System 3
Mark Cale's London developer of the Last Ninja games; matt-gray was its exclusive musician from November 1987 to about March 1989 (last-ninja-2, dominator, Tusker, Vendetta), after which "the Maniacs of Noise had rolled into town" (source: s-c64com-matt-gray-interview).
Facts#
- Gray's audition was a Bangkok Knights loader delivered within a week (the in-game was by rob-hubbard); Cale approved it over a drink and offered the contract; "The high point of my C64 career" per Gray's other interviews, with Paul Docherty (Dokk) and Stan Schembri at the new London office (source: s-c64com-matt-gray-interview).
- reyn-ouwehand left maniacs-of-noise "by May 12 [1990] to join System 3"; VGMPF's MoN gameography lists Dominator (1989-07) and Vendetta (1990) (source: s-vgmpf-maniacs-of-noise).
- Gray's account of the deal: one drink in a Hampstead pub, "Mark just asked me how much I wanted for a year's exclusive contract"; the Hampstead offices, the development house in Watford (John Twiddy, Hugh Riley, Tim Best — "C64's in every room bar the toilet and kitchen") and later the Pinner business park; "a bit of an exodus of programmers, etc. in 89"; "System 3 effectively dropped me in favour of Maniacs Of Noise" (source: s-vandalism63-matt-gray-interview). "The high point of my C64 career … like playing for Liverpool" (source: s-rvg-matt-gray-interview). The Ninja Remix cartridge was rescored by Reyn Ouwehand in the MoN driver (source: s-remix64-ninja-remix).
The audition, told three times#
The Bangkok Knights loader is the hinge of matt-gray's career, and each retelling adds a piece:
- The vacancy was rob-hubbard's: he "was leaving to go to EA in the States", System 3 "needed a loading track in just a few days", and after hearing it they "within the hour were offering me the in-house musician's job" (source: s-arcadeattack-matt-gray-interview).
- Gray's word for it: "my trial by fire at System 3 … I literally turned it around within a few days" (source: s-retrogamesmaster-matt-gray-interview).
- The call came from Mark Cale himself, and it went to Gray "instead of my hero Rob Hubbard"; he remembers the company as "such a talented team" that gave him "a lot free reign" on last-ninja-2 (source: s-sidin15-matt-gray-interview).
What the job then looked like from the inside: LN2 in-house from January to May 1988 with a month's gap, 13 tracks, all used, "and not have to do any SFX. A dream project really"; Tusker at the company's new offices; and on dominator, "several tracks for this & the dreaded SFX. But they left the best track off the game. It was used for a demo but taken out of the game" (source: s-retrogamesmaster-matt-gray-interview).
Related#
matt-gray · last-ninja-2 · dominator · maniacs-of-noise · reyn-ouwehand · rob-hubbard
Sources#
s-c64com-matt-gray-interview · s-vgmpf-maniacs-of-noise · s-vgmpf-matt-gray · s-vandalism63-matt-gray-interview · s-rvg-matt-gray-interview · s-remix64-ninja-remix · s-arcadeattack-matt-gray-interview · s-retrogamesmaster-matt-gray-interview · s-sidin15-matt-gray-interview