artists recent releases (SSX, Tony Hawk, Initial D), as well as any game with heavy cultural demographic theme that has tie-in to music (Need For Speed: Underground, Grand Theft Auto). Sometimes a hybrid of the two are used, such as in Dance Dance Revolution.

Sequencing samples continue to be used in modern gaming for many uses, mostly RPGs. Sometimes a cross between sequencing samples, and streaming music is used. Games such as Republic: The Revolution (music composed by James Hannigan) and Command & Conquer: Generals (music composed by Bill Brown) have utilised sophisticated systems governing the flow of incidental music by stringing together short phrases based on the action on screen and the player’s most recent choices (see dynamic music). Other games dynamically mixed the sound on the game based on cues of the game environment.

As processing power increased dramatically in the 6th generation of home consoles, it became possible to apply special effects in realtime to streamed audio. In SSX, a recent video game series, if a snowboarder takes to the air after jumping from a ramp, the music softens or muffles a bit, and the ambient noise of wind and air blowing becomes louder to emphasize being airborne. When the snowboarder lands, the music resumes regular playback until its next “cue”. The LucasArts company pioneered this interactive music technique with their iMUSE system, used in their early adventure games and the Star Wars flight simulators Star Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: TIE Fighter. Action games such as these will change dynamically to match the amount of danger. Stealth-based games will sometimes rely on such music, either by handling streams differently, or dynamically changing the composition of a sequenced soundtrack.

Personalized soundtracks

Being able to play one’s own music during a game in the past usually meant turning down the game audio and using an alternate music player. Some early exceptions were possible on PC/Windows gaming in which it was possible to independently adjust game audio while playing music with a separate program running in the background. Some PC games, such as Quake, play music from the CD while retrieving game data exclusively from the hard disk, thereby allowing the game CD to be swapped for any music CD.

Some PlayStation games supported this by swapping the game CD with a music CD, although when the game needed data, you had to swap the CDs again. One of the earliest games, Ridge Racer, was loaded entirely into RAM, letting the player insert a music CD to provide a soundtrack throughout the entirety of the gameplay. In Vib Ribbon, this became a gameplay feature, with the game generating levels based entirely on the music on whatever CD the player inserted.

Microsoft’s Xbox, a competitor in the sixth generation of home consoles opened new possibilities. Its ability to copy music from a CD onto its internal hard drive allowed gamers to use their own music more seamlessly with gameplay than ever before. The feature, called Custom Soundtrack, had to be enabled by the game developer. The feature carried over into the seventh generation with the Xbox 360 except it is now supported by the system software and enabled at any point.

The Wii is also able to play custom soundtracks if it is enabled by the game (Excite Truck, Endless Ocean).

The PlayStation Portable can, in games like Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City and FIFA 08, play music from a Memory Stick.

The PlayStation 3 has the ability to utilize custom soundtracks in games using music saved on the hard drive, however few game developers have used this function so far. MLB 08: The Show, released in North America on March 4, 2008, has a My MLB sound track feature which allows the user to play music tracks of their choice saved on the hard drive of their PS3, rather than the preprogrammed tracks incorporated into the game by the developer. An update to Wipeout HD, released on the PlayStation Network, was made to also incorporate this feature.

In Audiosurf, custom soundtracks are the main aspect of the game. Users have to pick a music file to be analyzed. The game will generate a race track based on tempo, pitch and complexity of the sound. The user will then race on this track, synchronized with the music.

Current application and future developments

The Xbox 360 supports Dolby Digital software, sampling and playback rate of 16-bit @ 48 kHz (internal; with 24-bit hardware D/A converters), hardware codec streaming, and potential of 256 audio simultaneous channels. While powerful and flexible, none of these features represent any major change in how game music is made from the last generation of console systems. PCs continue to rely on third-party devices for in-game sound reproduction, and SoundBlaster, despite being largely the only major player in the entertainment audio expansion card business, continues to advance its product development at a significant pace.

The PlayStation 3 handles multiple types of surround sound technology, including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD.

Nintendo’s Wii console shares many audio components with the Nintendo GameCube from the previous generation, including Dolby Pro Logic II. These features are extensions of technology already currently in use.

The game developer of today has many choices on how to develop music. More likely, changes in video game music creation will have very little to do with technology and more to do with other factors of game development as a business whole. As sales of video game music separate from the game itself became marketable in the west (compared to Japan where game music CDs had been selling for years), business elements also wield a level of influence that it had little before. Music from outside the game developer’s immediate employment, such as music composers and pop artists, have been contracted to produce game music just as they would for a theatrical movie. Many other factors have growing influence, such as editing for content, politics on some level of the development, executive input and other elements.

Game music as a genre

Many games for the Nintendo Entertainment System and other early game consoles feature a similar style of musical composition that is sometimes described as the “video game genre.” Some aspects of this style continue to influence certain music today, though gamers do not associate many modern game soundtracks with the older style. The genre’s compositional elements may have developed due to technological restraints, and may also have been influenced by technopop bands such as Yellow Magic Orchestra, which were quite popular during the period. Features of the genre include:

* Pieces designed to repeat indefinitely, rather than having an arranged ending or fading out.
* Pieces lacking lyrics and playing over gameplay sounds.
* Limited polyphony. Only three notes can be played simultaneously on the Nintendo Entertainment System. A great deal of effort was put into composition to create the illusion of more notes playing at once.

Although the tones featured in NES music can be thought of emulating a traditional four-piece rock band (triangle wave used as a bass, two pulse waves analogous to two guitars, and a white noise channel used for drums), composers would often go out of their way to compose complex and rapid sequences of notes, in part because of the restrictions mentioned above. This is similar to music composition during the Baroque period, when composers, particularly when creating solo pieces, focused on musical embellishments to compensate for instruments such as the harpsichord that do not allow for expressive dynamics. For the same reason, many early compositions also feature a distinct jazz influence. These would overlap with later influences from heavy metal and j-pop music, resulting in an equally distinct compositional style in the 16-bit era.

In an unrelated but parallel course in the European and North American developer scene, similar limitations were driving the musical style of home computer games. Module file format music, particularly MOD, used similar techniques but was more heavily influenced from the electronic music scene as it developed, and resulted in another very distinct subgenre. Demos and the developing demoscene played a big part in the early years, and still influence video game music today.

As technological limitations gradually lifted, composers were given more freedom and with the advent of CD-ROM pre-recorded soundtracks came to dominate, resulting in a noticeable shift in composition and voicing style.

Video game music outside video games

Appreciation for video game music, particularly music from the third and fourth generations of home video game console and sometimes newer generations, continues today in very strong representation in both fans and composers alike, even out of the context of a video game. Melodies and themes from 20 years ago continue to be re-used in newer generations of video games. Themes from the original Metroid by Hirokazu Tanaka can still be heard in Metroid games from today as arranged by Kenji Yamamoto.

