As happens so often, I meandered down a rabbit hole that ultimately led me to a Capcom arcade game I didn't know existed--Nemo, for CPS1 (not related to Little Nemo: The Dream Master aside from source material). The music (allegedly composed by Yoko Shimomura) is quite decent, and the first stage sounds quite familiar to me incidentally... but, being a licensed work, my hopes for an OST aren't high. Anyone know of a rip floating around?

Assuming you're running Windows..

- Download this file that I just made for you (BridgeM1 + M1 + Nemo ROM)

- Unzip the file somewhere and run bridgem1.exe

- Click the Load button

- Click on Nemo in the list (it'll be the only game there) and hit OK

- Music starts playing and you even have a nice playlist to go by

According to GMCL and Wikipedia, she did indeed compose Nemo.  It certainly does sound like her, that's for sure!

Oh how I wish
For soothing rain
All I wish is to dream again
My loving heart
Lost in the dark
For hope I'd give my everything
Oh how I wish
For soothing rain
Oh how I wish to dream again
Once and for all
And all for once
Nemo my name forevermore

sry, couldn't resist....

More importantly, according to http://www.midiplex.com - Shimomura's official site - she did.

Someone say something about Nemo?

Wow, I wasn't really expecting anything to turn up--certainly not something so exact! And wonderful! Thanks not only for the soundtrack, but for the player as well. I think about half the charm of this music is the old CPS1 sound output, so I'm really jazzed to see all the old soundfiles this player supports. I didn't know this software, or the files it plays, existed--I've got some research to do!

Being able to hear the music without the incessesant sound effects really makes the tunes shine. Although I now recognize a bit of the first stage's tune as turning up in the Super Mario RPG opening demo, I still can't quite place where I've heard the main melody before. It wasn't here--I didn't know this game existed until yesterday. A surprising amount of unused songs are contained in the file, too.

Thanks for delivering, miker--truly appreciated.

No prob man.  The version of M1 and BridgeM1 in the zip I provided are both a little outdated and I stripped them down a bit to simplify the whole process for you and the other downloaders.  You can grab the latest M1 here and the latest BridgeM1 (the GUI frontend for M1) right here.  On the BridgeM1 site, in addition to getting the main program you'll need m1.xml and the list pack.  Beyond that, it's just a matter of unzipping everything and configuring.  Once you're all set, you can play music directly from well over a thousand supported arcade roms.  If you ask me, M1 is an essential utility to have for any vgm fanatic.

I don't hear the Mario RPG similarity but damn you're dead on about the main melody, sounds wicked familiar.  That's gonna bother me now, haha.  Somebody figure it out!

Nice find.  I guess that officially makes it official then huh?