There are actually a ton of soundtracks from great computer games that are missing an official release! Here are a few that come to mind:

Fallout -damn it!
Knights of the Old Republic -why no soundtrack? why?
Might and Magic -most anything... although with 6,7,8 and Heroes II you could listen to the tracks off the CD
Warcraft II -again you could just listen to the music off the CD, but still an official release would have been nice!

I know there are lots of others as well...

Also, I would love to have some sort of Shadowgate soundtrack! I enjoyed the original, and also loved Shadowgate 64 (despite the poor reviews it got, and I thought the soundtrack was awesome).

cheers,

-avatar!

Hotel Dusk. Awww yeah.

Would love Ikaruga and Thousand-Year Door soundtracks, too. I'd also like to get at least the music that plays in the Skull Dungeon on Zelda: Oracle of Ages.

This one's already been released.  It's in the giant Makaimura box.

Also, I'll use this opportunity to second others' mentions of Metroid, Kirby, and Konami TMNT titles needing OSTs.  And I completely forgot about the SNES Drac X.  That one needs one too.  And I just remembered: I sure would like Sega to release the freaking vocal tracks they neglected to put on the F-Zero AX/GX OST.

Journey to Silius
Almost every Aleste
Donkey Kong Land
Turricans (the 1st one got a remixed album)
Jim Power

My biggest wants in unreleased OST-age:

Langrisser IV (competes with L5 in terms of awesomeness)
Xenosaga II in-game stuff (the Hosoe compositions, at least one full disc's worth of music is missing)

Ramza

Lots of good picks in this topic.

I personally would be interested in a release of Castlevania Legends' music. That was the best part of the game, but perhaps that's not saying much. It would make for a pretty skimpy album, but if they wanted to do an original and arranged in one or throw on other CV music that's been neglected, I'd buy it.

I'd buy a Sunsoft compilation in a heartbeat as well (Batman is reason enough alone), and a Treasure collection would be sweet too. Gotta love Dynamite Headdy.

And yeah... Nintendo's bad attitude about soundtracks... I really got into Super Mario Sunshine this past summer and was disappointed to learn it never got an OST. As lackluster as some of the tracks may be, the truly great ones that are burned into my brain are more than enough reason to drop some cash.

While I'm probably the only person on the planet that would want one, I'd kill for a Tail Concerto soundtrack, but that's probably just my nostalgia for the game talking.

I honestly thought I was the only one who remembered that game. Glad to see it is not totally forgotten.

Yeah, lots of it. It seems most of it was cut scene music, though.

You mean this album? As I understand it, there's music from most classic Turrican games on it, from the original Amiga trilogy, Mega Turrican, and Super Turrican (the second one is missing, though).

Shorter than you think, perhaps. The rip I have is 21 minutes. A nice 2CD set of unreleased dracula music (Legends, XX, and Legacy of Darkness) would make a very nice album. Not that I imagine they'd do such a thing, mind you.

-Joshua

Mother 3 for me. That game put the GBA sound system through its paces, and it is just WONDERFUL.

Now, in a twist on this thread, I'd like to mention one game that I'm AFRAID will end up on this list: Opoona. Anyone else hear the rip of this? Sakimoto and the Basiscape Boys(?) have done a GREAT job here. It's not all orchestral sound and fury...due to its whimsical sci-fi setting, the music is much broader than that.

Unfortunately, Opoona came out the same time as Super Mario Galaxy in Japan, and got KILLED sales-wise. Let's hope the North American release fares a little better in a month or so. And maybe THAT would influence an OST release...? I dare to dream.

Yeah, Opoona absolutely deserves a soundtrack release. It has been a long time since Basiscape served us something that fresh and original.

I guess no one mentioned it, so here it is: Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age, both by Motoi Sakuraba.

We all should be shamed for not mentioning these.  Thanks for reminding us.

On the subject of Amiga music, did Shadow of the Beast ever get any form of release?

There's a rip? Where might one get it? I've been dying to hear that one since the preview.

I'd personally love to see an official disc for "Beyond Good and Evil." Very original stuff, and all of the rips have problems. I'll second the Mario & Luigi series, especially if the disc was arranged a la FFTA; unreleased Shimomura is criminal.

Now that I think about it, just about any western-produced game you care to name deserves an official release, since redbook and gamerips and promos are the standards of the day for all but a few Xbox games.

EDIT: Nevermind, five minutes on Google was enough to find that Opoona rip! Fantastic.

Argh. I can't believe I forgot that one!

Seconded. Great soundtrack to an equally great game.

The soundtrack ended up released in arranged form on the first Immortal CD of Amiga arrangements. The whole soundtrack is there, and it sounds pretty similar, although I thought it sounded too electronic when compared to the original.

I'd like to mention Every Extend Extra. That score was techno bliss!

Yep, not to mention acoustic arranged versions on a 2nd disc.

Here's one I just thought of:

a Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka collection.  Throw together a proper release of all his NES work:  Duck Hunt, Wrecking Crew, Metroid, Baloon Fight, Kid Icarus, Dr. Mario, etc...

TMNT 3 on the NES would be a nice little treat as well.

Wrecking Crew, Metroid, Baloon Fight, Kid Icarus appear on the Famicom 20th Anniversary Original Sound Tracks Vol.1 disc. Dr. Mario is on the third volume.

  Thanks!  I swear, I could listen to the title to Kid Icarus forever. 

But I believe in the spirit of the topic, it'd be nice to have one specific CD dedicated to him.  I hate to have to keep hitting "skip".

Yeah, there is a lot of filler on there but I think at least the first volume is worth obtaining.

