Rob Hubbard

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Robert Hubbard
Rob Hubbard.jpg
Born 1955
Birth Place Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
Nationality British   UK.svg
Aliases R.Hubbard
Robb Hubbard
Robb
John York
Ample Hamble

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. Hubbard is also known for his Commando soundtrack for the Commodore 64 which Mark Cooksey said he witnessed Hubbard do 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. Hubbard could be considered the Koji Kondo of the Commodore 64.

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

Music Development

Commodore 64

The first step Hubbard 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 hexadecimal numbers which would equate to what he would write in his sound driver. He would then take the hexadecimal numbers he wrote down and convert them to his sound engine by hand. Hubbard would always ask the programmers what kind of music they wanted in the game, but they usually didn't care.

He would sometimes write music on his Casiotone MT-40.

Hubbard no longer has the source code to his pre-EA sound engine. It is rumored that a housecleaner threw away his disks while he was staying at a hotel.

Commando

Hubbard was paid by Elite Systems to come in and write the music to their conversion of Capcom's Coin-Op arcade Commando. Hubbard came in the office late at night and worked throughout the evening to compose the music. According to Hubbard, Elite Systems had the arcade cabinet of the game in the office, and he drew inspiration from the arcade game's music, but didn't actually arrange the arcade soundtrack to the Commodore 64 version. Hubbard finished the music by morning.

NES

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

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)

Picture Gallery

Links