FastLoaders News
- Jarle & Co. will be a guest on tonight's SLAY Radio show (8/20/2026 @ 20:00 CEST).
- The FastLoaders have announced an upcoming concert in Prague on Sept 26. For more details and for tickets check out the event's page on Facebook.
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BIT Live 2026 Remix Compo - Results
The BIT Live 2026 and Remix64.com 25th Anniversary Remix Compo is now over, all votes have been counted and the results are in! No spoilers here, but you can go to the compo results page and check out the winners yourself.
Congratulations to all winners, and a huge thank you to everybody who submitted a remix, and to all people who voted and played the Guess the Remixer game!
Firefox birthday show!
Let's have a birthday party for Firefox, aka. Jimmy Fredriksson! One of the guys responsible for the music for the classic Phenomena Amiga Demo Enigma! Tonight at 21:30 (CEST) on the Retro Gaming Music YouTube channel.
BIT Live 2026 Schedule
The schedule for the Commodore remix event of the year better known as BIT Live 2026 has been posted, and it's quite a doozy! There will be performances by Double Score Dungeon, NecroPolo, Jeroen Tel, Linus Åkesson (lft), and, of course, by FastLoaders! Ziona will also play a DJ set, there will be a C64 Café with SID music, and in-between SLAY Radio will be playing remixes on-site (they also plan to stream the entire event online). If you are still on the fence about attending, this lineup should convince you to buy your tickets now!
BIT Live & Remix64 Remix Compo - 3 Weeks Left!
This is a friendly reminder that the deadline to submit entries to the BIT Live & Remix64 25th Anniversary Remix Compo is only 3 weeks away: it's July 21! For detailed rules of the compo and to submit your entries, head over the to the compo's webpage. Have fun creating, everyone!
The Best of Rob Hubbard - 8-Bit Symphony EP
by Chris Abbott and Rob Hubbard
Let's celebrate the miracle that is Rob Hubbard! Not only is he a great chipmusic composer, but he's an amazing symphonic artist who's graciously given us the definitive orchestrations of some of his greatest SIDs, performed in Prague by the Czech Studio Orchestra.
These tracks are taken from the seminal 8-Bit Remix albums 8-Bit Symphony Pro: First Half
and 8-Bit Symphony Pro: Second Half
.
Uniquely, you can also download the conductor's score for each track! You can also get much more context on the tracks from 8-bit-symphony.com.
About Rob Hubbard
After leaving school in the 70s, Rob spent his formative years as a gigging musician in rock bands playing all over the UK and Europe.
After moving to Newcastle and finishing college, he met Steve Daggett (later of Lindisfarne), who shared his enthusiasm for musical collaboration and experimentation. This led Rob to the studio, electronic studio gear and music production.
He quickly expanded into home computers, and found the C64 and its legendary SID sound chip an essential purchase.
Keen to use it to earn some income, he started to write educational programmes. However, feedback was that the market wasn’t there: but writing Blue Danube
for the sound-chip was the start of a bright future.
In 1983/4, chance contacts led Rob to start working on a game for a local company (Razzmatazz by Ubik), but this was never released. Rob packaged up the music with other demos and sent disks around for freelance music programming.
The first two jobs for Mastertronic’s Action Biker
and Incentive’s Confuzion
were well reviewed. But it was Thing on a Spring
, an original composition full of bounce and percussion (and the occasional spring noise) that was simply mind-blowing. This was followed by Monty on the Run, initially inspired by Devil’s Galop
, which he was asked to copy, but took in a completely new direction. Manic violin playing, Simmonds drums and a rock guitar solo meant Rob became a rock star to certain impressionable youths.
Tiring of the freelance life, Rob joined Electronic Arts in 1989. At the time, EA was a new and vibrant US company and the chance to explore the outer limits of music interactivity on new gear was irresistible, and he was soon appearing on consoles and PCs before being moved to management in 1997.
In 1998, Rob was the linchpin of the first commercially released CD of C64 music remixed in studios: Back in Time
, from Chris Abbott’s C64Audio.com, which led to live performances and further album work.
Soon, he started to arrange his own tunes orchestrally, starting with his own arrangement of Kentilla. With US musician Steven Scherer he scored three of his tracks (W.A.R, a new version of Kentilla and Food Feud
), of which W.A.R appeared on Back in Time 3
.
Rob came back to the UK in 2001 and kept himself busy with gigs and music, even playing piano on the Hull to Rotterdam ferry! In 2005 he orchestrated International Karate for the Play concert at the 2005 Games Development Conference in Leipzig. It showcased a wide variety of orchestral colour and technique, further enhanced for this project.
In 2016 he was awarded an honorary degree by Abertay University, reflecting his wide-ranging contribution to video game music.
Besides being the producer of the 8-Bit Symphony Pro projects, in 2019 he was also the musical director of the 8-Bit Symphony concert in Hull.
He recently co-wrote Master of Magic
, a hardback book covering his game music work over a long and stellar career.
credits
released May 30, 2025
Conducted by Robin Tait
Performed by the Czech Studio Orchestra led by Radek Krizanovsky
Recordings produced at Smecky Studios by Vitek Kral & Mikel Toms
Orchestra managed and led by Radek Krizanovsky
Produced by Chris Abbott & Rob Hubbard
Executive Produced by Damian Manning & Russell F. Howard
Assisted majorly by Thomas Finnerup, Ian Flory & Anna Black
Score and parts preparation by Robin Tait
Mixing, mastering and surround sound mix by Allister Brimble
Editing by Chris Abbott
Illustrations by Steph Abbott (www.maplebutterstudios.com) and Mateo Durante (@cosmicphrog)
license
all rights reserved
Arranged by Glyn R Brown
Review by Ryrynz
Arranged by Sonic Wanderer
and you also get some beautiful guitar-notes.
A real remix, but not dumping the ideas of the original.
Mixage is high quality, so this is something I can't dare to only call very good 😊
Review by putzi
Last Ninja 1 Wilderness - Remasterd Take 2
Arranged by TmX
Review by Nickyp123
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