Video game music soundtracks were sold separately on CD in Japan well before the practice spread to other countries. Interpretive albums, remixes and live performances were also common variations to original soundtracks (OSTs). K?ichi Sugiyama was an early figure in this practice sub-genres, and following the release of the first Dragon Quest game in 1986, a live performance CD of his compositions was released and performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (then later by other groups including the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and NHK Symphony). Y?z? Koshiro, another early figure, released a live performance of the Actraiser soundtrack. Both Koshiro’s and fellow Falcom composer Mieko Ishikawa’s contributions to Ys music would have such long lasting impact that there were more albums released of Ys music than of almost all other game-type music.

Like anime soundtracks, these soundtracks and even sheet music books were usually marketed exclusively in Japan. Therefore, interested non-Japanese gamers have to import the soundtracks and/or sheet music books through on or offline firms specifically dedicated to video game soundtrack imports. This has been somewhat less of an issue more recently as domestic publishers of anime and video games have been producing western equivalent versions of the OSTs for sale in UK and US, but only for the most popular titles in most cases.

Other original composers of the lasting themes from this time have gone on to manage symphonic concert performances to the public exhibiting their work in the games. K?ichi Sugiyama was once again the first in this practice in 1987 with his “Family Classic Concert” and has continued concert performances almost annually. In 1991, he also formed a series called Orchestral Game Concerts, notable for featuring other talented game composers such as Yoko Kanno (Nobunaga’s Ambition, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Uncharted Waters), Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy), Keiichi Suzuki (Mother/Earthbound), and Kentaro Haneda (Wizardry).

Global popularity of video game music would begin to surge with Squaresoft’s 1990s successes, particularly with Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII by Nobuo Uematsu and with Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross by Yasunori Mitsuda. Compositions by Nobuo Uematsu on Final Fantasy 4 were arranged into Final Fantasy IV: Celtic Moon, a live performance by string musicians with strong celtic influence recorded in Ireland. The Love Theme from the same game has been used as an instructional piece of music in Japanese schools.

On August 20, 2003, for the first time outside Japan, music written for video games such as Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda was performed by a live orchestra, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in a Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany at the Gewandhaus concert hall. This event was held as the official opening ceremony of Europe’s biggest trading fair for video games, the GC Games Convention and repeated in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

On November 17, 2003, Square Enix launched the Final Fantasy Radio on America Online. The radio station has initially featured complete tracks from Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XI: Rise of Zilart and samplings from Final Fantasy VII through Final Fantasy X.

The first officially sanctioned Final Fantasy concert in the United States was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California, on May 10, 2004. All seats at the concert were sold out in a single day. “Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy” followed and was performed at various cities across the United States.

On July 6, 2005, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra also held a Video Games Live concert, which was founded by video game music composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall at the Hollywood Bowl. This concert featured a variety of video game music, ranging from Pong to Halo 2. It also incorporated real-time video feeds that were in sync with the music, as well as laser and light special effects. Video Games Live has been touring worldwide since.

On August 20, 2006, the Malmö Symphonic Orchestra with host Orvar Säfström performed an outdoor concert of game music in Malmö, Sweden before an audience of 17,000, currently the attendance record for a game music concert.

From April 20–27 2007, Eminence Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra dedicated to video game and anime music, performed the first part of their annual tour, the “A Night in Fantasia” concert series in Australia. Whilst Eminence had performed video game music as part of their concerts since their inception, the 2007 concert marked the first time ever that the entire setlist was pieces from video games. Up to seven of the world’s most famous game composers were also in attendance as special guests.

Video Game Music Education

Video game music has become part of the curriculum of traditional schools and universities. Berklee College of Music, Yale University, New York University and the New England Conservatory all feature or are adding to game music to their curricula. Training seminars such as GameSoundCon also feature classes in how to compose video game music.

Fan culture

In addition to these professional deviations, a huge network of English speaking fans has sprung up with the help of emulators and the Internet in recent years.

Related music genres

* Anime music
* 8-bit
* Classical music
* Electronic art music
* Electropop
* Film music
* J-pop
* Picopop
* Chiptune
* Game Boy music
* Gamewave

List of video game musicians

The following is a list of computer and video game musicians, those who have worked in the video game industry to produce video game soundtracks or otherwise contribute musically.

A

* Isao Abe (usually credited as Oyaji) – Alph Lyla sound team, Street Fighter II and its updates (with Y?ko Shimomura (II, II?and II?Turbo only) and Syun Nishigaki (Super II and Super II Turbo only)), Knights of the Round, Quiz & Dragons, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (with Syun Nishigaki and Kiyo), The Punisher (with Y?ko Shimomura and Syun Nishigaki), Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom (with Takayuki Iwai and OK Production), Ring of Destruction: Slam Masters 2, X-Men: Children of the Atom (with Takayuki Iwai, Syun Nishigaki and Hideki Okugawa), Street Fighter Alpha (with Syun Nishigaki, Setsuo Yamamoto, Yuko Kadota, Kuru-Kuru Chance Iwami and Mizuta Naoshi), Pang! 3, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (with Tatsuro Zuzuki, Yuko Kadota, Syun Nishigaki, Setsuo Yamamoto and Takayuki Iwai), Quiz Nanairo Dreams (with Setsuo Yamamoto and Masato Koda), Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix (with Yuki Iwai and Setsuo Yamamoto), Street Fighter Alpha 3 (with Takayuki Iwai, Yuki Iwai, Hideki Okugawa and Tetsuya Shibata)
* Rod Abernethy – The Hobbit, Star Trek: Legacy, King Arthur, Rise of the Kasai, Blazing Angels, Marvel Universe, The Gauntlet, The Sims Bustin’ Out
* Alph Lyla (CAPCOM’s sound team)
* Masamichi Amano – Quest 64, Meltylancer: The Animation
* Hirokazu Ando – Super Smash Bros. series, Kirby’s Dream Course, Kirby’s Dream Land 2, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and Kirby’s Adventure (with Jun Ishikawa), Arcana
* Hidehito Aoki – Persona
* Yoshino Aoki – Mega Man X3 (Capcom Sound Team), Breath of Fire III (with Akari Kaida), Breath of Fire IV, Mega Man Battle & Chase
* Satoshi Arai – Ys V: Ushinawareta Suna no Miyako Kefin (from the Ys series)
* Noriyuki Asakura – Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins, Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven, Way of the Samurai, Way of the Samurai 2, Kamiwaza

B

* Michael Bacon – WCW vs NWO,VS, Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes, EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey,Pirate’s Gold
* Clint Bajakian – Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
* Taro Bando – F-Zero X, Super Mario Kart (with Soyo Oka)
* Marc Baril – Crash Bandicoot series, The Simpsons Hit & Run, Scarface: The World Is Yours
* Stephen Barton – Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
* Joe Basquez – Ultima Online
* David Bergeaud – Ratchet and Clank series, Resistance: Fall of Man
* Teddy Blass – Chain Shooter, Fortune’s Prime
* Allister Brimble – Alien Breed, Superfrog
* Michael Bross – Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath, Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee, Ripper, Black Dahlia’
* Alexander Brandon – Unreal,Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex

