For me it was Jeroen Tel's Hawkeye on the SID. I remember showing it to my dad - not sure what his reaction was, but I was acting like I just saw the Batmobile drive down my street. It's one of my favorite pieces to this day, and I even have it set as an alarm tone on my phone.

extends levant

Ok, that is a BANGER, and I'd forgive you if this thread was mainly an excuse to share that.

For me, I guess the Kid Icarus title theme when I heard it as a kid. And just that whole soundtrack, that's what got me interested in chiptune in the first place. As an adult, Praying Hands from Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge brought me a lot of inspiration.

It's not "real" chiptune, but the release i, cactus on 8bitpeoples blew my mind back in the day. It stood out to me among all the other chiptunes as being very unique and made my brain irrevocably idm-pilled for the rest of eternity

https://khonnor.bandcamp.com/album/i-cactus

Also not "real" chiptune, but Shnabubula's Playing Super Mario World While Taking Mushrooms was absolutely insane to me back then.

probably something by FoD or A64

Extends Levant by Hertzdevil, it had a clone hero chart that was popular for years. I remember hearing Apocythian Drive not too long after and at first I couldn’t even sit through the song because the chord progressions were too much— nowadays it sits right next to E.L in my head as truly goated chips.

GENERAL SERUM deserves a mention here as well

"Geothermal" from Cave Story (the music that plays right before the first Core battle).

I would say the Jayster cover of "Scrapyard Swing," which was one of the demos that came with the original famitracker. It still impresses me now, although I would say I'm now more impressed by his creative reinterpretation of the original than the technical bits (the technical bits are still cool though!)

my brian cannot rember right now so the best i can do is that chibi-tech song. you know the one

pretty hard to say first but I know when I heard Hot Buttered that was a real aww jeeziz moment. Same for Cydonian Sky

As far as a vintage video game soundtrack goes, it probably has to be the opening to Streets of Rage. I can remember being about 4 or 5 years old and booting up that game and even being as small as I was I knew I was listening to something special. I found the sound test shortly after that, and as cool as the game itself was I probably spent more time in the sound test than playing the actual game.

As far as a more "home brew" example? There are 2 instances that come to mind. My older brother was into listening to mod tracker music in the 90's. And there was one tune I heard called "Fountain. Mod" that I found absolutely stunning at the time and I still think it sounds beautiful today.

Quite a bit later I joined a site called VGmix. There I started making video game arrangements and honing my musical skills. While I was there I ran across the now legendary Rushjet1.

I still remember the first song I heard from him called "Technotris" It was a techno nes remix of Tetris that I loved the sound of. I don't even think Famitracker was out then, or if it was, it was in early stages and Rushjet1 was using MML to make his music and I just thought that was mind blowing.

I never got quite that technical myself. But once I got my hands on some trackers I could understand I eventually joined 8 bit collective and tried my hand at some chip tunes myself. And I would say hearing tracks like that in my formative years is a huge reason why I got into chip tune composition myself and I still enjoy it to this day even if I take breaks from it from time to time :).

RRThiel's Mega Man Perfect Blue music showed uo in a scratch game and i wanted to hear more, and thus chiptune entered my brain. Also saw other chiptunes on scratch thus mmaking me go oh i wanna chiptune now so yah

Fantasy Pants by Xaser. Sampling just the right amount of distorted guitar to not have it loop and still managing to fit it in the SPC is crazy to me.

edit: oh and also the entire Mega Man X and Castlevania Dracula X soundtracks

it might have been yousuke yasui

outside of all the good ol' game music I grew up immersed in, I'd say the first things that come to mind are Blitz Lunar's Triptunes album and the old Kind of Bloop comp.

Runnin' Through Castles by Jayster

realistically, something rrthiel or perhaps ai bomb.

though i think the turning point for me was rollin down the street, in my katamari. that kind of opened my eyes to stuff beyond just nes chiptune. and then probably something from bit shifter

I think I was hooked on chiptunes from the first time my family booted up Revenge of Shinobi on Genesis. Before that, my formative memories were of Atari and Tandy games so I legitimately did not know that games could sound like that.

's why, so far, the only chip I've dabbled in is the gen's.

the first chiptune that impressed me was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-Mx0lEmnZ0

Like damifortune, there's a ton of music I appreciated while playing games as a kid. Looking through my YouTube history, Sonic music stuck with me the most, as I was looking up many covers of it. (And Touhou music, despite barely playing the games...)

However, while I appreciated it, I didn't really treat it as seriously as the music albums I grew up listening to. During the early years of my musical journey, I mainly listened to metal, alternative rock and post-rock, with very little electronic influences, let alone chiptune.

Thanks to getting into music reviews and music rating sites, I had also picked up some music snobbery, so I thought there was a divide between 'real music'/albums and 'video game music'/soundtracks. Especially since there were very few video game soundtracks on those rating sites at the time...

