Russell Lieblich (March 2, 1953 – January 26, 2005) was a

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

and

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who w ...

who first came to prominence for his music for

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...

and

Intellivision The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel Electronics in 1979. The name is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Development began in 1977, the same year as the launch of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. In 1984, ...

games, as well as doing the Commodore 64 (C64) music translation of one of

LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a large ...

first titles, ''

Ballblazer ''Ballblazer'' is a futuristic sports game created by Lucasfilm Games and published in 1985 by Epyx. Along with '' Rescue on Fractalus!'', it was one of the initial pair of releases from Lucasfilm Games, ''Ballblazer'' was developed and first pu ...

''. He graduated with a

Master's Degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Music from

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is th ...

. His work spans more than 30 game titles; including '' Stealth ATF'' for the Nintendo Entertainment System. A well known musician/composer from the demoscene remixed Lieblich's C64 version of the ''Ballblazer'' music with a Beastie Boys vocal track, producing one of the most popular tracks featured on Remix64.The remixed track
from Remix64.com He died on January 26, 2005, after a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which m ...

outside his home on Long Island,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, at the age of 51.

References

External links

* 1953 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American Jews American video game designers Jewish video game developers American people of Austrian-Jewish descent University of California, San Diego alumni Video game composers People from Coram, New York 21st-century American Jews {{compu-bio-stub