Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers Soundtrack (MT-32)
Q. Greetings, Mr. Ken Allen! As I write this, I am listening to your Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers Roland MT-32 soundtrack. I must confess, I find that the Sierra On-Line music catalog, yours in no short order, helps my concentration greatly when writing these articles about Sierra, Space Quest and SpaceVenture. Ah, SpaceVenture! We will get to that in a bit, but first, we must discuss that Space Quest IV soundtrack of yours. Were there certain things in-particular that influenced you while composing, and did Mark Crowe or Scott Murphy ever approach you with changes they wanted made?
Ken Allen: The Two Guys, Mark and Scott, came to me in a bit of a panic. I was already assigned another project and the music director was on vacation, but the [Space Quest] guys needed to show the opening of SQ4 in an upcoming product review meeting. So, I got permissions from Bill Davis, the music director's boss, to go ahead and lend the Two Guys a musical hand with some temp tracks. Mark Crowe is someone who has a very clear vision for what he wants, so we sat and video taped the six and a half minute opening sequence of SQ4 (the old fashioned way, by pointing a video camera at a computer monitor) from the Sierra Logo to the Streets of Xenon in SQ12 (players will get this). As the tape rolled, Mark Crowe described what he wanted scene by scene. He wanted the music to be "John Williams BIG." He wanted very specific sound effects, timed a very specific way. Where Mark was very specific, Scott was more of a "just knock our socks off, Ken," kinda guy. Up to that moment in my life, the two days of the intervening weekend was the most prolific period of composing I'd ever done. Composing six and a half minutes for orchestra (plus sound design and custom patches) in just a couple days is just unheard of, probably even today. By the end of the weekend, my poor little MT-32 was sputtering and coughing. I finished all the music and then met with Scott Murphy, where we worked together to plug in each MIDI file to coincide with specific sequences within the opening cinematic, and the next day we showed to Mark. This was now a Monday and we cranked up the speakers for the full effect and as the SQ4 opening played, Mark Crowe's normal smiling grin turned into a fully teethed happy face. In the adjacent cubical farm, the entire SQ4 team started prairie dogging. And then a crowd started forming. When the sequence concluded, someone in the crowed yelled "again!" So, Scott obliged them. And we watched it again, to everyone's delight, including Bill Davis, who'd been summoned by someone on the team to see the fruits of our collaboration and my sleepless weekend. Bill was also quite pleased. So much for this music being "temp" tracks. Mark did have one change request. For the cantina, I'd written some futuristic honky-tonk, mainly because there was a bucking bronco ride animating in the background. The style didn't appeal to Mark, so I rewrote that music and it's now what you hear in the final form of the SQ4 opening. Oh, and the bucking bronco animation... It was also relegated to the cutting room floor. After the product review meeting, I was officially assigned to compose the music for SQ4, except for a few pieces contributed by others in the music department. And I remember thinking, looks like I passed the audition. Over the course of development, Mark Crowe and I met a number of times to ensure the music matched the vision he and Scott had for the game. It was the greatest collaborative period of my career.
Q. As I mentioned earlier, I am listening to the Roland MT-32 version of the Space Quest IV soundtrack. When I first played the game in 1996, I had no other choice but to listen to it through my Sound Blaster 16's primitive Adlib sound. It was still an amazing soundtrack, but I had no idea at the time how much better the Roland MT-32 sounded. Were there many challenges in converting the Roland MT-32 soundtrack for use on built-in sound cards, and do you feel that you had to make many compromises in doing so?
Ken Allen: Your premise is correct, that we composed first for the MT-32 and then translated to the lower end cards. It was a challenge, yes. But it was familiar territory. When I got my first computer several years before, I was already plugging in works by Bach on the day I unpacked it. Throughout my education, from junior high on, I was arranging music for the concert band and stage band. So, going from MT-32 to Sound Blaster and lower was kind of like arranging music. Going from Sound Blaster to Tandy 3-Voice is where the pain started to emerge. And supporting the PC speaker...? A chore. An interesting memory comes to the surface. I was experimenting with a technique that had been used on NES games, where you simulate a chord by rapidly alternating between the notes of that chord. It was an idea I borrowed from motion pictures, where you are not watching fluid motion in analog, but a series of still frames in rapid succession 24 times per second, the end result fooling the brain into thinking it's seeing fluid motion. We weren't fooling any brains with my experiment, but I think we got passable results. The other Sierra composers used the technique, too, until the day came where we were no longer required to support PC speaker (and there was much rejoicing)!
Q. With that sentimental stuff out of the way, we should probably talk about your upcoming album, Under The Half Dome. My first question comes by way of Mark, an online friend of mine. I informed him about your Kickstarter for Under The Half Dome shortly after it launched, and he told me that he would not back the project until the issue of copyright infringement was squared away. Beforehand, it was my understanding that these compositions would be based on your original scores while working at Sierra, not lifted straight from them. It made me realize that there was an information gap out there. So, just to put everyone's minds at ease, how will you be dealing with the copyright issue?
