Tim Follin: The Best Game Composer You Never Heard Of

This week we look at Tim Follin, his origins, and many of the soundtracks he worked on.

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Intro music by me. All other music is by Tim Follin (with others where noted)

"Title Music" from Time Trax (unreleased, Mega Drive/Genesis)

"Enemy Attack 1" from Future Tactics (PS2/Xbox/Windows/Gamecube)

"Title Screen" from Vectron (ZX Spectrum)

"Title" from Star Paws (ZX Spectrum)

"Level 1" from Agent X II (Commodore 64)

"Title" from Gauntlet III (with Geoff Follin, Commodore 64)

"Level 1" from Silver Surfer (with Geoff Follin, NES)

"Main BGM Theme" from Solstice (NES)

"Mini-Game 2" from Pictionary (NES)

"Tori" from Equinox (with Geoff Follin, SNES)

"Cotton Island" from Plok (with Geoff Follin, SNES)

"Sleepy Dale & Plok's Town" from Plok (with Geoff Follin, SNES)

"Track 2" from Starsky & Hutch (with Dave Sullivan and Matthew Costello, PS2)

"Perils of the Coral Reef" from Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (Dreamcast)

[Larry]

I think a lot of gaming music composure in general are criminally over looked,   even from Tim's time there's Ben Dagleash, Rob Hubbard Etc.

But for Plok, the title screen music was so impressive that when Shigeru Miyamoto first heard it,   he thought it had come from a modded SNES as he didn't believe the machine was capable of that kind of music.

[matthewcannon]

Worked alongside these guys. Fantastic musicians and such a laugh all through the difficult projects. They seemed to take it all in their stride. Great times.

[Infinite_Omniverse]

I disagree: Plok is a very good game. It is also criminally underrated. For those who don't believe me, give this game a try, you won't be dissapointed (especially if you like platformers).

[radnyx_games]

Treasure Master for NES was probably Tim's most impressive NES soundtrack because of its really nice compositions and atmosphere. The intro screen was even a really good remix of the Starsky and Hutch theme.

[alonsojett]

Tim Follin is a mad genius, and his talent exceeds beyond the musical realm. Last year he released an excellent game called Contradiction. :)

[teckworks]

Oi, mate, I didn't think Plok was too mediocre. It had a great art style and it was legit fun, though it was pretty difficult~

[AugustusCeasar]

On Space Paws, the reason it sounded like a new console because it WAS one.
Space Paws was on the ZX Spectum 128k, which had a AY-3-8910( 3 channels of square waves and noise ) while Vectron was on a ZX Spectrum 48k, which only had a 1-bit beeper. The reason they sound differnet was because of the hardware, not one of Follin's drivers.

[ktvx.]

I'm gonna make the hot take that his "bad luck" wasn't just the universe conspiring against him. Working on low budget games or with bad teams was his own choice, and with his renown, he could've rejected those. If anything, I think he undervalued his immense skill and that's a lesson we should learn from.

[fisharmor]

The only reason I know who Tim Follin is, is the fact that my brother and I spent so many hours in the early 90s playing Silver Surfer. Back then if a game was hard we didn't pussyache about it, we played it and were thankful that it didn't lose its appeal after finishing it in three hours.

[tomnuke]

Tim's music always tells a story.
It's difficult to not become enraptured.
Very informative video. Thank you.

[PkmariO]

I like how a good majority of these comments are responding to what you said about Plok

[Terry-Regan]

Plok is quite an underrated but quite good SNES game. It sucks it never had a save feature though. Don't know much about Follin but the Plok soundtrack is pretty cool. The boss theme is pretty much a dance classic and the fleapit music is awesome also.

[MooCartoon]

Stumbled across this video after stumbling across a Silver Surfer track and looking up Tim Follins. Great video! Thanks for all the info!

[HuntersMoon]

Tim Follin + ZX Spectrum + Chronos = Amazing Music. Also the C64, Spectrum and Amiga are not CONSOLES, They're Computers!

[ClydeLeeM]

After this I'm glad to see he at least made a what some may have a cult respect for in the game Contradiction, the music itself always lingers in great underappreciated theme discussions.

[Moonfreeze]

TF has always been my favourite video game composer ever since I heard the title track for ghouls n ghosts on the c64.

[zygmer]

Tim Follin, the original Vapor Waver. Equinox had that A E S T H E T I C .

[talideon]

Even independent of Tim Follin's awesome soundtrack, Plok is well remembered by those who've played it. Lumping it in with the likes of Silver Surfer is pretty harsh!

The Star Paws theme was originally by Rob Hubbard. Follin converted it from the C-64 original theme to the AY-3-8910, so he can't really be credited as the composer in that case (though it was a great conversion).

Arguably, it's on the C-64 where Follin's music was best paired up with good games.

[thebaconwizard]

I don't understand why people even dislike videos like this he didn't do anything overly spectacular that would cause me to like the video or make me want to watch it again yet he didn't do anything stupid or dumb or was it badly named or composed or acted in any anyway to the point to where I would dislike the video that's just rude

[adamcarl]

Wow, I've never heard of this guy, thanks for the hidden gem!