* Bill Brown – Command and Conquer: Generals, Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Black Thorn, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Lockdown, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

C

* Scott Cairns – Stargate SG-1: The Alliance, Melbourne cup challenge, Jackass: The Game, Starshatter, World at War
* Sean Callery – James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, 24: The Game
* Pedro Camacho (aka Pedro Macedo Camacho) – Audiosurf (Invisible Handlebar, Independent Games Festival 2008 Excellence in Audio Award Winner), Fury (Auran, Gamecock, Codemasters), A Vampyre Story (Autumn Moon Entertainment, Crimsom Cow), Darwin the Monkey (Rock Solid Games), Days of Sail (immersionFX)
* Stuart Chatwood – Road Rash 3D,NHL 2002, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones , Battles of Prince of Persia , Prince of Persia: Revelations, Prince of Persia: Rival Swords
* Jun Chiki Chikuma – Faxanadu, Adventure Island, Bomberman series
* Donnie Christianson – Damnation the Game, Posertrax music library
* Jamie Christopherson – Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle, Lost Planet. Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle-Earth
* Simone Cicconi – Tony Tough 2: A rake’s progress, DroneZ. Twin Strike: Operation Thunder
* Mike Clarke – Formula 1 series, Destruction Derby series, LifeForce: Tenka, Psybadek, Music, Music 2000, MTV Music Generator 3, Globdule, Lemmings Paintball
* Paul Clansey – AlienC64/Zx Spectrum
* CoLD SToRAGE – see Tim_Wright_(musician)
* Peter Connelly – Three Tomb Raider games from the Tomb Raider series
* Stewart Copeland – Spyro the Dragon series
* Brad Cross – Descent II
* Crush 40 – Most games in the Sonic the Hedgehog game series since Sonic Adventure.
* Jim Cuomo – Defender of the Crown

D

* Ben Daglish
* Will Davis
* Duane Decker – MechCommander, MechWarrior 3, MechWarrior 3 : Pirates’ Moon, MechWarrior 4, MechWarrior 4 : Black Knight, MechCommander 2, MechAssault, Rise of Nations series
* Charles Deenen – M.C. Kids, The Lost Vikings (with Allister Brimble), Descent II (mixing)
* Joris de Man – Killzone Series
* Michael Delaney – Audio programmer and composer Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and Jakks TV-Games
* Fabian Del Priore – Main composer of the Merregnon project
* Craig Dodge – Composer/Sound Designer for “Shadow of the Panopticon”, “Neutrino and the Quantum Paradox”, “Membrain”
* Chuck Doud – Syphon Filter, Syphon Filter 2
* Howard Drossin – Comix Zone, Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball
* Snezana Durich – Mograpper
* David Dunn – Flight Path 737, Fourth Protocol, Elite (on the Commodore 64, arranger), Finders Keepers
* Jonathan Dunn – Jurassic Park (NES), Darkman (NES), The Addams Family (SNES)

E

* Greg Edmonson – Uncharted series
* Takahito Eguchi – The Bouncer, Final Fantasy X-2
* Eminence Symphony Orchestra – Odin Sphere, Deltora Quest: The Seven Jewels, Valkyria Chronicles, Diablo III, Soulcalibur IV
* Hidehiko Enomoto – Dragon Knight 2, Feda: The Emblem of Justice, Linkle Liver Story

F

* Eveline Fischer (now Eveline Novakovic) – Donkey Kong Country (with Robin Beanland and David Wise), Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble! (with David Wise)
* Geoff Follin – Gauntlet III (with Tim Follin), Psycho Pigs UXB (with Tim Follin), Spider-Man and the X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge (with Tim Follin), Altered Space, Sly Spy
* Tim Follin – Ghouls and Ghosts (Commodore Amiga and C64 versions), Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (Dreamcast), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (Super Nintendo), and various assorted tracks for 8- and 16-bit videogames.
* Troels Brun Folmann – Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary
* Dan Forden – Mortal Kombat series
* S?ta Fujimori – Gungage (with Michiru Yamane), Castlevania Chronicles
* Hiroshi Fujioka – Growlanser II, Growlanser III, Langrisser III
* Hirohiko Fukuda – Emerald Dragon (SNES)
* Brad Fuller – Tengen Tetris , Tetris Arcade, Marble Madness
* Matt Furniss – Many videogames from the 1980s onwards for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, Mega Drive/Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, IBM PC, Nintendo 64 and PlayStation

G

* Martin Galway – Commodore 64 sound programmer and composer for Ocean Software and Imagine Software (after Ocean bought the company).
* Andrew Gannon (as part of Nimrod Productions) – Furious Karting, Gran Turismo 4, Race Driver 3
* Michael Giacchino – Medal of Honor series (1999–2003, 2007), Secret Weapons Over Normandy, BLACK
* Adam Gilmore – 8-bit Atari composer, games: Arcade Fruit Machine Simulator, Blinky’s Scary School, Draconus, Jocky Wilson’s Darts Challenge, Jocky Wilson’s Darts Compendium, Las Vegas Casino, Mountain Bike, Ninja Commando, Zybex
* Gameboys – Brazilian band.
* Gary Gilbertson – The Tail of Beta Lyrae, Alternate Reality.
* Simon Gosling – Croc 2
* Gustaf Grefberg – Enclave (video game), The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
* Fred Gray – Shadowfire, Mutants, Madballs, Enigma Force, Black Lamp, Eco, Stargoose, Victory Road
* Jason Graves – Command and Conquer 4, Dead Space series, City of Heroes, Star Trek series, Silent Hunter series
* Harry Gregson-Williams – Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
* Aaron Grier – Star Control 2 (with Dan Nicholson, Erol Otus, Kevin Palivec, Marc Brown, Riku Nuottajärvi, Tommy Dunbar)
* Mark Griskey – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords, Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2
* Olof Gustafsson – Pinball Fantasies, Pinball Illusions, Pinball Dreams, Benefactor

