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Turntable Game Jams – The Resurge of Vinyl & VGM

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If you’re one of the older members of our generation, you probably know what vinyl is. For the younger kids, vinyl is the older brother of the CD (compact disk) – that physical medium that predates your fancy MP3 players and iPhones. (Man, I’m old.) They’re also commonly referred to as “records”.

So now that you have had the history lesson, you might not be aware that vinyl has not exactly gone the way of the dinosaur. What used to be a neat hobby for collectors of older-style medium has seemed to have a resurgence within the past few years, and one of the things that seems to be included within this return to a simpler time of music-listening is video game music.

Vinyl records, also known as “gramophone records”, weren’t a commonly used medium for listening to music by the time video games recovered from their crash in the 1980s. Cassette tapes and, eventually, CDs were the popular method for listening to music due to their portability, versatility and their lastability (vinyl records degrade faster), and music distributors were slowly phasing records out of circulation entirely by charging retailers more for returning unsold vinyl albums. By the early ’90s records were obsolete, and any music recording done, including any video game soundtrack albums, were released via the newer music methods. Releasing video game soundtracks at all wasn’t all too popular itself until the mid ’90s anyway, when making CDs had become cheaper and cheaper, but they were still seen as novelty.

However, within the last 7 years, vinyl records have made a bit of a return to style. Originally, records were only released for niche markets in limited runs by bands if at all, and only collectors or purists had an interest. This obviously didn’t create much of a demand, and thus was usually only a novelty. However, by 2007, vinyl records started becoming more than just a collector’s interest and the niche markets grew, particularly in Europe. Club DJs still used records for their manipulation ability over CDs and MP3s. In the United States, annual vinyl sales increased between 2006 and 2007 over 75%. Now, in 2015, you can often find mainstream artists and indie artists alike releasing albums on vinyl for their select crowds.

With video games and video game music having become such a wide industry by the late 2000’s, finding ways to reach niche markets appealing to retro tastes has certain become a norm. So it’s no wonder that the concept of releasing video game soundtracks on vinyl has now become a growing phenomenon, especially amongst game music aficionados, many of whom enjoy the analog sound wave format vinyl offers over the digital sound wave of CDs.

This seems to have start first with bootlegs. Video game music fans will find ways to make what they want, either themselves or by outsourcing, and distribution of game music to vinyl when it’s not officially released in such a media gives way to fans creating their own and sharing. The process of creating vinyl records is far more invasive than simply burning a CD, what with the process of mastering and pressing the record, but with online sites offering record pressing for a price, the vinyl enthusiast simply needs to create the playlist they want at the highest quality possible, and send  it off to be created.

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[3]Certainly, bootleg sales shouldn’t be encouraged, but for some fans it was the only way to craft beloved game soundtracks onto a favored medium, and thus came into amateur circulation on websites such as Discogs [4]. The concept also spurred some video game cover bands to release their albums onto vinyl, such as The Minibosses [5].

Of course, once it became known that there was a market for game soundtracks on vinyl, certain outlets decided to go a more legit route. Places such as Data Discs [6] and Turntable Lab [7] have now become licensed creators and distributors of original game soundtracks from several classic series, such as Koji Kondo’s original Super Mario Bros. soundtrack, Shenmue and Streets of Rage.

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With these sites and others starting to market official game soundtracks on such a classic medium as vinyl records, demand will be the key to further interest in other titles. With vinyl growing in popularity as it has the past few years and looks like it will continue to do for at least the foreseeable future, it’s not unlikely this will become a more regular occurrence, not just with retro game soundtracks, but even OSTs of new games. Imagine if you will, the upcoming Dark Souls 3‘s original soundtrack released on vinyl record, or The Last Guardian, alongside their respective games. It’s not as farfetched as one might think, and it certainly is amazing to ponder on. I can certainly say that an officially licensed release of Super Castlevania 4 would have me dropping a fair amount of coin on my own setup to enjoy in the comfort of my own home with a glass of spirits.

What game soundtracks would you love to have released on vinyl record? What would entice you to invest in a turntable of your own and enjoy a such a classic style of music enjoyment?

Edit to the original: We’ve been informed by Data Discs themselves that the Mario record from Turntable Lab is a counterfeit and not official. We thank them for this information.

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#1 Comment By Ryan Paquet On June 23, 2015 @ 9:58 am

I am a compact discman myself (pun intended). I think I could only seriously ever get into vinyl if I came into a lot of money and could buy the best equipment and have a dedicated room with a very level floor.

But, I do have a few LPs that I have framed because of their artwork alone. One is the soundtrack to a lesser known Canadian cartoon called Robotman and Friends. If some of my favorite video game scores did get a vinyl release I might pick them up just to frame them.

Or if we end up in a world with a darker future like Equilibrium or Oblivion and CDs no longer work – old vinyl record players will definitely get the job done! đŸ™‚ The use of vinyl LPs during scenes in these movies really are fantastic.

#2 Comment By BBPP On June 24, 2015 @ 7:33 pm

Wow finally you featured vinyl, welcome to 2008.

#3 Comment By Brenna Wilkes On June 24, 2015 @ 8:06 pm

So what VGM vinyl came out in 2008 that we should know about?

#4 Comment By Walensky On July 1, 2015 @ 3:38 am

“the high-quality analog sound wave format vinyl offers over the digital sound wave of CDs.”

Of course, you realize that this has no sense whatsoever concerning digitally-produced recordings (i.e. all modern recordings and many old electronic scores).

#5 Comment By Brenna Wilkes On July 1, 2015 @ 7:44 am

I tweaked my wording a bit to convey it’s a matter of preference rather than quality, though I have heard enough arguments that vinyl does indeed sound better than digital format.

#6 Comment By Walensky On July 1, 2015 @ 10:53 am

Storing a digital source, which is discretely coded, to a full analog medium like vinyl implies an artificial interpolation to make the signal continuous again. Note that this has to be done by every digital listening hardware to deliver the audio to the speakers.

So any difference in audio quality or as you say preference lies somewhere between different mix/mastering techniques applied by audio engineers to the source when producing the support (vinyl, cassette, CD, digital file), and the listener’s audio equipment.

All this being true when comparing the original digital recording source and the LP transfer. Of course, CD can’t store the high resolution of most source digital recordings, so to be fair the comparison should be done with the digital source (some sites now sell these as HD audio at 24 bit/96 or 192 kHz)

Sorry to be so tedious, but the LP support itself can’t by definition be superior to the original digital source.

Of course, if the original source is an analog recording, it’s a completely different matter.

#7 Comment By Walensky On July 1, 2015 @ 11:10 am

On a different note, and as a collector, the artwork of LP gatefold is way better indeed. I don’t care for the disc (for the reasons above and because they wear so fast), but I would be tempted by giant artworks and booklets plus HD audio downloads.