We had a great time at VGMTogether presenting our talk on game audio logging and the dedicated communities around the world that have spent years archiving music as accurately as possible. It's a commonly overlooked topic that nevertheless supports a lot of activities in the game music scene.

You may have heard it referred to as "VGM ripping"; logging is the process of accessing, capturing, organizing and ultimately archiving game music in more accessible ways. There are a few ways that game music is stored in data, and a few ways that game music is captured for easier access. It's a time-consuming but rewarding process that requires some computer skills and a decent amount of patience.

In addition to the tracklist we've included a number of other resources: links to some of our past shows with a focus on logging and preservation, links to some of the more prominent game and computer music archives, and some other relevant talks. To all of those involved in VGM logging including our good friends ValleyBell and ctr, as well as the many folks we didn't mention, we thank you for all of your hard work and for everything you've done for the VGM community over the years.

We did our best to make our show as enjoyable for regular listeners, but we have also included our presentation slides which help enhance the experience. Click through the presentation below to see the visual aids and video examples we used during our talk.

Here's the link to our video presentation on YouTube

Track List:

0:06:50 Stage 2 – Yuurei-kun (MSX2)

By Manabu Saito

0:20:23 Ending 2 - Earthbound Beginnings (NES)

By Keiichi Suzuki & Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka

Exclusive to the US version of the game

Logged by MrNorbert1994

0:26:12 The Mountains - The Smurfs (GB)

By Alberto Jose González (Twitter)

0:32:02 Isotoxin - Unreal (PC)

By Andrew "Necros" Sega, edited by Alexander Brandon

0:39:08 Security - System Shock (PC)

By Greg Lopiccolo, Tim Ries

Originally logged and fixed by Joey "Chicajo" D in 1998

0:47:11 Vigilante Shuffle - Interstate '76 (PC)

By Bullmark

Leader [Music Direction By] – Arion Salazar, Jason Slater, Kelly W. Rogers

Written-By, Bass, Keyboards – Arion Salazar

Guitar – David Shul

Drums – Bryan Mantia

Horns – Les Harris

Engineer, Mixed By – Eric Valentine

Executive-Producer – Kelly W. Rogers

0:51:24 Song of the Ancients [excerpt] - Nier (360/PS3)

Composed by Keiichi Okabe

Interactive audio demo example

1:01:26 Launching (Title) - Star Trader (X68000)

Originally composed by Mieko Ishikawa

Additional composers for X68k port: Hiroya Hatsushiba, Keishi Yonao

1:04:34 Elevator - System Shock (PC)

By Greg Lopiccolo, Tim Ries

Originally logged and fixed by Joey "Chicajo" D in 1998

Some past episodes

Logging community and audio format discussion

Namco C352 with ctr - Community member ctr discusses his custom playback software for 90s Namco arcade games "QuattroPlay" as well as some favorite picks

Hole Chaser with Masahiro Kajihara - Composer Kajihara-san talks about his music and developing the PMD sound driver, also used by his contemporaries to write FM music for 80s/90s Japanese computers

5 Years of VGMRips - A retrospective on some favorite music direct from the archivists in the VGMRips community

Roadkill - Jesse Bishop aka "Street Cleaner" talks about his work logging the audio from the game Roadkill. Check out our interview with Jesse about his game too!

Interview with Chase Bethea - Composer Chase Bethea talks about his music, including a live demo on dynamic audio

Hover Racing - Friend of the show electricboogaloo logged the music for the PS1 indie game on the "Net Yaroze" platform

KGB / Conspiracy - A great soundtrack and a discussion of the custom HERAD sound driver that makes the Sound Blaster music really shine