Video game music used to be something you heard only with a controller in your hand. Now it is one of the fastest-growing corners of the record shop. A handful of specialist labels have spent the past decade digging into game company archives, remastering the original files and pressing the results on heavyweight vinyl with the kind of artwork and care usually reserved for jazz reissues. The best of these records hold up as albums in their own right: FM synth funk, Balearic driving music, orchestral epics and dark club tracks that happen to come from games.
Here are 10 essential video game soundtracks on vinyl, the labels behind them and what makes each one worth owning, whether you grew up with the games or have never played them.
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The labels to know
A few labels lead the field. Data Discs works directly with game companies such as SEGA and Konami to remaster classic scores, often from the composers' own original files. Laced Records releases big-budget box sets and deluxe double LPs for major game series. Mondo, best known for its film posters and soundtracks, also puts out game music with striking new artwork, and iam8bit is another label that has built a following around collectible game soundtrack pressings. Editions sell out fast, so it pays to follow the labels directly.
10 essential video game soundtracks on vinyl
1. Streets of Rage (Data Discs)
Data Discs' very first release was Streets of Rage, fully remastered in close collaboration with the composer Yuzo Koshiro, using audio sourced from the original NEC PC-88 computer files he recorded. Koshiro's score for the 1991 SEGA brawler blends house, techno and street soul in a way no one expected from a game, and it still sounds like a lost club record.
2. Streets of Rage 2 (Data Discs)
The sequel is widely seen as one of the greatest game soundtracks ever made. Composed by Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima in 1992, it is a masterpiece of FM synthesis, the gritty, metallic sound of the SEGA Mega Drive (Genesis) chip, pushed into hardcore, breakbeat and deep house. If you buy one record on this list, make it the Streets of Rage 2 vinyl from Data Discs.
3. OutRun (Data Discs)
Released in 1986, OutRun let arcade players choose their own music on the car radio before a drive along the coast, and the soundtrack became as famous as the game. Composed by the SEGA Sound Team's Hiroshi "Hiro" Kawaguchi, the Latin-tinged, sunny jazz fusion of "Magical Sound Shower" and "Passing Breeze" is a direct ancestor of today's synthwave. Data Discs' OutRun vinyl has sold out, so look for a secondhand copy or the remastered digital edition.
4. Shenmue (Data Discs)
SEGA's sprawling 1999 adventure was one of the most ambitious games of its era, and its orchestral, East Asian-inspired score by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Ryuji Iuchi, Osamu Murata and Yuzo Koshiro is quietly beautiful. The Shenmue soundtrack on translucent light blue vinyl comes with a lithographic print and a traditional obi strip.
5. Panzer Dragoon (Data Discs)
Released in 1995 alongside the North American launch of the SEGA Saturn console, Panzer Dragoon had art direction inspired by the French comic artist Jean "Moebius" Giraud and a sweeping, melancholy score by the late Yoshitaka Azuma. Data Discs' Panzer Dragoon was its first ever vinyl edition, and it is the pick for fans of ambient and cinematic music.
6. Gunstar Heroes (Data Discs)
Treasure's 1993 run-and-gun shooter is a cult favorite, and its frenetic, bass-heavy soundtrack by Norio "NON" Hanzawa is pure adrenaline. Data Discs' Gunstar Heroes double LP was sourced from original hardware and cut at 45 RPM (revolutions per minute) for extra punch.
7. Policenauts (Data Discs)
The deep cut. Konami's 1994 sci-fi detective game never had an official release outside Japan, but its soundtrack by the in-house Konami Kukeiha Club has built a devoted following. Released in partnership with Konami, Data Discs' Policenauts is a newly remastered double LP with a 12-page art booklet, a 70-minute trip through jazz fusion, ambient and synth pop.
8. Metal Gear Solid: The Vinyl Collection (Laced Records)
For the box set collector, Konami and Laced Records' Metal Gear Solid: The Vinyl Collection gathers 53 tracks from the mainline Metal Gear Solid soundtracks and official arrangements across six heavyweight LPs in a rigid slipcase. It covers decades of stealth-game themes, from tense ambient cues to full orchestral scores.
9. Hitman: Contracts (Laced Records)
Jesper Kyd's BAFTA-winning score for the 2004 stealth game is a darkly surreal electronic record, written for a game set in seedy underworld locations, entirely at night. With club-inspired tracks like "Slaughter Club," the Hitman: Contracts double LP from IO Interactive and Laced Records will sit happily next to your trip-hop and dark ambient records.
10. Castlevania: Piano Collections (Mondo)
Not every great game record is a straight soundtrack. Released by Mana Wave Media in association with Konami and sold through Mondo, Castlevania: Piano Collections features all-new piano arrangements of music spanning the Castlevania series, performed by Benyamin Nuss and Ramon van Engelenhoven and recorded live in Cologne, Germany. The gothic melodies translate beautifully to solo piano.
Where to go next
Once you are hooked, Data Discs' catalog runs much deeper, with the original Japanese score to Sonic CD by Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ogata, the arcade classic Space Harrier and the Golden Axe games. Survival horror fans should go straight to the Akira Yamaoka scores covered in our Silent Hill starter guide.
Getting the most out of them
Many game soundtracks are pressed on colored vinyl and heavyweight discs, and they deserve a decent setup. If you are just starting out, our guide to the best turntables for beginners will get you playing, and our roundup of record cleaning and care gear will keep those translucent pressings sounding clean. Looking for a gift for a gamer who is also a collector? These records belong in our gift guide for vinyl collectors.
More in our vinyl hub.
