Video game music/sound was first created in 1972 by Allan Alcorn, this game was called pong, hence the sound it made. The game was like a digitalised version of ping pong but in 2D. The sound was created using a sync generator that synchronised the pitches of the 8 bit ‘pong’ sound that was created. This is what the video game looked like:
In 1980 The first game with a continuous melodic background was born. This game which was called Rally-X consisted of you running away in a car, in a maze while other AI cars are chasing you whilst you’re trying to collect points. This game was basically a later version of pac man which released about 9 months before. The game was created by Toshio Kai who used one of the first synthesisers ever made that looked something like this:
I will now compare a game that was released much later which was all made by one man named Toby Fox. Somehow he managed to create an entire game, with a soundtrack called ‘Undertale’ in just under three years! The game was released on the 15th of September 2015 with a completion time of 22 hours and just over 2 whole hours worth of music. Toby Fox was only 23 years old when he released Undertale. Toby fox created The Undertale soundtrack purely using free sound fonts and synths. He also copied the synths of other famous games like Zelda or Mario.
From creating this game that didn’t cost him much he ended up making 26.7 million dollars just in steam sales alone!
Overall, video game music today cannot be categorised into a genre as a whole, this is because there are so many types of game music, that are as simple as 8 bit melodies to full fledged songs! I also think that video game music has come far especially in the last 20 years and has had a deep impact on the video game industry.