George Alistair Sanger

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George Alistair Sanger (born December 14, 1957 ), also known under the pseudonym " The Fat Man " or " The Fatman ", is an American composer for computer games.

George Sanger (2008)

Life

Private

George Sanger was born on December 14, 1957, the second of seven children to anesthesiologist Bottom and gynecologist George Sanger sr. born. His brother David Sanger is the drummer of the country band Asleep at the Wheel . In his childhood he attended Coronado High School in Coronado, California , near San Diego . After high school, he attended Occidental College , where he studied physics and earned a bachelor's degree majoring in music. He continued to study at Loyola Marymount's Television Production School and USC Film School . George Sanger was married to Linda Sanger, with whom he has two daughters, Gwen and Sandy. Gwen - then still Glen - was a co-founder of the game development studio Spark Brilliance Productions in Austin. Today he lives with his wife Cindy Sanger.

Career start

After completing his studies, George Sanger worked for a number of recording studios in Los Angeles before starting his career as a composer in the computer game industry in 1983. He is considered one of the pioneers of computer game music, at a time when accompanying music was not yet very important in game production:

“At the time, it should be remembered, there was almost no competition at all. Writing music for games was considered to be at the artistic level of, say, writing the tones that tell the McDonalds' workers that the french fries are ready. ”

“You should keep in mind that there was almost no competition at the time. Writing music for computer games was seen on about the same artistic level as, say, composing the beeps that tell McDonalds staff that the fries are ready. "

- George Sanger : GIGNews.com interview 2002

His first musical contribution to a computer game was a ten-second instrumental piece called Carnival of the Penguins for the Intellivision game Thin Ice , for which he was asked by David Warhol , a game developer and college roommate of his brother Rick, for which he received € 1,000 . After this brief excursion into the games industry, Sanger initially wrote pieces of music for commercials and took on smaller jobs, such as the music for the NES version of the LucasFilm Games title Maniac Mansion . In 1985 Sanger moved to Austin, Texas, where he ran a recording studio, among other things.

On Warhol's initiative, he came into contact with Brian Moriarty , who was developing the Adventure Loom for Lucasfilm Games at the time . Moriarty asked Sanger to adapt MIDI music based on Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake for this game . He was also commissioned by the Austin-based developer Origin Systems to create the soundtrack for the space flight simulation Wing Commander . Both games were released in 1990. To support the Wing Commander assignment, Sanger hired musician Dave Govett, whom he knew from his time as a studio operator. Since the game supported sound cards of the Soundblaster type , Sanger could fall back on the qualitatively leading technology for the composition. In addition, the game was one of the first to rely on a reactionary soundtrack. As a result, the background music adapted dynamically to the events of the mission, for example playing a short victory melody when an opponent was successfully shot down. Both the soundtrack for Loom and Wing Commander were proposed for Best Game Soundtrack at the Spotlight Awards during the Game Developers Conference , and Sanger received the award for Wing Commander . The high level of critical acclaim increased Sanger's level of awareness in the games industry, and numerous other orders followed.

Since then, Sanger has written the music to accompany over 200 computer games. He is considered the composer of the first General MIDI game soundtrack, the first live music recording recorded directly in MIDI format, the first soundtrack for a computer game supplied on an accompanying audio CD, and the first soundtrack that served as a selling point for a game.

further activities

Sanger works closely with musicians Dave Govett, Joe McDermott and Kevin Weston Phelan. Together the quartet has formed the so-called Team Fat since 1992. In addition to composing music, Sanger and Phelan also worked on sound libraries for the General MIDI interface in order to guarantee the uniform playback of their own compositions. With the support of the manufacturer Yamaha, these sound libraries were integrated into their sound chips OPL2 and OPL3 , which were the basis for numerous sound cards such as the Soundblaster or AdLib brands .

