In the 1970s, early video games had arrived. And although primitive by today's standards, they gradually grew in complexity and scope - both in terms of gameplay and sound and music. Dr. Neil Lerner, a musicologist at Davidson College in North Carolina, recently spoke with WAMC's Lucas Willard about the influences on the sound of early video games.
Featured sound comes from:
Pong (1972) published by Atari Inc.
Circus (1977) by Exidy
Kangaroo (1982) by Sun Electronics
Space Invaders (1978) by Taito Corporation
Phenoix (1980) by Amstar Electronics
Gyruss (1983) by Konami
"The Origins of Musical Style in Video Games, 1977-1983," in The Oxford Handbook of Film Music Studies, edited by David Neumeyer (Oxford University Press, in press).