H

* Minako Hamano – Super Metroid (with Kenji Yamamoto), Metroid Fusion, Metroid: Zero Mission
* Rio Hamamoto – Soulcalibur II Original Soundtrack
* Masashi Hamauzu – SaGa Frontier 2, Tobal No. 1, Final Fantasy X (with Nobuo Uematsu and Junya Nakano), Final Fantasy XIII
* Kentaro Haneda – Wizardry 1, 2, and 3; Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom
* James Hannigan – Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Primeval (ITV), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,Red Alert 3 Uprising,Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,Red Alert 3, Republic: The Revolution, Freelancer, Brute Force, Sim Theme Park, Mr Bean, Grand Prix 4, Reign of Fire, Jetix, Privateer: The Darkening, Evil Genius, Catwoman, Warhammer, FIFA Soccer Manager, FA Premier League Manager, F1 Series, Conquest: Frontier Wars, Infestation, Action Man, Sim Coaster, F1 Manager
* Norio Hanzawa (occasionally credited as NON) – The Simpsons, Bucky O’ Hare (arcade version), Gunstar Heroes , Dynamite Headdy (with Aki Hata and Nazo² Suzuki), Alien Soldier, Mischief Makers
* Chihiro Harada – Gitarooman
* Crispin Hands – Need For Speed 2 through 5, Impossible Creatures, Neverwinter Nights, Dungeon Siege 2,
* Kurt Harland – Soul Reaver
* Saki Haruyama – Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
* Hikoshi Hashimoto – Run Saber, Cosmic Carnage
* Aki Hata (occasionally credited as AKI) – Rocket Knight Adventures (with Masanori Ohuchi, Masanori Adachi, Hiroshi Kobayashi and Michiru Yamane), Dynamite Headdy (with Norio Hanzawa and Nazo² Suzuki)
* Kouji Hayama – Ape Escape 2, Super Robot Wars
* Katsuhiro Hayashi – Columbus: Ougon no Yoake, Black Belt (aka Hokuto no Ken, for the Sega Master System), Galaxy Force (Sega Master System port), Quartet (aka Double Target, Sega Master System port), Zero4 Champ RR
* Jason Hayes – World of Warcraft
* Tim Haywood – Shadowman
* Jim Hedges – Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2
* Steve Henifin – Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
* Christophe Heral – Beyond Good & Evil
* Dan Hess – Pilotwings 64
* Scott Hess – Mevo & The Grooveriders
* Norihiko Hibino – Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, Zone of the Enders, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Boktai, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
* Miki Higashino – Genso Suikoden II, Genso Suikogaiden series
* Masanori Hikichi – Terranigma
* Steve Hillage – Cyberwar
* Yoshito Hirano – Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
* Hajime Hirasawa – Star Fox
* Michael Hoenig – Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn
* Toshihiko Horiyama – Mega Man X, Mega Man X3, Mega Man X4, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
* Shinji Hosoe – Ridge Racer series, Street Fighter EX series
* Rob Hubbard – Many games for Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64 including Extirpator, International Karate, Jet Set Willy, Warhawk
* Chris Hülsbeck – Apidya, Great Giana Sisters, Turrican series
* Jeehun Hwang – Battlezone, Interstate ’76, Interstate 82, Heavy Gear, Dark Reign, Shanghai, Spycraft, Apocalypse, Blast Chamber, Fighter Squadron, Grand Tour Racing, Hyperblade, Mechwarrior : Ghost Bear’s Legacy, Mechwarrior 2, Mechwarrior : Mercenaries, Three Kingdoms, Quake : Dissolution Of Eternity, Quake : Scourge Of Armagon, Uprising
* Tsukumo Hyakutarou – Blast Wind, Hyper Duel, Thunder Force V

I

* G? Ichinose – Main Pokémon series (with Junichi Masuda)
* Tadashi Ikegami – Super Smash Bros. Melee, Kirby series
* Illreme – Katamari Damacy
* Tsuneo Imahori – Gungrave
* Naoto Ishida – F-Zero (with Yumiko Kanki)
* Jun Ishikawa – Kirby series, Alcahest
* Kozue Ishikawa – Wario Land 2, Wario Land 3, Star Fox 2 (with Yumiko Kanki)
* Mieko Ishikawa – Ys series
* Takayuki Ishikawa – Bemani, Mostly Beatmania and Beatmania IIDX
* Daisuke Ishiwatari – Guilty Gear series
* Kenji It? – SaGa series, Seiken Densetsu 1, Koi ha Balance: Battle of Lovers, Tobal No. 1, Shinyaku Seiken Densetsu
* Noriyuki Iwadare – Lunar series, Langrisser series, Grandia series, Growlanser, Radiata Stories, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations
* Takayuki Iwai (usually credited as Anarchy Takapon to differentiate from Yuki Iwai (see below)) – Armored Warriors, Darkstalkers series (with Hideki Okugawa and others), X-Men: Children of the Atom (with Syun Nishigaki, Hideki Okugawa and Isao Abe), Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom (with Isao Abe and OK Production), Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness (with Akari.K -Lemon-, Kda Mto and Super 8 Iwami), Marvel Super Heroes, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (with Tatsuro Zuzuki, Isao Abe, Yuko Kadota, Syun Nishigaki and Setsuo Yamamoto), Warzard, Street Fighter Alpha 3 (with Yuki Iwai, Isao Abe, Hideki Okugawa and Tetsuya Shibata), Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein (with Tetsuya Shibata (credited as Cyber-T))
* Yuki Iwai (sometimes credited as Yuki Satomura) – X-Men vs. Street Fighter (with Yuko Kadota), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (with Yuko Kadota), Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix (with Isao Abe and Setsuo Yamamoto), Street Fighter III: New Generation and 2nd Impact: Giant Attack (with Hideki Okugawa), Street Fighter Alpha 3 (with Takayuki Iwai, Isao Abe, Hideki Okugawa and Tetsuya Shibata), Tech Romancer, Mega Man X, Mega Man X2
* Tappy Iwase – Policenauts, Metal Gear Solid
* Masaharu Iwata – Final Fantasy Tactics (with Hitoshi Sakimoto), Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity (with Hitoshi Sakimoto), Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (with Hitoshi Sakimoto)
* Hiroyuki Iwatsuki – Choujin Sentai Jetman (NES), Mitsume ga Tooru (NES), Wild Guns (with Haruo Ohashi), Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition (with Haruo Ohashi), Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (SNES, with Haruo Ohashi), Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (SNES, with Kinuyo Yamashita and Iku Mizutani)
* Takahiro Izutani – Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Yakuza 2, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Ninja Blade

J

* JAM Project – Super Robot Wars series
* Jeroen Kimmel / RED (The JudgeS) – Alien Syndrome, Traz, Frightmare, Playboy, The Big Deal
* Lee Jackson – Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem 3D
* Richard Jacques – Sonic R, Metropolis Street Racer, Headhunter, DarXide (with Adam Salkeld), Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
* Richard Joseph – Sensible Software, Bitmap Brothers, many others from 1986 to the present day.
* Zach Julin
* Jph Wacheski
* Junko Tamiya – Bionic Commando (NES), Darkwing Duck, Gun.Smoke, Little Nemo: The Dream Master, Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight, Strider (NES), Sweet Home (video game)

