Bits Studios
| Bits Studios | |
 |
|
| Founded | 1984 |
| Closed | 2008 |
| Headquarters | UK |
| Other Names | Miko Ltd. B.I.T.S. Bits Development |
- This is for the British game developer. For the Japanese game developer, see Bits Laboratory.
Bits Studios was a British game development company founded by Foo Katan as Miko Ltd. and started a game development division in 1990.
The company was known for making some good games, but also for developing rushed titles based on popular franchises at the time. The company developed some titles which were unreleased on NES, but were ported to Game Boy, such as Populous.
Famous video game musician David Whittaker did the music for their NES games while Shahid Ahmad composed their SNES and Genesis game soundtracks.
Contents
Games
Music Development
NES
The legendary David Whittaker was the only composer to do music for Bits's NES games. To do this, he programmed a sound driver and wrote the music in 6502 assembly language.
Game Boy
David Whittaker also composed the music for their early Game Boy games. Their later games on the system were composed for by Shahid Ahmad, who used his own sound driver.
For Game Boy Color titles, Jeroen Tel used his own sound driver.
Genesis
Shahid Ahmad did the music for their Genesis titles, using a sound driver he programmed himself.
SNES
Shahid Ahmad did the music for almost all of their SNES titles, using a sound driver he programmed himself. Before that, Martin Simpson wrote the music, using his own version of the Kankichi-kun sound driver. On Dream T.V., David Whittaker composed the music and typed the music in assembly.
Game Gear/Sega Master System
Initially, early titles were composed by David Whittaker which typed the music in assembly. Later on, Shahid Ahmad composed the music, which used his sound driver, and it was reported that it was based off the Game Boy sound driver.
Game Boy Advance
On unreleased games, Allister Brimble and Will Davis used QuickThunder, a sound driver by Michael Delaney. On Sega Arcade Gallery, Anthony Putson did arrangements using Fasttracker II and converted his XM files for playback with Engine Software's sound driver by Jan-Lieuwe Koopmans.
Audio Personnel
The following composers worked at Bits Studios:
- David Whittaker
- Dylan Beale
- George Hadjineophytou
- Jeroen Tel
- Martin Simpson
- Ronnie Shahmoon - Composer for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
- Shahid Ahmad
- Allister Brimble
- Will Davis
- Michael Delaney
- Anthony Putson
Logos
1990–1994
1994–1997
1997–2008
Links
- mobygames.com/company/bits-studios-ltd - MobyGames.
- gamefaqs.gamespot.com/games/company/12654-bits-studios - GameFAQs.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bits_Studios - Wikipedia.
