I don't plan on making my own video games (you're welcome), but I still spent all day playing with a very cool video game sound effects tool called ChipTone. It's like a little soundboard with It also has a variety of ways to tweak and mutate the sounds so you can create the SFX of your dream game.

Or, if you're like me, you can just sit there and create cool 1-Up sounds that tickle the pleasure centers of your brain. Oh, that feels so good. Just one more 1-Up. Mmm! Perfect. Okay, one more

You can play with ChipTone to your heart's content and save the effect as a wav file. It's available for download, and if you like it, why not kick a few bucks to the developer? The tool is very neat and easy to use, and the developer states that the sounds you generate are completely free for use in games, videos, and other projects, casual or commercial. Very nice!

Even if you're not working on a project that requires game sounds, give it a try. It's fun just to poke at the buttons and see what comes up, or to try out different knobs and dials to see how you can tweak them to make them sound even cooler. In the future, sound samplers and sequencers will be added as well.