Back to the past. Part 5. From Dizzy and Amiga to GRID and Nintendo DS. Interview with composer Allister Brimble.
Brief information about the main characters:
Alister Brimble is a composer who has contributed to a huge number of both well-known and not so well-known titles. He started his career with various projects for Amiga, Commodore 64, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. In particular, he worked on several parts of cult series such as Dizzy, Alien Breed, The Lost Vikings and Mortal Kombat, a number of once famous shoot ’em up titles, in particular Project-X, various platformers, including Captain Dynamo, Troddlers, and a whole range of works in other genres.
Since the mid-1990s, he switched t o 16-bit consoles and IBM PC, and with the onset of the 2000s, to portable consoles, among which there was a place for Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. More recent titles range from RollerCoaster Tycoon and Glover to Driver and several portable Need For Speed titles.
Hi everyone! It’s great to be here. Thank you for your thoughtful questions.
Q. Your career began in the late 1980s. You had the chance to work with many platforms — Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Atari ST. Which of these computers was the most convenient and inspiring tool for you in those years, and why?
A. My career really took off when I got my first Amiga. I was a big gamer on 8-bit computers, and I fell in love with the soundtracks, especially David Whittaker’s Glider Rider on the Spectrum 128K. When I got my first C64, my friends at school would challenge me to recreate tunes, which is how I’m sure I learned to create my own music. However, the Amiga came out, and I had to get one for its amazing audio. I used a piece of software called Soundmon by Brian Postma f or the Amiga, which was a great piece of software for creating music efficiently with real-time wavetable synthesis, far in advance of Protracker.
Q. Given the differences in sound chips between platforms (Paula on Amiga, SID on C64, etc.), did you have to put in extra effort to adapt the same composition to different systems? If so, what did this process look like in practice?
A. Each game system had its own sound driver format, so I wrote some software that would convert Soundtracker note data from the Amiga to the required format. However, after this the real differences had to be accounted for. The Spectrum 128, Amstrad & Atari ST all used David Whittaker’s sound driver which had unique features, such as continuous vibrato and arpeggio lists to get the best out of these (almost identical) formats. For C64, Michael Delaney wrote me a Rob Hubbard i nspired audio editor with many great features so that I could utilise the SID chip fully!
Later when it came to the PC I had even more challenges with each game having to work on Beeper, Tandy, Roland and Soundblaster ADLIB cards! For this I also used David Whittaker’s sound driver.
Q. What composers, musical styles, or games had the greatest influence on you early in your career, and do you retain those influences today?
A. I was heavily inspired by the soundtracks of 8-bit computers. The music from Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway, and Ben Daglish was a huge influence. I also used to listen to Jean Michel Jarre and Art of Noise, as well as movie soundtra cks. In fact, Alien Breed was inspired by Rob Hubbard’s Knucklebusters tune, and the choirs were inspired by Jean Michel Jarre’s Rendezvous. The title theme for Superfrog was inspired by the Superman Theme, mixed with Paul McCartney’s Frog Song! I still listen to a lot of music and get inspiration from various places.
Q. What is your typical workflow when creating a soundtrack? Do you have any rituals or habits that help you get into the creative flow?
A. I’ve always worked from my own studio, which is the best place for me to be creative without distractions. I also find it crucial to play the games to get a sense of the atmosphere and what the music needs to convey. For me, playing the game provides inspiration and helps me understand the mood, pace, and overall feel of the game world. I also believe that your first idea should be the one you go with, as it comes from the heart.
Q. Judging by the list of works, you don’t have many projects where music could be realized in CD-Audio and streaming formats (MP3, OGG, etc.). Does this mean that you were more interested in writing music in tracker or MIDI-like formats?
