Bosconian

Composed by Hideya Nagata and Yuzo Koshiro

Bosconian has been around for nearly the entirity of the 80s. First released in 1981 for the arcade, then ported to the MSX in 1984, then the Sharp X1, and in 1988, the Sharp X68000, which contains this very soundtrack. Hideya Nagata served as the primary composer for this version of the game, which completely omits any of the music used in the original arcade release, composed by Nobuyuki Ohnagi, save for the "BLAST OFF" sound bite. Nagata got his start in the video game industry working on this game, Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished The Final Chapter, and Sofia. His work on the X1 series of hardware was well received among video game music enthusiasts. He would later go on to compose music for the PlayStation games Motor Toon Grand Prix, and the games in the Fighters Destiny series.

Yuzo Koshiro composed a handful of pieces for this game. Blast Power, Flash Flash Flash, and Asteroid Memory. Koshiro got his start in the video game music industry composing for Nihon Falcom. The X68K port of Bosconian was one of the first games Koshiro helped compose as a freelancer after leaving Nihon Falcom. He would also work on the PC-88 game The Scheme, and the PC-98 game Misty Blue, both showcasing Koshiro's signature style of Eurobeat inspired music. This was all before he became one of the most notable composers in video games with his scores for the Streets of Rage series, the Shinobi series, and the ActRaiser games. 

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Bosconian was originally just another arcade shooter with barely any music. The X68K provided the opportunity for the classic arcade shooter to be amplified with the kind of music that was considered ahead of its time, when compared to other video game system that relied on FM-synthesizers for their music.