The Wilhelm Scream. Cinephiles recognise it instantly (you only need to hear it once in the above video). It's been reused so many times since it was first recorded in 1951 that its inclusion today is almost beyond cliche, easter egg, or inside joke, and has become a combination of the three. (It's been in every Star Wars and Indiana Jones title thanks to sound engineer Ben Burtt, who resurrected its use.)

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I love the random stuff that occasionally pops up on Gamasutra, such as this combination how-to on doing winter field recordings and essay on why we need better ambient winter sounds in games. Part lavish love letter to snow and its various states, part practical considerations, Finnish game sound designer Tapio Liukkonen tells us why this stuff is important and why field recordings can trump studio technology:

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Kayak instructor and Professor of Technocultural Studies and Music at the University of California at Davis, Bob Ostertag, has rolled up a katamari-like collection of 8-bit to 64-bit samples in his video game "sound collage" titled w00t. Featuring carefully arranged blips and beats from games like Contra, Halo, Super Metroid, World of Warcraft and Ico, to name but a few, Ostertag's 50 minute piece is available as a free download for the curious.

I spent about 15 minutes with the musical journey this morning before I became too distracted with the experimental arrangement, but fans of game music who loathe paying for things should give the MP3 a whirl. Thanks to Geoff for turning us on to Bob's work.

w00t (and Other Recordings) [BobOstertag.com]