One of the most fun things at Play! Chicago was handing obscure items to the composers at the meet and greet, watching their eyes light up, and seeing them nudge the composers next to them as they laughed or said a few excited words.  Here's the list of things I got signed at the concert and this year's E³.  (Note that I didn't hold up the signing line, and I only got more than one thing signed if the line wasn't moving.  Plus, a friend who didn't have stuff to sign got some of these done for me.)

Kiss Me Good-Bye Single ▪ Nobuo Uematsu & Angela Aki
Actraiser Symphonic Suite ▪ Yuzo Koshiro
Orchestral Game Concert #1 ▪ Koji Kondo & Nobuo Uematsu
Symphonic Suite Final Fantasy ▪ Nobuo Uematsu
Merregnon 2 ▪ Yuzo Koshiro
Orchestral Game Concert #5 ▪ Koji Kondo & Yasunori Mitsuda
Morrowind Soundtrack ▪ Jeremy Soule
Guild Wars Soundtrack ▪ Jeremy Soule
Smashing . . . Live! ▪ Koji Kondo

The rest (except for Arnie Roth signing a couple of Mannheim Steamroller CDs for my parents) just signed my program.  I'm terribly sad I wasn't able to find a copy of Shenmue Orchestra before the concert, as I've wanted this CD for a long time and it would have been great to get Yuzo Koshiro and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi to sign it, but I'll just have to keep looking.  I also should have been better prepared for Akira Yamaoka, Marty O'Donnell, Mike Salvatori, and Jason Hayes, but I guess I'll just do a better job next time there are ten of the greatest video game composers assembled together.

I also brought a bunch of American game soundtrack inserts to E³ this year just in case, and they actually came in handy a couple of times.  I was standing in a long line to get a copy of the Oblivion strategy guide signed by one of the fellows who worked on the game, when we finally rounded the corner and there was Jeremy Soule signing them too.  He was pretty surprised to see the cover from the Giants: Citizen Kabuto soundtrack, and I was very happy to get it autographed.

The final day of E³ I was lucky enough to get introduced to Peter McConnell and talk with him for a few minutes.  He's a terribly nice guy, and was kind enough to autograph the inserts from the Psychonauts soundtrack, and the LucasArts 20th Anniversary soundtrack for me.  I should have brought my Grim Fandango soundtrack too, but I'll leave that for next time.

I have a number of other composer autographs from presale deals and the web, but the ones I've gotten in person are much more special to me.  What autographs have you folks gotten?

Although not a game music soundtrack, the only autograph I've been able to get is my copy of Sailormoon: Mirai he Mukatte, signed by Yoko Ishida. Most of the people there were there for her Para Para work, and she seemed very surprised to see a Sailormoon album brought to her--and very embarrassed by the photo of her in the insert! I can't remember what she said exactly, but it was something along the lines of "Bad! So fat! [It's our] SEEEEcuretto."

IT'S A SECRET FROM EVERYONE.

Just at PLAY! in Chicago..

Yasunori Mitsuda - CREID
Akira Yamaoka - Silent Hill OST
Yuzo Koshiro - Bare Knuckle AND PLAY! program
Takenobu Mitsuyoshi - Street Fighter Tribute Album
Koji Kondo - PLAY! program
Nobuo Uematsu - PLAY! program
All the American composers - PLAY! program

.. and you got Actraiser Symphonic Suite signed?  I remember talking to some dude who had that CD out while everyone was in that big circle thing there before going up the stairs.  I had a Contra shirt on.  Was that you?

-Mike

I got my program signed by Uematsu at the May 2004 Dear Friends. I hadn't brought anything else 'cause I wasn't exactly planning to find him I spotted him on a balcony and waited with a small crowd who also had seen him behind a rope that was blocking him off, until right before the show began when he finally came over and signed stuff. Some people only had their ticket stubs, but I'm sure they were quite happy nonetheless. I saw one Japanese guy making licking gestures at his hand after he shook Uematsu's. When the concert started I ended up sitting next to 2 brothers, one of whom got his FFVI OST signed, not sure if it was at the same time. It was neat cause it was totally unexpected and made the concert all that more special, since I had flown quite a ways to get there ;p (although not as far as a guy I met who came from the NE coast, sheesh).

