MarkWright

PS: Here's a badly-rendered Amiga version of mine covering another Hubbard classic I always wanted to do as a POKEY tune.. never got around to it :-( Anyone know if it was ever POKEYfied? http://anorien.csc.warwick.ac.uk/mirrors/oakvalley/soamc/000/MP3/MED/Mark_Wright/med.invadaload_T01_MIX.mp3 And the Atari version of One Man and His Droid which was the C64 version of Finders Keepers... are you keeping up? http://anorien.csc.warwick.ac.uk/mirrors/oakvalley/soamc/000/MP3/MED/Mark_Wright/med.invadaload_T03_MIX.mp3

Just a bit of nostalgia for all of us "second generation" Atari owners in the UK who, knowing full-well what the machine was capable of but couldn't afford it at the time, took advantage of the Tramiel dumping of stock in 1984/5, so an Atari 800XL with 1010 was available for around £100 or with a 1050 for around £180 :-) I can remember my envy at owners of the ZX Spectrum and C64 who were spoiled for choice with software falling off the shelves, multi-colour magazines brimming over with pages, loading times of a few minutes for their cassette software... it was hell being an Atari owner back then, despite the huge library of excellent - but ageing software. So anyway. One of my best friends had a C64 and would play me music from games like Thing on a Spring, Monty on the Run and Action Biker while I consoled myself with the theme from Dimension X. Even my prized "Music Master IV" sound demo couldn't match anything heard on the C64. I thought I had the best. That simply wasn't the case. The magazine for my machine, Atari User, was filled with worthy BASIC listings, tuition on display list interrupts and readers' letters complaining that the type-ins didn't work. My friend's C64 magazine was crammed with wall-to-wall game reviews, advertisements, interviews with the movers and shakers who made it all happen and commentary on 'the scene' as it was. So I'd heard of this guy, Rob Hubbard. I'd heard his music. He was The Beatles/Mozart/Kraftwerk (delete as applicable) of the C64. When I read he'd composed some soundtracks for my humble 800XL I couldn't believe it. I had to hear them. Luckily, the first I was aware of was a £1.99 game from Firebird software (Warhawk) which I was able to afford and find. However, before long the magazines (such as there was) 'raved' (in their own way) about the soundtrack to Tynesoft's Jet Set Willy. Game - 0/10, Soundtrack - 10/10. Rob Hubbard had created something exclusively for my moribund machine. Could this be my chance to impress my C64-owning friend? I had to wait until JSW was included on a compilation I could afford in order to experience it for myself. By then, Hubbard was creating creatively outstanding works on the C64. I kept JSW to myself but enjoyed, admired and appreciated the work that went into it. So much so, here's my attempt at copying it on the Amiga in 1992, some six years hence: So, time to get to the point! Sorry if you've read this and have no emotional connection to the feeling of a stranded Atari 8-bit user in the UK circa 1986. It was a hard time for us. We'd cherish and take on-board anything positive offered by the software companies of the day. Geoff Brown made Gauntlet happen, Mark Cale gave us International Karate (with another classic Hubbard soundtrack) and things seemed to be on the up. But it's hearing Rob's JSW that makes me feel all melancholy thinking what might have been...