Mark Morgan interview on PC Gamer

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A short-ish interview with Fallout 1/2 and Wasteland 2 composer Mark Morgan is available on PC Gamer:<blockquote>And yet Morgan's work in videogames represents only a slice of what has been a remarkably varied and successful career in television, film and even as a member of the band Starship. "In the mid-nineties, I was working mainly in television when an agent friend, Bob Rice, heard the score I was doing for a network show called Prey," Morgan recently told me. "He thought that vibe might translate to videogames and introduced me to a few developers. After doing a couple of games, I discovered that the medium offered a great opportunity for me to explore my goal of writing a score that was minimal, immersive and put the player emotionally inside the game."

His soundtracks for Fallout and Planescape are particularly distinctive because the developers specifically wanted to avoid a conventional orchestral score. "Although Planescape: Torment had some orchestral elements, it still came from an ambient place in order to tell the story, whereas Fallout was simply a very dark ambient game," Morgan said. "The developers knew they liked the ambient vibe, so based on some of my prior work they approached me to explore the possibilities for these games. With Planescape: Torment it was a conscious decision to be more thematic but keep it ambient."

Yet after 1999, the year in which his work appeared in both Planescape and Civilization: Call to Power, Morgan effectively fell off the face of the Earth, at least as far as gamers are concerned. He provided some music for the Giants: Citizen Kabuto soundtrack but otherwise appeared to have moved on to other things. It would be ten years before he returned to games with EA's 2009 release Need for Speed: Shift.</blockquote>
 
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Comes a time when playing games, turn the music down, down, down, then off.


Three games I've played extensively, and have not silenced the sound track.


Arcanum. (Brother's years of torturous violin practice fomented appreciation of skilled fiddling.)


And.


Fallout 1.


And.


Fallout 2.


Audio ambiance and video gaming, from my drive way, appears Mark Morgan is doing something right.








4too
 
Arcanum. (Brother's years of torturous violin practice fomented appreciation of skilled fiddling.)

One of the best soundtracks ever - I still listen to the music by itself.

I listen to lots of games' music by itself. Chrono Trigger, Diablo, Diablo II, Fallout, Fallout 2, Bomberman 3, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy III (SNES U.S.A.), Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Planescape: Torment, Gorky 17, Restricted Area, Deus Ex, Star Control 2, Descent, Crusader: No Remorse, Earthbound, Raptor: Call of the Shadows. But I have to say Diablo 1/2 and Fallout 1/2 soundtracks are some of my favorites, hands down. I could listen to those on repeat.

I don't know how popular VGM is, but even without that knowledge I'm pretty sure it's still under-rated as an art form and as a listenable-on-its-own music genre.

Also I personally have found a correlation between high-quality games and good soundtracks that you can listen to by themselves. Music is a very important part of video games. Do you think Fallout 3 would have been as popular with crappy music, specifically without the amazing main menu track? I doubt it. I don't love the music in that game, but the main menu track is epic and I enjoy it every time I hear it. It sets the tone for the entire game and it's very powerful.
 
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But I have to say Diablo 1/2 and Fallout 1/2 soundtracks are some of my favorites, hands down.
Soundtrack for Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction was recorded with Slovak Radio Philharmonic orchestra in Bratislava, Slovakia. I'm glad to see people who have a soft spot for well performed orchestral music.
:salute:
 
But I have to say Diablo 1/2 and Fallout 1/2 soundtracks are some of my favorites, hands down.
Soundtrack for Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction was recorded with Slovak Radio Philharmonic orchestra in Bratislava, Slovakia. I'm glad to see people who have a soft spot for well performed orchestral music.
:salute:

:nod:

That got me thinking... was Fallout ever translated into Slovak?
 
I'm not aware of any Slovak translation for both BIS Fallouts. Czech computer magazine Level put Fallout on their DVD along with professional Czech translation a while back though, and because Czech and Slovak languages are very close to each other with similar grammar and even many identical words, there's not any reason for making the same work again. (As a former Czechoslovakian, I've read Czech books from my childhood, it's like a second native language to me. Really rich and beautiful language!)
 
I'm not aware of any Slovak translation for both BIS Fallouts. Czech computer magazine Level put Fallout on their DVD along with professional Czech translation a while back though, and because Czech and Slovak languages are very close to each other with similar grammar and even many identical words, there's not any reason for making the same work again. (As a former Czechoslovakian, I've read Czech books from my childhood, it's like a second native language to me. Really rich and beautiful language!)
Interesting, thanks :)
 
But I have to say Diablo 1/2 and Fallout 1/2 soundtracks are some of my favorites, hands down.
Soundtrack for Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction was recorded with Slovak Radio Philharmonic orchestra in Bratislava, Slovakia. I'm glad to see people who have a soft spot for well performed orchestral music.
:salute:

I have nothing against the orchestra, but that soundtrack was a big turd in comparison to the vanilla game's top-tier soundtrack.
 
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But I have to say Diablo 1/2 and Fallout 1/2 soundtracks are some of my favorites, hands down.
Soundtrack for Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction was recorded with Slovak Radio Philharmonic orchestra in Bratislava, Slovakia. I'm glad to see people who have a soft spot for well performed orchestral music.
:salute:

Nothing on the orchestra, but that soundtrack was a big turd in comparison to the vanilla game's top-tier soundtrack.

Bah, whatever. Diablo ii music was great. First game better, yes, but second game stilll very good. Plus, d2 is more varied in style and more in length meaning there's more to love :)
 
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