Heroes of Might and Magic 4. The best soundtrack EVER.

Sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7VRWpr1UHw

Lands of Lore - Apothecary

Lands of Lore 2 Music: City of the Ancients

Lands of Lore 2 Music: Draracles Caves

Lands of Lore 2 Music: Draracles Halls

Lands of Lore 2 Music: Draracles Museum

Everquest Theme

Everquest 2 Theme

Starsiege Tribes ST 1

Starsiege Tribes ST 3

Grim Fandango - Bone Wagon

Grim Fandango - Companeros

Grim Fandango - Opening

Grim Fandango - Ninth Heaven (Festival Music)

Worms Armageddon - Theme

The Sims - Build Music 1

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Nerevar Rising (Reprise)

The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion - Atmosphere 7

SimCity 2000 Theme

HOMM 3 Title

Unreal - Main Title

Unreal Tournament - Main Theme

Duke Nukem 3D - Main Theme (Grabbag)

Shadow Warrior - Theme

This is an amazing soundtrack.

Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven

"The guy who wants too much risks losing absolutely everything. Of course, the guy who wants too little from life might not get anything at all."
— Thomas Angelo

Nice trolling. :) PC had some great game music already in early 90s and so, but quite often the masses missed them because you could hear them only with an expensive Roland MT-32 or compatible, or later a higher end General MIDI card. It just didn't sound the same with Adlib or Soundblaster.

Naturally when PC games evolved to CD audio, mp3 etc., then the underlying sound hardware didn't matter anymore.

I think there have been several "best PC game music" threads in GOG already, but some of the top of my head.

Ultima 8
Privateer #1
Privateer #2
Privateer #3
Privateer #4
Inferno
TFX
Strike Commander
Gabriel Knight
Gabriel Knight 2
Gabriel Knight 3
Descent 2
Mechwarrior 2
Unreal Tournament 2003 #1
Unreal Tournament 2003 #2
Far Cry

EDIT: Some more from an "unknown gem" that I had once:

FX Fighter #1
FX Fighter #2
FX Fighter #3
FX Fighter #4
FX Fighter #5

Quake 2: Operation Overlord
(although the rest of the soundtrack was pretty sweet too)

<i>Sudden Strike - Track 5</i>
<i>Sudden Strike - Track 1</i>
<i>StarCraft - Radio Free Zerg</i>
<i>StarCraft - Terran 1</i>
<i>Croc: Legend of the Gobbos - Tank of Neptuna</i>
<i>Croc 2 - Hanglider Valley/Credits</i>
<i>Duke Nukem 3D - Grabbag</i>
<i>Deus Ex - UNATCO</i>
<i>Battlefield 1942 - Main Theme</i>
<i>Tropico - Huepa Huepa</i>
<i>Jazz Jackrabbit/Jazz Jackrabbit 2 - Main Theme</i>
<i>Jazz Jackrabbit 2 - Medieval Jam</i>
<i>Jazz Jackrabbit 2 - Tubelectric Remix</i>
<i>Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Main Theme</i>
<i>Call of Duty - Pegasus Bridge</i>
<i>Hearts of Iron II - Japanese Spirit</i>
<i>Hearts of Iron II - Kriegsgewitter</i>
<i>WarCraft II - Orc 2</i>
<i>WarCraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal - I'm a Medieval Man</i>
<i>The Curse of Monkey Island - Opening Theme</i>
<i>The Curse of Monkey Island - Spare Room</i>
<i>The Settlers II: 10th Anniversary - Rome 2</i>
<i>Diablo - Tristram Village</i>
<i>Diablo - Catacombs</i>
<i>Max Payne - Byzantine Power Game</i>
<i>Death Rally - Main/Menu Theme</i>
<i>Death Rally - Downtown/Newark</i>
<i>Death Rally - Suburbia/West End</i>
<i>Death Rally - Utopia/Complex</i>
<i>Death Rally - Snake Alley/Desert Run</i>
<i>Star Control II - Hyperspace Theme</i>
<i>Red Alert - Big Foot</i>
<i>Red Alert 2 - Hell March 2</i>
<i>Frozen Synapse - Schism</i>
<i>Railroad Tycoon 3 - Mountain Valley Roll</i>
<i>Half-Life - End Credits</i>
<i>Half-Life 2 - You're Not Supposed to Be Here</i>
<i>Plants vs. Zombies - Ultimate Battle</i>
<i>Plants vs. Zombies - The Roof</i>
<i>Plants vs. Zombies - Brainiac Maniac/Dr. Zomboss</i>
<i>Rayman - Mr. Dark</i>
<i>Unreal - Skytown</i>
<i>Princess Maker 2 - Opening</i>
<i>King's Quest V - Princess Cassima</i>

Games that weren't originally for the PC, but received PC ports:

