Brad Fuller

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Bradley Allen Fuller
Brad Fuller.jpg
Gender Male
Born November 5, 1953
Birth Place Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Nationality American   USA.svg
Died January 2, 2016 (aged 62)
Aliases Bill Cody, Indiana, B. Fuller, BAF, BF
Website www.sonaural.com


Bradley Allen Fuller was born on November 5, 1953 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is known for his several audio contributions to Atari.

Brad Fuller had been composing music and sound effects for the game industry since 1978. He was in an Atari 800 computer group in Indianapolis. When one of his friends in the group joined Atari, they were looking for composers. As a result, he joined the coin-op division of Atari in 1982 during their peak performance as the Director of audio. He not only composed music for several games, but also oversaw the music and sound effects of every game the company developed. Brad also had the honor of composing the music to Marble Madness, the first arcade game to use an FM sound chip. In 1993 he was promoted to the Director of Engineering which he held for three years before leaving the company in 1996.

After Atari, Fuller became a partner at Matter to Magic Studios from 1996 to 1998. From 1998 to 1999 he worked as the software manager at Digital TV. From 1999 to 2002 he was the Director of Product Management at OpenTV. In 2003, Fuller co-founded the company Sonaural Audio Studios where he worked at until his death. The company developed audio and audio software for the game industry.

Fuller had an impressive educational background having attended the Berklee College of Music and Indiana University of Bloomington. He also had an MS in Technology Management from Pepperdine University.

Although most of the music he was known for involves computers, for more conventional music, Fuller played the string bass.

Unfortunately on the morning of January 2, 2016, Brad Fuller passed away from pancreatic cancer. His contributions to the video game industry and Atari will always be remembered.

Audio Development

ARC

Brad used RPM, in which music was written in Music Macro Language.

Atari later developed the CAGE audio system, in which Brad converted the RPM language to use in CAGE. According to Brad, using RPM-based code allowed the composers to create more complex music, something MIDI wasn't capable of. Fuller also states a MIDI converter for RPM was made, but the audio team never used it. Brad stated that they did not use MIDI to allow the composers to take full advantage of the audio chips, and so they wouldn't have to worry with the limitations of MIDI.

NES

Brad used Music-V Language for his NES music using the NES version of RPM, which was the sound software converted to the NES from the Atari arcade machines. He composed the music for a majority of Tengen's NES games. Brad said this about Tengen Tetris:

It was originally written for an arcade product. The music was written in

RPM a Music-V like language. All in text and then compiled into Assembly

language macros to listen on the target machine.

Gameography

Released Title Sample Notes
1983-??-?? Donkey Kong (A8)
1984-12-?? Marble Madness (ARC)
With Hal Canon.
1984-??-?? Millipede (A8)
1985-??-?? Peter Pack-Rat (ARC)
1985-??-?? Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (ARC) With Earl Vickers.
1986-??-?? Gauntlet II (ARC) With Hal Canon an Earl Vickers.
1986-12-?? 720° (ARC) Audio
1987-03-?? RoadBlasters (ARC) With Earl Vickers.
1987-??-?? A.P.B.: All Points Bulletin (ARC) With Hal Canon and Earl Vickers.
1987-??-?? Final Legacy (A8)
1987-??-?? Xybotz (ARC) With Earl Vickers and Hal Canon.
1988-??-?? Cyberball: Football in the 21st Century (ARC) With Hal Canon and Don Diekneite.
1988-??-?? Tetris: Atari (ARC)
1988-??-?? Tetris: Tengen (NES)
1988-??-?? Toobin' (ARC) With Hal Canon.
1988-??-?? Vindicators (ARC) With Hal Canon.
1988-??-?? Vindicators (NES)
Arranged by Paul Mudra and Dwight Okahara.
1988-02-?? Blasteroids (ARC) Comm. Officer
1988-12-?? Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (NES)
Arranged John Williams' music.
1989-??-?? Badlands (ARC) With John Paul.
1989-??-?? Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters (ARC) Audio with Byron Sheppard.
1989-??-?? Klax (ARC)
1989-??-?? Marble Madness (NES)
Arranged by David Wise.
1989-??-?? S.T.U.N. Runner (ARC) Acoustics
1989-??-?? Skull & Crossbones (ARC) With Hal Canon, Don Diekneite, and Byron Sheppard.
1989-??-?? Super Sprint (NES)
1990-??-?? Rampart (ARC) With Don Diekneite.
1989-??-?? Toobin' (NES)
With Don Diekneite, John Paul, and Susan Lanzinger.
1990-09-06 Klax (GEN)
1990-??-?? Hydra (ARC) With Don Diekneite.
1990-??-?? RoadBlasters (NES)
Arranged by Gavan Anderson and Tania Smith.
1990-??-?? R.B.I. Baseball 2 (NES) With Don Diekneite and John Paul.
1990-??-?? Skull 'N' Crossbones (NES) With Don Diekneite.
1990-??-?? ThunderJaws (ARC) Sound Effects
1991-??-?? Klax (SMS) Composer?
1991-??-??
(Unreleased)
Marble Madness II (ARC) With John Paul.
1991-??-?? Off the Wall: Atari (ARC) Sound FX
1991-??-?? R.B.I. Baseball 3 (NES) With Don Diekneite, John Paul, and Kent Carmical.
1992-??-?? Guardians of the 'Hood (ARC) With John Paul.
1992-??-?? Space Lords (ARC)
1993-??-?? R.B.I. Baseball '93 (GEN) With John Paul and Don Diekneite.
1994-??-?? T-Mek (ARC)
1995-??-?? Steel Talons (AST)
2003-05-28 Rugrats Go Wild (W32)
2003-05-28 Rugrats Go Wild (GBA) Music and Sound Design with Don Diekneite.
Unreleased Final Legacy (A52)
Unreleased Millipede (A52)
Unreleased Super Pac-Man (A52)
Unreleased Xybots (NES)
Unreleased Superman III (A8)
Unreleased Police Academy: The Video Game (NES) Composer?

Picture Gallery

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