Then, at some point, I discovered some bands that took influence from video game music, such as Machinae Supremacy and Anamanaguchi. Because both of them had actual albums, I immediately treated them more seriously! While the former was more 'metal' and closer to my existing tastes, I quickly grew to prefer the latter, even if it was more 'catchy' and 'poppy'. (And even with the live instrumentation, there was actual chiptune underneath!)

From there, the wall I'd built up started to crumble, as I discovered labels like 8bitpeoples with tons of free releases, and some years later, this very website.

tl;dr: the album Dawn Metropolis by famous BotBr Anamanaguchi

I actually didn't get into, like, popular music until after I played Guilty Gear X and learned that guitars could be really cool lmao. When I was a kid I only listened to retrogame tunes and baroque music.

probably Zizibum by X-Ray, I Think You Sync Autumn, or one of A64's earlier tunes (Hang Loose IIRC?)

zabutom
safe to say i would have thought the whole scene a missable niche, but the likes of endroll and jellyfish parachutes and kugghjul really caught my ear at the time

either rainbow road from snes mario kary or rolling down the street in my katamari by fearofdark. former was probably the first chiptune i enjoyed listening to and the latter was what got me obsessed with tracker music.

For me the messenger soundtrack was the thing that got me into chiptune, extends levant was probably the first to impress me after I started doing chiptune, and moe moe kyunstep pt2 was the first to really impress me after I got good/comfortable with chiptune. Oh yeah, and trayson's (nosyart on YT) stuff continues to impress me, there's so many subtle techniques he uses that blow my mind most recently in his song "nothing" he does some triangle echo stuff in the instrument envelope, its crazy (he also slows down and repitches the song in reaper which is something I haven't thought to do before).

i've been a chiptune fan for longer than i can even remember, but one that particularly stuck out to me for what ever reason is revelry by auxcide. i heard it in a scratch project once back when i used that site all the time. i think it was just some art showcase project??? i can't seem to find it any more... either way the song just fascinated me back then

chibi-tech - Love is Insecurable

Really expanded my idea of what chiptunes could do.

Unreal Superhero 3. I first heard it used in a scratch project and was blown away as a kid lol

Unreal Superhero 3 for me as well! I heard about it from Battle for Dream Island and it really stuck with me. Keygen 8 by Dubmood as well.

probably something by keffie

disasterpeace- beta’s brilliancy

very similar to fade, my first encounter with chiptune was a jeroen tel song. It wasn't an original, it was his C64 version of afterburner, but that got me hooked into finding more stuff like it, leading me to more jeroen tel and eventually the follin brothers.

I'll give y'all a handful from different stages of my life!

When I first discovered chiptune on 8bc:
Probably something by Electric Children or IAYD

When I first started making chiptune myself:
the Wish EP by Je Mappelle, "Fun w/ Laser Guns" by FOD,
and Apocynthion Drive (which I first discovered not here, but on ucollective(dot)org RIP)

When I came back to BotB in 2022: (Meet me by the) Raspberry Bush

Kitsune^2 songs
Avast your Ass, Rainbow Tylenol and Rock my Emotions

Fact: They come from the same album Squaredance
https://lapfoxtrax.fandom.com/wiki/Squaredance_(album)

Yes they're YTPMV bgm cause I caught up in YTPMVs back then (and still do)

The first chiptune that I recall falling in love with was 4-Mat's theme to Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk on the Atari ST. A bigger impression however was made by Patrick Phelan's soundtrack to Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge (also the Atari ST version). Before you start a race, you can select which of the six main songs you want to hear while playing, and I spent a lot of time just on this song selection screen.
As to demoscene chiptune? I wouldn't know, actually! Probably also something on Atari ST, but it would've been as a teen, I guess, and not as a child.

MR FUCKING MARVELLOUS BY JAMMER

Overdrive 2 on Sega genesis. It is probably one of the most impressive works of chiptune ever made and the demo by extension is my favorite demo scene production ever

Rolling Down the Street, in My Katamari

Either RRThiel or Kawashin's songs.
more recently, with a deeper understanding of chiptune and its making, some fod, no rush! Let's enjoy the sunset, and extends levant have made me go "phwoarrrr"
wait fuck i already posted in this thread (∏o∏)

i dont understand how pator is so cracked at AY, ascendant and necropolis are both so good im annoyed i hadnt heard them before until like somewhat recently

edit: i forgot what the question on the thread was, oops

one of the first chiptunes i was pretty impressed by were certain nes covers by branflakes. like i just didnt know chip sound design could like do that? also notably carve your own path and powerful sample generator

Take It Day By Day by FearOfDark was probably the first chiptune (discovered via soundcloud) that really made me realise "ok making this music could actually be pretty cool"

Either that song or The Zubmarine Zone by Vince Kaichan

As a kid, it was Proto Man's theme from Mega Man 3.

