I was at my friends house earlier today and he wants to get some DQ music.

He told me he couldn't find any DQ DLs on Amazon or iTunes, which I kind of found odd since a good chunk of Sqaure Enix's stuff has been uploaded these days. However, looking through at VGMdb I don't see any entries for digital releases, so I'm guessing I'm not missing the client that has them. I mean I've never seen SO's music up for DL, so maybe Enix doesn't do this?

Anyway, I'm guessing we'll have to go physical here, which is kind of ironic in this sense because while he can buy the albums, I kind of have to rip them for him since his CD-ROM (Blu Ray) drive is toasted.

I did help him figure out which version of DQVIII he wanted which was the sequenced Japanese version:

http://vgmdb.net/album/15731

(thanks to whoever wrote that note at the bottom of that entry)

He told me didn't want the orchestral version in the US PS2 take and with a little searching and sampling on YouTube we figured this one out.

However, he wanted Dragon Quest 1 and 2 and the best I could find was a game rip. Do those score exist on CD-ROM? I didn't see anything other than symphonic suites but thought they may be part of a collection or something. Also, I think he wants the NES renditions, but weren't there also 16-bit versions as well? Those would work as well.

I knew the DQ library was confusing as hell, which I frankly admitted to him when we looked into it, but I said I ask some people with much more expertise about this section of music. I'm use to doing research when it comes to VGM but man, even I'm confused. If anyone could help and point me in the right direction my friend and I would greatly appreciate it.

Okay, so what your friend needs is at least one of the three "Daizenshu" ("Game Music Super Collection") albums.

The content breakdown...

Vol.1 -- http://vgmdb.net/album/1839
disc 1 has the Famicom sound source for DQI and DQII. However, they are in "Sound Story" format ... meaning tracks aren't separated, and sound effects are included. It's like a condensed "this is what you would hear if you played through the game."
disc 2 does the same, Famicom sound source for DQIII and DQIV.
disc 3 is a ringtone collection. meh.

Vol.2 -- http://vgmdb.net/album/4455
Across the three discs, you get track-separated OST material for the *Super Famicom* sound source for DQI-III, and DQV-VI. The Famicom -> SFC conversion for I and II is pretty drastic. Not sure your friend might want these?

Vol.3 -- http://vgmdb.net/album/4456
THIS might be best for your friend!! While disc1 and disc2 are PS1 sound source OSTs for DQIV and DQVII, respectively, disc3 is the Game Boy Color sound source for DQI-III. In my opinion, the GB sound source is much closer to the Famicom original than the SFC upgrade, *and* it's broken down by track.

tl;dr -- a proper Famicom OST release for DQI and DQII does not exist, only the "Sound Story." But in other sound fonts/versions, you can get proper OSTs. GB is closer to FC than SFC. But I like all three, personally.