RE: Shadow of the Beast
It was one of the most well-known Amiga games, published by Psygnosis, written by a team that did tons of Amiga hacker demos. (From what I hear, the team that did the game went on to make the Grand Theft Auto series).
This site has some midis of the music.
I’ve got it…Bungie software’s Myth. (Either the original, The Fallen Lords, or the sequel Soulblighter.)
All of the music was in menu screens, “level score” screens, prologues, epilogues, and cutscenes. Nothing in the gameplay itself.
But it was great.
After that, I’d say Maniac Mansion.
I’ll always have a soft spot in my skull for Sam and Max Hit the Road. My copy of the CD-ROM (from the LucasArts Treasury collection for Mac) had an audio-CD section that had the opening credits theme, some background music, and that so-gawdawful-it’s-hilarious Liverpudlian cowboy song.
If we’re talking console games, then I’ve gotta go with Uematsu Nobuo’s work on the Final Fantasy series.
That would be Journey of the Sorcerer, off of The Eagles’ album One of these Nights. I was pleasantly surprised to find it on the iTunes Music Store…
I remember loving Little Big Adventure a lot when I was younger, but when I think about it, it wasn’t actually the game that I enjoyed so much as the music. It was probably the only music CD I had for a long time. In my opinion it just doesn’t get any better than LBA’s opening song.
Also, no thread about computer game music would be complete without someone mentioning The Longest Journey. The music simply fits. In addition to the normal game music, the CD to the game, the soundtrack if you will, includes 4 songs (I believe) that you could play on a jukebox in the game. Good stuff. I can’t wait for the sequel.
Not to hijack the thread, but do you know you can get a SCUMM emulator for your Mac and play Sam & Max all over again? I just replayed the entire adventure last month for giggles. 
How could I have possibly forgotten Homeworld?! Consider my list amended
Hey, speaking of Psygnosis and DMA Design, the Lemmings series had some pretty cool music too.
‘stones’ from ultima.
the arnika theme from wizardry 8.
the psychotic music from Alice.
♪hallelujah!♪
Interstate-76 had some of the best faux 70’s music I’d ever heard from a game. Legend of Zelda for the NES and Super Mario Bros. for the same system had music I still find myself humming to this day. Not bad for games that are nearly 20 years old.
Marc
What A Coincidence i was just listening to some songs from *Silent Hill *1 and 2 today, and i must say there are some damn good songs from Konami in general!
…memories of the Last Ninja soundtrack…such an old game and I can still walk down the street, and start randomly humming the main tune…
…and anything from the Bitmap Brothers…in particular the Betty Boo tune from Magic Pockets and “Into the Wonderful” from Gods…
Age of Wonders had some really nice music, IMO, but it seemed a lot of people didn’t like it according to the company’s message boards.
The original Quake’s soundtrack also seems to be overlooked or disliked by many, but that game had some of the freakiest songs I’ve ever heard. I can remember one in specific that had this creepy mechanical “breathing” noise going on the whole time in the background. NIN also did that one(didn’t know they’d done Alice too).
Age of Empires 2 CD is great for long roadtrips. Whenever I hear it I think of driving through the plains. 
A lot of the greatness is in the presentation too. Some of them like Total Annihilation, Mechwarrior 2*, the Dark Age of Camelot main theme, Homeworld, the Metroid games, Freespace, the Baldur’s Gate series, and pretty much any Squaresoft game ever released all do a great job at making the music go perfectly with what’s happening in the game. The Legend of Zelda theme belongs here too, mostly for Link to the Past when you finally hear it blaring for the first time as you bust through a door into the sunshine after about two hours of quiet, dreary music in a dungeon.
Castlevania did a pretty good job at making memorable music as well as Megaman too since I still hum the songs from them and I haven’t touched either game series in years.
And now, the obligatory link to GamingFM for those who want to listen to video game music streamed over the internet.
*I think this was one of the first computer games I played. I can still remember the first level when you drop down to a desert planet and everything’s totally silent for a few beats, then your mech whirrs and talks to you as it starts up while a haunting string/drum duet begins quietly in the background.
I’d have to say Aeris’ Theme from Final Fantasy VII. The orchestrated version which was released on the game’s soundtrack is beautiful.
In fact almost anything by Nobuo Uematsu (Square-Enix music guru) would get my vote.
[nitpick]
I think you’re referring to Kharak.
Higara was the destination planet, no?
In any case, very nice sequence.
[/nitpick]
It’s actually a classical peice. I am sure she said Higara, but I have been known to be wrong. I will have to check it out tonight, if I can find my CD.