TL;DR, How to Make Authentic '90s Game Music

I'm a bit of a gear geek, that much is obvious. I can talk at length about how a particular game's score was made, but sometimes it just comes down to, "What do I use to make a song sound like [insert game console here]?" Maybe you don't care about the intricacies of on-chip sound generation and you just need to make a song sound like Super Mario 64 quickly. Maybe you're not interested in the life history of a game console and you just want to know how to make a song sound like Aero the AcroBat 2. Or, maybe you've been to the videogame music sample sources spreadsheet and you have a game in mind, now all you need is some idea of where to look for a virtualisation of the hardware that made the sounds. Fortunately, in most cases, you won't have to track down the original hardware and hope it still works—most of the old samplers, ROMplers, and synthesisers that made our favourite music possible has either a VSTi or soundfont version of it that you can load in your favourite DAW. Here is a list of the most common equipment found in the '90s game composer's studio, arranged in order of ubiquity, the name of the VSTi or soundfont that emulates it, and link to someplace you can download it. I'll prioritise free sources, but sometimes the only option is to spend money. Look for the tictac next to the download link. If there isn't one, be prepared to spend some money (I'll tell you how much). Please note, I'm not working on commission here; I can't be arsed to look up a digital storefront other than Sweetwater, so that's where I'll send you to. I'm not getting paid by Sweetwater to direct traffic there, and as always, I recommend having uBlock Origin, LocalCDN, and Privacy Badger running whenever you go to a commercial website. Also, here's another thing someone on commission wouldn't say: if you don't want to buy the software, you can probably find a cracked version on the forum at RuTracker.org.

    ° Roland SOUNDcanvas: Roland SOUNDcanvas VA (download
    ° Roland JV-1080: JV-1080 Synthesiser Software ($125 from Roland Cloud)
    ° E-MU Systems Proteus 1/2/3: Emulator X3 (download (HOVER CURSOR HERE)
    ° Korg M1: Starland M1 sf2 (download )
    ° Digidesign SampleCell II: Digidesign SampleCell Factory sf2 (Strings | Synthesisers | Brass )
    ° Yamaha DX7: Digital Suburban Dexed (download — Don't forget the Sega Mega Drive SysEx patches! also )
    ° Optical Media Int'l - Universe of Sound: OMI UOS vol. 1 & 2 sf2 (download HOVER CURSOR HERE)
    ° E-MU Emax II: Emax II sf2 collection (download )