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Mark Morgan is one of the more recent composers, he's been around for awhile now but most of the Japanese legends were already going strong by the late 80's or early 90's. Mark Morgan did not get his first video game project until 1995.
Dark Seed II was the first game released that had Morgan's signature dark musical tones. His style is known for creating an immersive, chilling, and crushing atmosphere within unique worlds. The Dark Seed games did have art design by H.R. Giger after all, seems like the perfect fit! This is quite his strong suit, but he is quite capable of more lighthearted and upbeat scores.
Zork: Nemesis was the next game that released with him at the helm of the music and was a major departure of the series' roots, but he got to stay around and do the music for the more lighthearted follow up Zork: Grand Inquisitor.
In between the two Zork games Mark began the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with Interplay, a well loved and respected developer and publisher that has long since lost its magic. But, Morgan entered when the company entered a new Golden Age, sadly one that could not save the company from itself.
BioWare's very first video game, Shattered Steel was the first project between Zorks, the game is basically a MechWarrior rip off. Depending on your experience with the games that is either awesome or kinda blah.
The second project between Zorks was the sequel to one of the best first person shooters of the mid 90's, Descent II. For those like me that have played Descent you know much the music rocks, and Descent II is no exception!
1997 was a busy year for Mark Morgan and included one of his biggest successes, and a game that completely failed. On top of Zork: Grand Inquisitor he did the music for NetStorm: Islands at War. NetStorm sold badly as it was completely overshadowed by Ensemble's classic RTS Age of Empires, and Activision's marketing budget was effectively zilch.
Now for the big success, that partnership with Interplay was about to pay off with one of the greatest RPGs of all time. Mark Morgan and Interplay released Fallout onto the world in 1997, and RPGs were never the same afterwards!
I will use any excuse ever to pull this video out.
Morgan and Black Isle Studios went together like corn meal and milk as the two came back for Fallout 2, a sequel which may just be better than the original!
Black Isle and Morgan continued their string of home runs with the incredibly unique, critically lauded, and the absolute definition of a cult classic, Planescape: Torment. This classic RPG came out in 1999 and completely failed on the sales charts.
The same year, 1999 saw Morgan and other longtime partner Activision part ways, as the last Activision published game he worked on, Civilization: Call to Power released. This was much more successful on the sales charts and was not instantly relegated to the bargain bin. He did not work on the sequel however.
The following year saw Morgan's last work for the ailing Interplay, the entire company would be mostly dead in less than 3 years after this. 2000's Giants: Citizen Kabuto would be Morgan's last work in the entire video game industry for almost a decade as he completely switched over to score television shows. For Giants Morgan got the chance to work alongside the current Elder Scrolls superstar Jeremy Soule, in a meeting that the Greek Titans couldn't replicate if they tried.
His list of TV credits during this period is quite short, One Tree Hill, Hawaii, Kojak, Killer Instinct, and Shark. Morgan worked on other shows throughout his composing career, and that shows how talented of a musician he really is!
In 2009 Morgan returned to the world of gaming, this time working for Electronic Arts to produce the original music for Need for Speed: Shift, his first racing game!
After a long time separated Morgan was finally reunited with long time employer Brian Fargo as he was brought on board as part of his famous Kickstarter campaigns, part of the stretch goals rather.
Upcoming games that will include Morgan's music include Wasteland 2, Torment: Tides of Numenera, and possible vaporware Prey 2.
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Nice post - I had never heard of Mr. Morgan! Probably because I haven't played a single game on this list....
I particularly liked the Zork music, listening to it just now. I like strong atmosphere in games, so when you say "immersive, chilling, crushing atmosphere", it's pretty safe to say I'm interested.  Those early first-person adventures like Myst can be so creepy & mysterious, with the imaginative worlds, early 3D graphics, and very importantly, music like this. Great stuff.
It's kinda funny - isn't the Zork song so "cavey"? Even if you didn't know what it was from, you would totally think "cave song". Must be the grand, sweeping tones, sparkles, and echo. (with a healthy dose of wonder and awe)
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