Alberto Jose González

Alberto José González Pedraza (born July 29, 1972) is a Spanish video game graphic artist, music composer, designer, producer, and co-founder of Bit Managers and Abylight, who has worked on a variety of titles, most notably games released by French video game publisher Infogrames. He has composed music for or worked on over 60 games, ranging from music composition to graphic programming, and eventually became one of the lead designers at the Spanish developer AbyLight. Despite having composed dozens of full soundtracks for video games, González has never had any formal music training.^[1]

He cites Tim Follin, Ben Daglish, Chris Hülsbeck, Jonathan Dunn, and David Whittaker as his main musical influences.^[1]

Career

Early life

González first began his interest in programming video games at the age of eleven, when he received his Casio PB-700, and began to write small programs and games in BASIC. His first program was a pixel graphic program.^[2]

As a teenager, González was introduced to a music software application on the ZX Spectrum titled Wham! The Music Box, which was lent to him by a friend. Despite having no formal musical training, González had a good ear for melody, and began to compose video game music. His interest in programming also led him to begin program his own sound drivers with the Z80 assembler. Through this work, González had his music featured in MSX ports of a few Spectrum titles released exclusively in the Spanish market by MCM Software, including Altered Beast, Snoopy, Power Drift and Ghostbusters 2.^[1]

González began his official career in the video game industry at the age of sixteen in 1988, as a graphic designer at the small Spanish developer New Frontier, after knocking on their office door and showing his ZX Spectrum designs. The company officials liked what they saw, and hired the young designer the very next day. González's first published game was Hostages, released in 1990, in which he did the sprites design and the soundtrack.^[1]

González would continue his work as sprite designer and musician for New Frontier's future titles with games such as North & South, which garnered great reviews.^[2] He was credited as "McAlby" during his time at New Frontier.

Bit Managers

Citing mismanagement and financial issues, the New Frontier team, including González, left and founded their own game developing company Bit Managers in 1992.^[2] González composed the music for all of Bit Managers titles with the exception of two, being BANG!, released in the arcades, and Radikal Bikers, a Sony PlayStation port of the arcade game with the same name. His first soundtrack for Bit Managers was Pop Up, released on the Game Boy in 1992.^[1]

Bit Managers became a popular developer and was one of Infogrames most frequently contracted partner, developing games based on popular European franchises such as The Adventures of Tintin, Astérix, Spirou, The Smurfs, as well as games based on Disney and Warner Bros.' Looney Toons. González left behind his post as a graphic designer after the development of Astérix on the NES and Game Boy, and began to fully focus on music composition and audio driver programming during his time at the company. In total, González composed music for over 40 titles across 10 different video game platforms, including NES, SNES, Game Boy, Sega Master System, PlayStation and Game Boy Advance.

Abylight

In 2003, González left Bit Managers to found another game developing company, Abylight. Eager to expand on his experiences within the game industry, González decided to take on a producer and designer role for the company, rather than music composition. The company focuses primarily on downloadable content for mobile phones and download services such as DSiWare such as the Music On series. In 2011, Abylight released AfterZoom, a popular DSiWare game in which the player uses the camera to zoom in on real life objects and "discover" organisms to be explored or captured. AfterZoom won the award for Best European Educational Serious Game at the Fun & Serious Game Festival.

Works

MCM Software

• Altered Beast (1989) – MSX (Music)
• Power Drift (1989) - MSX (Music)
• Ghostbusters 2 (1989) - MSX (Music)
• Snoopy (1990) – MSX (Music)

New Frontier

Released

• Hostages (1990) – ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX (Music, Graphics)
• Magic Johnson's Basketball (1990) - ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX (Music, Graphics)
• Light Corridor (1991) - ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX (Music)
• Mystical (1991) - ZX Spectrum, MSX (Music)
• North & South (1991) – ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX (Music, Graphics)

Unreleased

• Z80 Attack (1988) – ZX Spectrum (Music, Graphics)
• Jueves 12 y Sabado 14 (1989) – ZX Spectrum (Music, Graphics)
• Star Madness (1989) – ZX Spectrum (Music)
• Vengador (1990) – ZX Spectrum (Music, Program, Graphics)
• Space Massacre (1990) – ZX Spectrum (Music, Program, Graphics)
• Laser Disc (1990) – ZX Spectrum (Music, Program, Graphics)
• Pim Pam Pum (1991) – ZX Spectrum (Music, Graphics)
• Acid Killer (1991) – ZX Spectrum (Music, Graphics)
• Sokoban Perfect (1991) – ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga (Music)
• Compact Editor (1993) – ZX Spectrum (Music, Program, Graphics)

Bit Managers

Released

Unreleased

• Spirou (1996) - Game Gear (Music)
• Wacky Races (1999) - Game Boy Color (Music)
• Radikal Bikers (2000) - Game Boy Color (Music)
• Ronaldo V-Soccer (2001) - Game Boy Color (Music)

Infogrames

• Lucky Luke (1996) - Game Boy (Music)
• V-Rally (1998) - Game Boy (Music)
• The Smurfs' Nightmare (1998) – Game Boy, Game Boy Color, (Music)
• Bugs Bunny & Lola Bunny: Operation Carrot Patch (1998) - Game Boy (Music)
• Looney Tunes Collector: Martian Alert! (2000) - Game Boy Color (Music)
• Looney Tunes: Marvin Strikes Back! (2000) - Game Boy Color (Music)

AbyLight

References

External links

• SoundCloud