Sanger is the initiator of various activities to strengthen the audio sector in the games industry. The goals of his work were formulated in 1995 under the title "Manifatso", in which he advocated the creation of expressive, non-repetitive and artistically free and independent music for computer games. Sanger called the annual conference "Project Bar-BQ" and "Project Horseshoe", which sees itself as a think tank for the audio sector, as well as the audio library GamePlayMusic. Sanger continued to work successfully with leading game composers for the admission of computer game music to the Grammy Awards , which since the 42nd Grammy Awards in 2000 in the categories of “Best Compiled Soundtrack Album for Film, Television or Visual Media”, “Best Composed Soundtrack Album for Film,” Television or Visual Media ”and“ Best Song Written for Film, Television or Visual Media ”is effective.

Between June 2017 and June 2019, Sanger was responsible for audio production at the AR company Magic Leap .

public perception

Sanger is considered a bold self-promoter who plays with his artist identity as a noisy Texas cowboy. His stage name contradicts his actual stature. His trademarks include eye-catching rhinestone suits by the Ukrainian-American fashion designer Nudie Cohn , in combination with a Stetson cowboy hat and big cigars. In 1994, in a contribution to People Magazine , author Steve Dougherty called him "a candidate for the most prolific and obscure living American composer." In 1997, Gary Andrew Poole of Wired magazine described Sanger as "some kind of superstar" whose "rich compositions are far removed from the beeping and bubbling that characterize most game soundtracks."

Awards

  • As part of the first Spotlight Awards during the Game Developers Conference , Sanger received the Music Award for his soundtrack to Wing Commander . Sanger's composition for the Adventure Loom is one of the three nominated soundtracks .
  • Sanger received the IGDA Award For Community Contribution at the 2007 Game Developers Choice Awards in recognition of his numerous contributions to promoting interactive audio design and advancing the game industry as a whole.

Game compositions

Discography

The Fat Man And Team Fat

  • 7/11 (1997)
  • Surf.com (1997)
  • Flabby Rode (1998)

Fonts

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Kathleen Maher: The Fat Man Sings . (pdf) In: Game Developer . June 1994, pp. 18-22. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
  2. ^ A b c Gary Andrew Poole: Hangin with The Fat Man . (Online view) In: Wired . No. 5.03. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
  3. ↑ a b Steve Dougherty: The Famous Fat Man Sets Bytes to a Beat: Mound of Sound ( English ) In: People Magazine . Time Inc. . February 7, 1994. Retrieved July 30, 2012.
  4. ↑ George Sanger: Tweet of February 18, 2012 ( English ) In: TheMightyFatMan . Twitter . February 18, 2012. Retrieved July 30, 2012: “ Yes, making games can be fun (If my son is running the company) Help fund it - and get game goodies! "
  5. ↑ Glen Sanger: Profile (English). LinkedIn , last accessed July 30, 2012.
  6. ↑ George Sanger: Music & Design ( English ) In: Official website . Retrieved July 30, 2012.
  7. ↑ Melanie Cambron: The Beat Goes On: Fat Music ( English ) In: The Escapist . Themis Media. January 16, 2007. Archived from the original on December 31, 2005. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  8. ↑ a b c Allen Varney: The Beat Goes On: Fat Music ( English ) In: The Escapist . Themis Media . January 16, 2007. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  9. ↑ IGDA : Game Developers Choice Awards: Community Contribution Award Winner - Archive , last accessed on July 30, 2012.
  10. ↑ George Sanger: Manifatso ( English ) In: Official website . August 20, 1995. Retrieved July 30, 2012.
  11. ^ Aaron Marks: Working the Grammy Angle ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc. February 25, 2000. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  12. ^ Aaron Marks: Working the Grammy Angle ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc. February 25, 2000. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  13. ↑ IGDA : Game Developers Choice Awards to Honor Alexey Pajitnov, Greg Costikyan, George 'The Fatman' Sanger and Shigeru Miyamoto. ( English ) In: The Free Library . Farlex. February 12, 2007. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
  14. ↑ Simon Carless: 2007 Game Developers Choice Awards To Honor Miyamoto, Pajitnov ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc. February 12, 2007. Retrieved February 12, 2007.
personal data
SURNAME Sanger, George Alistair
ALTERNATIVE NAMES The Fat Man; The Fatman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer
DATE OF BIRTH December 14, 1957