I still remember clearly the first time I saw SimCity run on a friend’s computer, back in 1990. It is hard to describe the feeling, but it was more or less one of the most impressive pieces of software I’d seen, not for what it was as a game, but for what it represented: a simulator of city building, of society itself, albeit extremely simplistic, in the guise of a game a child could play. I loved SimCity, as I loved SimCity 2000 and then, many years later, its sequels. SimCity was more than a strategy game to me. It invoked my imagination, it sparked my interest for city-planning, society simulation, artificial life. Over the years it became more complex, more elaborate, multiplying the number of factors affecting a city’s prosperity, a neighbourhood’s wealth, its people’s health and education. It was, and still is, one of the very few games that can keep me from getting utterly bored for more than half an hour (I still eventually get bored, but it takes a bit longer). I got to be very good at playing mayor, consistently getting maximum approval rates no matter the conditions.
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I just visited Tim Schafer’s DoubleFine news page and read about the Video Game Live concert that took place on the 21st of September 2006. The fact that the concert was somewhere in the Western U.S. — most probably California — made any prospect of me attending extremely remote, but still it would have been quite fun listening to all that adventure game music live by the guys that wrote it. Plus see Tim Schafer talk incessantly and make funny faces. I guess. Judging by his writing style. And his game dialogues.

The playlist is more or less one of a kind: Zelda, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid(s), Myst and of course the LucasStuff, among many others. Besides the soundtrack from Monkey Island, what I would really like to have listened live would be tracks from the Grim Fandango OST, perhaps the most impressive soundtrack for a game I’ve ever heard: it took many musicians from Mexico and California, Jazz and Mexican folk and Peter McConnell’s musical prowess to create a soundtrack tying so well with the game while holding its own outside of it.

Go here for a longer version that includes more of the LucasArts scores — poor quality, but still, you get the picture.

By the way, for those interested, or curious, there is a web page that has all three CDs of the Grim soundtrack: the first CD with the OST that got released by Lucasarts sometime in 1999, and the other two having every single musical piece contained in the game. It also has the soundtracks from many other classic games, such as the Monkey Island series, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle, The Dig, Outlaw, Loom among others. Oh the memories..