Jason Brooke
Jason Brooke (he goes by Jas.C.Brooke) is a former British video game programmer and composer. He worked on the music and sound to many arcade computer game adaptions. He spent most of his early career porting music to early home computer systems like the Atari 8-bit models, the Amstrad CPC, and the Commodore 64. He is noted as one of the more popular European 8-bit composers.
Brooke started out composing as a hobby on a Casio MT-31 and PT-30. He wanted to compose for a living, but was told by his school to learn to differentiate between dreams and reality. Just then, he saw his schoolmate programming on his Sinclair ZX81 computer. He tried it for himself and was fascinated with it. In 1983, he had saved up enough money to buy his own ZX Spectrum. In 1984, he teamed up with another schoolmate, Martin H. "Boffy" Smith. They programmed various things and sold a music editor called Muzik to Melbourne House for £300. However, it was never released.
From June to October 1985, Brooke wrote a Christmas game called Plum Duff (ZXS) which he later updated and sold to Bug-Byte, probably in late 1987. Around Christmas 1985, he heard that Binary Design was looking for game programmers, applied, got the job, and moved to Prestwich, Greater Manchester in March 1986.
Binary's musician was the legendary David Whittaker, who had Brooke write different sound drivers for him. By late April 1987, Whittaker had left and Brooke had become Binary's musician. In November 1987, Brooke followed Whittaker to Musicon Design.
Later, Brooke worked for Zippo Games and worked on soundtracks for them, and also did some freelance projects for game companies. Around 1990 he began to focus less on music and more on programming. In 1996, Brooke was about to retire from working on video games, until he learned about Perfect Entertainment's new office in his hometown which he joined. However, in 1998, due to financial troubles, Brooke was let go from the company. Brooke then went to work for Software Creations, mainly working on Game Boy games, and their successor Acclaim Studios Manchester. There, he programmed in C on the Gamecube and Xbox, but found the games unethical and quit the video game industry in 2003.
Brooke does not listen to much music anymore, because he still imagines arranging for 3 voices. For his website, he programmed in JavaScript. He regularly tweets about Christianity and British politics, occasionally puns and his past. He is the brother of video game graphic designer and artist Lyndon Brooke.
Contents
Music Development
Amiga
Brooke programmed and arranged directly on the Amiga. Where he got samples is unconfirmed, but he seems to have started out with pre-calculated waveforms.
Amstrad CPC/MSX/ZX Spectrum 128
Brooke programmed, arranged and largely tested on a Tatung Einstein. He could test on the Einstein because all 4 platforms had the same CPU and sound chip, only at different clocks and ports.
Atari 800/ZX Spectrum 48K
Brooke programmed and arranged on a Tatung Einstein and transferred the compiled code to the target platform for testing.
Atari ST
Brooke programmed and arranged directly on the ST.
Commodore 64
Brooke programmed and arranged on a Tatung Einstein and transferred the compiled code to a C64 for testing. His driver was always tuned at 423.9 Hz. In 1988, he started using the filter, if sparingly and mostly a band-pass filter sweeping over the entire frequency range, apparently aware that this range varied on every SID chip. Still, in VICE 3.4, his usages sound best with a bias of around -250.
DOS
Brooke programmed and arranged for the PC Speaker and Ad Lib Music Synthesizer Card.
Gameography
Note: Jason mentioned in an interview working on an NES game for Rare, developed by Zippo that was not released. This game is thought to be Roller Thrasher.
