Jochen Hippel
Encyclopedia
Jochen Hippel is a musician
from Kirchheimbolanden
in southwest Germany
. He played one of the most prominent roles in computer music
during the 16-bit
microcomputer
era, composing the music for tens of games. He was also an experienced Amiga
programmer and ported many of Thalion Software
's Atari ST
titles. He no longer composes music for a living and in 2006 he was working in Logistics for Matheis+Koebig Baustoffehttp://www.stniccc.com/html/scenemembers/60.htm
Jochen's first computer music was a set of Christmas
songs that he arranged in a rock
style on his school
's Commodore 64
.
As a member of The Exceptions
, using the handle Mad Max
, he wrote most of the music for their demos
including the B.I.G. Demo (Best In Galaxy). The demo was essentially a large collection of C64
tunes that The Exceptions
ported across to the Atari ST
's Yamaha YM2149 sound chip
using his own driver to get the most out of it. Jochen then had to fix all the music in order to get it to sound correct on the ST, the YM2149 has no resonance filter, no ADSR enveloping, no ring modulation
. Composers such as Rob Hubbard
used a lot of special effects in his music which were difficult to replicate on the ST sound chip.
Another note of interest is that the B.I.G. demo contained an additional demo screen entitled "The Digital Department" containing 6 digital versions of C64 music. The sound routine however used each channel of the YM2149 as a 4-bit DAC
and played samples for each instrument. This is the first time ADSR samples are heard on the Atari ST
, unfortunately only one more piece of music is ever written using this routine, albeit the 16 minute long Knuckle Busters tune by Rob Hubbard
. This appears as a guest screen in the Cuddly Demos (written by The Carebears) and was used to torment Richard Karsmakers of ST News who was promptly chained to a chair as the disk was formatted before his very eyes!
He worked as a freelance musician, doing music for many 16-bit games. He eventually joined Thalion Software
and wrote music for them. His musical track for the game Amberstar
is considered among his best works, and the game and Hippel's music acquired a cult following. For in game music on the Amiga Jochen often stuck to chiptune-like sound - that became his trademark - instead of using more "realistic" instrument sounds that machine's support for digitized sound made possible. This was usually down to the lack of memory available. Title music for games where a different matter using real instruments and often contained sampled speech examples of which are Wings of Death
and Lethal Xcess
.
He has released an album called Give it a Try and has composed music for other albums including tracks on Immortal 2 and Immortal 3http://www.amiga-immortal.com/.
A little known fact is that Hippel was also a good programmer, he created all of his own music tools and also ported most of Thalion's early Atari ST titles to the Commodore Amiga. Hippel also created the Amiga 7 voice replay routine which was used in several Thalion and Eclipse titles and later used by Chris Hülsbeck
in his TFMX replay routine for the title music of Turrican 2
and Turrican 3 for which he wrote the in game loading music.
versions.
Data Provided by Hall of Light, Atari Legend and Lemon Amiga games databases.
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
from Kirchheimbolanden
Kirchheimbolanden
Kirchheimbolanden, the capital of Donnersbergkreis, is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, south-western Germany. It is situated approx. 25 km west of Worms, and 30 km north-east of Kaiserslautern. The first part of the name, Kirchheim, dates back to 774. It became a town in 1368, and the...
in southwest Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. He played one of the most prominent roles in computer music
Computer music
Computer music is a term that was originally used within academia to describe a field of study relating to the applications of computing technology in music composition; particularly that stemming from the Western art music tradition...
during the 16-bit
16-bit
-16-bit architecture:The HP BPC, introduced in 1975, was the world's first 16-bit microprocessor. Prominent 16-bit processors include the PDP-11, Intel 8086, Intel 80286 and the WDC 65C816. The Intel 8088 was program-compatible with the Intel 8086, and was 16-bit in that its registers were 16...
microcomputer
Microcomputer
A microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor as its central processing unit. They are physically small compared to mainframe and minicomputers...
era, composing the music for tens of games. He was also an experienced Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
programmer and ported many of Thalion Software
Thalion Software
Thalion Software was a personal computer game company, during the time of the 16-bit home computers, like the Atari ST and Amiga.The company was formed by members of the Atari ST demo scene in October 1988, in Gütersloh, Germany. The main aim of Thalion Software was to produce cutting edge...
's Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
titles. He no longer composes music for a living and in 2006 he was working in Logistics for Matheis+Koebig Baustoffehttp://www.stniccc.com/html/scenemembers/60.htm
Jochen's first computer music was a set of Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
songs that he arranged in a rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
style on his school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
's Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
.
As a member of The Exceptions
The Exceptions
The Exceptions were early pioneers in the Atari ST demo scene in the 1980s. Based in German and starting as teenagers they wrote a series of graphical demonstration computer programs to show off the coding and artistic talents...