A. I’ve worked on a lot of different projects, and my working method has changed over the years. It wasn’t because I was more interested in it, but I mostly used trackers for a long time because it was possible to make music in a limited number of channels to match the target platform, and I was able to use Fast Tracker II on the PC to create 16-channel Amiga-style tracker tunes for Driver w hich already used the CD to stream graphics. However, as games evolved rapidly toward PC, I also composed CD-quality tracks using Steinberg Cubase, for games like RollerCoaster Tycoon.
Q. Do you have or have you had a piece of hardware / workspace / platform that you’ve been writing music on / for for years? What attracts you to it?
A. I have adapted my studio and hardware over time. To start with I had a room full of hardware synth’s and a 24 channel mixer. Today I only need one PC with some very good Genelec speakers and Reaper for software. Now I crave for a great looking studio again and lots of hardware! You can’t win!
I managed to buy the development hardware for Game Boy, GBC, GBA, DS, and 3DS, which felt like going back to the old 8-bit days. This allowed me to send data to the formats to test out the music and sounds.
Q. Can you remember the moment when you first felt that your music was really “working” in the game — enhancing the atmosphere, making it recognizable?
A. It’s difficult to pinpoint one exact moment, as I’ve been working in video game music for a long time. Early in my career, creating the music for Superfrog was very enjoyable, mainly because of the humor and different themes. I do think it enhanced the atmosphere very much. I also really enjoyed my work on the Game Boy Color, especially my reimagination of Rob Hubbard’s Road Rash music.
Q. Many players have particular memories of certain tunes from the early 90s soundtracks, in particular Fantasy World Dizzy (1991), The Lost Vikings (1993) and Mortal Kombat (1993), which in the IBM PC version with Sound Blaster 16 support had an intro that was different from other platforms. Did you realize at that moment that you were creating something long-lasting and iconic, or did this understanding come later, with the audience’s feedback?
A. It’s a huge honor to hear how much my music was appreciated by people. When I am working on video game music, I often have no idea how well it is received. It’s so great to come to conventions where people ask me to sign their games and tell me how much they appreciated the music. That understanding came later, with the audience’s feedback.
Q. You’ve worked on a number of Team 17 and Codemasters projects, some of the earliest of which, in addition to the Dizzy games, included Alien Breed (1991), Full Contact (1991), Sky High Stuntman (1991), Project-X (1992), Superfrog (1993), Body Blows (1993). Were there any technical limitations on their projects that you encountered most often, and were they different from the typical challenges of the time when working with other publishers?
A. In general the Codemasters titles ran on 512K Amiga and Team 17 games 1 Meg only, so my Codemasters tunes had to fit in much less memory. For this reason I used real time wavetable synthesis on Soundmon 2.0 to make tracks in around 32kb total.
One time when I used too much disk space I had to cut the music down to a much shorter version in Alien Breed. The Amiga only had four channels, which was a technical limitation, and for Superfrog, we needed sounds and music to play together. I was able to use an old 8-bit trick to interrupt the fourth channel with sounds, so when no sounds were playing, the fourth channel still played.
Q. Sharp_ey asks: “Among your works there are games based on franchises (Terminator, Star Wars, various Disney animations, famous comic book characters). How difficult was it to work with such brands that already have established musical associations with the public? Which universe was the most difficult to tune into, to enter into its melody and sound?”.
A. These were often some of my favourite projects because the music already existed. Early in my career I learnt to compose music by copying other tunes, so the process was fairly simple for me to make a remix of the various Star Wars or Pinocchio tunes for instance.
Q. The opposite question to the previous one. Arcade Pool (1994), Kingpin: Arcade Sports Bowling (1995). If you don’t take into account the obvious sound effects in such cases, these are games that don’t have any clear sound associations. In such cases, were there any landmarks for you that served as a ki nd of support point for further work?
A. Yes, the player does not really expect to listen to music in these styles of game which would detract from the obvious gameplay so it was decided by Team 17 just to have in-game SFX and no music and a very simple title theme made on a low budget. Probably the player will skip straight to the game in a few seconds.
