Startup Music

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Startup Videos. (Discuss)

Startup music is music that plays on the main menu when booting up the game, but does not play when returning to the main menu from elsewhere in the game.

Source Engine

Source will play sound\ui\gamestartup*.mp3 when it finishes loading the main menu after the application is launched. The asterisk matches anything at all (including nothing), so feel free to give your files descriptive names. If more than one file matches, a choice will be made at random.

All files must be encoded at 44.1 KHz.

Tip:Startup music can be disabled by starting with -nostartupsound.

Warning:Only MP3 files are supported, and they do not loop.

Workaround:If a looping WAV is desired, edit valve.rc to add the line play #*ui/gamestartup.wav (or something similar) to the end of the file. Only one music track is supported using this method.

GoldSrc Engine

GoldSrc will play media\gamestartup.mp3 or Redbook CD track 29 when it finishes loading the main menu after the application is launched. The track will loop and continue to play until a map is loaded.

Bug:If the game directory is valve or gearbox, the startup track will continue to play across multiple maps until another track is called!  [todo tested in ?]