, using the handle Mad Max
Mad Max
Mad Max is a 1979 Australian dystopian action film directed by George Miller and revised by Miller and Byron Kennedy over the original script by James McCausland. The film stars Mel Gibson, who was unknown at the time. Its narrative based around the traditional western genre, Mad Max tells a story...
, he wrote most of the music for their demos
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
including the B.I.G. Demo (Best In Galaxy). The demo was essentially a large collection of C64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
tunes that The Exceptions
The Exceptions
The Exceptions were early pioneers in the Atari ST demo scene in the 1980s. Based in German and starting as teenagers they wrote a series of graphical demonstration computer programs to show off the coding and artistic talents...
ported across to the Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
's Yamaha YM2149 sound chip
Sound chip
A sound chip is an integrated circuit designed to produce sound . It might be doing this through digital, analog or mixed-mode electronics...
using his own driver to get the most out of it. Jochen then had to fix all the music in order to get it to sound correct on the ST, the YM2149 has no resonance filter, no ADSR enveloping, no ring modulation
Ring modulation
Ring modulation is a signal-processing effect in electronics, an implementation of amplitude modulation or frequency mixing, performed by multiplying two signals, where one is typically a sine-wave or another simple waveform. It is referred to as "ring" modulation because the analog circuit of...
. Composers such as Rob Hubbard
Rob Hubbard
Rob Hubbard is a music composer best known for his composition of computer game theme music, especially for microcomputers of the 1980s such as the Commodore 64...
used a lot of special effects in his music which were difficult to replicate on the ST sound chip.
Another note of interest is that the B.I.G. demo contained an additional demo screen entitled "The Digital Department" containing 6 digital versions of C64 music. The sound routine however used each channel of the YM2149 as a 4-bit DAC
Digital-to-analog converter
In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter is a device that converts a digital code to an analog signal . An analog-to-digital converter performs the reverse operation...
and played samples for each instrument. This is the first time ADSR samples are heard on the Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
, unfortunately only one more piece of music is ever written using this routine, albeit the 16 minute long Knuckle Busters tune by Rob Hubbard
Rob Hubbard
Rob Hubbard is a music composer best known for his composition of computer game theme music, especially for microcomputers of the 1980s such as the Commodore 64...
. This appears as a guest screen in the Cuddly Demos (written by The Carebears) and was used to torment Richard Karsmakers of ST News who was promptly chained to a chair as the disk was formatted before his very eyes!
He worked as a freelance musician, doing music for many 16-bit games. He eventually joined Thalion Software
Thalion Software
Thalion Software was a personal computer game company, during the time of the 16-bit home computers, like the Atari ST and Amiga.The company was formed by members of the Atari ST demo scene in October 1988, in Gütersloh, Germany. The main aim of Thalion Software was to produce cutting edge...
and wrote music for them. His musical track for the game Amberstar
Amberstar
Amberstar was the first installment in Thalion Software's never-finished Amber Trilogy, a role-playing video game franchise. Although considerably more advanced, the game had many similarities to Thalion's earlier game DragonFlight, and was by many fans thought to be a "sequel" to this game.The...
is considered among his best works, and the game and Hippel's music acquired a cult following. For in game music on the Amiga Jochen often stuck to chiptune-like sound - that became his trademark - instead of using more "realistic" instrument sounds that machine's support for digitized sound made possible. This was usually down to the lack of memory available. Title music for games where a different matter using real instruments and often contained sampled speech examples of which are Wings of Death
Wings of Death
Wings of Death is a shoot 'em up game released in 1990 for Atari ST and Amiga, developed by Eclipse Software and distributed by Thalion Software. The two versions of the game are mostly the same, the only noticeable difference is in the sounds...
and Lethal Xcess
Lethal Xcess
Lethal Xcess is a shoot 'em up game developed by two members of the Atari ST demo crew X-Troll and published by Eclipse in 1991. An Amiga version was also created.-Gameplay:- Story :...
.
He has released an album called Give it a Try and has composed music for other albums including tracks on Immortal 2 and Immortal 3http://www.amiga-immortal.com/.
A little known fact is that Hippel was also a good programmer, he created all of his own music tools and also ported most of Thalion's early Atari ST titles to the Commodore Amiga. Hippel also created the Amiga 7 voice replay routine which was used in several Thalion and Eclipse titles and later used by Chris Hülsbeck
Chris Hülsbeck
Chris Hülsbeck is a video game music composer from Germany.He has written soundtracks for more than 70 titles, the latest being Star Wars: Rebel Strike for Nintendo GameCube. Many of his scores for the Commodore 64 are regarded as classics among enthusiasts today, most notably The Great Giana...
in his TFMX replay routine for the title music of Turrican 2
Turrican 2
Turrican II: The Final Fight is the second game of the Turrican series. The game by Factor 5 was released in 1991 for the Commodore Amiga. This version was finished before the C64 version, but Manfred Trenz cites the C64 version as the original design...
and Turrican 3 for which he wrote the in game loading music.
