Legendary games composer and musician Ben Daglish has died at the age of 52, his wife has announced.

Ben was behind the memorable SID tunes for a string of C64 games in the ’80s and early ’90s including The Last Ninja, Firelord, Gauntlet and Cobra. He also composed for the Amstrad CPC, Amiga and Spectrum.

Daglish was born in London, but his parents moved to Sheffield when he was a year old. He attended the same school as respected C64 programmer Tony Crowther, and when asked how he began making music for games he’d often reply that it was “because Tony asked me”.

“I enjoyed working on the C64”, he said back in 2001. “Just like I enjoy conducting, or enjoy doing children’s workshops – for me, it has always been about music, rather than how the music was done. ”

Indeed, Ben played in a number of bands, including Loscoe State Opera – but he was always far more in love with the computer scene than some interviews might suggest. A popular regular at retro scene events, his enthusiasm for games was never more obvious than in an animated appearance on retro documentary From Bedrooms To Billions. He was known for kind acts like driving through the thick snow for 30 miles to fulfill a promise of being on a very early edition of the Retro Hour podcast, and Twitter has become awash overnight with anecdotes and tales of a much-loved man.

Ben died on October 1st from complications connected to lung cancer. He is survived by his wife, Sarah, and their three children. CF