Ear Candy

Click here if you have WinAmp installed, otherwise click here. Go ahead, just do it. Trust us. Now read on.

What you're listening to is the soundtrack from some game. No telling what game it is, because you've just loaded up a list of almost a thousand tracks from dozens of games. Just let it run and you'll start hearing things you recognize. "Hey, I remember that one!" you'll think as one of the tracks tickles awake a sense of recognition. Or you'll find yourself alt-tabbing over to your player, wondering, "Whoa, what's that from?"

We stumbled across this while we were exhanging email with a colleague, Jeff Atwood, who runs a site called GameBasement. Jeff casually mentioned a feature he called his "radio". We figured he was doing some sort of talk show. So one day we politely clicked on a link he gave us and to our astonishment...wait...what is that? I know that song. Hey, that's the track from MechWarrior 2 from when I drove around with the CD playing! Letting his radio run, we were floored to be reminded how good some game music can be. Be sure to browse the Atwood Awards below for some real ear openers -- for instance, you are doing yourself a disservice if you don't dial up the music to Neverhood.

So we asked Jeff to tell us about how he set this thing up. Following is Jeff's account of how he got the idea and put it into motion. He also offers some technical information for those of you who might be interested in the nuts and bolts of how it all works.

GameBasement Radio
I. In the Beginning
II. What Makes a Good Soundtrack
III. The Atwood Awards
IV. The Technical Stuff

Back to Features