Gaming has come a long way since then, of course, and I think there’s no better evidence of this than Video Games Live, the national concert tour in which symphony orchestras and choirs perform music from games such as Final Fantasy, Tron, Frogger, and Earthworm Jim. As they say on their website, “It’s the power & emotion of a symphony orchestra mixed with the excitement and energy of a rock concert and the technology and interactivity of a video game all completely synchronized to amazing cutting edge video screen visuals, state-of-the-art lighting and special on-stage interactive segments with the audience.”

It’s a long way from bleeps and bloops, is what I’m sayin’.

VGL is coming to Seattle on Saturday and will include a debut of music from Halo 3:ODST. Halo Composers Marty O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori are slated to make an appearance, as are Gabe & Tycho from Penny Arcade. Tickets are available here and more international TOUR DATES can be found on the VGL site.

UPDATE: Thanks to Andrea for forwarding a link to this article about VGL in today’s Seattle Times.

Want to make it a whole weekend of geeky music experiences? Don’t forget that internet troubadour and podcasting hero Jonathan Coulton will perform on Friday night at the Moore Theatre.

Do you know about “high concept”? That’s the idea that you can describe the concept of a movie in 10 words or fewer. Farm boy defeats empire… in space. Giant shark terrorizes small beach town. Snakes on a plane.

I think “Tech Industry Night at a Goth Club” is about as high concept as it gets for events. Search Engine Optimization Analyst Tom Schmitz will be spinning the dark grooves tonight for all comers. Dress in black or appropriate dark attire and say the fiendish secret password, SQL Injection Attack, for $2 admission. See the calendar, below, for more details.