Video game music
NOTE: Games without an explicit platform noted next to them indicate Jochen did both the Commodore Amiga and Atari STAtari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
versions.
- 1987 - The Great Giana Sisters (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1988 - 5th Gear
- 1988 - Bad Cat (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1988 - Circus Attractions (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1988 - Dugger (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1988 - In Eighty Days around the world (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1988 - Jinks (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1988 - The Last NinjaThe Last NinjaThe Last Ninja is an action-adventure game developed and published by System 3 in 1987 for the Commodore 64. As the first in the Last Ninja series, it set the standard for the unique look and feel for its sequels: Last Ninja 2 , Last Ninja Remix and Last Ninja 3...
(Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1988 - Pablo and the Gold of Montezuma (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1988 - Quiz Master (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1988 - Spaceball (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1988 - To Be on Top (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1989 - Astaroth
- 1989 - Battle Valley
- 1989 - Chambers of Shaolin
- 1989 - CybernoidCybernoidCybernoid: The Fighting Machine is a shoot 'em up developed and published in 1987 by Hewson Consultants for the ZX Spectrum, and was then ported to the Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, NES, and Amiga. It was programmed by Raffaele Cecco...
II - The Revenge (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1989 - Grand Monster Slam
- 1989 - Leavin' Teramis
- 1989 - Rings of Medusa
- 1989 - Roll Out (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1989 - StormlordStormlordStormlord is a game developed by Hewson Consultants in 1989 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC and DOS-based computers...
(Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1989 - Tom & Jerry (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1989 - Tom & Jerry: Hunting High And Low (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1989 - Warp
- 1989 - The Seven Gates of Jambala
- 1990 - A Prehistoric TaleA Prehistoric TaleA Prehistoric Tale is a 1990 video game for the Amiga and Atari ST. The game has both puzzle and platformer elements to it. It is said to be inspired by the Commodore 64 game Dino Eggs...
- 1990 - AtominoAtominoAtomino is a 1990 computer puzzle game originally for the Amiga, Atari ST and MS-DOS. A version was made for the Commodore 64 in 1991. The objective is to build molecules from atoms, with gradually increasing difficulty and speed....
(Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1990 - Crimetime
- 1990 - Curse of RA (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1990 - Dragonflight
- 1990 - Enchanted Land
- 1990 - Great Courts 2 (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1990 - Insects in Space (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1990 - Ninja Remix
- 1990 - Tower FRA
- 1990 - Transworld (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) possibly Amiga? - 1990 - TurricanTurricanTurrican is a 1989 video game programmed and designed by Manfred Trenz. It was first developed for the Commodore 64 by Rainbow Arts, but was ported to other systems later. In addition to concept design and character creation, Trenz personally programmed Turrican on the Commodore 64...
(Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1990 - Wings of DeathWings of DeathWings of Death is a shoot 'em up game released in 1990 for Atari ST and Amiga, developed by Eclipse Software and distributed by Thalion Software. The two versions of the game are mostly the same, the only noticeable difference is in the sounds...
- 1991 - Masterblazer (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1991 - Ghost Battle
- 1991 - Lethal XcessLethal XcessLethal Xcess is a shoot 'em up game developed by two members of the Atari ST demo crew X-Troll and published by Eclipse in 1991. An Amiga version was also created.-Gameplay:- Story :...
- 1991 - Rings of Medusa II : The return of Medusa
- 1991 - Tangram
- 1991 - TurricanTurricanTurrican is a 1989 video game programmed and designed by Manfred Trenz. It was first developed for the Commodore 64 by Rainbow Arts, but was ported to other systems later. In addition to concept design and character creation, Trenz personally programmed Turrican on the Commodore 64...
II - The final fight (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1992 - AmberstarAmberstarAmberstar was the first installment in Thalion Software's never-finished Amber Trilogy, a role-playing video game franchise. Although considerably more advanced, the game had many similarities to Thalion's earlier game DragonFlight, and was by many fans thought to be a "sequel" to this game.The...
- 1993 - Turrican 3 (Credits)
Data Provided by Hall of Light, Atari Legend and Lemon Amiga games databases.
External links
- Artist profile at OverClocked ReMixOverClocked ReMixOverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs with new technology and software, as well as by various traditional means...
- Bio on Thalion Webshrine
- Listing of his work on Atari Legend
- Listing of his work on HOL