I love listening to retro games and demoscene music from the 80s and early 90s, which are your 8-bit/16-bit favourites and who was the composer?

My favourite composer is Chris Hülsbeck, here some examples:

Amiga 500 music, the Amiga 500 released in 1987 was a cheap entry model home computer based on the expensive Amiga 1000 desktop computer from 1985. It included improved memory options and a newer kickstart ROM (similar to a new firmware). The Paula stereo sound chip, released in a world of beeping PCs and soundless monchrome Macs was very advanced for its time, on higher specced Amigas or with a CPU upgrade decoded MP3s sounded near CD quality.

Turrican 2 (1991) - Title Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvha_2hAzq0

Turrican 2 - Background music level 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmmslIbjfH8

Apidya 2 (1992)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3gIjMm2P-g

X-Out (1990)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJuMsK6CtIk

Z-Out (1990)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn6YR3uGFWg

Jim Power (1992)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8JpduxQz0o

Gem'X (1991)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV13R1hxHNQ

C64 music - The Commodore 64 released in 1982 was similar to earlier Commodore home computer like Vic20 but more advanced, with more memory and a for its time awesome SID sound chip. Later c64 would include a slightly downgraded soundchip.

The Great Giana Sisters (the banned game from 1987, yes I owned a pirated copy... But I bought non-banned Hard 'n Heavy replacement)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMTdr026bZU

Title theme performed  in concert:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSOS2uwqpfw

On the piano:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s57uEmtOwzI

Hard 'n Heavy (1989, non-Mario like remake of Giana Sisters)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuMxaloLiBI

Turrican 2 (1991, background music starts 1:12)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB49A5rExOE

Yuzo Koshiro by a country mile. (Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack IMO is the best soundtrack of the 16 bit era)

Streets of Rage........ Songs like.....................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO14WFh1k-I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdPPU-09sF0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEIXbLdTy98&feature=related

And Revenge of Shinobi....... Songs like..........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRjmCxsHQGk&feature=PlayList&p=C80D8D317B885DF3&index=5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLdDm89MQyw&feature=PlayList&p=C80D8D317B885DF3&index=12

Whoever the hell did the Megaman music. That music is simply amazing.

Rob Hubbard, obviously. Delta, Commando, Zoids, Sanxion... he composed so many great ones.

Which one was the best? The NES versions IMO don't sound so great on youtube...

Mega Man X sounds nice (Snes, 1993):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0e191YrkUs

Other game music I loved on the Amiga 500:

Super Cars 2 (1991 by Magnetic Fields):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWzlO7HkF3w

Lemmings (1990, the original still IMO by far the best version with 2 player competitive mice control)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SgDS-16UFA (many timeless tunes)

IMO most impressive c64 soundtrack, Turbo Outrun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQNT9Whg4r4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usixkoudBh4

Some good Amiga 500 demoscene music by Spaceballs (loading from diskette like past Amiga games):

State of the Art:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aykuVMf4uIQ

9 Fingers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5zEp6um8RU

So far the music from Mega Man II is my favorite
Here is some really HQ sounding music.

Megaman II Music: Air Man

Megaman II Music: Bubble Man  <----Simply Amazing!

Megaman II Music: Quick Man

Freeze Man: Megaman 7 Music  <---Personal favorite for nostalgic reasons.

Koji Kondo ! He is T3H godlike music composer...

Also, besides Chris Hülsbeck, David Whittaker made a couple of awesome tracks (Xenon , Sppedball...)

Offtopic : if you like oldschool remix, try vgmix.

Currently, i am listening to the excellent Metroid remixes. For your listening pleasure... http://www.metroidmetal.com/

well,

Agony (AMIGA) possess amazing soundtrack

developped by Art&Magic for Psygonis

was even ripped by the norwegian black metal band Dimmu Borgir ripped it off on their 1996 album Stormblåst...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=FR&v=ks3PHI2diuY

(you can find name author in the title screen between minute 1 and 2).

(game start at 3.35)

If you love retro sega music you should take a peek at this site:

http://www.radiosega.net/

And an of topic question how can I search the forum?

Yes very memorable, first a nice piano tune and bam very contasting game music, plain awesome!

The game music was composed by Jeroen Tel, I linked to a few of his efforts above (Lemmings classical tunes and Turbo Outrun on the c64). IMO the greatest Dutch game music composer from the era. Here an interview with him and Rob Hubbard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45W1YfAtwEQ

Rob Hubbard composed one of the most memorable c64 in-game music as well, Monty on Run:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93nIljXpqUY