Karsten Obarski

Overview

Karsten Obarski, an employee of the German game development studio Rainbow Arts, decided that he was tired of coding in music by hand on the Amiga A500. So, he programmed the Ultimate Soundtracker, which visually represented the four channels of sound as a vertical scroll. The four channels were titled "Melody," "Accompaniment," "Bass," and "Percussions," and were represented by data values that would continually scroll. This representation of music made it much easier for musicians and composers to create music for the Amiga, as it didn't require prior programming knowledge.

The Ultimate Soundtracker was initially released in 1987, but failed to succeed as a standalone commercial product. Instead, it became the standard for music composition on the Amiga, and eventually was released to public domain. Other programs began appearing as well, such as the popular NoiseTracker and Protracker, and sample packs would be released as well, containing instruments and sounds that could be implemented into compositions.

Karsten Obarski is credited in six games, all of which come from either reLINE Software or Rainbow Arts (although the actual name of reLINE Software is somewhat disputed. Some sources state that it is titled reLINE, while others state it is titled AES).