| Space Game |
| Composer |
Rob Hubbard |
| Released |
1985-1?-?? |
| Title Origin |
Official |
|
Space Game is a song by Rob Hubbard, best known from the games One Man and His Droid (C64) and Invade-a-load (C64). It is not used on any ports.
Title
In late 1985, Hubbard released two demos:
- 5 Title Tunes Demo, which features an early stage of the C64 arrangement under the title "Space Game", and
- One Man and His Droidmusic/FX, which features the final stage as "Maintune".
Afterwards, he always referred to the song as "One Man and His Droid", the name given to the game by Mastertronic.
Composition
Around 1983, Hubbard was listening to Jean-Michel Jarre. Inspired, he composed and arranged a song on
- a Korg polyphonic synthesizer,
- a Moog synthesizer,
- a Roland TR-606 Drumatix,
- a Roland TB-303 Bass Line, and
- a Casio low-cost synthesizer,
some borrowed from friends, all connected through CV/gate (analog MIDI), and recorded using a 4-track tape recorder. On November 23, 2005, Hubbard let C64.COM release this recording. The overall arrangement and starting mood indeed sound like Jarre's Magnetic Fields, Part 1.
In 1985, Mastertronic, already a good client, ordered from Hubbard. Finding his old composition fitting, Hubbard arranged the first 16 melody bars as usual, composed a new bassline, 16 new bars, and released this early stage.
Afterwards, he changed all instruments, arranged 16 other bars from the analog arrangement, composed a run (heard at bar 56), and many new sections. He finds this version much better than the analog ideas. In 2000, HVSC voted it 50th favorite top SID.
Games
One Man and His Droid (C64)
Recorded from following versions and devices:
- the European release on a real C64C PAL with an 8580 R5 4091. In the first rip, it is track 1.
- the American release in VICE 3.2 with C64C NTSC. Since nobody adjusted the audio to the NTSC clocks, it is faster and tuned at 457 Hz. An old NTSC recording would be arguably too similar.
- 5 Title Tunes Demo on a real C64C PAL with an 8580 R5 4091. In the second rip, it is track 2.
All versions sound the same on every SID chip.
Invade-a-load (C64)
Invade-a-load is a tape loader that lets you play Space Invaders while a bigger game loads.
On October 19, 2005, the programmer recalled:
“
I nabbed this tune because
we already owned the rights to it and the whole Invade-a-load thing was just something I did for fun anyway. Nobody would have actually paid for original music for this at the time.
„
Hubbard did not know the name Invade-a-load until spring 1997.
The VGMPF is using the first recording from above.
Thunder Force (C64)
Runs Invade-a-load after the instructions on the original release.
Scout (C64)
Runs Invade-a-load for 1:33.
Stormbringer (C64)
Runs Invade-a-load for 1:48.
Super Trolley (C64)
Runs Invade-a-load for 2:39.
Knight Tyme (C64)
Runs Invade-a-load for 1:45.
Aliens: The Computer Game PAL (C64)
Runs Invade-a-load on the Ricochet release.
Links
