Let’s face it; Despite being in an incredibly transparent and media centric industry, Cliff Blezinski, David Jaffe, Suda 51, The Bioware Doctors, Ken Levine and countless other prolific designers continue to be rather unknown entities to a majority of gamers. Now take that state of ignorance that most gamers have for their favorite games creators’ and magnify it by about a thousand for sound designers and composers – with this being especially true for games that are over 20 years old. Besides the enthusiasts that actively seeks out the information, often times composers and sound designers are so buried in a game’s credits, or even left out altogether, that it is near impossible to give them the recognition that they rightly deserve.
When it is already commonplace to ignore most composers, it’s especially easy for US gamers to overlook the many gems that were brought to us by the Commodore 64. With hundreds of games gracing the C64 over it’s decade plus operational period, the law of large numbers comes into play dictating that among the thousands of tunes composed for the system that there are quite a few gems to behold. Among many Commodore fans, no compositions are as highly regarded as those of Rob Hubbard.
Monty on the Run – Rob Hubbard (1985 Gremlin)
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Hubbard started his career as a studio musician, but after teaching himself the basics of programming and pitching musical learning software to Gremlin, he was subsequently hired to program the music for what would become a C64 classic, ‘Thing on a Spring.’ After a few years handling composition projects for a number of British developers, Hubbard made the jump across the pond when he was hired by Electronic Arts as the first person to be devoted to sound design within the company. While at EA, Hubbard composed soundtracks for a few more years, but eventually took an administrative position within the company.
One Man & His Droid – Rob Hubbard (1985 Mastertronic)
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Whether or not you have fond memories of the C64 and it’s music shouldn’t be an issue if you take a dive into Hubbard’s extensive library. There’s no doubt that some of Hubbard’s work was influenced by popular media, but what makes him truly significant is the way in which the compositions were adapted for the C64 and the furthering of chip-tune compositions to an art form. Often times chip tune is looked at in the eye of the beholder, with some people enjoying it simply for the fact that it was a significant part of their respective childhoods’, but what Hubbard did with his C64 compositions was to expound upon something that wouldn’t just be notable for it’s nostalgia, but would rely solely on their own merit of creating musical compositions within a certain toolset. Much like classical composers used very specific instrumentation when writing symphonies, sonatas, and concertos – Hubbard used the tools at his disposal, namely the C64’s three-channel sound chip to create music with much more depth then one could imagine.
Ricochet – Rob Hubbard (1988 Firebird)
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Be it the flippant melodies from ‘Thing on a String,’ the sample driven theme from ‘Ricochet’ or the epically long Knucklebusters soundtrack, there is no question in my mind that Hubbard is one of the most accomplished chip-tune programmers of all time. A full catalogue of Hubbard’s work is available in the HVSC (High Voltage SID Collection) so there is no reason not to check it out: It’s Free!































