Hacker News

pgrote

Bobby Prince, composer for Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has died legacy.com

andai5 hours ago

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

mock-possum3 hours ago

Brilliant - I’m sure some enterprising person has rendered a version of the soundtrack ‘as it was originally written,’ I should track that down…

PaulCarrack17 hours ago

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.

amatecha17 hours ago

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/

ndiddy15 hours ago

If anyone's interested in what songs the Doom music was referencing, here's a good overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y3RWlDz_AA

alisonatwork13 hours ago

It's amazing how much better all these sound to me in OPL2.

When CD-ROM soundtracks because the norm it really ruined a lot of game music for me, because all that chip music perhaps inspired by guitar and orchestral music just ended up being replaced with actual guitar and orchestral music, and then games just ended up sounding like movies and it's like what even is the point?

From my side I remember painstakingly transposing Led Zeppelin into an 8 bit tracker when I was a kid and being thrilled at how much more exciting the 3-channel square wave interpration sounded, and pretty much from that point on my guitar just became something to noodle out a riff prior to inputting to the computer.

vintermann12 hours ago

When it was actual guitar and orchestral music it was one thing, but when it was "much better but still not quite there" midi renderings of orchestras and guitars, that could be a bit uncanny valley. And even when it wasn't, stuff that was really written for a 2 op FM idea of an orchestra, often sounded a bit thin on a real orchestra.

alisonatwork8 hours ago

TBH I never really got the point of those "video game score played by a real orchestra" things, although to be fair most of them seemed to be for games from the console world so as a PC gamer I didn't have any attachment to the original tunes in the first place.

For me I really felt things turn between Dune 2 and Command & Conquer when Frank Klepacki got to put full-blown lyrics and guitars into the soundtrack. I did listen to a bit of industrial music at the time so I still enjoyed it for what it was, but it never felt as magical as dedicated OPL3 scores like Stéphane Picq's Dune... and when Trent Reznor was pulled in to do the score for Quake I was just like, okay, that's it, game music is over now. I think Epic kept it on life support by still using demoscene composers like Siren (Alexander Brandon) and MCA (Michiel van den Bos) who both went on to do Deus Ex, but since then seems like chip musicians and tracker composers are mostly doing niche indie games.

It's always a blast when you play a AAA these days and hear something that still has a bit of that old vibe - one tune I always remember is Sam Hulick's Uncharted Worlds, which is the galaxy map song from Mass Effect. I think you could probably build it on OPL, SID, even AY chip and have it still sound great.

vintermann3 hours ago

I like Trent Reznor, but the quake soundtrack is... Not good.

It was the most popular game of a generation. Games that popular don't really need to have good music, it gets heard so much that people grow attached to it no matter how weak it is... But the Quake soundtrack failed even at that.

So it's no wonder game music composing didn't die!

gryson13 hours ago

Huh? Those are the original MIDI versions of the music, which is how Bobby Prince composed them on a Roland SC-55. There is no more authentic sound.

I doubt anyone in 1993 thought the OPL2 version of the music sounded better. General MIDI was mind-blowing in comparison.

vintermann12 hours ago

Presumably most midi game composers checked that their music didn't sound like trash on the AdLib sound card most users would actually have? Good music that's actually written for AdLib can be extremely good, check out Stephane Picq (who sadly also died recently).

ahartmetz7 hours ago

The TFX intro is some genius level AdLib programming. All other versions sound pretty weak in comparison.

https://youtu.be/YhQl_waHXoQ

conradfr11 hours ago

It sounded great on my Gravis Ultrasound with custom midi samples.

(it was also a pain when the Sound Blaster compatibility was needed, dma 1 irq 5).

alisonatwork8 hours ago

In 1993 I thought the OPL2 version sounded better and still do now.

But my broader point was that comparing this old game music to "real" guitar music kinda takes away from what it actually was for a lot of people listening to it - something different to and unique from mainstream rock/metal. It always made me a bit sad when these guys did interviews and talked about listening to ordinary rock bands, it kinda broke the spell that games were a special little place for people who were into computer-based art for its own sake.

otabdeveloper410 hours ago

OP is right. A waveform generator chip is a much more "real" musical instrument than a glorified sampler.

bombcar20 hours ago

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.

gnarbarian18 hours ago

he had great taste in metal. most of the tracks were adapted (now classic) speed/thrash metal.

nailer18 hours ago

Yep. The Doom 1 demo theme is Painkiller by Judas Priest

https://open.spotify.com/track/0L7zm6afBEtrNKo6C6Gj08

recallingmemory19 hours ago

Wolfenstein 3D has such memorable tracks for me.. thanks for the music Bobby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UgvFSV2xxI

montag18 hours ago

Wondering About My Loved Ones is one of my favorites. Appears also in Spear of Destiny https://chiptune.app/?play=C-eWH0LI

ozozozd19 hours ago

I knew I should’ve paid extra and gotten the Sound Blaster!

d3Xt3r8 hours ago

Yeah... look at all these rich kids with their fancy sound cards! Peasants like us had to make do with a humble PC speaker and a monochrome monitor.

Seriously though, playing old DOS games with fancy music and a color monitor just feels wrong to me.

saturn860118 hours ago

Thats Ad Lib type music no?

tadfisher16 hours ago

Sound Blaster is an Ad Lib (Yamaha OPL2) that mixes in a PCM stream

xnx15 hours ago

Today I learned that he also did (all of?) the sound effects for Doom.

RIP (and tear)

Archer66219 hours ago

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.

MikeShah16 hours ago

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

ChrisArchitecta day ago

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...

p0w3n3d6 hours ago

And Commander Keen. Don't forget about Commander Keen

taffydavid10 hours ago

I can easily recall the Duke nukem music, even though I haven't played it in about two decades

momoraul18 hours ago

At Doom's Gate has been stuck in my head for decades. RIP.

jmorenoamor5 hours ago

His name will be remembered forever in the industry.

Thanks for being a great part of my childhood.

Farewell.

loudandskittish18 hours ago

Pulled out my guitar to play the Duke Nukem theme and At Doom's Gate (...uh, minus those runs...)

zitterbewegung18 hours ago

RIP Legend.

Such a good composer for all of those games I can remember those songs still.

curtis338919 hours ago

RIP King https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrIgnNtZrN4

bitwize19 hours ago

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.

CalRobert13 hours ago

Shame. E1M8 (Sign of Evil) is still a great metal tune

ChrisArchitect18 hours ago

Related, including a great segment with the man himself talking about some of the music:

A Visit to id Software (November 1993)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpEBUV_g9vU

(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48600671)

sublinear20 hours ago

RIP one of the best.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=qVn6C6uiFo0

s_dev18 hours ago

That E1M1 song is iconic. That will be played 00s of years from now, it will stand the test of time.