Mid-Garts (PC-88) (gamerip) (1989)

This is the kind of album you dream about finding when you're looking for old synthesizer music. It's exceptional. Not only do the tracks progress well and contain a lot of variety, the use of sound fonts is extremely clever. In fact, the composer, Masaaki Uno, is still employed making video game audio to this day and producing sound tracks for Mario Gold and Tennis (and previously had worked on Golden Sun, Arcus, Granada, Final Zone, among other titles...). The album begins out with a sweet roaring-dragon sound and there are surprises all along the way (Final Confront plays with them the most). That said, some of the sound fonts are a bit weak or staticky (there's the Wolf Team bell that's a bit obnoxious (an updated version of it is also in Suzaku). The bass drum in Skyscraper 2 is a bit weak); however, this is easy to overlook with just how amazing the tracks generally are. Furthermore, the great thing is that if you don't like the sound fonts of a particular track, the X68000 version is also on this site, which lacks most of them. This version is BETTER than the X68000 on the whole, the latter in which the sound fonts are not present. There are also apparently MSX and PC-98 versions of these tracks, but they're not uploaded yet sadly.

My personal ranking of the tracks are as follows. I've omitted tracks that are just generally good, just because this is all good:

Exceptional Tracks: Mid-garts (wait for the drop), Skyscraper 2

Excellent Tracks: Rune Blade, Recklessness (esp. that wah-wah sound at 1:22), Starting Over

Also Great: Day Dream, Silent Space, Eternal Will, Mana, Bet My Own Life, Tense Heart, Sneak In, Indication of the Future, Old Enemy, Sara, Beyond the Sadness, Old Enemy 2, La Malhear, Advance, Demise, Storming Battles, Final Confront, With My Dear Friends

For modern times, I'd give this a 9.75/10. For the 80s, 11/10.
 
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