David Whittaker (video game composer)

David Whittaker (born 24 April 1957 in Bury, England^[1]) is an English video game composer. He is known for writing video game music in most of the 1980s and early 1990s for different formats.

Whittaker cited David Bowie, Kraftwerk and Yazoo among his influences.^[2] Before his video game career, he was in a new romantic band called "Beu Leisure".^[2] While composing music, Whittaker directly programmed music; instead of using music composition tools, he used a machine code monitor—then an assembler system or program—while including tools from Supersoft and Commodore. He frequently composed for the format on the Commodore 64 and was impressed with the Amiga's sound capabilities, later using sound effects in his compositions for Amiga.

On the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, his most popular compositions are in Lazy Jones, Glider Rider, Armageddon Man, Amaurote, BraveStarr, and Elektra Glide. His subtune 21 of Lazy Jones, commonly known as "Star Dust", was the basis for the electronic song "Kernkraft 400" by Zombie Nation. His compositions also appeared in Amiga games such as Shadow of the Beast, Obliterator, Beyond the Ice Palace, and Speedball. Other formats he has composed for include Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Atari 8-bit computers, and MSX.

After working for eight years in the US for Electronic Arts at Redwood Shores, he joined British video game developer Traveller's Tales in Knutsford, Cheshire, working as Head of Audio in September 2004.

• Photograph of Whittaker at Lemon64.com
• Whittaker's Amiga music at UnExoticA
• David Whittaker at MobyGames
• Artist profile at OverClocked ReMix
• Remix64 Interview with David Whittaker Carr, Neil (2 October 2001)