Chiptune, also known as 8-bit music (though not all chiptune is 8-bit), is a type of electronic music created using sound chips or synthesizers from old arcade machines, computers, and video game consoles. The term often refers to music made with simple, small sound samples that early computers or consoles could produce, as well as music that mixes these old sounds with modern musical styles. It is described as a way to interpret many different music genres. Any song can be rearranged to sound like chiptune. This style is defined more by the choice of instruments and the quality of the sound than by specific musical elements.

Technology

A waveform generator is an important part of a sound synthesis system. It usually creates a basic geometric shape of sound, with a fixed or changeable tone quality and adjustable pitch. Common setups often include two or three simple waveforms and sometimes a pseudo-random-noise generator (PRNG). Typical waveforms include a pulse wave (its tone can change by adjusting the duty cycle), a square wave (a balanced pulse wave that creates only odd overtones), a triangle wave (a tone with only odd harmonics but softer than a square wave), and a sawtooth wave (a bright, raspy tone that includes both odd and even harmonics). Two well-known systems that used this technology were the Game Boy portable game console and the Commodore 64 personal computer. The Game Boy had two pulse channels (switchable between 12.5%, 25%, 50%, and 75% duty cycle), a channel for a 4-bit waveform generator, and a pseudo-random-noise generator. The Commodore 64 used the MOS Technology SID chip, which had three channels, each able to switch between pulse, sawtooth, triangle, and noise waveforms. Unlike the Game Boy, the Commodore 64 allowed full control over the duty cycles of its pulse channels. The SID chip was very advanced, offering additional features such as ring modulation and adjustable resonance filters.

Because early sound chips had limited voices, creating rich polyphonic music was a major challenge. A common method to achieve this was through quick arpeggios, a key feature of chiptune music (along with its electronic tones).

Some older systems used only a simple beeper for sound, such as the original ZX Spectrum and IBM PC. Despite this, skilled programmers created complex music using only the system’s CPU to directly control the beeper.

History

The earliest versions of chip music can be traced back to the early days of computer music. In 1951, computers named CSIRAC and Ferranti Mark 1 were used to play real-time synthesized digital music in public performances.

One of the first commercial computer music albums was created during the First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival, held on August 25, 1978, as part of the Personal Computing '78 show. The recordings from this event were published in 1979 by Creative Computing. The Global TV program Science International (1976–1979) credited a PDP-11/10 computer for producing the music.

Chiptune music began with the music made for video games during the golden age of arcade games. An early example was the opening tune in Tomohiro Nishikado’s 1975 arcade game Gun Fight. The first video game to use a continuous background soundtrack was Space Invaders, released in 1978 by Tomohiro Nishikado. This game used four simple repeating bass notes that changed speed as enemies moved closer to the player. The first game with continuous melodic background music was Rally-X, released by Namco in 1980. It also used a digital-to-analog converter to create sampled sounds. In the same year, Stratovox by Sunsoft became the first video game to include speech synthesis.

In the late 1970s, the synth-pop/electronic dance music group Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) used computers to create synthesized music. Their 1978 debut album included samples from arcade games like Space Invaders and Gun Fight. Later, YMO’s music influenced many video game and chiptune composers during the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. For example, Sega’s 1982 game Super Locomotive featured a chiptune version of YMO’s song Rydeen. Other games, such as Trooper Truck (1983) and Daley Thompson’s Decathlon (1984), also used the song.

By 1983, Konami’s arcade game Gyruss used five sound chips and a digital-to-analog converter to create an electronic version of J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. In 1984, former YMO member Haruomi Hosono released an album made entirely from samples of Namco arcade games, titled Video Game Music. This was one of the first chiptune records and the first album of video game music. The album included work by Namco composers like Toshio Kai (Pac-Man, 1980), Nobuyuki Ohnogi (Galaga, New Rally-X, Bosconian, Pole Position), and Yuriko Keino (Dig Dug, Xevious).

