VGMusic

VGMusic, also known as vgmusic.com is a website where various midi renditions of videogame soundtracks are available to listen to and/or download.

It is one of the oldest surviving websites on the internet (since 1998), & has not changed much in appearence, keeping its 90's internet appearance, adding to the nostalgic theme.

Video game themed midi files can also be uploaded there, but they must not be converted midi files, or songs ripped from ROMs.

Website Appearance
VGMusic has kept its 90's internet styled website theme since 1998, which has likely been done on purpose to add to the nostalgic theme:

A rectangular picture with the website's full name in grey/silver wordart is found at the top of the page, which also has a picture of:

- Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64)

- Sonic & Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Genisis/Megadrive)

- Wingcap Mario from Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64)

- Megaman from Megaman X (Super Nintendo (SNES))

The background of the website is a blue, textured background, similar to the ones found under "Texture" when filling in a shape in Microsoft Powerpoint. These backgrounds were common under most original 90s website builders.

Back in the 90s, this website also had banners, animated .gifs & a visitor counter, but over time, these were all removed.

The page also has a large grey box where all the text is displayed, with all the midi links on the left side of the page, with all of the links working correctly.

History
The website was founded by Mike Newman, and was created in 1998, under the name "Videogame Music Archive."

Back then, it used a different logo, featuring a blank, black background, the title "Videogame Music Archive" in cream and blue font, a picture of Ryu from Street Fighter, a laughing anime girl, Mario and Luigi's pictures from Mario Kart, an old Classic Sonic picture, Megaman, Young Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and a wizard: https://web.archive.org/web/20000510181718/http://www.vgmusic.com:80/.

Back when the website was still under construction in 1998, the midis had to be downloaded via Directories; the links that will work on the present version of the website didn't work in the past, as they would lead to a 404 page with Donkey Kong Jr getting killed by Jumpman (Mario).

Only the music links for Nintendo Gameboy, Japanese Collection, PC Music, Arcade Console Music, Sega Master System, Sega Saturn and Turbo Grafix-16 don't lead to 404 pages.

As of April 2002, VGMusic changed it's logo; it now has a white gradient, the title "Videogame Music Archive" in grey font with a white glow, Adult Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, classic Sonic & Tails, Megaman X in his armor and Wing Cap Mario. This logo can still be found on the current version of VGMusic.

To this day, VGMusic still gets midi files uploaded to its database and is one of the only 90s style websites that often gets updated.

Major Differences
Monday 20th 1999 - The Sonic Corner closes down, causing VGMusic to become the new home of the website's midi files.

23rd September 2001 - 9-11 on the Update Page
Mike Newman, the founder of the website mentions the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the Update Page, and mentions how close he was to the same airport where the planes were stolen from: "I'm a little upset on how planes heading to Los Angeles International Airport were 3 of the doomed planes, since that is the airport I arrived at. Such a tragedy affects everyone."

10th August 2000 - Removal of "The Japanese Collection"
The Japanese Collection is dismantled and turned into individual collections in the console links.

June 28th 2001 - bigmog.com closes down
bigmog.com, one of the websites advertised on VGmusic.com closes down, yet the banners remain up until the removal of all Related Sites Banners on May 24th 2003.

Tab Name Changes
On 23rd February, the tab name "Videogame Music Archive™" changed to "VGMusic™". As of 5th September 2005, it is renamed to just "VGMusic".

Tab Icon Removal
Before August 24th 2014, VGMusic used to have a tab icon; paper with a musical note on it. But, as of August 24th 2014, alongside the web server changeover, the icon was lost.

1st April 2005 - April Fools Day breaks the website
A MAJOR number of April Fools pranks were unleashed all over the site, rendering it hilariously broken.

Ross Bemrose (Powerlord), a staff at VGMusic mentions all the details on the Updates Page - "Now that April Fool's Day is over, let's review what was done to the site this year:

1. The Forums became Generic. Generic Forum User, Generic Message Board, Generic User Group... it was all very confusing.

2. The FAQ was replaced by the FAQ Meme.

3. Up until 3pm EST, the new-files index displayed Generic for System, Game, Song, and Uploader. After 3pm EST, every 15 minutes, there was a 50% chance that it would display the real information and a 50% chance that it would display Generic information.

4. Up until 3pm EST, the Archives were linking to the wrong files. The first file was switched with the last file, the second file with the second to last file, etc... Of the changes, this one was the hardest to spot... unless you were actually trying to listen to music.

For the first time ever, our site was rendered completely useless due to April Fools pranks. :D Hopefully next year won't be quite so bad.

P.S. Popular concensus seems to be that 2003's April Fool was the best we ever had."

A similar thing happened on April 1st 2007, but this time, new things were added. Sadly, this was not archived; only the posts. April 1st 2008 also had some minor pranks going on too.

Visitor Counter
VGMusic used to have a visitor counter at the left side of the page near the top. However, as of August 2nd 2005, it was removed.

