Arcade game sounds that you love and hate

I was just going to mention Galaxian. The discrete synth sounds in earlier arcade games are very fascinating to me since they have a notiably "softer" or "warmer" sound. I love games that have a good background drone too and Galaxian's one of them.

No surprise here, but I love Williams sound effects. The player start sound for Sinistar by Mike Metz is one of my favorite arcade sound effects ever. It was made completely by accident and uses a hybrid square/sine waveform to generate the audio, which makes it sound different and unique from Defender and Joust. The "screen transition" or "wave start" sound effect in Robotron is another favorite too.

Inferno has some awesome bizarre sound design that really sells the spooky vibe of the game. And Blaster feels like a "best of" the entire Williams sound library, with excellent use of stereo sound, especially in the Time Tunnel (yet another awesome drone).

A few years ago, I wrote a fan letter to Suzanne Ciani, who did the pinball sounds for Xenon. She's a really amazing electronic musician, I highly recommend checking out her album Seven Waves.

Atari has some great sounds too like Centipede, Tempest, Major Havoc, and I, Robot.

Other sounds that come to mind include:

- the Mad Planets death sound
- Reactor attract mode music
- a lot of various Namco sounds from Bosconian, Dig Dug and Pac-Man
- the techno music and sound design in Konami's Polygonet Commanders
- Star Castle drone (even though I have never played it)
- Gyruss music

And countless others that I can't recall right now, lol
 
Mine aren't groundbreaking, they're part of the reason the games were so successful

Pac/M. Pac-Man
Galaxian
Galaga
Robotron
Battlezone
Moon Patrol
Gyruss
After Burner
Pole Position

So many more…


The Gorf level transition is really annoying though…
 
Best classic game sounds ever: Space Invaders THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP...

After that, I'd say Elevator Action. Every sound in that game is perfect.

Worst - I hate the "Ahhhhhhrg" sound of Metal Slug enemies getting killed. Way over-done, and just hard on the ears.

I also hate the beep-bloop sounds of Arkanoid. Love the game, hate the sound.
 
The music and sound effects of Reactor. The best ever in my opinion.

I'm partial also to the classic Williams sounds, especially the sound for earning a bonus ship in Sinistar. Killing a Pterodactyl in Joust is way up there on the list too.

The "correct move" beep in Dragon' Lair/Space Ace.

The music in Gyrus (Fantastic!), and the sound effects.

The captured lion sound on Zookeeper during the end of wave bonus.
 
I love the game sounds from Defender, just iconic! Love several coin-up sounds as well, including Galaxian, Pac-Man, Gyruss, Galaga and others.

I never liked the attract mode sounds from Popeye, especially the Popeye tune with the loud pipe whistle.
 
Lots of love of course the Williams sounds, and plenty of Atari sounds to be sure....the Millipede Inchworm KILL/slow time sound is awesome!
 
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It would wear me the F out if I had to hear it all the time, but 2 sounds that really take me back:

1) Day tonaaaaaa
2) Ooooh oooh ooooh ooooh (BK2K)

I got custom sound roms made for my Virtua Racing 4x because the "chink!" metal slice sound gets annoying and we like to leave it on all night. (Well, my kids like to leave it on all night when they're hanging out in the basement… think of it as a 1500 watt night light.)
 
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Fuck quit busting my balls, I'm too old and tired for that shit. Obviously Luv. I don't hate any of them.
In that case, yeah I agree. Williams games had some of the best.

I haven't seen anyone mention it, probably because it's kindof like saying you like Coca-cola…. but I still love the sounds and music in Pac-man. Soooo good.
 
I hate the elephant sound on street fighter 2. Having a really small arcade space i hate all attract sounds.. Have all mine shut off..lol
Someone else said the fire fire fire from afterburner, man I love that game but that doesn't drive me nuts.

I love the sound a quarter moving through the coin mech and dropping into the bucket. I am in process of switching all mine back to take quarters..
 
Love:

Berzerk - all of the sounds
Robotron screen change
Joust respawn
Tron - coin-up, light cycles, and entering the MCP cone
Sea Wolf - the sonar pings and the PT boat


Lots more, but those were the first ones that came to mind.
 
Can't believe no one mentioned this yet:
Mario Bros - intro jingle! Prolly the best intro/attract music ever

Other sounds.:
Pac Man- every noise from this game is hardwired into my DNA
Karate Champ - the noise from contact
Elevator Action - the different low bass tones vibrating thru the control panel
NBA Jam - the announcer's voice
Daytona USA - intro and startup music
Gorf - love the voice/speech on this game
Moon Patrol - favor this game noise/music over the rest of Willams games
 
Galaxian background sweeps always got me. Especially after the pause when clearing a wave.
Reactor sounds, all of it. The twin speakers in your face. Thank you David Thiel.
Gorf had just amazing stereo sounds. The woosh when you clear a round, and the huge dramatic explosion of the Flag Ship.
Star Castle drone with the little soft warbling of the fuzzballs. Amazing its all done with discrete circuits.
Phoenix, the haunting melody intro. It was just a doorbell music chip.
Monaco GP in a cockpit was extreme. The car throttle sounds.

I dont have any hates.

Adding Gyruss to that list above. Simply amazing what they did with AY8912s. I remember bringing a stereo tape recorder into the arcade to record a whole entire game. I wish I still had that tape.
 
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