A major development for chip music was the introduction of frequency modulation synthesis (FM synthesis), first used in Yamaha digital synthesizers and sound chips. These began appearing in arcade machines in the early 1980s. Composers like Konami’s Miki Higashino (Gradius, Yie-Ar Kung Fu, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and Sega’s Hiroshi Kawaguchi (Space Harrier, Hang-On, Out Run) used FM synthesis in their music.

By the early 1980s, personal computer game music improved with the use of digital FM synthesis. Yamaha created FM synth boards for Japanese computers like the NEC PC-8801 and PC-9801. These computers later included built-in FM sound, allowing more complex music than the simple beeps from internal speakers. Musicians like Yuzo Koshiro and Takeshi Abo used FM synth boards to create music still celebrated in the chiptune community. Japanese computers like the NEC PC-88 and PC-98 also used audio programming languages like Music Macro Language (MML) and MIDI interfaces to make video game music.

In 1985, Fujitsu released the FM Sound Editor software for the FM-7, giving users a simple way to create and edit synthesized music.

In 1987, FM synthesis became available for Western computers when Ad Lib released the AdLib Music Synthesizer Card for the IBM PC. In 1989, Creative Labs added the AdLib sound chip to its Sound Blaster card. Both were widely used by MS-DOS game developers in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

During the 16-bit era, arcade machines used multiple FM synthesis chips. Yuzo Koshiro was a major chiptune composer during this time. He continued using older PC-8801 hardware to create music for games like Streets of Rage (1991–1994) and Etrian Odyssey (2007–present). His work on The Revenge of Shinobi (1989) combined house and progressive techno with traditional Japanese music. The Streets of Rage 2 (1992) soundtrack used house synths, electro-funk, and trance-like sounds. For Streets of Rage 3 (1994), Koshiro developed a new method called the "Automated Composing System" to create fast-beat techno. He also composed music for games like Dragon Slayer, Ys, Shinobi, and ActRaiser. Another important FM synth composer was Ryu Umemoto, who worked on visual novel and shoot 'em up games.

Later, some demo groups began creating their own music instead of using music from games. In 1986, Jeroen "Red" Kimmel studied Rob Hubbard’s music routines and used them for original demo songs. He later created his own routines in 1987. Hobbyists also made music editors, such as Chris Hülsbeck’s Soundmonitor, which was published in a 1986 issue of the German C-64 magazine 64'er.

The tradition of SID music composition continues today through the Commodore 64 demoscene. The High Voltage SID Collection, a large archive of SID music, includes over 55,000 pieces.

Mainstream popularity

The most popular time for chiptune music was the 1980s. The first commercial chiptune records made entirely from sounds of arcade games appeared in the mid-1980s. An early example is Haruomi Hosono’s Video Game Music from 1984. While few chiptune records were made during this time, many popular musicians in genres like pop rock, hip hop, and electronic music used sounds from arcade games in their music during the late 1970s to mid-1980s. For example, Yellow Magic Orchestra’s song Computer Game from 1978 included these sounds. Buckner & Garcia’s Pac-Man Fever and its album were major hits in 1982. Sounds from arcade games helped shape the electro music genre, which later influenced other electronic dance music styles like techno and house music, sometimes called "bleep music." The game Space Invaders inspired Player One’s song Space Invaders (1979), which later became the bassline for Jesse Saunders’ On and On (1984), the first Chicago house track. In 1990, Warp Records released Testone by Sweet Exorcist, which used sounds from Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Computer Game and helped define the bleep techno scene in Sheffield during the early 1990s.

After the 1980s, chiptune music became less popular. From the 1980s until the 2000s, chip music was rarely performed live and was mostly shared as computer files. Some of the first record label releases of pure chip music appeared in the late 1990s. Chiptune music became more popular again toward the end of the 1990s. In 1997, I-F released the first electroclash record, Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass, described as "burbling electro in a vocodered homage to Atari-era hi-jinks."