Q. Time Soldiers (1987 / 1989) has a lot of stages, location changes, and enemies. Did you have musical motifs or themes that were associated with certain locations / levels / enemies so that the player would feel a sense of continuity when moving between zones, or vice versa — so that each zone would sound completely different?
A. Sorry for a disappointing answer, but my only job on this game was to create remixes of the original music from the SNK arca de machine. Therefore SNK already had chosen how the music should be used. I believe this game didn’t turn out very well in the end so was a bit of a lost opportu nity!
Q. Slightly Magic (1991) has a magic system, transformations, the use of different items and changes in state (e.g. turning into a fish, etc.). Did you have any special musical themes or motifs in mind that would reflect these transformations? How did you approach the musical emphasis on the “magical” or “fantasy” nature of the game?
A. In those days we mostly just had one tune playing throughout the game and the rest was done with simple SFX. However, unusually we recorded many vocal effects for this game that would emphasise any interactions! The vocal samples took a lot of space but Colin Jones the coder developed a great compression system to store them in 4 bits and decompress them in real time ready for playing!
Q. In Captain Dynamo (1992 / 1993) you created music for the Commodore 64, a platform with strict sound chip and resource limitations. How did you approach the creation of melody and sound effects in such a project in order to maintain character and melody despite the limited number of channels, limited memory, and the demands of the publisher or programmers? Did you use your own techniques for creating instruments (waveforms, filters) for the SID chip, or did you rely on ready-made libraries and editors?
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A. During the 8 bit days we had to create music out of small sequences. We would create the smallest note sequences possible and then have a sequence table to repeat them as we liked. On the repeats we could also add a transpose value to play the same part higher or lower for only 2 bytes of memory usage. Arpeggio’s were also used, alternating between the notes of a chord very fast to give the illusion of a chord on one sound channel only, thus freeing up channels fo r the melody itself. I created my own instruments using Wally Beben’s sound driver, sometimes editing his original patches. However for games after this I used a custom sound driver written for me by Michael Delaney. You can hear this more custom music in games like Ramparts!
Q. In Troddlers (1992 / 1993) the ambient sound is important — sound effects, atmospheric details. How did you work to ensure that the music and effects did not conflict, and that all elements were well audible, especially on platforms with memory / sound channel limitations?
A. It’s all about balancing the sound and music. On platforms with limited channels, I would often use a priority system for sound effects so that only one played at a time. This ensured that the sound effects didn’t clash with the music and that everything was well audible. In Troddlers, one of the 4 channels was also interruptable by SFX, so if you listen carefully you will actually hear chords or drums dropping out of the tune at the time of the SFX!
Q. For Agony (1992, Amiga) you designed the loading screen sounds, while the main theme was composed by Tim Wright. How did you approach creating your composition to fit the overall atmosphere of the game and were there any time or technical limitations that affected the process?
A. For Agony, I approached the loading screen sounds by keeping the overall atmosphere of the game in mind. The sounds needed to be foreboding and mysterious to fit with the game’s theme. We had much less memory restrictions on this game which came on multiple disks. Each tune could be quite long so I didn’t have to worry too much!
Q. You’ve worked on a lot of racing games. One of the first was Overdrive (1993 / 1995) by Team 17, which featured arcade-style dynamics and fast pace changes. How did you approach the music to enhance the sense of speed and drive without overwhelming the player and did you have to adapt the themes to specific levels or situations in the game? And if we compare the Amiga version with the later IBM PC version, were there any distinctive features in the sound design work in such a comparison?
A. For a racing game like Overdrive, I would use fast-paced music to enhance the sense of speed and drive. I would use different musical themes for each level to keep the music fresh and exciting. The game required two channels for SFX, an engine and the various other sounds so the music was interrupted by the SFX. It was important to keep the main beat of the song going to give the impression that it was still going!
