This is what Perfect Dark's music was meant to sound like

Perfect Dark's thumping, droning, cyberpunk soundtrack is still some of the best video game music ever committed to a cartridge. Unfortunately, trying to lift and preserve those nostalgic tunes from a cartridge usually produces imperfect results.

But now, thanks to Kirkhope's site and a helpful YouTube user, you can hear four of Perfect Dark's most beloved tracks in their original, uncompressed glory (or mostly uncompressed, anyway, it is still an MP3 uploaded to YouTube). The difference isn't tremendous, but it's still substantial; pay special attention to the crisp highs, booming lows, and, um, X-Files whistles.

It's kind of like listening to a symphonic version of one of your favorite old songs, only to realize that your old favorite was an amateurish cassette recording of that same symphony all along.

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Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.