Rob Hubbard

Robert Hubbard

Born	1955
Birth Place	Kingston, Hull, England
Nationality	British
Aliases	R. Hubbard, John York

Rob Hubbard is a British composer and sound designer who is known to be one of the most (if not the most) renowned video game musician of all time. His career started when he sent some software to Gremlin Interactive. The software also came with music he wrote for it, and while Gremlin did not like his software, they were impressed by his music and he was asked to work there as an audio engineer. He was also known to make effects and sounds on the Commodore 64 that no other composer knew how to make. Later, Hubbard joined EA where his video game music career really took off. Rob is also known for his Commando soundtrack for the Commodore 64 which Mark Cooksey said he witnessed Rob doing whole soundtrack in one day. Hubbard's first work was for Action Biker, and while it's not one of his best known works, his music really shines with the Monty on the Run soundtrack. Some of Hubbard's favorite Commodore 64 composers are Ben Daglish and Martin Galway. Rob could be considered the Koji Kondo of the Commodore 64.

Some of Rob's popular games include Monty on the Run (C64), Commando (C64), Skate or Die (C64), and The Immortal (NES).

Music Development

C64

The first step Rob took for creating Commodore 64 was he would write the music on paper. He would write the music in normal musical notation and alongside the notes, he would write hexidecimal numbers which would equate to what he would write in his sound driver. He would then take the hexidecimal numbers he wrote down and convert them to his sound engine by hand. Rob would always ask the programmers what kind of music they wanted in the game, but they usually didn't care.

Unfortunately while staying at a hotel, one of the maids recycled Rob's source code to his sound engine.

NES

“

It was all pure assembly, similar to the way it was done on C64 and Atari machines.

„

DOS

Gameography

Released	Title	Sample	Notes
1985-??-??	Action Biker (C64)
1985-??-??	Commando (C64)
1985-??-??	Commando (CPC)
1985-??-??	Monty on the Run (C64)
1985-??-??	One Man and His Droid (C64)
1985-??-??	Thing on a Spring (C64)
1986-??-??	Samantha Fox Strip Poker (C64)
1986-??-??	Zoids (C64)
1986-11-20	Sigma Seven (C64)		Arranged Julian Breeze's music.
1987-??-??	Battleships (AMI)
1987-??-??	Gold Runner (AMI)
1987-??-??	Jupiter Probe (AMI)
1987-??-??	LightForce (C64)
1987-??-??	Skate or Die! (C64)
1987-07-31	Monty on the Run (FDS) (モンティーのドキドキ大脱走)		Original Music
1987-12-??	Thanatos (C64)		Arranged Julian Breeze's music.
1987-??-??	Ace 2 (C64)
1987-??-??	Nemesis the Warlock (C64)
1987-??-??	Nemesis the Warlock (ZXS)
1988-??-??	Q-Ball (AMI)
1988-12-??	Skate or Die (NES)		Original Music
1988-??-??	Skate or Die! (A2GS)
1989-??-??	Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate (AMI)
1989-??-??	Budokan: The Martial Spirit (AMI)
1989-??-??	Populous (AMI)
1990-??-??	Champions of Krynn (DOS)		Sound Programmer
1990-??-??	Indianapolis 500: The Simulation (AMI)
1990-??-??	Secret of the Silver Blades (DOS)		Sound Programmer
1990-??-??	Ski or Die (AMI)
1990-??-??	Ski or Die (C64)
1990-??-??	Ski or Die (DOS)
1990-??-??	Ski or Die (NES)
1990-09-??	Skate or Die 2: The Search For Double Trouble (NES)
1990-11-??	The Immortal (NES)
1991-??-??	PGA Tour Golf (AMI)
1991-11-11	John Madden Football (SNES) (プロフットボール)
1992-??-??	Bulls vs Blazers and the NBA Playoffs (SNES) (ＮＢＡプロバスケットボール)
1992-03-??	PGA Tour Golf (SNES) (ＰＧＡツアーゴルフ)
1993-08-09	The Immortal (GEN)
2000-11-01	007: The World Is Not Enough (N64)	Audio Technical Director
2000-11-24	International Karate 2000 (GBC)
2003-08-14	Seiklus (W32)
Unreleased	Chuck Yeager's Air Combat (NES)