Q. Cannon Fodder (1993 / 1994). A landmark strategy game that combined a humorous atmosphere with a militarized mood. You took part in the creation of several console ports at once — SNES, Sega Genesis, Atari Jaguar. Given the significant difference in the architecture of the platforms, did you have to reconsi der your approach to arrangements and rhythmic solutions when working on the Jaguar version so that the music retained the characteristic spirit of the game, but at the same time, the sound felt different? Maybe there were some unexpected findings?
A. Working on Cannon Fodder for different platforms was a unique challenge. The SNES and Sega Genesis had different sound capabilities, so I had to adapt my arrangements to fit each system. For SNES, any one tune had to fit into 64kb of memory which presented a big challenge because the vocals wouldn’t fit! I had to make my own mix with selected vocals. For Mega Drive I was even more limited and used the Genesis system to create FM versions of the tracks with at least a sampled snare drum and a few death sounds. The Jaguar version could use the original music as we had plenty of power to play Amiga style tracks.
Q. Zeewolf (1994, Amiga). You’ve worked on several shoot ’em up projects. Zeewolf is a rather atypical game in this sense — non-standard perspective, full-fledge d 3D, a severe minimum of sound effects. There is an opinion that often working on such tasks, despite the apparent simplicity, in fact turns out to be more difficult. What do you think about this?
A. I think it’s often more difficult to work on projects that have a severe minimum of sound effects. It’s a challenge to create music that can stand on its own while still complementing the game’s atmosphere. I like to use a variety of sounds to create a unique soundscape for each game .
Q. Wrath of Earth (1995) A little-known B-movie shooter with a sci-fi bent that combines unconventional navigation and presentation with classic genre elements. Have you ever found working on these kinds of rarely seen projects more interesting in their own way than the more well-known franchises, and if so, why?
A. Yes, whilst working on them they can be great, just like any game. A less well known fr an chise can certainly give you more creative freedom when there are no expectations as to what the music or sounds should sound like! I particularly enjoyed doing Wrath Of Earth on the PC as it involved making different versions of the music for several different sound systems and I was able to record some actors for the vocals which was a great experience!
Q. X-COM: UFO Defense (1994), Screamer (1995), Primal Rage (1994 / 1995), Sid Meier’s Colonization (1994 / 1995), Descent II (1996 / 1997). Very diverse projects that do not need a special introduction. Despite this fact, you, in one form or another, had the opportunity to take part in the work on this entire list. Perhaps you can share a couple of little-known facts related to each of them? Not necessarily in the context of musical accompaniment.
A. For Screamer I used a real guitar ist to come up with amazing guitar riffs! Each track was composed around the guitar melodies that he came up with. It was really a great pleasure to be involved with live recording for the first time and to work with another musician!
Colonization was a remix job! The original tunes already e xisted. By this time I was already working with Anthony Putson who helped me with the job, creating several tunes as he also did for Primal Rage! Anthon y and I went on to form an amazing team under the name of Orchestral Media Developments and worked on many handheld projects!
Q. With the beginning of the 2000s, you switched to working with portable platforms. Among other things, the list includes Doom (2001) for GBA. As is known, almost all classic console versions, with the exception of PSX, were inferior in all key technical aspects to the IBM PC version. At the same time, the 3DO version, created in a short time, stood out, notable for its soundtrack. The GBA port assumed quite strict technical limitations, but it can be stated that the recognizable style and tension of the original were fully preserved. Did you have any non-standard techniques or tricks when creating music and sounds that allowed you to achieve the desired effect?
A. Unfortunately the GBA version had to be extremely restricted on audio. The sound driver had to run on a very small amount of CPU cycles so that the 3D could be maintained, so we had to take the decision to make Gameboy Color style synth tracks instead of using up CPU to mix together several sample tracks. If I listen to it today, it doesn’t sound good at all, but those were the restrictions in this game.
