Rob Hubbard (born 1955) is a British composer best known for his musical and programming work for microcomputers of the 1980s, in particular the Commodore 64. Biography Early life and career Hubbard was born in 1955ZZAP! 64, October 1985Happy Computer, July 1986 in Kingston upon Hull, England. Hubbard first started playing music at age seven. Whilst at school he played in bands. After leaving school, he went to music college. He mentioned Mozart, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Jean Michel Jarre and Larry Fast among his musical influences.
In the late seventies, before scoring games, he was a professional studio musician. He decided to teach himself BASIC and machine code for the Commodore 64. Rob explained how he acquired his first computer, the Commodore 64, and why he chose that specific computer in an interview, "The buzz that was around at the time was that musicians are gonna have to get into computers." He ended up with a Commodore 64 computer specifically because the other ones he knew of, only had 8k or 16k of memory.
Music on the Commodore 64 Hubbard subsequently wrote or converted music for a variety of publishers on over 75 videogames between 1985 and 1989. Hubbard mainly composed for the Commodore 64's SID sound chip. He worked freelance and turned down offers from companies to work in-house. His first theme for a game was Thing on a Spring. Some of his most popular tunes include Commando, Monty on the Run, Sanxion, International Karate, Skate or Die!, Crazy Comets, Master of Magic, Delta, Thrust, Lightforce, Spellbound, One Man and his Droid. The game Knucklebusters includes Hubbard's longest tune: a 17-minute opus. Hubbard has mentioned his personal favourites are Sanxion, Kentilla, W.A.R., International Karate, and Crazy Comets. His least favourite was Samantha Fox Strip Poker, which he admitted to having done purely for money; he was listed in the game credits with the alias John York.
Move to Electronic Arts and the United States After four years producing gaming music in the United Kingdom, Hubbard joined Electronic Arts in 1988 to develop professionally as a musician. He left Newcastle and had the choice to work for Electronic Arts or Microsoft. Hubbard chose EA due to their prominence in the gaming industry as Microsoft had (as yet) no gaming platform. His work with EA Electronic Arts in America was as a composer. He was the first person devoted to sound and music at EA and did everything from low-level programming to composing. One of his most famous compositions during his period at EA, is the music featured in the loading sequence of the Commodore 64 version of Skate or Die!, which features multiple sampled chords of electric guitar and organ. Playback of samples was facilitated by exploiting a feature in the SID sound-synthesizer chip: altering the volume register produces an audible click, and altering the register thousands of times per second enables a relatively crude (but surprisingly clear and sophisticated for eight-bit computers) form of sample playback. He eventually became Audio Technical Director, a more administrative job, deciding which technologies to use in games, and which to develop further.
After the Commodore 64 period, he wrote some soundtracks for games which appeared on the Amiga, Atari ST, IBM PC and Mega Drive, most notably Populous, Road Rash, and Desert Strike.
Recent activities Hubbard contributed a few re-arrangements of his themes to Chris Abbott's C64 tribute Back in Time Live. Hubbard performed several times with the Danish C64 cover band PRESS PLAY ON TAPE who have covered many of his early tunes using a full rock-band arrangement. Hubbard has also performed his old music on piano with the support of violinist and fellow chiptune composer Mark Knight.
Hubbard left EA in 2002 and returned to England. He has recently resumed playing in a band, and he has revisited his past game-music work in concert. His recent compositions have included music for mobile-phone games.
In 2005, music from International Karate was performed live by a full orchestra at the third Symphonic Game Music Concert. The event took place in Leipzig, Germany. Hubbard arranged and orchestrated the piece.
In 2014, Hubbard appeared in and composed music for the documentary feature film From Bedrooms to Billions, a film that tells the story of the British video games industry.
In November 2016, Hubbard received an honorary degree from Abertay University for his contributions to video-game music in the 1980s.