Ken Allen: This is a great question. At first, the Sierra music for this album was going to be "inspired by" my compositions from my days at Sierra. Not what I considered to be ideal, but the backers seemed OK with that. However, I am happy to report that, as far as I can tell, this issue is resolved! The album will be using actual Sierra compositions legally. How, you ask? Read on. One of the backers alerted me to a provision in the copyright law called Compulsory Mechanical License where, if I understand it correctly, you can legally release your version of any song. The service I'm using is called Easy Song Licensing and after I explained to them what I wanted to do, they told me they could help and then also assist me if someone claimed copyright infringement. Originally, I did approach Activision who owns the Sierra games catalog and I asked for a license to use my old compositions. While we had a lot of fun discussing the Sierra classics and the new games successfully funded through Kickstarter (four and counting), at the end of the day, there was no interest in licensing the Sierra music. I really tried to be up front with the backers about this. But now that I've settled the legalities, backers will get the real deal. So, to your friend Mark and to anyone else out there worried about copyright infringement, rest assured. The matter is resolved. You will get my authentic Sierra music freshened up for today's listener.
Q. Under The Half Dome surpassed its funding goal in just 48 hours. You must feel a bit like James Stewart at the end of It's a Wonderful Life right about now. Have you always longed for the opportunity to revisit your earlier work, and did you possibly imagine that the fan support would still be there after all these years?
Ken Allen: I never thought about It's a Wonderful Life, but now that you mention how all the Sierra fans and everyone else rallying around me with their support, yeah, it kind of feels that way. That's a really good analogy. Yes, I have had this nagging desire to update my older work with state-of-the-art VSTs and DAW software. I mean, you see it all the time. With movies, you'll get a Directors Cut or Enhanced Version. Often, musicians bring out fully remastered reissues of their previous work. Even Sierra did it when they developed VGA versions, and later CD-ROM versions with voice, of games previously released as EGA games. And now that several Sierra designers are back in the groove making all new adventure games thanks to all the Sierra fans out there through Kickstarter, plus GOG.com selling the classic Sierra games, I thought the time was right to revive my old tunes for the present day audience.
Q. Beyond your musical career at Sierra, you also composed music for Parallax Software's Descent. I still have the CD-ROM for that game somewhere. Fun game, if not a little topsy-turvy at times. Will you be including any compositions based on that work, or any others that you did post-Sierra?
Ken Allen: I have one tune on Under The Half Dome from Descent, but it's not one that made it to the audio CD floating around out there. If I have my facts right, Allister Brimble arranged several songs from the game for the CD album (and he did an awesome job). But I'm not sure the pieces I wrote made it to the compilation. Yes, about half the music on this album is from my post-Sierra game composing career. I'm working on the track list for the album as we speak, so it's a little too soon to get specific.
My Ken Allen Collection
Q. Now, onto the question which has been on the tip of my tongue since the very beginning. It was recently confirmed that you will be composing the soundtrack for Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy's SpaceVenture, their spiritual successor to the Space Quest series. I was ecstatic when I first "heard" about this. SpaceVenture was already shaping up to be something truly special with Mark Crowe, Scott Murphy and Gary Owens all on-board for the first time since Space Quest IV. The entire band is back together at long last. Count me excited! How did it feel to reunite with Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy after so long, and who approached who?
Ken Allen: Well, I tell ya, after I made the transition from game composer to game producer, I really did miss making game music. Don't get me wrong. Being a game producer has been very satisfying, but in a different way. And after a while, the longing to make game music subsided to a state of hibernation. That is until I heard about Scott and Mark reuniting to make SpaceVenture. I couldn't help it. All of the creative juices began to flow again. It's like they were global warming and I was Glacier National Park. My brain was all a frenzy with musical ideas that just flowed naturally. But I had some self doubt. I hadn't composed music in 15 years. And I wondered about the state of today's composing tools and music production software. This isn't MT-32 land. Am I really up to this? So, I got myself the latest version of Cubase and a few sound libraries and immersed myself for a solid week during my vacation to get to the point where I felt I was on familiar turf. And then I reached out. Obviously, it was too soon to talk about music for SpaceVenture, so one of the Andromeda Guys asked for a looping tune to fit in the prototype they were developing for their Kickstarter campaign. I put something together but it bombed. So, I focused on creating music for the actual game based on what I'd read on their website and from a few conversations with Mark Crowe. I pitched a tune for the main theme. According to Mark Crowe, I knocked it out of the park. Then, I pitched another tune to be used as a theme for one of the main characters of the game but Mark felt it evoked visions of Robin Hood. Foul ball. So, back to the drawing board with a few more suggestions from Mark, and again knocked it out of the park. Finally, I offered a theme for one more of the main characters, and after a few tweaks from the feedback, it was another home run. In January 2013, the Guys From Andromeda and I came to an agreement for me to become the main composer for SpaceVenture. I'm back, and it feels good!
Thank you for taking the time to do this, Ken! I wish you all the best with your Under The Half Dome album, SpaceVenture, and all other future endeavors!
Ken Allen: You're quite welcome, Mike. You gonna finish that sandwich?
Be sure to follow Ken Allen's progress on Facebook and Twitter. He, and your ears, will be glad you did! And in case you missed the link earlier, Under The Half Dome. Now just over 150% funded.
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