Frog’s Theme from Chrono Trigger…
Coolest…Theme…Ever!
I always thought the music from Gradius 3 kicked ass, especially the boss music.
I agree, smiling bandit, Uematsu hit his peak with FF6. Or in other words, (to keep with the theme): Jawohl!
I sent this thread to my brother, who is an expert in video game music (especially Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger-style RPGs), and also a game music composer. He writes:
Tell them about PSF (Playstation Sound Format), a music file format that allows you to hear perfect reproductions of Playstation songs at a fraction of the size of MP3s.
All you need is to go to http://www.neillcorlett.com/psf and download the Winamp plugin “Highly Experimental,” and then go to one of the PSF archive links at the bottom of the page and download entire soundtracks from Playstation games. Right now there are over 30 game soundtracks available in PSF form, including Yasunori Mitsuda’s “Chrono Cross” and “Xenogears.”
For Super Nintendo games, there are also SPCs, which are basically perfect reproductions of SNES music. Lots of SPC collections to choose from on that page, as well as a Winamp plugin to play them.
I’m not sure if they’re considered illegal though…on the one hand, they’re perfect reproductions of copyrighted music…on the other hand, they’re not really mp3s…
Another thing about Redbook audio on games is that it’s more difficult to do cross-fades and mixes and such as the game is playing, because of the seek time on a CD. (At least, that’s how it was explained to me.) Every game I’ve seen that uses it, was forced to play the entire track or nothing. Eventually, MP3s and big hard drives won out over Redbook audio.
And game soundtracks just don’t sell in the US, or at least that’s the impression the publishers have. Fans were clamoring for a soundtrack to Curse of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango, but the company didn’t bother because it was too expensive. (I think a promo CD for GF might’ve been released). It’s a shame, too, because game soundtracks are virtually their own industry in Japan – how many different Final Fantasy soundtracks are there, anyway?
Now I’ve gotta go dig up my FFIX soundtrack again…
Nice to see more fans of video game music here; maybe if there are more of us, we can finally get game soundtracks as a regular genre in the US and avoid paying for expensive imports. 
Am I the only one, though, who doesn’t care for the orchestral sound of most RPG soundtracks? I’ve got several gigs of game-related MP3s, and most of them tend to be either techno/electronica (WipeOut XL roolz!) or rock. Maybe I just don’t have the ear for classical…
I believe SPCs are the actual audio data files used in the SNES games, and would therefore be covered under the same copyright laws for the original game code itself. 
Which isn’t to say I don’t have a few MP3s that were originally SPCs – how else can I get the soundtrack for Super Gradius?