By the mid-2000s, 8-bit chip music returned to mainstream pop music. Artists like Beck (Girl, 2005), The Killers (On Top, 2004), No Doubt (Running), and The Postal Service used chip sounds in their songs. The early digital PCM style of composers like Hiroshi Kawaguchi also gained popularity. In 2003, the J-pop group Perfume, with producer Yasutaka Nakata, began blending chiptunes with synth-pop and electro house. Their 2007 album Game inspired other Japanese artists to use similar styles. Electro house producer Deadmau5 started his career in the late 1990s, influenced by chiptune and demoscene music. Three self-released compilations—Project 56, deadmau5 Circa 1998–2002, and A Little Oblique—were completed in 2006.

In 2007, the chiptune album 8-Bit Operators: The Music of Kraftwerk was released by Astralwerks / EMI Records. It featured artists like Oliver Wittchow and Johan Kotlinski (as Role Model). Kraftwerk member Ralf Hütter chose the tracks. A vinyl version of the album reached number 17 on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales Chart, and the CD reached number 1 on the CMJ RPM charts. Unicorn Kid, an Edinburgh-born musician, helped popularize chiptune with songs like True Love Fantasy and his Tidal Rave EP, which played on BBC Radio 1. In Canada, Eightcubed and Crystal Castles boosted chiptune’s popularity through Toronto’s underground club scene. Their music video Heart Invaders (2008) and single Alice Practice (29th on NME’s "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years") increased its visibility.

During the late 2000s, new chiptune culture grew, helped by tools like LittleSoundDJ for the Game Boy. This culture focused more on live performances and record releases than earlier demoscene or tracker culture. In recent years, 8-bit sounds, or "video game beats," have been used by mainstream artists like Kesha (Tik Tok, 2010), 50 Cent (Ayo Technology), Robyn, Snoop Dogg, Eminem (Hellbound), Nelly Furtado, and Timbaland. Video game sounds also appear in British electronica by artists like Dizzee Rascal and Kieran Hebden, as well as in heavy metal bands like DragonForce. Grime music in East London uses sawtooth wave sounds from games. Dubstep producers, including those influenced by Yuzo Koshiro, have also drawn from chiptunes. In 2010, a BBC News article noted that "old-school game sounds" like Frogger and Donkey Kong were becoming part of mainstream music. Complex-tro pioneer Porter Robinson and trap producer Popstar Benny have also cited video game sounds as influences on their music.

Tracker chiptunes

The Commodore Amiga (1985) used sample-based sound generation, which made microcomputer music different from simple chip-synthesized sounds. Amiga tracker music software, starting with Karsten Obarski's Ultimate Soundtracker (1987), encouraged many computer users to create music. From this tracker music culture, a style of music similar to Commodore 64 SID music developed. This style used simple waveforms instead of digitized samples. This type of music, with small samples, became known as "chiptunes," named after the Amiga's chip memory where these samples could fit easily.

The earliest examples of tracker chiptunes appeared in 1989 and were created by demoscene musicians 4mat, Baroque, TDK, Turtle, and Duz. Tracker chiptunes use very short looped waveforms that are changed using effects like arpeggio, vibrato, and portamento. A common loop length is 128 samples, which at about 17,000 samples per second misses a C note by a small amount.

At least one commercial Amiga game, Nebulus II, used chiptune-style music, along with some conventional sampled instrument sounds and speech. The game was originally planned for the Commodore 64 but was canceled.

The small size of sample data made tracker chiptunes more space-efficient than most other tracker music, which made them popular in demoscene demos and crack intros with limited space. Tracker chiptunes were also often used in other warez scene programs, such as keygens.

Today, the term "chiptune" also includes music made with actual chip-based synthesis. However, some sources, like the Amiga Music Preservation project, still define a chiptune specifically as a small tracker module. Modern trackers used today include OpenMPT, Famitracker, Furnace, and Goattracker.