Recommended Browsers Banners
VGmusic used to link downloads to internet browsers at the time back on May 10th 2000; One for Internet Explorer 4, and the other for Netscape 4. However, these were removed on August 15th 2000.

Bigmog.com Banners
From 9th May 2001, the website had animated gif banners advertising bigmog.com that were different each year. The original banner had moggles flying and tripping all over the banner.

In April 1st 2002, the banner was changed to moggles who transform into the numbers 3, 2 and 1.

As of February 1st 2003, the dancing Moggles are replaced by Toejam & Earl.

However, on March 31st 2003, the animated banner for bigmog.com was removed entirely, with the removal of its non-animated banner under the Related Sites Banners on May 24th 2003.

Related Sites Banners
VGmusic first featured these Related Site links on the left side of the page when scrolling down back in October 4th 1999.

These were the websites featured on the website:

Project Majestic Mix - October 4th 1999 - May 24th 2003 (with the removal of Related Sites Banners)

The Sistersites Main Page - October 4th 1999 - May 10th 2000

Random Sistersite - October 4th 1999 - May 9th 2001

SsTrax - May 10th 2000 - May 9th 2001

OCRemix - June 14th 2000 - May 24th 2003 (with the removal of Related Sites Banners)

bigmog.com - May 9th 2001 - May 24th 2003 (with the removal of Related Sites Banners)

VGMIDI - May 9th 2001 - May 24th 2003 (with the removal of Related Sites Banners)

GMN - May 9th 2001 - March 31st 2003

However, as of May 24th 2003, the Related Sites banners were completely removed.

Staff and Editors on VGMusic
(Founder) Mike Newman (Yaginuma) - December 12th 1998 - Present

Rom Geller (Necrosaro) - December 12th 1998 - January 18th 2001

Ross Bemrose (Powerlord) - December 12th 1998 - April 26th 2017

Greg Burris (CyberKhan) - December 12th 1998 - 3rd October 1999

Thomas Schrantz (Kalrac) - December 12th 1998 - August 9th 2007

Princess Peach Toadstool - December 12th 1998 - May 24th 2003

Adrian Myer (Wildkard) - December 12th 1998 - 3rd October 1999

Chiba/Ichiban - 3rd October 1999 - January 18th 2001

Andrew Hannay (39ster) - 3rd October 1999 - 26th July 2003

The Kat - 3rd October 1999 - 15th August 2000

CLaNRuler - 18th November 1999 - 10th May 2000

Mark Jansen (Mj) - October 16th 2000 - 4th May 2003

Shannon Mason (Pong64/Pongball) - October 16th 2000 - August 13th 2006

Lee Wilson (The Jade Emperor) - January 18th 2001 - 31st March 2003

Jesse Ingram (JILost) - 25th July 2002 - 26th July 2003

John Harvey (Forteblast) - 25th July 2002 - August 13th 2006

Travis Riggs (nZero) - 25th July 2002 - 15th October 2004 (Returns 30th September 2008 - April 26th 2017)

Benny Hsieh (Braxus) - 25th September 2002 - July 20th 2006

Susan Carriere (Suds) - 25th September 2002 - March 30th 2008

Justin (The Sorcerer) - 4th May 2003 - 27th September 2004

Daniel Wright (dw_junon) - 29th September 2003 - 26th November 2009

Robert Aaron Eason (Willow) - 29th September 2003 - January 29th 2005

Daniel Lawrence - 29th September 2003 - April 26th 2017

Jordan Rankin (Black_Wing) - 26th September 2004 - November 23rd 2005

Jordan Davenport (Hunter-Zero/Kurtis) - 26th September 2004 - January 7th 2007

Jarel Jones (Arrow) - January 29th 2005 - November 23rd 2005

Scott DePouw (Secret Agent Man) - November 23rd 2005 - April 4th 2016

Dave Harris (Blitz Lunar) - November 23rd 2005 - April 26th 2017

Robert Hansson (Horn) - November 24th 2005 - April 26th 2017

Juan Pablo Peloso (GeminiSaint) - July 20th 2006 - July 17th 2008

Nathan Daywalt (Sheepdog) - August 13th 2006 - April 26th 2017

Sam Wolff (The Epitome) - October 4th 2006 - April 26th 2017

Shane Evans (shan) - 26th April 2017 - Present

Mark Carroll (TurquoiseStar17) - November 7th 2017 - Present

Jace Hill - November 7th 2017 - Present

Daylon Camarena (Chimeratio) - November 7th 2017 - Present

Trivia
It is one of the oldest surviving websites online, dating back to 1998.

VGMusic's old 90s website style has remained unchanged since 1999: https://web.archive.org/web/20000510181718/http://www.vgmusic.com:80/ (Note: This is the website in the year 2000; the 1998 & 1999 ones are missing images.)

On Wayback Machine, when viewing older versions of the website, March 5th 2001 leads to Yahoo! Japan instead of VGmusic. It is unknown why this strange quirk exists.

Links
https://www.vgmusic.com/