In this thread i would like to describe the Master System brackground musics that are engraved in our minds. Those tracks that when you hear, you remember the game and the stage or situation.

I will begin listing:

Space Harrier - Main Theme
Alex Kid in Miracle World - Main Theme & Underwater theme
Choplifter - Round 1
Double Dragon - Main Theme
R-Type - Stage 1
Sonic - Green Hill Zone
Phantasy Star - Main Theme & Dungeon Theme

What music ring you a bell of certain Master System game?

The three standouts for me are Alex Kidd in Miracle World (it's not that good but it's addictive), R-Type and Wonder Boy 3. I think when you spend hours upon hours playing them when you are younger they do get ingrained in you.

I especially like the chest music in Wonder Boy 3.

How could i forgot to mention the most addictive tune i know, the 1st Stage of After Burner. The first time i heard this tune was in Master System, and then on Arcade, Mega Drive, PC, Sega CD.

The fact of this music is so addictive is that no matter how new or enhanced is the After Burner version, it is always there when you start to play. Its a really amazing tune, if you heard it, you could not know of what version of the game it belongs, but you can always say: It belongs to After Burner.

Miracle warriors the whole soundtrack is great!! keep whisteling it 20 years later...
out run (MSS) classic...
Golden axe warrior overworld tune...stucks in your head after couple of hours playing
Alex kidd lost stars most tunes...really catchy...

What about Kung Fu Kid? Cheap game but classic sound.

Guys, since this thread is about music, i would like to share the list i know of Master System games that are FM capable:

After Burner
Aleste/Power Strike
Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars
Alien Syndrome
Blade Eagle
BMX Trial - Alex Kidd
Bomber Raid
Captain Silver
Chouon Senshi Borgman/Cyborg Hunter
Doki Doki Penguin Land - Uchuu-Daibouken
Double Dragon
Family Games/Parlour Games
Fantasy Zone II - Opa Opa no Namida
Galactic Protector
Haja no Fuuin/Miracle Warriors - Seal of The Dark Lord
Hoshi Wo Sagashite...
Kenseiden
Kujakuou/SpellCaster
Lord of Sword
Maou Golvellius/Golvellius - Valley of Doom
Masters Golf/Great Golf
Maze Walker
Megumi Rescue
Nazca '88/Aztec Adventure
Nekyuu Kousien
Opa Opa/Fantasy Zone: The Maze
Out Run
Phantasy Star
R-Type
SDI/Global Defense
Shinobi
Solomon no Kagi - Oujo Rihita no Namida
Space Harrier 3D
Super Racing
Super Wonder Boy Monster World
Tensai Bakabon
Thunder Blade
Tri Formation/Zillion II - The Tri Formation
Ys/Y's - The Vanished Omens
Zaxxon 3D

If i miss a game, please, complete this list.

I recently discovered that the dumped proto version of Summer Games actually has FM sound!

I have a question about .GAME and i will post it here because it is about music. Ralph mentioned in some post, that the .GAME will join roms in a way never did before, some kind of fusion of base code and duplicated sprites and peculiarities of each version. My question is about music fusion.

You know, when Phantasy Star was released in Brazil with translated text, they do not released a FM enabled version. So, when you play Phantasy Star BR you cannot listen FM music. I wonder: if the BR version will be fused with the MARK III version, will be the BR version FM capable?

I'm afraid you need to do rom hacking in order for that to work. Someone has done that with Ys, and put FM music into the western rom (or western text into the Japanese rom). The different roms inside the game-file will not "merge together".

I think there was a thread on SMS power about games not released in japan having unused fm sound. Kinda makes you think it was planned for the FM add-on to be released elsewhere.

Back in those days it was all about "the addons" as a way to separate themselves from not being just a console. If you look at Nintendo it was crazy, with something like 60 addons available.

It's weird though that the Japanese SMS had the FM built in (on the earlier Mark III it was optional), and if you look at the release date of the Japanese SMS it's not too far into the western run of consoles. I figure that after the Japanese SMS wasn't selling in a spectacular fashion with the FM chip they didn't want to raise the price in the western unit with something that might not pay off.

If Sega had built the FM chip into every SMS maybe the 8bit war would have been different. The NES has better sound capabilities than the SMS even though it was released two years earlier, if you listen to the defeated boss Super Mario Brothers tune you hear something which sounds truly arcade like (for early 80s). Whereas SMS has ColecoVision/SG1000 era sound (which was average for that era even).

Sega weren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed though when it came to consoles. They destroyed the Genesis with the useless and expensive addons, built an overcomplicated Saturn (bit like PS3 compared to XBOX360) and by the time Dreamcast was out it was too late.

It's a shame because some people in Sega would have been very intelligent, some of their software team and their arcade division. If they had better management we would still be enjoying them today instead of seeing a shadow of themselves lingering about.