RIP, Brad Fuller (Appreciation Thread)
Jan 2, 2016 19:31:37 GMT -5
Post by Weasel on Jan 2, 2016 19:31:37 GMT -5
I've heard through Twitter that former Atari Games audio engineer Brad Fuller passed away, so I'd like to take a moment to remember his works.
Brad Fuller was one of the two main audio guys at Atari Games since post-"crash." The first credit I can find for him anywhere is on the unreleased Atari 5200 port of Super Pac-Man. Once Atari Games got into swing, though, his credits start popping up all over the place, tending to be partnered up with fellow designer Hal Canon. Together, the musical style of Atari Games differed significantly from the sorts of music that went into other arcade games of the time. Where so many other arcade manufacturers preferred to make their music as audible as possible over the rest of the arcade, Brad and Hal tended toward a much smoother mix, without the intensely overdriven treble. Atari Games' soundtracks much preferred to use such things sparingly.
The first credit I can find of Brad Fuller and Hal Canon together is Marble Madness:
Going forward, many more Atari games bore these two names on audio. Among the more famous ones is the Gauntlet series:
And a personal favorite of mine (though significantly more obscure), Vindicators:
Brad and Hal's musical style is extremely atypical for arcade games in the late 1980s. Japanese arcade games were tending more towards either upbeat and bouncy music or hard-driven rock around this time, especially the likes of Sega and Capcom. The Atari style, on the other hand, focused more on tense and dramatic film-like scores, with occasional bouts of what I can only describe as electronic rock in the vein of Tangerine Dream or Giorgio Moroder:
And this:
And then some more unusual stuff:
The biggest hurdle in truly appreciating Brad Fuller's work is that almost none of it has ever had album releases. The Western world wasn't really familiar with the concept of video game music as a thing to be listened to outside of video games, back in those days (even stuff like Buckner & Garcia's "Pac-Man Fever" was considered a fad). That said, there are SOME official CDs containing this work; the THAT'S ATARI MUSIC series was published in Japan by Pony Canyon, quickly followed by a second volume of the same. Beyond these, though, no other released album contains Brad's work, with the only option being to use an emulator like M1 Player, or pray that someone at VGMRips is interested enough in it to get a rip.
Brad Fuller. Audio engineer, atypical musician, underappreciated artist. May he rest in peace.
Brad Fuller was one of the two main audio guys at Atari Games since post-"crash." The first credit I can find for him anywhere is on the unreleased Atari 5200 port of Super Pac-Man. Once Atari Games got into swing, though, his credits start popping up all over the place, tending to be partnered up with fellow designer Hal Canon. Together, the musical style of Atari Games differed significantly from the sorts of music that went into other arcade games of the time. Where so many other arcade manufacturers preferred to make their music as audible as possible over the rest of the arcade, Brad and Hal tended toward a much smoother mix, without the intensely overdriven treble. Atari Games' soundtracks much preferred to use such things sparingly.
The first credit I can find of Brad Fuller and Hal Canon together is Marble Madness:
Going forward, many more Atari games bore these two names on audio. Among the more famous ones is the Gauntlet series:
And a personal favorite of mine (though significantly more obscure), Vindicators:
Brad and Hal's musical style is extremely atypical for arcade games in the late 1980s. Japanese arcade games were tending more towards either upbeat and bouncy music or hard-driven rock around this time, especially the likes of Sega and Capcom. The Atari style, on the other hand, focused more on tense and dramatic film-like scores, with occasional bouts of what I can only describe as electronic rock in the vein of Tangerine Dream or Giorgio Moroder:
And this:
And then some more unusual stuff:
The biggest hurdle in truly appreciating Brad Fuller's work is that almost none of it has ever had album releases. The Western world wasn't really familiar with the concept of video game music as a thing to be listened to outside of video games, back in those days (even stuff like Buckner & Garcia's "Pac-Man Fever" was considered a fad). That said, there are SOME official CDs containing this work; the THAT'S ATARI MUSIC series was published in Japan by Pony Canyon, quickly followed by a second volume of the same. Beyond these, though, no other released album contains Brad's work, with the only option being to use an emulator like M1 Player, or pray that someone at VGMRips is interested enough in it to get a rip.
Brad Fuller. Audio engineer, atypical musician, underappreciated artist. May he rest in peace.