Composer of the Original Doom's Soundtrack Bobby Prince Has Died Aged 81 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 19 June 2026 / 3,957 Views
Robert Caskin 'Bobby' Prince III, the composer for the soundtrack for the original Doom, has died at the age of 81.
He was better known as Bobby Prince and along with being a video game composer he also served as a platoon leader in the Vietnam War and worked in counselling and law.
He started working in video game music in the 1990s and regularly worked with id Software and Apogee Software. He worked on the soundtracks for the original Doom games, Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem 3D, and more.
The soundtrack Prince did for Doom was selected to be added to the National Recording Registry as it was one of 25 newly inducted "audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage."
"Everyone at Romero Games is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Bobby Prince," said the co-designer on the original Doom John Romero. "He left an incredible mark on games and on my life."
Apogee / 3D Realms co-founder George Broussard on social media wrote the following about Bobby Prince:
Bobby was the epitome of a southern gentleman. Residing in Tennessee he had a smooth southern drawl and a warm, friendly smile and always friendly and eager to help. He was a joy to collaborate with. We collaborated with Bobby on something like 17 projects at Apogee & 3D Realms from 1991 to 1996 or so.
Bobby would often fly down for a week at a time on large projects (like Duke Nukem 3D) because he thought it was important to be in the office and mingle with the team and talk to people and dial in what sort of music was appropriate. Bobby could often be found with a recorder going around the office recording sounds for a game. It was a joy to have him in the office and he felt like every other team member.
One of Bobby's defining traits was his ear for melody. He created tune after tune that you could hum in your head. His music was sticky. He could effortlessly transition from happy cheerful music in Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure or Commander Keen to dark and moody music for Doom, Rise of the Triad or Duke Nukem 3D. Or period style WW2 movie influenced style of music in Wolfenstein 3D. What that man did on an AdLib card with limited instruments was staggering.
Bobby was a prolific creator. Looking back and considering his body of work, he was essentially the Hans Zimmer of early shareware games. And all of that came from him being so passionate about music, and video games which were just emerging, that it started as a hobby and was the polar opposite of being a lawyer.
Bobby was blessed with a creative gene and a generation of early gamers were blessed with his music. Bobby defined a generation of music for early shareware games and he was recognized for his work. His impact is eternal and he's been a legend for 3 decades. His work lives on and he will be greatly missed.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
