Overview
- Prince’s family confirmed that the composer Robert Caskin “Bobby” Prince III has died at 81 and peers including Doom co-designer John Romero and Apogee co-founder George Broussard published tributes.
- He wrote the iconic, melody-driven soundtracks for Doom and Doom II and also composed music for Wolfenstein 3D, Rise of the Triad, Commander Keen and later titles such as Duke Nukem 3D.
- Prince worked largely remotely from the id Software offices and said he drew creative direction from the game design document known as the “Doom Bible” rather than composing in-house.
- Reporters and colleagues note his technical skill in composing memorable tunes for the limited AdLib sound hardware of early 1990s PCs, which helped define the sound of the shareware era.
- The Library of Congress’s recent induction of the Doom soundtrack into its National Recording Registry elevates game audio in the archive of recorded sound and may increase preservation and scholarly attention to video-game music.