Classic Arcade Sounds

I decided yesterday that I'd like to locate some MP3s of favorite video game songs and sounds from the past. What I had in mind were Atari and Nintendo classics. Color me supergeek but I had this hankering to hear the Super Mario Bros. theme song on headphones. Of particular interest to me was to find original versions of the songs that played when you were underground and in the castles. I still haven't found exactly what I was looking for in terms of those songs (anybody know of a good resource?) but my search led me to something equally interesting. Of equal interest, at least, to nostalgic dorks like myself.

CoinOpVideogames.com has a section of the site that is entirely dedicated to classic arcade sounds. The kicker is just how all of these sounds were recorded and chronicled:

"In late 1982, my best friend had a Sony TCS-310 Stereo Cassette Recorder. Audio cassette tape was the affordable recording media at the time and one wintery November day while on our way to the arcade 'Just Fun' in Ithaca, NY, we came up with the idea to record video game sounds.

The very idea was caught on tape too!

We recorded video games from 1982 until 1988. Fortunately I managed to save all fourteen audio tapes of video game sounds and arcade ambience which were recorded from a variety of locations in the U.S. Most of the recordings are from Ithaca, NY, Albany, NY, Lancaster, PA, Ocean City, MD as well as Key West, FL.

In the last several years I digitized these nostalgic recordings to preserve and share them. Experience the magic and the wonder of the early years of coin-op video games. Hear the classic arcade ambience like you haven't heard in twenty plus years! The blend of several video games being played simultaneously, the kids yelling and the quarters and tokens clanking. We will never hear such beautiful chaos quite the same way again...."

Amazing. You might not find it fun to watch, let alone listen to, others play video games...but if you're like me, this is as interesting as it is amusing. Listening to the kids (listen to this intro to Donkey Kong) and listening to their arcade recordings from the early and mid-80s was like getting into a time machine. Oh Robotron, how I miss thee.

Listen:
Robotron
Spy Hunter
Donkey Kong

There are TONS more (14 pages worth) sounds HERE.