<i>Final Fantasy VII - Cosmo Canyon</i>
<i>Final Fantasy VII - Fight On!</i>
<i>Grandia II - FIGHT!! Ver. #1</i>
<i>Metal Gear Solid - Warhead Storage</i>
<i>Metal Gear Solid - Duel</i>

La-Mulana [url=http://nigoro.bandcamp.com/album/la-mulana-original-sound-track-disk2][2]

A Valley Without Wind

I just spent a great deal of time typing up some big long thing about how I thought that It wasn't that PC game music was worse than console game music, it was just that PC game music was more atmospheric and such. Then when I was coming up with examples to support my argument I realized that for the most part up until the PS1 era console games did have better music. That caused me to rethink my whole argument. The conclusion that I have arrived at is one of game design. I think the types of games that were more prevalent on consoles at the time were greatly enhanced by good music, and lent themselves well to catchy tunes. The types of games more common on PC just didn't benefit as much from music though, and catchy tunes could even be distracting. Once the PS1 came along though, I don't think game consoles had better music anymore. This may also support my game design theory as well, since console game design changed so much at that point.

Of course all of this is just an educated guess. I'm not sure I even completely agree with my own opinion. This has been a really fun and interesting topic for me to think about, so thanks for that.


EDIT:

I did just remember what is probably my favorite DOS game soundtrack though, so I guess I'll actually contribute some music after all. Its the DUNE II soundtrack, and its awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WKBjmJCBHw

Not sure about you, but I still think this was mostly a misconception, because to really appreciate the good PC game music from the early 90s and so, you had to have very expensive sound hardware. Most PC gamers didn't have such, but listened to tinny Adlib/Soundblaster music.

Sierra, Dynamix, Origin, Electronic Arts, Ocean, LucasArts... they made loads of great sounding PC game music back in the old days, for Roland MT-32 and later General MIDI/Roland Sound Canvas. So the music was there, but unfortunately most PC gamers didn't hear it. And I always felt that was a real shame too (fortunately nowadays there is Munt and such, not to mention Youtube).

EDIT: And as it happens, you linked to the (IMHO much inferior) Adlib/SB-version of Dune 2 music. Below is how I personally experienced the same music back then (I had both Roland MT-32 and Roland SCC-1 at that time, Dune 2 supported both and I had hard time deciding which sounded better):

<span class="bold">Dune 2 on Roland MT-32</span>

<span class="bold">Dune 2 on Roland Sound Canvas</span>

Occasionally (but very rarely) the Soundblaster/Adlib music managed to impress me as well:

688 Attack Sub Sim

I think this is easily the best Adlib/SB tune I've ever heard, including the much vaunted Dune (1) music, where I still prefer the MT-32 version.

As always, music is totally about personal preference, so I'm not really saying "I'm right and your wrong". When I try and think about music from games I played way back in the early 90's though, I hardly ever think about the PC games I spent hundreds of hours on in my own bedroom. I think about the music from Sonic the Hedgehog, or The Legend of Zelda. Games I played for a few hours at a friends house two or three times a month. I would rather be playing those PC games, but I'll be damned if I can remember the music from more than one or two of them.

As for The Dune II soundtrack I linked to, I just picked the first one that came up in a search, and that was Adlib. Soundblaster was the card I had though, so that's the music I remember.

Final Fantasy 7 8 and 9 along with Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time had great music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmB9LsIozSQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8NGDsnv34M

Some badass notes rigth there!

Also
Neverwinter Nights: Heart of the Forest

Well, yes, I'm not saying console music suddenly got bad. It gets a lot more complicated at that point. For example, Final Fantasy 7 wasn't even a PS1 exclusive. Actually, now that I think about it, most of my favorite soundtracks at that time were cross platform. The exceptions to that were Westwood games, and Novastorm. I actually baught the soundtrack to Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny on CD (was pretty disappointed that its only a selection of music, not all of it) directly from Westwood. As for Novastorm, that was on PC and PS1 (I have both versions), but they are pretty much different games, and the soundtrack (and everything else) is way better on the PC version.

EDIT:
I don't mean to say that I think PC games had better music in that era, just that the ones that stood out to me were either on both PC and console, or just PC. Its just personal preference.

The first Human track from Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness is forever embedded in my head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_tuSqDjVQ0#t=2m50s

I think a lot of it has to do with different sensibilities between western and japanese developers regarding game soundtracks. Most PC developers were western and most console developers were japanese. I imagine that's why you were going to talk about atmospheric music versus catchy tunes. Preferences change, but if you liked the types of soundtracks in 8 and 16-bit games, I think the philosophies behind them stayed with a lot of japanese developers, and since they kept working mostly on consoles they could still be found on the PS1 and PS2 with games like Chrono Cross, Okami or God Hand. I would say that now, though, things are too mixed for line to be drawn between them.