Game music of the day: Operation Body Count

Game: Operation Body Count
Song: Try
Composer: Joe Abbati


Above: One of Operation Body Count's gameplay tracks

Stop listening to things that make sense! I'm back with anotherbewildering game music choice, this time from 1994 PC game Operation Body Count. The Wolfenstein 3D engine DOS shooterwas kind of crappy, but the musicthat plays in random sequence throughout the game is awesomely unique and weird. As you combat terrorists on your way to rescue hostages at the top of the UN building, Joe Abbati's super-deep, heavily-distortedbass tracks shake the bone marrow out of your skeleton. Turn it up!

Fun Fact! Joe Abbati has also createdthe music for THQ's SpongeBob games.


Above: Is the wall a terrorist?

Who knew dubstep was influenced by a 1994 DOS game? Okay, it wasn't, but the sounds in these tracks certainly remind me of fellas like Skream. Some of the game's rhapsodies are so strange it's hard to justify featuring them as anything other than oddities, sohere's another of the game's more coherent tracks:


Above: Another track from Body Count

And, because I'm in a nostalgic mood, here's a totally different track from a totally different game. But it is related! Operation: Inner Space, aside from also having the word "operation" in its title, was released the same year as Body Count, during the glory days of shareware. The game involved defeating "viruses" on your computer with spaceships, and it was awesome, but its music doesn't quite justify its own GMOTD, which is why I'm featuring it here.

Inner Space's main track contains odd, rambling synth melodies similar to Body Count's, though it's much more upbeat, which is why I felt it would offer some nice contrast to help encapsulate the experimentation with PC game music that went on in the early-90s.


Above: The main track from Operation: Inner Space

Aug 25, 2010


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Associate Editor, Digital at PC Gamer
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