When I heard that some of my friends were making a video game, I foisted my musical skills on them. I created two demo songs to entice them. The first was an epic romp you’d hear in some movie sound track. The second was an old timey Nintendo-type score. When I set out to make this second demo song, I tried some simple synth sounds (saw-tooth, square, AM, FM) but none of these created that sort of “dinky” sound I’d hear out of my television in the late 80’s. A quick Google search pulled up this sweet, free VST Plugin: Peach. Just cycling through the sounds was inspiring.

Armed with Peach, I pounded out this ditty, which is awesome. (I later found that not everyone agreed with this assessment.)

This has all the elements that I loved in old Nintendo games.

1. It starts with a minor, self-important melody that is undercut by the timber of the instruments.
2. It has that major-tonality part that sort of “opens up” as if to say “Come on, World. Join in!”
3. It has a turn-around that brings you back down and sets you up for an endless loop.
4. It has a simple backing line that serves both to harmonize some parts and answer others.

-Mitch