Released | Title | Sample |
---|---|---|
1986-??-?? | 180 (A8) | |
1986-??-?? | 180 (CPC) | Composer? |
1986-??-?? | 180 (ZXS) | Composer? |
1987-04-?? | Strike! (C64) | |
1987-08-?? | Pi r Squared (C64) | |
1987-0?-?? | Bismarck (C64) | Sound Driver by David Dunn |
1987-0?-?? | Rasterscan (C64) | |
1987-0?-?? | Motos (C64) | |
1987-11-?? | Inspector Gadget and the Circus of Fear (C64) | |
1987-12-?? | Garfield: Big, Fat, Hairy Deal (C64) | Sound Effects |
1987-1?-?? | Andy Capp (C64) | |
1987-1?-?? | Bosconian '87 (C64) | |
1987-1?-?? | Lawn Tennis (C64) | |
1987-1?-?? | Plum Duff (ZXS) | |
1987-1?-?? | OutRun (C64) | |
1987-??-?? | 1943: The Battle of Midway (AMI) | |
1987-??-?? | Boot Camp (ZXS) | |
1987-??-?? | Bosconian '87 (CPC) | |
1987-??-?? | Bosconian '87 (ZXS) | |
1987-??-?? | Combat School (CPC) | |
1987-??-?? | Feud (AMI) | |
1987-??-?? | Motos (ZXS) | |
1987-??-?? | Rockford: The Arcade Game (AST) | |
1988-02-?? | Rockford: The Arcade Game (C64) | |
1988-03-?? | Pac-Land (C64) | |
1988-05-?? | Super Trolley (C64) | Composer?/Sound Driver |
1988-05-?? | Vixen (C64) | |
1988-0?-?? | Ikari Warriors (C64) | Loading Music by Mark Cooksey. |
1988-0?-?? | Lazer Tag (C64) | |
1988-0?-?? | Ninja Scooter Simulator (C64) | Composer?/Sound Driver |
1988-0?-?? | World Darts (AMI) | |
1988-0?-?? | World Darts (AST) | |
1988-12-?? | Tiger Road (C64) | Sound Driver by David Whittaker |
1988-1?-?? | Turbo Boat Simulator (C64) | Sound Driver by Rob Hubbard |
1988-??-?? | Contra (C64) | |
1988-??-?? | Heavy Metal (AST) | |
1988-??-?? | Hellfire Attack (AMI) | |
1988-??-?? | Ikari Warriors (AST) | |
1988-??-?? | OutRun (AMI) | |
1988-??-?? | Ramparts (ZXS) | |
1988-??-?? | Return of the Mutant Camels (AST) | |
1988-??-?? | Rockford: The Arcade Game (AMI) | |
1988-??-?? | Savage (CPC) | |
1988-??-?? | Savage (DOS) | |
1988-??-?? | Savage (ZXS) | |
1988-??-?? | Sky Shark (AST) | |
1988-??-?? | Vixen (AMI) | |
1988-??-?? | Vixen (DOS) | |
1988-??-?? | Vixen (ZXS) | |
Unreleased | Dreadnought (C64) | |
1989-0?-?? | Street Cred Football (C64) | |
1989-0?-?? | Supertrux (C64) | |
1989-12-?? | Operation Neptune (C64) | Sound Driver |
1989-1?-?? | Ballistix (C64) | |
1989-??-?? | After Burner (AMI) | |
1989-??-?? | After Burner II (AMI) | |
1989-??-?? | Eye of Horus (DOS) | |
1989-??-?? | Ikari Warriors (AMI) | |
1989-??-?? | Pac-Land (AMI) | |
1989-??-?? | Side Arms (AMI) | |
1989-??-?? | Space Harrier (AMI) | |
1989-??-?? | Super Trux (ZXS) | |
1989-??-?? | Thunder Blade (AMI) | |
1989-??-?? | Thunder Blade (C64) | US Version Only. Arranger?/Sound Driver |
198?-??-?? | World Darts (ARC) | |
Unreleased | Roller Thrasher (NES) | Composer? |
1990-??-?? | F29 Retaliator (DOS) | |
1990-??-?? | Harley Davidson: The Road to Sturgis (AMI) | |
1990-??-?? | Heavy Metal (AMI) | |
1990-??-?? | Heavy Metal (ZXS) | |
1990-??-?? | Hoverforce (DOS) | |
1990-??-?? | Resolution 101 (AMI) | |
1990-??-?? | Thunderstrike (AMI) | |
1990-??-?? | Thunderstrike (DOS) | |
1990-??-?? | Turbo Out Run (DOS) |
Picture Gallery
Links
- web.archive.org/web/20161126034141/http://athand.org/index.html - Official.
- facebook.com/Jas.C.Brooke - Facebook.
- twitter.com/biblicalscholar - Twitter.
- mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,816/ - MobyGames.
- c64.com/?type=4&id=21 - Interview from February 3, 2012.
- ataricrypt.blogspot.com/2018/11/jason-c-brooke.html - Interview from November 18, 2018.