alt Hacker NewsBobby Prince, composer for Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has died
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Loss of an absolute legend.
One of my favorite videos (and songs) sang by Bobby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w3yoIOK-9U (Eat Your Vegetables)
RIP. You will be missed Bobby.
Ah man, hell no :( The music in DOOM was such a huge influence on me. I had the Macintosh version which IIRC had the .mid files alongside the game, so I hung onto those and listened to them outside of the game quite frequently. I was just a kid at the time, and later on when I discovered bands like Pantera, Slayer, Judas Priest etc. I suddenly "got" all the references (not previously having known they were references/iterations on those bands' songs)! Great memories. RIP \m/
NEDM, Prince.
The sound of Doom was a big part of why it was so immersive, and everyone focuses on the mobs and gunshots (there's some pretty cool positional audio for the time), but the music really played a big part of the whole atmosphere.
Wolfenstein 3D has such memorable tracks for me.. thanks for the music Bobby.
Today I learned that he also did (all of?) the sound effects for Doom.
RIP (and tear)
Very sad news, RIP.
Particularly enjoyed his work for Duke Nukem 3D, you could easily tell the difference between the tracks made by Bobby and the ones made by Lee Jackson, Bobby's tracks were a bit darker and more gloomy, adding a lot of atmosphere.
Beautifully written article by the way, as the legend deserves.
I've been teaching my students for years about sound and music, and I always showcase Bobby Prince's work. Here's a fun clip of him playing in the early days: https://youtu.be/9w3yoIOK-9U?is=alZLs2OSL8pJ7JEQ
RIP Legend.
Neat that just last month the Library of Congress added the Doom soundtrack to its registry too
https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/national-recording-registry-in...
And Commander Keen. Don't forget about Commander Keen
I can easily recall the Duke nukem music, even though I haven't played it in about two decades
At Doom's Gate has been stuck in my head for decades. RIP.
His name will be remembered forever in the industry.
Thanks for being a great part of my childhood.
Farewell.
Pulled out my guitar to play the Duke Nukem theme and At Doom's Gate (...uh, minus those runs...)
RIP Legend.
F.
Such a good composer for all of those games I can remember those songs still.
Hell put in a special petition to heaven to at least borrow him for a bit—not to torture him, mind, but to retain him to score their official soundtrack.
Shame. E1M8 (Sign of Evil) is still a great metal tune
Related, including a great segment with the man himself talking about some of the music:
A Visit to id Software (November 1993)
F to a Legend and titan.
still entire duke nukem theme just start running in my head each time i see that name what a classic. rest in peace
those were my favorite games
Alas. Loved his work on Major Stryker.
Rest in peace.
Doom 1 Music Player (Sound Blaster | OPL3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_yIgqw-qR4
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Many moons ago, I emailed Mr. Prince, and he replied!
> What is the sound card the DOOM sound track was composed on? It sounds different on each one. So we wanna know, how was it "meant" to sound like :D
It was a Sound Blaster 1.0, which first came out in 1989. Creative Labs released almost a version of that card each year, but so many people had bought the 1.0 that the bulk of gamers had that model for several years. And the newer Sound Blasters used the same music synthesizer chip (Yamaha OPL 2 -- an FM type synth chip). A big plus of the Sound Blaster was that Sequencer Plus (MIDI sequencing software) supported making my own sound libraries, and I was able to tweak or "invent" sounds within the limitations of the synth chip. Some time later, I "translated" the sequencer files into General MIDI (GM) files, using the sound set of the GM file spec. Generally, they worked ok, but some of the original FM synth sounds could not be emulated.
As sound cards got fancier, they didn't use the OPL2 FM synth chip, but emulated it. What they didn't figure in all this was that you could bastardize the sound of an FM instrument by playing it well out of normal music range, and you'd end up with a usable percussive instrument sound. I had done just that to create my own drum sets for the OPL2. When those sounds were emulated by the fancier sound cards, they actually sounded a musical tone rather than the bastardized sound. So my snare drum would sound like two little tin drums being played (I used two adjacent musical notes as left and right drum sticks.
As for emulation of the OPL2 FM synth chip, I don't think you can get much better than the synth in DOSBOX (http://www.dosbox.com/).
As for the real thing, you will be able to get the sounds as they were "meant" to be on any sound card that has the OPL2 FM synth chip.
I hope this answers your question.
Best regards,
Bobby