Abstract In this paper several meaningful audio icons of classic arcade games such as Pong, Donkey Kong, Mario
World and Pac-Man are analyzed, using the PRAAT software for speech analysis and musical theory. The analysis
results are used to describe how these examples of best practice sound design obtain their meaning in the player's
perception. Some aspects can be related to the use of tonal hierarchy (e.g. Donkey Kong and Mario World) which is
a western culture related aspect of musical meaning. Other aspects are related to universal expressions of meaning
such as the theory of misattribution, prosody, vocalization and cross-modal perceptions such as brightness and the
uncanny valley hypothesis. Recent studies in the field of cognitive neuroscience support the universal and
meaningful potential of all these aspects. The relationship between language related prosody, vocalization and
phonology, and music seems to be an especially successful design principle for universally meaningful music icons
in game sound design.