Works Year Title Notes 1985 Commando based on theme from Commando arcade game by Tamayo Kawamoto Rasputin features traditional Russian songs Monty on the Run partially based on "Devil's Galop" by Charles Williams Thing on a Spring Confuzion Cover of the song "Confuzion" by the band Private Property which was also on side B of the game cassette. Crazy Comets Inspired by New Order and funk music. Chimera Master of Magic partially based on "Shibolet" from the Synergy album Audion The Last V8 Action Biker Formula 1 Simulator Hunter Patrol One Man and His Droid inspired by the song Maneater by Hall & Oates Battle of Britain Harvey Smith Showjumping Up, Up and Away cover of a song by The 5th Dimension 1986 Deep Strike Bump Set Spike Ninja Gerry the Germ Proteus based on two separate songs from John Keating's album Space Experience ("The Unknown Planet" and "Space Agent") Thrust Warhawk the same song as "Proteus", just an intro added Lightforce He was paid £750 for the tune according to the developers (equivalent to £2324 in 2020) which they claim was an absolute bargain. Geoff Capes Strongman Challenge Samantha Fox Strip Poker credited as John York because as he said "[it] was such a cheesy title and they wanted that cheesy lame music along with it - I didn't want to admit that I did it just for the money". Contains "The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin and "The Stripper" by David Rose Tarzan Based on the theme from 1960s TV show "Tarzan" W.A.R. Zoids based on the track "Ancestors" from the Synergy album Audion Flash Gordon Spellbound Hollywood or Bust Covers of "12th Street Rag" by Euday L. Bowman and "Dill Pickles Rag" by Charles L. Johnson Human Race Kentilla Phantoms of the Asteroid Chicken Song From the TV show Spitting Image Video Poker contains "Easy Winners" by Scott Joplin Knucklebusters Hubbard's longest composition, lasting 17 minutes International Karate parts are a pastiche of Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Forbidden Colours" from "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" Sanxion in addition to Hubbard's famous loader song, this contains "Dance of the Knights" from Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo and Juliet" 1987 Jet Set Willy Atari 8-bit version ACE II BMX Kids the sampled voice saying "Go!" is actually Hubbard himself! Saboteur II Sigma 7 Commodore 64 arrangement by Hubbard; Amstrad original by Julian Breeze Thanatos Commodore 64 arrangement by Hubbard; Amstrad original by Julian Breeze Thundercats Arcade Classics I-Ball inspired by "Whip Blow" and "I Want You" by Cabaret Voltaire Hydrofool Shockway Rider Auf Wiedersehen Monty with Ben Daglish Chain Reaction Mega Apocalypse Re-arrangement of "Crazy Comets" Nemesis the Warlock Wiz Bangkok Knights IK plus (International Karate plus) Dragons Lair Part II Star Paws Delta The title song borrows few bars of melody from the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack by Philip Glass. Also inspired by Pink Floyd Trans Atlantic Balloon Challenge Goldrunner contains the same song as "Human Race" 1988 19 Part One: Boot Camp an interpretation of Paul Hardcastle's "19" Jordan vs. Bird: One on One Kings of the Beach One-on-One 2 Power Play Hockey Skate or Die! Pandora Based on the main theme from Dune Ricochet 1989 688 Attack Sub Budokan: The Martial Spirit Indianapolis 500: The Simulation Keef the Thief Kings of the Beach Lakers vs. Celtics and the NBA Playoffs Populous 1990 Low Blow Ski or Die The Immortal John Madden Football Skate or Die 2: The Search for Double Trouble 1991 PGA Tour Golf Road Rash with Michael Bartlow Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf with Brian L. Schmidt 1992 Road Rash 2 with Don Veca and Tony Berkeley The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel John Madden Football '93 1993NHL '94 1994NHL '95 with Russell Lieblich 1996The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo 2014From Bedrooms to Billions 2017Rob's Life 2018Go Go Dash
References
External links C64Audio.com