CVGM

Jochen’s first computer music was a set of Christmas songs that he arranged in a rock style on his school’s Commodore 64.

As a member of The Exceptions, using the handle Mad Max, he wrote most of the music for their demos including the B.I.G. Demo (Best In Galaxy). The demo was essentially a large collection of C64 tunes that he ported across to the Atari ST’s inferior Yamaha YM2149 sound chip using his own driver to get the most out of it.

He worked as a freelance musician, doing music for many 16-bit games. He eventually joined Thalion Software and wrote music for them. His musical track for the game Amberstar is considered among his best works, and the game and Hippel’s music acquired a small cult following.

He has released an album called Give it a Try.