Great Gaming Music #18: Atom Bomb

The Wipeout series is known for delivering thrilling high-speed futuristic anti-gravity racing. While superficially similar to Nintendo's F-Zero games, Wipeout distinguishes itself through an extreme sense of speed and a history of trance soundtracks featuring big-name artists, including Orbital, The Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Prodigy and Fluke.

The soundtrack to the Psygnosis-developed Wipeout XL was heavily promoted in partnership with Red Bull Energy Drink. Stations running the game were set up in nightclubs and an extensive marketing campaign was set in motion. The soundtrack album spawned a single, "Atom Bomb" by Fluke (featured above) which reached #20 on the UK charts. "Atom Bomb" also appeared on Fluke's fourth album Risotto and represents one of their most successful creations.

Great Gaming Music #14: Lemmings - Theme 4

Psygnosis' Lemmings was a fantastic game for any number of reasons, and despite many attempts has never really been replicated. A key element in the fun is the catchy soundtrack, created by Brian Johnston, brother of developer Scott Johnston. (No, not the AC/DC Brian Johnston.)

Due to worries about music copyright, most of the Lemmings songs were either arrangements of existing public domain music or "borrowings" from other Psygnosis games such as Shadow of the Beast. Despite this patchwork design strategy, the finished music retains a unique and memorable flavour.