Bobby Prince, the composer who wrote the metal-charged MIDI soundtrack for the original Doom, has died. His music shaped Doom, Doom II, Duke Nukem 3D, Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, and Rise of the Triad, making him one of the most important sound architects of 1990s PC gaming.
Prince, full name Robert Caskin Prince III, had one of the more unusual backgrounds in the industry. He was a Vietnam War veteran and a practicing lawyer before he moved into game music. By the time he wrote the Doom soundtrack in 1993, he was already in his mid-40s, while most of the id Software team was in their 20s.
His best-known work is the opening level theme of the original Doom, “At Doom’s Gate,” the track that plays on E1M1. The driving riff became one of the most recognizable pieces of game music ever written, remixed, covered, and referenced for more than three decades.
The wider Doom soundtrack mixed two moods that came to define the franchise: fast, riff-heavy action cues and slow, eerie ambient pieces that leaned into horror. Tracks like “The Imp’s Song,” “Kitchen Ace and Taking Names,” “Dark Halls,” and “Suspense” gave each level its own personality, even when the visuals were just pixelated corridors.
Doom II pushed that approach further with “Running From Evil,” “Into Sandy’s City,” “Adrian’s Asleep,” and the fan favorite “Barrels o’ Fun.” Fans have long noted that several of these tracks closely echo songs by Metallica, Pantera, Alice in Chains, Slayer, and AC/DC, and many players credit Prince’s music with leading them to heavy metal in the first place.
From Keen to Duke
Prince’s work with id Software began before Doom. He provided audio for the Commander Keen platformers, the games that put id on the map, and contributed to Wolfenstein 3D in 1992, the title widely credited with popularizing the first-person shooter.
He then crossed over to Apogee and 3D Realms, scoring Rise of the Triad and contributing to Duke Nukem 3D in 1996. The aggressive, swaggering tone of those soundtracks fit perfectly with Duke’s action-movie attitude.
All of this was done under heavy technical constraints. Prince composed for MIDI playback, meaning his music could sound completely different depending on whether players ran a Sound Blaster, an AdLib card, or a Roland module. The compositions still had to be short enough to loop, catchy enough to stick, and atmospheric enough to carry a level. Prince nailed all three.
His compositions are still played, streamed, and remixed every day. The riff from “At Doom’s Gate” continues to pop up in speedruns, fan covers, and official re-releases, a reminder that Prince’s work never really aged.
