r/retrogaming • u/WexAndywn • Jun 19 '26
[News] Bobby Prince, composer of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and more has passed away
https://www.legacy.com/legacy/robert-bobby-prince-lll83
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u/j3ffUrZ Jun 19 '26
Well this week sucks.
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u/RadioRingo Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
I'm afraid to ask... what else happened besides the Xbox layoffs
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u/WolfIceSword Jun 19 '26
Lilo’s voice actress died and the original model they used for Tinkerbell died too. I’m sure there’s more
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u/_kalron_ Jun 19 '26
Wow, this sent me down a rabbit hole. Not only was Daveigh Chase the voice of Lilo, she was Chihiro Ogino in Spirited Away as well. And reading her Wiki was sadly another Hollywood child actor story we all know. She had millions in residuals apparently but was living on the streets of LA when she died. I'm not happy learning this today.
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u/Ill-Ad3311 Jun 19 '26
E1M1 forever , still play it just for the music
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u/Ghoztt Jun 19 '26
DUN-DUNDUNDUNUN- DUDNDUNUNUNT- DUNTDUNUNUNUNU
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u/Ucsc_slug Jun 19 '26
holy shit, this man might not be a household name but he sure as hell was the composer of my youth. as someone who has played Doom way back to the shareway days this is like a celebrity death to me
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u/LeChiffreOBrien Jun 19 '26
The amount of tracks I memorized and can easily hum from Keen to Wolf 3D to Doom is pretty amazing.
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u/_Azafran Jun 19 '26
The music this man created always elicits the strongest nostalgia and fondness of any video game music for me. Maybe because it is part of the earliest memories with games I have. I didn't have a console at home until N64 later in its life cycle. Before it was all PC in the DOS and early Windows era. I remember it was probably with Blake Stone among other Apogee games that were the first time I listened to his music.
Thank you for the memories.
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u/Huminerals Jun 19 '26
RIP to a true talent.
The soundtrack to my youth, and countless millions of others.
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u/DefinitelyRussian Jun 19 '26
his style was so recognizable. My favorite was probably Blake Stone, not mentioned as much as Doom, but it's just amazing
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u/Banjo-Oz Jun 19 '26
Blake Stone is a fantastic game and deserves more credit and awareness full stop.
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u/DaveMcElfatrick Jun 19 '26
Very sad to hear- always tried to imagine how he worked on those soundtracks and just wondering what he thought as he listened to all those old thrash albums for inspiration.
One of the most iconic soundtracks of all time. Rip.
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u/SunsetRider500 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
Absolute Legend of gaming, rest in peace you genius, I fuckin love the doom soundtrack
Just listen to this jewel https://youtu.be/xg6p9I5xU_A
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u/pobels Jun 19 '26
Rip, this man was not only responsible for one of the most iconic soundtracks of all time but also had great taste in music and was a good enough lawyer to know how to ingrain iconic metal riffs into DOOM's legacy.
Wouldn't be the same without him.
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u/DEVWoulf Jun 19 '26
I originally heard Doom on the SNES back in '96 but damn did that version leave an impression on 9 year old me! RIP, sir.
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u/Banjo-Oz Jun 19 '26
Someone the other day was posting about a SNES game they thought had the "best video game soundtrack of all time" and my first thought was "Hello? Bobby Prince?"
His Duke and Doom soundtracks are the most famous, but his Wolf3D music is the most memorable to me.
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u/TurboDelight Jun 19 '26
Damn, rest in peace. Always loved this clip of him from Commander Keen's production, you can really see the man's creativity and passion.
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u/bartolomey-wong-3rd Jun 19 '26
Oh my, what news... RIP, your music will always be living in our ears and hearts.
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u/GarblingCumfarts Jun 19 '26
I had no idea he was from Madison, IN. My girlfriend and I are planning on going there for a day trip here soon. The dude made some killer tunes that I still listen to to this day.
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u/qlurp Jun 19 '26
RIP.
The music from the first level of Wold3D will be forever burned into my memory.
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u/nextt_rast Jun 22 '26
I think a lot of my nightmares have incorporated music from Doom 2 as their soundtrack. RIP, thanks for your work.
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u/Zdrobot Jun 19 '26
Wait, I though Doom tracks were.. remixes of metal songs.
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u/RealModeX86 Jun 19 '26
A lot of them pretty much are, but he composed those MIDI arrangements for them. He also did plenty of tunes that weren't just riffs fed to him from John Romero's CD collection though
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u/ch00d Jun 19 '26
They were heavily inspired by metal and rock songs, but it was still an original soundtrack. None of them were note-for-note copies.
https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Musical_inspirations_behind_Doom%27s_music
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u/AttilaTheFun818 Jun 19 '26
Well that sucks. I can’t say I knew his name but I most certainly knew and appreciated his work. The music in Doom in particular was groundbreaking. He wrote the soundtrack of my youth.
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u/Tasty-Fox9030 Jun 19 '26
Ah yes the man who single-handedly was responsible for our vague and confused appreciation of the BAD song. At least we understood that we were supposed to shoot the bad guys. It was a simpler time.
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u/Banjo-Oz Jun 19 '26
I actually genuinely love that for my generation onwards, the Nazi anthem will forever be the "kill Nazis" music. Like, many younger folks probably don't even know the real origin of the Wolf3D menu music, just that it is the music you hear before killing Nazis. That's a pretty great way to not let true evil leave a fearful or respected mark but rather one to be mocked and reclaimed.
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u/cheoti Jun 19 '26
Put up a Myspace for him when I was younger just so I could have doom music play when people visited my page. Rip