K

* Yuko Kadota – X-Men vs. Street Fighter (with Yuki Iwai), Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (with Tatsuro Zuzuki, Isao Abe, Syun Nishigaki, Setsuo Yamamoto and Takayuki Iwai), Star Gladiator (with Isao Abe), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (with Yuki Iwai)
* Toshio Kai – Pac-Man
* Akari Kaida – Breath of Fire III, Rockman & Forte, the Battle Network Rockman.EXE series, Resident Evil
* Yuki Kajiura – Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse, Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra
* Toshiyuki Kakuta – Z.O.E ~Zone of the Enders~, Beatmania, Beatmania IIDX, GuitarFreaks, DrumMania, and Dance Dance Revolution
* Tomoki Kanda – Katamari Damacy
* Naoki Kaneda – Ys V: Ushinawareta Suna no Miyako Kefin (from the Ys series)
* Theodor Krueger – Europe in the Age of Napoleon, Warplan Orange, Drednaughts in the pacific
* Yumiko Kanki – F-Zero (with Naoto Ishida), Star Fox 2 (with Kozue Ishikawa)
* Yoko Kanno – Genghis Khan, Nobunaga’s Ambition series, Uncharted Waters series
* Sanae Kasahara – Cho Aniki: Kyuukyoku Muteki Ginga Saikyou Otoko
* Jake Kaufman – Shantae, M&M’s Minis Madness, Legend of Kay, TMNT (Nintendo DS), Contra 4 (upcoming)
* Yasuhiro Kawakami – Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, Chocobo’s Dungeon 2, Tobal No. 1
* Tamayo Kawamoto – Zuntata sound team, Black Tiger, Last Duel, Forgotten Worlds, Ghouls n’ Ghosts, Pang, Night Striker, Raycrisis, Rayforce, Raystorm
* Yasuhiro Kawasaki – Illusion of Gaia
* Hiroki Kikuta – Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, Soukaigi, Koudelka, Soranoiro, Mizunoiro
* Tadashi Kimijima – Bubble Bobble (Sega Master System), Rainbow Islands (Sega Master System port, with Hisayoshi Ogura)
* Masahiko Kimura – Castlevania 64, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Suikoden III
* Steve Kirk – Voodoo Vince, Zodiac, Realms of Gold, Word Spiral, Four Houses, Flying Leo
* Grant Kirkhope – Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, Blast Corps
* Yoshihiko Kitamura – Fire Emblem: Seima no Kouseki
* Frank Klepacki – All of Westwood Studios’ games while the developer was independent, including the popular Command & Conquer series.
* Mark Klem – Wacky Wheels
* Chris Kline aka vertexguy – Bionic Commando 2009, Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection, Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection
* Mark Knight – Dungeon Keeper 2, Populous the Beginning, Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown, Warhammer: Dark Omen and more.
* Chiho Kobayashi – Key of Avalon
* Keiki Kobayashi – Soulcalibur III Original Soundtrack ~Legend of Sounds~, Ace Combat 04, Ace Combat 5, Ace Combat Zero, Ace Combat 6
* Miyoko Kobayashi – Terranigma, Atelier Lilie ~Alchemist of Salburg 3~, Hermina & Culus ~Another Side Story of Atelier Lilie~, The Granstream Saga
* Saori Kobayashi – Panzer Dragoon series, Shadowgate 64: Trial of the Four Towers
* Masato Koda – Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara, Magical Tetris Challenge
* KONAMI KuKeiHa CLUB (KONAMI’s sound team)
* K?ji Kond? – Super Mario Bros. series, The Legend of Zelda series, Star Fox series, Yume KouJou Doki Doki Panic, New Demon Island, The Mysterious Castle of Murasame, Super Smash Bros. Brawl (with many others)
* Y?z? Koshiro – Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (with Michiru Yamane), ActRaiser, ActRaiser 2, Ys series, Streets of Rage series, Revenge of Shinobi, Super Adventure Island
* Taro Kudou – Axelay, Super Castlevania IV (with Masanori Adachi)
* Club Kukeiha – see KONAMI KuKeiHa CLUB
* Masaya Kuzume – Tetris Attack
* Jesper Kyd – Hitman series, Freedom Fighters, MDK2, Adventures of Batman & Robin, Assassin’s Creed
* Koichi Kyuuma – Metroid Prime

L

* Michael Land – Monkey Island series, Star Wars games, The Dig
* Gita Langley – Croc 2
* Noel Langley – Croc 2
* Johann Langlie – Descent II
* Jean-Marc Lederman – Atlantis, Atlantis Sky Patrol, Fairies, Mystic Inn, Titanic Hidden Expedition, Snow Racer 1998, Solar Crusade, Turbogems, Fever Frenzy, SocioTown, Force of Arms
* Barry Leitch – Gauntlet Dark Legacy, Rush 2, Rush 2049, Spider, Privateer Righteous Fire, TFX, Lotus 2, Utopia, Top Gear, Pixter, Supercars 2
* Christopher Lennertz – Medal of Honor series (2003–2005), From Russia With Love
* Russell Lieblich – Early Intellivision games
* Rob Lord – Discworld 1,2, Noir, Aladdin
* Brian Luzietti – Descent II
* Bjørn Lynne – Worms series
* Xiaoxu Lu – Dragon Oath, Perfect World

M

* Masa – Dynasty Warriors franchise and Samurai Warriors franchise.
* Trond-Viggo Melssen – Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Terminator Salvation (video game), Bionic Commando (2009 video game)
* Naoki Maeda – Bemani series
* Jun Maeda – Moon., Kanon, Air, Clannad, Tomoyo After: It’s a Wonderful Life, Little Busters!, Rewrite
* Steve Maloney – Blastball CBM-64, Dogs of War: Battle On Primus IV (with J. Hancock & S. Bawler), Lego Island 2: The Brickster’s Revenge (Conversion), Lego Racers 2 (with J. Hancock), Sega Worldwide Soccer 2000 Euro Edition
* Josh Mancell – Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (with Mark Mothersbaugh)
* Christopher Mann – Independence War Deluxe Edition and Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos
* Kevin Manthei – Kung Fu Panda, Marvel Universe Online, Upshift Strikeracer, Xiaolin Showdown, Ultimate Spider-Man, Kill Switch, Twisted Metal Black, Civilization II
* Mari – see Mari Yamaguchi
* Jerry Martin (musician) – SimCity 4: Rush Hour
* Izutani Masaki – Strikers 1945, Strikers 1945 II, Strikers 1999, Zero Gunner
* Yuge Masanori – Fire Shark (Zame! Zame! Zame! in Japan), Grind Stormer (V-Five), Truxton, Truxton II (Tatsujin and Tatsujin-Ou)
* Junichi Masuda – Pokémon Red and Blue, Pokémon Gold and Silver (with Go Ichinose), Pokémon Stadium, Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (with Go Ichinose), Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, Pokémon Emerald, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (with Go Ichinose and Hitomi Sato), Pokémon Platinum, Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, Pulseman, Mario & Wario, BUSHI Seiryuuden
* Tsukasa Masuko – Megami Tensei series, Shin Megami Tensei series, Blazeon, Kabuki Rocks (with Ichiban Ujigami), Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei
* Sami Matar – Timeless
* Noriko Matsueda – Bahamut Lagoon, Chrono Trigger, Tobal No. 1, The Bouncer, Final Fantasy X-2
* Kimitaka Matsumae – Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu
* Jonathan Mayer – Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
* Michael McCann – Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Tom Clancy’s EndWar (trailers), Audiokinetic
* Peter McConnell – Grim Fandango, Psychonauts
* Nathan McCree – Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider 2 and Tomb Raider 3
* Joe Mcdermott – Zombies Ate My Neighbors
* Okkun Medaka – Adventure Island II, Adventure Island III
* Sh?ji Meguro – Digital Devil Saga series
* Robyn Miller – Myst, Riven
* T?ru Minegishi – The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (with K?ji Kond? and Hajime Wakai)
* Yuri Misawa – Namco sound team, Katamari Damacy
* Darren Mitchell – Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion
* Yasunori Mitsuda – Chrono Trigger, Front Mission: Gun Hazard (with Nobuo Uematsu, Junya Nakano, and Masashi Hamauzu), Radical Dreamers, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Legaia 2: Duel Saga, Shadow Hearts, Xenosaga
* Yu Miyake – Namco sound team, Katamari Damacy
* Naoshi Mizuta – Rockman & Forte, Parasite Eve 2, Final Fantasy XI and its expansion packs
* Mark Morgan – Fallout, Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, Descent II
* Akihiko Mori (deceased, cancer) – Mystic Arc, Wonder Project J series
* Ayako Mori – Ghosts ‘n Goblins
* Mark Mothersbaugh – Crash Bandicoot, The Sims 2, Sewer Shark
* Rika Muranaka – Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid series (all ending themes)
* Kazuki Muraoka – Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid
* Osamu Murata – Shenmue (with Ryuji Iuchi, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Takeshi Yanagawa)
* Mutato Muzika – see Mark Mothersbaugh