As for "modern" chiptune, I guess it was Hopeless Romantic by FoD.

Tim Follin's Agent X. That's how I fell into the chiptune rabbit hole.

malmen and joule - tomorrow without you inspired me to make music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP1uvEtxJs4
https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=168881

strobe - bunny needs a hug inspired me to search for more of his music leading me to botb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAxfVH7YLTM
https://modarchive.org/index.php/forums/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=151149


i listened to these songs on my nintendo dsi when i was 15-16.....................................



EDIT: malmen said his fav botb battle song was soraing by me and jimmyoshi

so we have come full circle........

The VVVVVV soundtrack made me like chiptune, The J Arthur Keenes Band's Computer Savvy made me want to make chiptune on a game boy, ???'s Wall You Need is Love inspired my love for chiphop/funky stuff, Peer's Dances EP inspired my love for the beauty of the game boy sound chip and chiptune that wasn't EDM/hip hop beats, and Zan-zan-zawa-veia's Mist Slug and Moke Moke inspired my love for sick nasty hauntingly beautiful chiptune

So the first songs in those timeliness are
- souleye - Positive Force - https://youtu.be/Tp3qiOKuEBM?si=r8yNTIDAhuQT_sJM
- The J Arthur Keenes Band - Expelling Bee - https://youtu.be/tBzKrJmMwGk?si=SyGnJJlPyDnmJCoC
- ??? - Machine Gum - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ez0fFyVBmYE
- peer - Dance 4 - https://on.soundcloud.com/sG1pkHNAM58ANrn9ah (someone should put this EP on youtube for longevity)
- zan-zan-zawa-veia - Semi Slug - https://zan-zan-zawa-veia.bandcamp.com/track/semi-slug

this one (i was a kid, 10yo i think) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgN_zFR07U4&t=33s

Mega Man 1-6, Gimmick and Jeroen Tel's Myth title screen

probably any FoD youtube track...
but my renewed interest came from pc98 soundtracks, which led me to furnace tracker, which led me to melonade's "counterattack" demo song, and that one blew my mind!
eventually, discovering keffie's "sarabande reflex" also further inspired me and thats how i found botb :D

I discovered Nighthawk on Youtube (Specifically Jet Lag and Annie). That was also my inspiration to start trying trackers, since they looked pretty fun!

Outside of growing up with an NES in the 80s and loving Konami/Ultra soundtracks, the first song to really get me excited about chiptunes in itself was Nullsleep's Her Laser Light Eyes somewhere around 2003 or 2004? It was made me happy on my drive home and I slowly found my way into community with chiptunes because of that, eventually even having him as a house guest after working a concert he headlined this year.

Probably Ron Klarens Battlesquadron Soundtrack

definitely indecisive by ipi, it's incredibly full and well-composed and fueled me to keep going despite having given up on chiptune at the time, probably wouldn't be making chiptune at all or at least not as much if i didn't stumble upon it on YouTube

Puzzle Panic from Elebits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhNfrn9v0IU

My discover of it was weird. Like expected, I first encountered it through the Spongebob ytpmv "I think I'll eat it now", but I watched a heavily speeded up version by youtuber TehNipple in 2011 lol, and I just thought "woah that speeded up track is really cool!" but I had no idea how to attempt to find it since my english was bad and I was 12 years old. But then I rediscovered it in normal speed when I watched another ytpmv of Sonic X 5 years later in 2016. Now I attempted and succeeded to find the source. And I was so impressed by it and found an awesome game soundtrack along with it that I became obsessed with for like a month, and relistened to a lot afterwards.

the first one to make me lose my mind from how impressed i was, was probably either an early version offspring of the violin and the square wave (HertzDevil), or an all-VRC6 cover of the ZX Spectrum version of the LED Storm title (i dont remember who made this), or Unreal Superhero 3 (Kenet & Rez). basically whichever i heard first, i dont remember which. woulda been 13. nowadays offspring is more of a "nice" and the other two are songs i can only acknowledge as good, incapable of enjoying them anymore.

the first to impress me like "oh that's good i wanna do like that" was a semi-cover of one of the Turrican themes by SvenZZon which was included with milkytracker when I downloaded it in 2010. woulda been 11. still like it quite a bit to this day

and now im whimsyless, unimpressible, middle-aged, balding, and fat. the world was better when i was new to finding awesome new music

yes dude the milkytracker demo songs are ill, I think they sunk into me more than I realized at the time

mine's gotta be focus by chipzel!! that song is the reason why i got into chiptune in the first place

found fear of dark when i was like 10 on youtube

i'd been listening to a wealth of fantastic chiptunes before then but the first one to actually 'impress' me (especially at the point where i had actually started to think about how those songs are made) was "urethra franklin" by reed: https://modarchive.org/module.php?59323