Poll:
https://linkto.run/p/JJITDXLU

Home computers only, no other platforms.

Consider creativity, sound chip limitations and technical achievement, composition (melody or hook, progression, complexity), dynamics (range between quiet and loud, soft/diminuendo and hard/crescendo), pitch range, punch, instrument and instrument envelope variety and quality, how well the music fits the game, and so on. We're going by original release dates.

Try to say something about your favorite(s), it's more fun to read!

Music links (multiplatform list - if a game you want to vote for isn't in the poll list then do a search here with ctrl+f, it's probably included and not forgotten about. If I did completely miss an OST though then please mention it in the thread). Note that I haven't researched cd audio OSTs from 1996 onwards so I went with mobygames' list and my earlier tier list template for those:

https://minirevver.weebly.com/vgm-1997.html

Previous winners:
1987: Ys 1 followed by The Last Ninja 1
1988: Last Ninja 2 and Ys 2 followed by IK+
1989: Ys 3 followed by Quest for Glory
1990: Secret of Monkey Island followed by Lost Patrol
1991: MI2 followed by Turrican 2
1992: Ultima VII followed by Monkey Island (CD ver.)
1993: Doom followed by Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
1994: Beneath a Steel Sky & Colonization (tie) followed by Warcraft 1
1995: Crusader: No Remorse and Warcraft II (tie) followed by Transport Tycoon Deluxe, Tyrian, C&C and DreamWeb CD ver. (tie)

Interstate 76.

As soon as I read the year I knew what my answer would be: Age of Empires.

That music still evokes the feeling of watching the startled gazelles running away from my villagers as they began to explore the surroundings of their first settlement in the Stone Age...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3AoEpFfV6Y

I really wish Age of Empires was on GOG.

You fools, like this is even a contest! Blade Runner beyond a shadow of a doubt

Really good soundtrack. Everytime I hear the music, I automatically hear the grunting of the Clubmen attacking and the gibberish confirmations of the villagers.

Wololo, brother.

Redneck Rampage? It was certainly unique... ;-)

you dig man

PS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKE-8B8wZA8

...

Honorable mentions go to Blood and its two OSTs, MDK (ssssshhinnyyy), The Last Express (I am the monarch of the sea / The ruler of the Queen’s navee... what a unique little game), Fallout (don't care if it's all ambient, Mark Morgan is a genius), Carmaggeddon (though not actually *original* ST, and the less said about stainless head honchos the better). And to Netstorm of which I frankly remember little in terms of music, just for being a mind-blowing left-field off-beat take on a tired genre.

Gosh we're nearing the Age of Titans, where every fecking year is a nostalgia black hole)

Why is Hexen on this list? That's a 1995 game, unless it's an another game...?

Anyway, I went with Jazz JackRabbit 2, because... what else :D

The windows version is from 1997, dunno if it had a new OST

There are no windows version. Original Hexen: Beyond Heretic wad came out in late 95 with DOS only executable, the expansion came later. They were never natively ported to Windows, that came only when the source was released and the community made source ports. Hexen II came for Windows.

You might be thinking of the CD-ROM that were listed as "Windows 95 Compatible" because 95 could read and run 16-bit executable?

Stay a while and listen.

Voted for Blood (how unexpected :P). It sets the perfect horror atmopshere. Gotta specify that I mean the MIDI version though. The game also had CD music but it was VERY different to the MIDIs. While pretty good on its own too, I never felt like it fit into the game itself.