Contemporary chiptune music

The chip music scene has gained attention because of events called "compos," the release of music disks, and the cracktro/demo scene. New software tools now help musicians who are not very familiar with technology create chip music. The NES platform uses a device called MidiNES, which turns the system into a hardware MIDI-controlled synthesizer. In 2007, the Mssiah was released for the Commodore 64. This device is similar to MidiNES but offers more control options, better sequencing, simulated drum sounds, and limited sample playback. The Commodore PET uses open-source software called PetSynth, which uses the PET's 6522 chip to produce sound. This software allows the computer to act like a piano keyboard and includes many sound effects. For MS-DOS, a program called Fast Tracker is well-known for creating chiptune music because it lets users draw samples using a mouse. A chiptune artist named Pixelh8 also made software called Music Tech for the Game Boy and Pro Performer for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. These programs turn the devices into real-time synthesizers.

Television shows have featured chiptune music and artists in recent years. On April 11, 2005, the group 8 Bit Weapon performed songs "Bombs Away" and "Gameboy Rocker" on G4's Attack of the Show live broadcast, Episode #5058. In 2008, a parody of Masterpiece Theatre called SPAMasterpiece Theater began with a chiptune remix of Jean-Joseph Mouret's "Rondeau: Fanfare" (1735) by Hamhocks Buttermilk Johnson. In 2009, the Australian TV show Good Game included chipmusic artists such as little-scale, Dot.AY, Ten Thousand Free Men & Their Families, and Jim Cuomo.

In December 2010, the Electronic Frontier Foundation used a fake 8-bit game with an 8-bit soundtrack by crashfaster to highlight its legal achievements for that year. In March 2012, the Smithsonian American Art Museum's "The Art of Video Games" exhibit opened with a chipmusic soundtrack by 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer. 8 Bit Weapon also created a song called "The Art of Video Games Anthem" for the exhibit. In September 2015, a music collection called Domo Loves Chiptune was released on iTunes, Amazon, and other streaming services. This collection includes popular chiptune artists like Anamanaguchi and Disasterpeace. It also features the first chiptune remix of the Domo theme song by Mystery Mansion. A documentary called Reformat the Planet by 2 Player Productions focused on the New York City chiptune scene. This film was shown at the 2008 South by Southwest festival.

Chip music has returned to modern video games, either as full chip music or using chip samples. Games that include chiptune elements in their soundtracks are Shovel Knight and Undertale.

Events

Events around the world celebrate and recognize chiptune music, a type of electronic music made using old video game technology. In the United States, Super MAGFest is a yearly event that includes many activities related to video games. At this event, well-known chiptune musicians like goto80 and Chipzel have performed on the main stage of the Concert Hall. A special chiptune concert called "Chip Rave" usually happens on the third day of the event in the concert hall. This concert has featured many famous chiptune artists.

Super MAGFest also includes a venue called Chipspace, where members of the chiptune community can perform their music using an open mic system. Chipspace was started in 2012 by Brandon L. Hood, the founder of Chiptunes=WIN, and is managed by geekbeatradio. Over time, Chipspace has changed and grown as MAGFest has continued, helping chiptune fans connect with each other. Daily performances at Chipspace include special events, many of which are organized by chiptune netlabels such as Chiptunes=WIN and geekbeatradio.

Suggested viewing

• 8 Bit: A Film About Art and Videogames (2006, directed by Marcin Ramocki and Justin Strawhand) – Explores how chiptune music and modern art are connected to video games.
• Reformat the Planet (2008, directed by Paul Owens) – Looks at the chiptune music scene in New York during the 2000s, with a focus on the Blip Festival.
• The Chiptune Story (2018, directed by Steven Fletcher) – Examines the history of chiptune music, including interviews with Rob Hubbard and Chris Huelsbeck.