One that slipped my mind: Pokemon Gold/Silver. The only one of the main series that doesn't have an official soundtrack release.
Red/Green/Blue, Ruby/Sapphire, FireRed/LeafGreen, and Diamond/Pearl all got one, but for some reason G/S never did. It's a shame too, because it had some great music.

Most of the time, I can be pretty much fully satisfied with game rips when no official albums exist. However, when the source material from the game is highly compressed and thus, the sound quality is poor, or when ripping the tunes is a real pain for technical and/or required time issues, an OST sure would come in handy.

When one has an avid interest in Western VGM, he realizes official albums are rarely available, or at least, as plentiful and easily purchasable as popular Japanese releases. Since a couple of years, it seems things are somewhat getting better on that matter (e.g. Sumthing Else Records, digital releases, etc.), but it sure isn't perfect yet. Plus, the soundtracks that actually get published aren't always those I'm really looking for. (And to rant further, there is too much bland VGM being created in America/Europe, especially when companies have huge budgets nowadays and it often seems to go to waste when the results in the music department are unbalancing the equilibrium between good sound/instrumentation quality and good composition. And instead of jumping on that damn 'cinematic' train, many composers and producers should get off the cruise-control and try coming up with something different (see 'innovate'), or at least, pay better attention to the roots of VGM and see how these can be translated under today's standards, rather than mimicking (often poorly) another medium.)

Back on topic, I definitely second a Sunsoft NES compilation and Beyond Good & Evil, among other good candidates mentioned so far. Another dream OST release I'd love to see happen (but know it won't, sadly) is the splendid soundtrack to the Sega CD version of Batman Returns, composed by Spencer Nilsen. Thank God for the Redbook Audio on the game disc, yet owning a genuine soundtrack product in my hands would be exciting, as far as materialistic fetishism is concerned.

Is there anywhere I could check out a rip? It's not beyond me to buy SEGA CD games for redbook audio (coughLoTcough).

I've uploaded the rip I did on my server -> Batman Returns (Sega CD Redbook)

Be certain to give a listen to "City Limits" and "The Penguin's Lair".

Awesome! I just downloaded - time to give it a whirl. Thank you kindly.

Speaking of Western composers, Rise of Legends needs a soundtrack.  NAO.

Here's my list. It's kinda old, but has a few new additions:

    * Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
          A positively rocking soundtrack from Intelligent Systems, and the best music I've heard from the Nintendo DS. A "full sound version" would be orgasmic.

    * Alcahest
          SFC game composed by Jun Ishikawa!

    * Arcana (Cardmaster)
          More SFC Ishikawa goodness, as well as Hirokazu Ando!

    * Deus Ex
          Full OST. GotY soundtrack only has 1/3 of total tracks.

    * Dragon Valor
          An action-packed soundtrack from Namco composers Nobuhiro Ouchi and Ayako Yamaguchi.

    * Jet Moto 1 & 2
          The games have Red Book Audio, but a CD containing both soundtracks could easily be done, and should!

    * Ikaruga
          And if Super Sweep and/or Basiscape added arranged tracks as a bonus, I would pay a nice chunk of money for this!

    * Kirby Air Ride
          The Nintendo Dream album only has 7 tracks, but the game rip has 64 tracks!

    * Plok!
          The soundtrack that introduced me to the greatness of Tim Follin.

    * Opoona
          Hitoshi Sakimoto / Basiscape's finest work in years, and it's the only one without a soundtrack.

    * Ragnarok Online
          Another soundtrack consisting of all tracks added to the game since the OST.

    * Ratchet & Clank series
          Most importantly, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando.

    * The Ninja Warriors Again
          Excellent SFC soundtrack by Hiroyuki Iwatsuki & N. Tate!

One of the Doujin groups ABSOLUTELY NEEDS to do a rearrangement of the original Kid Icarus (Parutena no kagami/Parutena's Mirror in Japan) with live acoustic instruments and/or on orchestra setup.  The various medleys in the Nintendo GSM and Famicom music albums don't do the game enough justice.  Kid Icarus has such a majestic score, and to this day I still listen to the pure, unadulterated 8-bit chip-tune goodness as heard in the original NES game.  This game needs to get the orchestral game concert treatment... How about it ,Warner music?... OGC #6?... with a limited edition version as well... Kid Icarus... OH PLEASE!!!... ;-<>!

Most definitely the remainder of the Xenosaga 3 soundtrack, plus the Missing Year material. (which is a good 3 discs or so -- and I imagine a bit of unused music)

Radical Dreamers

Startropics

PlayOnline (& Tetra Master)

Xenosaga 2 (In-game BGM and other cut scenes - there's 2~3 discs worth of unreleased music here - most of the music was terrible, but there were a couple cut scene tracks that I liked that I could not get a clean version due to vox/sfx)

The music from the Intro/Ending FMVs from the PSX versions of FF4,FF5,FF6

The music from the FFT:Lion Wars FMVs

Blessings,
~Andy

Im sure many will disagree with me but I find the soundtrack to Gauntlet Dark Legacy enchanting.

I would kill for an OST release for that game but with Midway going into the shitter fast chances are worse than ever.

I remember in my younger VGM days I wrote a letter to Midway asking if there was any way for me to get the music to the game and if they told me how much they would sell it for I would gladly mail it to them. Stupid kid.

I also want an official Lost Vikings 1 & 2 Ost. Nevermind Norse by Norsewest.

Oh yeah, Ill also take Pilot Wings 64 any day of the week too.

Xenosaga II - in-game unreleased music.

Xenosaga III - unreleased music. There's more unreleased than released.

Zelda: The Twilight Princess - I really don't get why this did not get a release.

Two words: Blaster Master.