Rob Hubbard
- By TCZ webmaster
- Published 11/18/2006
- Rob Hubbard
-
Rating:
Following on from Hubbard's successful work at Mastertronic, Hubbard
worked for a lot of other software companies and composed music for
their games - some of his best work is referenced below. One of Hubbard’s strengths as a computer musician was not only constructing wonderful music compositions, but also the length of the music. This became more apparent later on, especially with his work on Delta and WAR. Knucklebusters (Melbourne House 1986) features Hubbard’s longest piece of music - an astounding 17 minutes! Unfortunately most people will never have heard the music fully, due to it being saddled with a game that’s below average, with weak and repetitive game play. The music itself is not without problems - it can be rather tiresome in places. But it does have some stunning moments - like the violin section that kicks in after a few minutes which is just awesome! Overall it’s below par compared to Hubbard’s usual standards, but it would certainly stand up against his competition quite well. |
![]() Knucklebusters by Melbourne House |
![]() Zoids by Martech |
Zoids (Martech 1986) includes a strange but compelling soundtrack by Hubbard, the music starts slowly but soon becomes loud and thumping - Hubbard always seems to be able to compose music that is well suited to a game and this is no exception, as the game itself is original but strange! It is a cover of the track Ancestors by the band Synergy which appeared on the album Audion. Using a rather complex icon driven interface, which some gamers never understood! It’s based on a planet and you control a zoid machine - the objective is to defeat the red zoid army!. The music throughout is spot on, it helps to heighten the atmosphere and tension. I think it’s one of those tunes that probably was under appreciated at the time due to the complexity of the game, as some gamers probably never persevered with the game long enough to appreciate the overall quality of the music. |
Warhawk (Firebird 1986) became a reasonably successful budget game not only because it was based on a familiar space shootem-up theme, but it also was fortunate enough to be graced with a quality Hubbard soundtrack. It’s well put together with a steady beating drum line and searing style sound. For some reason though - and I’m probably a lone voice on this! I always found it a bit irritating in places probably due to its intentionally 'whiney' nature when heard over and over again! The music for this game sometimes goes under the name Proteus which was the original game title before it was changed to Warhawk. |
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Tarzan (Martech 1986) - is intriguing, as the music was almost certainly underrated in its day, but it yet again showed the sophistication of Hubbard’s talent. It sounds rather different to any other Hubbard track, but again is perfectly suited to the game. It utilises clever and realistic jungle drum sounds throughout the mix, and creates a wonderful atmosphere when playing the game. As it is based on the legend of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Boroughs, the game takes place in the Jungle and has night and day time sequences which Hubbard cleverly takes advantage of by changing the pace and volume of the jungle drums! Brilliantly executed. Unfortunately the game does not really live up to the quality of the sound - the game play should have been better, it just ends up as rather average. |
![]() Tarzan by Martech |
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Article Series
This article is part 1 of a 3 part series. Other articles in this series are shown below:
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Rob Hubbard