Aside from getting my stuff signed my Uematsu/Roth/Aki at the meet and greet, I've had Shannon Elizabeth & Tara Reid sign my VIP ticket to a Fuel concert that I met them at back in 2001, had a bunch of X-Files cast members sign my "I Want to Believe" poster (CSM, Krycek, Langly & Byers), and Darryl from Glassjaw signed a Glassjaw CD when I met him back in 2002 or so. I think that's about it.

Yoko Kanno (Brain Powerd OST 2)
Nobuo Uematsu - first Dear Friends program.

Will sell my soul for a Hisaishi autograph.   Or picture!!!!

Yoko Kanno!  Her Uncharted Waters II track on Orchestral Game Concert #4 (along with the Legend of Zelda track) is the reason I got into this crazy hobby of buying Japanese CDs.  Man, I love that track.  I'd be thrilled to have her autograph on that, just as soon as I get a copy that's not a bootleg.  : )  Actually, that's one of the first Japanese CDs I ever bought -- back before I knew better than to buy bootlegs.

Zane, did you just buy the Kiss Me Good-Bye and More Friends CDs at Tower, then?  Did they give you the poster they kept forgetting to give out with Kiss Me Good-Bye?

Bluefish, you mean to say he was *pretending* to lick his hand, not really licking it, right?  I hope that's what you mean.

Miker -- sorry, must have been another guy.  I just had all the inserts with me in a little box.  I figured they were a lot easier to cart around than the whole CD case, and if something happened -- like the airplane crashing in a lake -- and I wasn't able to save my luggage, at least I could float happily on debris knowing my CD collection was safe at home, minus the inserts.

But actually, I did see you and two other fellows around 3:45 on the sidewalk going to Giordano's, right?  My brother and I were hurrying back to the hotel with our own Giordano's pizza when we passed a guy wearing a black Contra t-shirt.  My brother said your group must be from Soundtrack Central, but I just laughed at him because he said that every time we passed someone who looked like they were there for the concert.  So close, and yet so far!

I read your post when I got back home, and I was very amused to see I took photos exactly like all of yours -- the Rosemont water tower, the waterfall across from Giordano's, etc.  My brother got a good laugh when he saw them.

From Chicago -

Mitsuda - Chrono Cross
Uematsu - FF VI
Kondo - tLoZ: Ocarina of Time

I had the rest sign my program

Nobody cares as it has nothing to do with VGM,but I got an autograph on my alien quadrilogy boxset from Ridlet Scott,as my girlfriend was playing (she says at least 4 or 5 words in the whole film)in his last movie A Good Year(filmed in France).What?The film is supposed to be really bad?Nobody cares?Ok,I'm goin' out of this place...

That....can be arranged. 
I am tempted by your offer.
I've never owned a soul before...

I didn't buy anything at the Tower store, man. Way too expensive for my tastes! I would have considered picking up More Friends if it cost less than $35 plus tax. O_o

They were giving out these little Angela Aki postcards before the signing, and I just had her and Arnie Roth sign that. Uematsu signed the booklet of my DigiCube FFVII OST and he took a moment to pose for a quick picture with me. That was pretty awesome, even though I wish I met the Uematsu from 1999, if you know what I mean.

Must... have!  What do you have signed :'(.  I am trying to see if I can get a week off work in October to go to his symphonic special concert in japan.

Woo, more stuff autographed in Houston last week!