N

* Hideki Naganuma – Jet Set Radio, Jet Set Radio Future, Sonic Rush
* Kenta Nagata – Mario Kart 64, 1080° Snowboarding, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
* Masaru Nakajima – Ys V: Ushinawareta Sunano Miyako Kefin (from the Ys series)
* Kaz’ Hige’ Nakamura – Time Crisis, Time Crisis II, Crisis Zone
* Keizou Nakamura – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters
* Masato Nakamura – Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2
* Takayuki Nakamura – Virtua Fighter, Tobal 2, Ehrgeiz
* Tetsukazu Nakanishi – Ace Combat series, Ridge Racer series
* Junya Nakano – Front Mission: Gun Hazard, Dewprism (Threads of Fate in the U.S.), Tobal No. 1, Final Fantasy X
* Akito Nakatsuka – Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Ice Climber
* Junichi Nakatsuru – Soul series, Ace Combat series
* Michiko Naruke – Wild Arms series
* Robert Anthony Navarro – L.A. RUSH, American Chopper: Full Throttle, Driver 76, Surf’s Up, RUSH, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja (with Inon Zur), Naruto: The Broken Bond (with Inon Zur), Lips
* Jens Nilsson – Nanosaur (with Mike Beckett)
* Nimrod Productions – Heavenly Sword, Gran Turismo 4, 24: The Game, DJ decks and FX, 7 Sins, Getaway 2, Act of War, Driver 2, Driver 3, Stuntman, Ground Control 2, Race Driver 2, Race Driver 3, Vietcong, Ghosthunter, Mario Pinball Land, Apex, Loons, Taz: Wanted, Largo Winch, Endgame disambiguation needed, Gunfighter
* Riku Nuottajärvi – Star Control II
* Tomohito Nishiura – Dark Cloud, Dark Cloud 2
* Graeme Norgate – Timesplitters, Timesplitters 2, Timesplitters: Future Perfect

O

* Martin O’Donnell – Halo series
* Ikko Ogawa – Gourmet Sentai Bara Yarou
* Hisayoshi Ogura – Zuntata sound team, Darius, Darius II (also called Sagaia), Darius Gaiden, G Darius, Night Striker, The Ninja Warriors, Rainbow Islands (Sega Master System port, with Tadashi Kimijima)
* Haruo Ohashi – Wild Guns (with Hiroyuki Iwatsuki), Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (SNES, with Hiroyuki Iwatsuki), Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition (with Hiroyuki Iwatsuki)
* Asuka ?ta – The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, Yoshi Touch & Go, New Super Mario Bros.
* Tomoya Ohtani – Sonic Heroes, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Unleashed
* Soyo Oka – SimCity, Super Mario Kart (with K?ji Kond? and Taro Bando)
* Hiroshi Okubo – Ace Combat series, Katamari Damacy
* Masanori Oodachi – Super Castlevania 4 (With Sotaro Tojima, also known as Souji Taro)
* Kenichi Ookuma – Melty Lancer series
* Shinji Orito – D?sei, Moon., One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e, Kanon, Air, Clannad, Tomoyo After: It’s a Wonderful Life, Little Busters!, Rewrite
* Michiru Oshima – Genghis Khan II: Clan of the Grey Wolf, ICO
* OverClocked ReMix – Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
* Waichiro Ozaki – Mitsumete Knight R, Emphemeral Fantasia, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

P

* Larry Peacock – Descent II
* Winifred Phillips – Speed Racer, Shrek the Third, The Da Vinci Code, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, God of War
* Stéphane Picq – MegaRace, Qin, KULT: The Temple of Flying Saucers, Dune, Extase, Jumping Jackson, Purple Saturn Day, Full Metal Planete, Lost Eden, KGB (computer game), Commander Blood
* Seth Podowitz – Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall
* Robert “Bobby” Prince – Doom, Doom II, The Ultimate Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny, Commander Keen in Goodbye Galaxy!, Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter, Duke Nukem 3D, Black Knight, Marine Strike Fighter, Terrace, Rise of the Triad, Axis & Allies 1.0, Axis & Allies 1.5, DemonStar, Abuse, Word Rescue, Pickle Wars, Math Rescue, Xenophage: Alien Bloodsport, Catacomb 3D
* Starsky Partridge – Unreal Tournament 2004

Q – None

R

* Richard Dakkard – Auto Assault
* Eko Ramaditya Adikara – Super Mario Galaxy 2, Star Wars
* Chris Rezanson – Lego Battles, Sonic Rivals, Sonic Rivals 2, Age of Empires: The Age of Kings, Rifts: Promise of Power, Nicktoons Basketball
* Trent Reznor – Quake
* Chris Rickwood – Evil Dead: Hail to the King, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
* Stephen Rippy – Age of Empires series, Halo Wars
* Gene Rosenberg – Abuse, Furcadia
* Stuart Ross – Body Harvest, Space Station Silicon Valley
* Kevin Riepl – Unreal Tournament 2004, Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict, The Bible Game, Gears of War, Unreal Tournament 3, Huxley
* Lior Rosner – Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
* Runblebee – Sonic Riders, Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
* Mark Rutherford – “Aliens vs. Predator (video game)”

