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I have found two videogame music from the late 80s that sounds similar to one of Sonic the Hedgehog series ingame soundtrack. Both of them were computer games. Not PC games but home computer games which often uncompatible with IBM PCs.

Sonic the Hedgehog 1 (16-bit) with The NewZealand Story[]

The New Zealand Story
Sonic1 box usa

The NewZealand Story (ニュージーランドストーリー Nyū Jīrando Sutōrī) is a 1988 arcade game developed and published by Taito. The player controls Tiki (ティキ), a kiwi who must save his lover Phee Phee (ピューピュー) and several of his other kiwi chick friends who have been kidnapped by a large blue leopard seal. The player has to navigate a scrolling maze-like level, at the end of which they release one of Tiki's kiwi chick friends trapped in a cage.

After the release of the original arcade game in 1988, the game was converted to most of the game consoles and home computers of the time. Most home releases came in 1989, with some arriving later through 1990–1992. The home computer versions were published by Ocean Software, and their home computer versions refer to Wally as a walrus on the packaging; however, the original arcade version specifically mentions him as being a leopard seal during the closing credits. The NES version was developed by Software Creations and published in the PAL regions by Ocean. In North America the NES version was published by Taito as Kiwi Kraze, instead of The NewZealand Story. The game received more publicity due to being included in the Amiga 500 Batman Pack, which was launched in September 1989 and sold over 2 million units.[1] Home conversions generally received good reviews in video game magazines.[2][3] The game was also converted for the Japanese FM Towns and Sharp X68000 systems, providing arcade-perfect conversions, but released exclusively in Japan since both computers were only available there.

While Sonic the Hedgehog 1 is a 1991 platformer game developed and published by Sega and only available for the Sega Genesis.

The Commodore 64 Port for The New Zealand came out at mid 1989, a year after the original arcade. Now what makes me curious about this port is, the menu screen or Track 2 which was composed by Johnathan Dunn sounds very similar to Sonic the Hedgehog 1 Special Stage music. Was Johnathan Dunn one of the composer on Sonic the Hedgehog? No, i think not. But i think Ocean has inspired Masato Nakamura to use the same tune since The Newzealand Story was quite a popular arcade game in Japan.

Listen to this: Commodore 64 Music (The New Zealand Story/Kiwi Kraze) skip to 03:11 for the menu screen track that sounds similar to Masato Nakamura's composition.

Space Lobsters with Sonic Forces[]

Now the first thing is, this might be not a very accurate similarity but i think the Space Lobsters title screen composed by Richard Munns sounds similar to First Bump mid-tune.

So, what Space Lobsters is?

Well... it's an Atari 8-bit computer game, developed by Red Rat Software with music composed by Richard Munns and released in 1990, a year before the release of the first Sonic the Hedgehog and 4 years before discontinuation of Atari 8-Bit computer lines. This game was not a very good computer game, and i think it is one of the worst Atari game i've ever played besides Mountain King on Atari 2600

Sonic Forces box artwork

which was a dreadful experience

Listen to this: Atari XL/XE Music rip - Richard Munns


(UPDATE) Ninja Commando with Sonic Forces[]

I don't what's going on my mind, but i think Ninja Commando title screen music is very similar to Sonic Forces's World Map music.

Ninja Commando Theme

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