Q. Colin McRae Rally (2001), V-Rally 3 (2002), Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed (2004). Racing simulators, even with arcade-specific elements, are difficult to call either simple or, in principle, suitable projects for porting to portable platforms like GBA. Nevertheless, such ports exist and were in certain demand. Maybe you remember working on one of them more than others?
A. I do remember working on a few of them, NFS Underground 2 & V-Rally 3, and it often involved being supplied with music and sounds from other formats and somehow making them work. Quite often I would need to chop the existing music up into sections and re-sequence it back together in a memory efficient way. On the whole, the GBA was a tricky format with only 2 sample channels and t he existing Gameboy synth chip too.
Q. Based on the LEGO franchise, Bionicle, several games were released on different platforms. Bionicle: Maze of Shadows (2005) for GBA, taking into account the typical limitations of the platform, can be called a rather interestingly built project, where each region and character has its own unique specifics. Can you tell us something about your work on this project?
A. By the time we had reached 2005 we had a new sound driver that could effectively play Amiga style tracks with multiple sample channels. Myself & Anthony Putson, who I was now working with full time created all original multi sample channel tracks which could sound far better than in the old engine heard in DOOM.
Q . Nintendo DS. Your track record includes several projects for this platform. Separately, by analogy with GBA, we can highlight several arcade racers — Need for Speed: Underground 2 (2005), GRID (2008), TrackMania DS (2008). A similar question — perhaps you remember working on one of them more than others?
A. All of those types of games were simply taking the original music and chopping it up into small chunks to resequence.
Q. It’s probably safe to say that the Rollercoaster Tycoon series, about building an amusement park, has held a special place in your career. In particular you were involved in the development of the 2017 re-release known as RollerCoaster Tycoon: Classic. Not every developer, designer or composer gets the opportunity to revisit something they’ve worked on before several times over the decades, especially in the context of a fairly popular series. Was there any special memory associated with working on this project for you?
A. Working on Rollercoaster Tycoon was an absolute joy. Crafting the sound effects and then hearing them spring to life, enhanced by dynamic pitch and volume shifts in real time, was incredibly rewarding. Composing the music was equally fun. I had the freedom to explore a wide range of genres, tailoring each track to perfectly complement the game’s diverse themes and environments.
Actually RCT Classic was just the original music & sounds with no changes at all!
Q. The video game industry has changed a lot since you started working. What do you see as the biggest changes in the approach to music in games?
A. Technology has changed dramatically, and with it, the approach to music. We’ve gone from four-channel sound to CD-quality tracks, and now we’re using middleware such as FMOD or Wwise to help us create music and sounds th at react, r eal time, interactively to gameplay!
Q. What advice would you give to aspiring video game composers to help them develop their style and work effectively with developers?
A. My advice to aspiring video game composers is to always play the games you’re working on. It helps you get a real feel for the atmosphere and understand what the music needs to convey. It’s also important to check in with the game company before you start, in case their vision differs from yours.
Q. Looking back at all the projects you’ve worked on, is there a track or project you’re particularly proud of and why?
A. I don’t really have any favorites, as I approach each game differently. Project X might be my best effort for dance music, but Driver for 70s detective music and Rollercoaster Tyco on for a theme park. If you want to hear the music I did that has, in my opinion, the best production values, then take a listen to Project Overload.
Q. Dimouse asks: “Do you play games and what is your favorite game? What is your favorite platform? Do you have any old computers at home and how often do you work with them these days?”.
A. I do play games, but not as much as I’d like. My favorite game was Kick Off by Dino Dino. I had hours of two-player fun with my brother playing it. My favorite platform is the Amiga. I don’t have any old computers at home these days, but I do have the development hardware for Game Boy, GBC, GBA, DS, and 3DS, and I still use them for my work.
Q. What final message would you like to say to our readers?
A. I’ve had a great time over the years working in video games, and hope I at least made a few people a little happier. I’m far from done though and look forward to working on the next generation of games!