S

* Toshihiko Sahashi – Blue Stinger
* Asuka Sakai – Katamari Damacy, Soulcalibur II Original Soundtrack
* Shogo Sakai – Hercules’ Glory IV, Mother 3, Super Smash Bros Brawl
* Taku Sakakibara (also known as TaQ) – Bemani series
* Yuusuke Sakamoto – Galaxy Angel series
* Sakari – Independent game musicians from around the world.
* Hitoshi Sakimoto – Super Hockey ’94, Hourai Gakuen no Bouken, Radiant Silvergun, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Final Fantasy XII, Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (with Masaharu Iwata)
* Motoi Sakuraba – Tales of Phantasia (with Shinji Tamura), Tenshi no Uta: Shiroki Tsubasa no Inori, Zan Series, Star Ocean series, Golden Sun series, Arcus Series, Hiouden Series, Valkyrie Profile, Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series, Baten Kaitos series.
* Boris Salchow – Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Resistance 2, Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time.
* Adam Salkeld – DarXide (with Richard Jacques)
* Tom Salta – Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, Cold Fear, Red Steel, Need For Speed Underground 2, The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift, Project Gotham Racing 3, Full Auto 2: Battlelines
* Michael Salvatori – Halo series
* George ‘The Fat Man’ Sanger – Wing Commander, The 7th Guest, Master of Orion
* Nobuyoshi Sano – Drakengard, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (PS2), Ridge Racer series, Tekken series
* Ryuji Sasai – Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, Bushido Blade 2, Final Fantasy Legend III (with Chihiro Fujioka), Rudora no Hihou (Rudra’s Secret Treasure), Tobal No.1 (with Yasunori Mitsuda, Masashi Hamauzu, Kenji It?, Yasuhiro Kawakami, Junya Nakano, Y?ko Shimomura & Noriko Matsueda), Xak (with Tadahiro Nitta)
* Akira Sato – Raiden
* Go Sato – Raiden II, Raiden DX, Viper Phase 1, Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2, Raiden III
* Tenpei Sato – Marl Kingdom series, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Phantom Brave
* Kevin Saville – Independence War aka I-War
* Kazuo Sawa – Nekketsu Kouha: Kunio-Kun, River City Ransom, Super Dodge Ball
* Justin Scharvona – Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Croc 2 and many others.
* Brian Schmidt – NARC (video game), John Madden Football and many others.
* David Schooley – Into the Forest
* Lawrence Schwedler – Bionic Commando: Elite Forces
* Garry Schyman – Voyeur, Destroy All Humans!, BioShock
* Andrew Sega – Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Freelancer, Crusader series
* Mark Seibert – Quest for Glory series, King’s Quest series
* Tsuyoshi Sekito – All-Star Pro Wrestling series, Brave Fencer Musashi, Final Fantasy II (WonderSwan Color and Final Fantasy Origins versions), Chrono Trigger (PlayStation version), Romancing SaGa: Minstrel’s Song, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project
* Jun Senoue – Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Sonic and the Black Knight
* Alex Seropian – Marathon
* Miyamo Shant – Guardian Legend and Zanac
* Russell Shaw – Dungeon Keeper, Syndicate, Fable and Fable 2
* Go Shiina – Tales of Legendia, Mr. Driller series
* Ichiro Shimakura – Mario Party 3, Mario Party 4′
* Yoko Shimomura – Street Fighter II, Front Mission series, Live-A-Live, Super Mario RPG (with Nobuo Uematsu and Koji Kondo), Chocobo Stallion, Parasite Eve, Legend of Mana, Mario & Luigi series, Kingdom Hearts series, Final Fantasy Versus XIII
* Yasunori Shiono – Lufia series
* Atsushi Shirakawa – Ys V: Ushinawareta Sunano Miyako Kefin (from the Ys series)
* Adam Skorupa – The Witcher
* Thomas James Slater – Guitar Hero III
* Mark Snow – Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
* Masayoshi Soken – Mario Hoops 3-on-3
* Jeremy Soule – Secret of Evermore, Total Annihilation, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind, Oblivion ,Dungeon Siege, Guildwars, Guildwars Factions, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series
* Spiralmouth – Crash Twinsanity, Crash Tag Team Racing
* Leslie Spitzer – Descent II
* Glenn Stafford – Justice League Task Force, The Lost Vikings, Blackthorne, StarCraft, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Diablo II
* Christopher Stevens – Syphon Filter 3
* Kennosuke Suemura – Shadowgate 64: Trial of the Four Towers, Super Bonk, Tengai Makyou Shinden, Saturn Bomberman
* K?ichi Sugiyama – Dragon Quest series, E.V.O.: Search for Eden, Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer, Gandara, Hanjuku Hero series, Itadaki Street 2: Neon Sign ha Bara Shoku ni, Monopoly (Japanese version), Wingman, Wingman Special, Tetris 2+BomBliss
* Keiichi Suzuki – EarthBound
* Nazo Suzuki – Dynamite Headdy
* David Font “synchrnzr” – Yume, Legend of the Dragon, ONE Sequel

T

* Katsuro Tajima – Ace Combat 04, Katamari Damacy
* Masafumi Takada – killer7, God Hand, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, No More Heroes
* Ryuichi Takada – Soul series, Ace Combat 6
* Junichi Takagi – Soul series, Ace Combat Zero
* Yasuhiko Takashiba – Super Earth Defense Force, Tuff Enuff
* Hirohiko Takayama – Xexyz
* Yukihide Takekawa – Soul Blazer
* Izuho Takeuchi – Phantasy Star III , Phantasy Star IV
* Tommy Tallarico – Advent Rising, Earthworm Jim series (Earthworm Jim 2 on), Spot Goes To Hollywood, MDK, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, Wild 9
* Hiroshi Tamawari – Vandal Hearts, Vandal Hearts II, Suikoden
* Swimmer Tamichan – see Junko Tamiya
* Junko Tamiya – Gunsmoke
* Shinji Tamura – Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Destiny, Tales of Destiny 2, Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Rebirth, Tales of the Abyss (all with Motoi Sakuraba)
* Aya Tanaka – Mario Party 5
* Hirokazu ‘Hip’ Tanaka – Balloon Fight, EarthBound, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Super Mario Land; president of Pokémon Co.
* K?hei Tanaka – Paladin’s Quest, Lennus 2 (Paladin’s Quest 2), Xardion, Alundra
* Naoto Tanaka – MadWorld, Bayonetta, (under alias Akemi Kimura:) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All, Mega Man X6, Mega Man X7, Mega Man X8
* Kumi Tanioka – Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Code Age Commanders
* Souji Taro – see Sotaro Tojima
* Uemura Tatsuya – Dogyuun, Hellfire, Out Zone, Zero Wing
* Tsukasa Tawata – Super Earth Defense Force, Ihatova Monogatari, Thoroughbred Breeder 3
* Jeroen Tel – Cybernoid, Cybernoid II, Eliminator, Turbo Outrun
* Soichi Terada – Ape Escape series (except Ape Escape 2)
* Chance Thomas – Lord of the Rings Online, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, X-Men: The Official Game, The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring, Unreal II: The Awakening
* Chris Tilton – Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, Black
* Christopher Tin – Civilization IV
* Hideki Tobeta – Namco sound team, Katamari Damacy
* Magome Togoshi – Air, Clannad, Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume, Tomoyo After: It’s a Wonderful Life, Little Busters!
* Akitaka Tohyama – Namco sound team, Katamari Damacy
* Sotaro Tojima – Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (3 songs)
* Makoto Tomozawa – Mega Man X, Mega Man X3, Mega Man 7
* Joseph Toscano – Tux Racer
* Tomizawa Toshiaki – Fix Eight, Vimana
* Kazumi Totaka – Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Yoshi’s Story, Doubutsu no Mori, Luigi’s Mansion, Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (with Akito Nakamura, Minako Hamano & K?ji Kond?), Animal Crossing, Super Smash Bros. Brawl
* Yuka Tsujiyoko – Fire Emblem series, Paper Mario
* the plasmas – Chilean band

