I am doing my dissertation on the development of music in the gaming industry. One of the things I am trying to find out is what and when was the first official soundtrack of a game to be released commercially. By official soundtrack I  mean containing original music not pre-existing licensed music and by ' released commercially' I mean available to buy from music shops in a self contained album. I apologise if I am posting this in the wrong place and/or if this is a repeat question. I thought I would post this question in a forum rather than asking it specifically as there could be some debate about what constitutes 'first'.

As far as I know, the first VGM album that was released was Video Game Music on LP format, on 4/25/84. The first CD was Video Game Graffiti, released on 3/21/86.

(albums sorted by date) http://gmronline.com/results.asp?search … &display=0

(VGM LP) http://gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=YLR-20003

(VGG CD) http://gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNumber=VDR-1165

I could be off, but GMR doesn't lie! (wink)

Another good resource for your dissertation might be the Japan Game Music Library (J.G.M.L.).  The website is here:

http://ww1.tiki.ne.jp/~kosiro/jgml.htm

Jodo Kast and Carl unavailable for comment?

Secret Squirrel has something: "Pac Man Fever" as an earlier produced album featuring game music (before Video Game Music). He's got the full download over at SlightlyDark.

http://www.slightlydark.com/album.php?a … 80adb7bf50

The first commercial game album contained 10 NAMCO game soundtracks on one Vinyl LP.

Title: "Video Game Music"
Catalog Number: YLR-20003
Published by: Alfa Records (Japan)
Release Date: April 25, 1984
Price: ¥2000

Side A:
01 XEVIOUS  6:15
02 BOSCONIAN  0:15
03 PAC-MAN  2:57
04 PHOZON  2:12
05 MAPPY  3:35

Side B:
01 LIBBLE RABBLE  3:35
02 POLE POSITION  2:43
03 NEW RALLY-X  3:11
04 DIG DUG  1:30
05 GALAGA  4:23

(and no, "Pac Man Fever" isn't an actual soundtrack because it's songs are only "inspired by" the games, although it would be the first Foreign Arranged album... Badly arranged that is).

Cheers for your help everyone, as has been mentioned 'Pac-man Fever' doesn't really count as it was essentially a pop album with samples from game music rather than a collection of music as it appeared on the game, but it's all good, it can all go into my dissertation. I checked out the samples on SightlyDark, that's some funny stuff, that's going on an accompanying CD whatever happens. You'd be surprised how difficult it is finding research on this subject.

It is difficult to find research material, because it's not well documented.  On the western game music front, there might have been some published works during the Commodore 64 era.

Also, somebody else did their Master's on this topic.

It's quite appalling, the lack of serious research that has gone into video games.
I'm writing my master thesis on storytelling in interactive media and it's incredibly hard to find any decent reference material.

Research is done... by politicians and paid for by the taxpayers to try and prove their idea that violent games corrupt today's youth. Sorry, I had to go all political there...

I think we need to forge the way here. In other words, your work for your master's thesis *will* be the reference material, someday. We have to start somewhere.

AmazingU, if you wouldn't mind throwing a few references my way I would dearly appreciate it.