88bit is the alter ego of award-winning composer, pianist, recording artist, streamer and professor, Rob Kovacs. Additionally, Kovacs has composed music for several award-winning short films, rock bands, and American Greetings’ e-cards. He is internationally recognized as the first person to perform a solo version of Steve Reich’s Piano Phase by playing both piano parts on two pianos simultaneously. In 2022, Save Point and 88bit released Video Game LoFi: Super Mario 64 - a collaborative album featuring lo-fi, jazz-adjacent arrangements of music from Super Mario 64. Currently, he is composing the score to the virtual reality game, STRAYLIGHT, set for release in Q4 2022.
Kovacs started recording and performing as 88bit in 2017 with virtuosic note-for-note piano arrangements of classic video game soundtracks from the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Kovacs gained attention as one of the only pianists in the world to publicly perform some of these early game soundtracks. He has played at major events including PAX West, GDC Online, The Game Audio Network Guild Awards, MAGFest, the Mensa National Gathering, NeoSonic Fest, Classic Game Fest, VGM CON and many others. He has performed music by and for legendary video game composers including David Wise (Donkey Kong Country) and Takashi Tateishi (Mega Man 2), whose respective series have sold millions of copies worldwide.
He has been interviewed by Level with Emily Reese, gameinformer.com, clevelandclassical.com NPR’s “Sound of Applause” (WCPN Cleveland), NPR’s “Shuffle” (WKSU Kent), NPR’s ReSpawn Podcast and others.
Kovacs also performed with the Distant Worlds Final Fantasy orchestra and has collaborated with other artists including Mega Ran, Insaneintherainmusic, RoboRob, 8-Bit Music Theory, EyeQ, The Icarus Kid, and many others.
88bit is supported by members of his Patreon. Learn more at www.88bitmusic.com