Myst III: Exile Soundtrack ▪ Jack Wall
Myst IV: Revelation Soundtrack ▪ Jack Wall
Wrath Unleashed Promo Soundtrack ▪ Jack Wall
Jade Empire Soundtrack ▪ Jack Wall
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Soundtrack ▪ Jason Hayes
Advent Rising Soundtrack ▪ Tommy Tallarico, Laurie Robinson, Emmanuel Fratiani
007: Tomorrow Never Dies Promo Soundtrack ▪ Tommy Tallarico

Plus, Stephen Harwood Jr. and Will Loconto signed my program.

One of these days I won't have anything left to get autographed…

Boo hoohoo...reading all of your responses, this tells me that I really MUST attend another of these concerts when I can...

Miker, there's time to get autographs @ PLAY? I'm going to the Phila concert, I should bring some stuff to get signed.

Or, even better, I'd love to interview Jeremy Soule (and others) for RPGFan. ^^

Ramza

More game soundtrack autographs obtained in September:

Daikatana Volume 1 ▪ Will Loconto
Daikatana Volume 2 ▪ Will Loconto
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos ▪ Tracy Bush

And then in October:

Lineage II: Oath of Blood ▪ Inon Zur
The Best of LucasArts Original Soundtracks ▪ Peter McConnell, Clint Bajakian & Michael Land
Medal of Honor Rising Sun ▪ Christopher Lennertz
World of Warcraft ▪ Jason Hayes
Hitman 2 ▪ Jesper Kyd
Myth: The Fallen Lords ▪ Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori
Halo ▪ Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori
Halo 2 Volume 1 ▪ Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori
Halo 2 Volume 2 ▪ Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori
Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire ▪ Chance Thomas
Brute Force ▪ Jesper Kyd
Prince of Persia Trilogy ▪ Inon Zur
The Dig ▪ Michael Land
Grim Fandango ▪ Peter McConnell
Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 / Earned in Blood ▪ Stephen Harwood
Earthworm Jim Anthology ▪ Tommy Tallarico

Also in October but not game soundtracks:

Atomic Journeys / Nukes in Space (soundtrack) ▪ Lennie Moore
Trinity and Beyond (soundtrack) ▪ Lennie Moore
Saint Sinner (soundtrack) ▪ Christopher Lennertz
Outlaws (game) ▪ Clint Bajakian
Grim Fandango (game) ▪ Tim Schafer
Command & Conquer Renegade (game) Louis Castle
Tron (DVD) ▪ Steve Lisberger, Richard Taylor & Frank Serafine

I got Uematsu to autograph my Black Mages 2 and my poster at Play! Toronto

i have my ff7 reunion tracks and ff8flwv autographed fromn the chicago dear friends...  the guy behind us had a bootleg ff7 and we broke the news to him and i hope we didnt make him cry afterwards...

There aren't too many chances to get autographs from game music composers here in Finland, so I'm glad that I (along with a few friends, including Sami and Kim K) got Mr. Uematsu's back at Play! concert in Stockholm. It was quite a story, actually, lots of lurking in the middle of a night and stuff... Anyway, his autograph now decorates the booklet of my FF IX OST. It would've been nice to get Mr. Hülsbeck's autograph, too, but you can't get everything.

I got Alexander Brandon to autograph my Deus Ex soundtrack at Video Games live.  I also talked to him a lot.  It was awesome.

I read that as Alexander Borodin at first. I went O_O

-Joshua

Are you saying you prefer the FF8 ost over FF7's?

Not necessarily. What I meant was that I wish I met Uematsu previously because he has obviously exhausted his supply of good game music, and meeting him now is like seeing Van Halen play with Gary Charone at a coffee house in a middle school auditorium somewhere. 1999 was just a rough date.

http://www.gmronline.com/info.asp?CatNu … WC-7428~29

We shall see. I found his recent comments interesting that he doesn't really consider his post-FF6 work to be that great anyway.

http://www.g-wie-gorilla.de/index.php?o … &Itemid=18

(of course, that contradicts how he once said FF8 was his favorite, but whatever...)

About the only thing I've managed to get autographed is my program to the "Lord of the Rings Symphony."

Howard Shore signed it, natch.