U

* Shusaku Uchiyama – Resident Evil (2002), 2, 4, Mega Man 8
* Masami Ueda – Resident Evil 2 and 3, Devil May Cry, ?kami, Viewtiful Joe series
* Matt Uelmen – Diablo, Diablo II, StarCraft, World of Warcraft
* Nobuo Uematsu – Final Fantasy series, Apple Town Monogatari, Cruise Chaser Blassity, King’s Knight, DynamiTracer, Front Mission: Gun Hazard (with Yasunori Mitsuda and Junya Nakano), Ehrgeiz, Makaitoushi SaGa (Final Fantasy Legend I), SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu (Final Fantasy Legend II) (with Kenji It?), Rad Racer, Romancing SaGa 1 and 2 (one song in former and two songs in latter), Chrono Trigger (with Yasunori Mitsuda and Noriko Matsueda), Super Mario RPG (with Y?ko Shimomura and K?ji Kond?), Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
* Tokuhiko Uwabo – Phantasy Star, Phantasy Star II

V

* Philippe Vachey – Adeline Software International composer: Little Big Adventure, Little Big Adventure 2, Alone in the Dark, Time Commando and others.
* Ron Valdez – Descent II
* Enrique Varela – Fallen Earth, Dexter: The Game
* Cris Velasco – Hellgate: London (with Sascha Dikiciyan)
* Gianluca Verrengia – : Nightlong Union of Conspiracy -, The WatchMaker, The Broken Land, Midnight Mansion and others.
* Ralph Vickers – Urban Brawl
* Neil D. Voss – Tetrisphere, The New Tetris, Racing Gears Advance and others.
* Jeff van Dyck – Audio Director of The Creative Assembly (Total War franchise), Electronic Arts sports games (e.g. Need for Speed)
* Michiel van den Bos – Unreal, Unreal Tournament
* Chris Vrenna – American McGee’s Alice, Doom 3, Quake 4

W

* Yayoi Wachi – Panzer Dragoon II Zwei (with Teruhiko Nakagawa, Junko Shiratsu, and Tomonori Sawada), Magic Knight Rayearth (with Seiro Okamoto)
* Hajime Wakai – Star Fox 64 (with K?ji Kond?), Pokémon Stadium, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Pikmin series, Star Fox Command
* Kei Wakakusa – Elemental Gearbolt
* Jack Wall – Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, Myst III: Exile, Myst IV: Revelation, Jade Empire
* Mark Walk – Descent II
* Kyle Ward – In the Groove, Stepmania
* Dave Warhol – Intellivision and early EA game composer
* David Whittaker – many games for Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64 and Amiga platforms, including Amaurote, BMX Simulator, Colony, Elektra Glide, Grand Prix Simulator, Living Daylights, Panther, Red Max, Storm, Trans Muter, Speedball, Shadow of the Beast and Obliterator
* Guy Whitmore – Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, Russian Squares, Shivers, No One Lives Forever
* Jonathan vd Wijngaarden – Fairytale Fights, Adam’s Venture
* David Wise – All NES games by Rare Ltd., Donkey Kong Country series, Diddy Kong Racing, Jet Force Gemini, Star Fox Adventures, Wizards and Warriors series
* Tim_Wright_(musician) – Shadow of the Beast II & III, Agony, Awesome, Lemmings, Wipeout, Wipeout 2097, Colony Wars, MUSICtm, MTV Music Generator Series, eJay Series, Gravity Crash

X – None

Y

* Yasumasa Yamada – Fatal Fury series, Art of Fighting series
* Mari Yamaguchi – U.N. Squadron, Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Mega Man 5
* Kenji Yamamoto – Super Metroid (with Minako Hamano), Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid: Zero Mission, Famicom Tantei Club 2, Hajimari no Mori, Super Smash Bros. Brawl
* Kenji Yamamoto – Dragon Ball Z: Super But?den 1, 2, & 3 (#1: with Kumagorou; #2: with Switch-E, Kumatarou; #3: with Amayang, Chatrasch, Switch-E), Dragon Ball Z: Super Goku Den 1 & 2, Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22, Dragon Ball Z: The Legend, Dragon Ball: Final Bout, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 1, 2, & 3, Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai 1 & 2, Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Goku Densetsu, Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World.
* Michiru Yamane – Twinbee (NES), Castlevania: Bloodlines, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (with Soshiro Hokkai), Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (with Soshiro Hokkai and Takashi Yoshida), Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (with Masahiko Kimura), Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (with Y?z? Koshiro), Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, Gungage (with S?ta Fujimori), Genso suikoden III (with Tadashi Yoshida and Masahiko Kimura)
* Kouichi Yamanishi – Shadow of the Ninja (aka KAGE or Blue Shadow, with Iku Mizutani), Shatterhand (aka Tokkyuu Shirei: Solbrain, with Iku Mizutani), World Boxing
* Norihiko Yamanuki – The 7th Saga
* Akira Yamaoka – Silent Hill series, Contra: Shattered Soldier
* Takaheshi Yamazuke – Zool: Maj? Tsukai Densetsu
* Yoshihito Yano – Namco sound team, Katamari Damacy, Soulcalibur II Original Soundtrack
* Ryoji Yoshitomi – Metroid II: Return of Samus, Wario Land, Wario Land 4, WarioWare series, Super Smash Bros Brawl
* Kenneth Young – Media Molecule, SCE London Studio : LittleBigPlanet, 24: The Game, Fired Up, Heavenly Sword

Z

* ZUN – Touhou series
* Zuntata (Taito’s sound team)
* Inon Zur – Prince of Persia series, Crysis, Baldur’s Gate, Fallout 3, Dragon Age: Origins

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