Russell Lieblich

Who was Russell Lieblich?

Russell Lieblich was a game designer, programmer and musician who first came to prominence for his music for Activision and Intellivision games, as well as doing the Commodore 64 music translation of one of LucasArts first titles, Ballblazer. He graduated with a Master's Degree in Music from UC San Diego.

Lieblich was one of the first to experiment in the realm of music/rhythm-oriented gameplay with a game he designed called Web Dimension, and then with one of his most popular works, the music for the cult game Master of the Lamps. In the game, programmed by Peter Kaminski, music has a very important role. 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.

He died on January 26, 2005 after a heart attack outside his home on Long Island, New York, at the age of 51.