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Kirk Winterrowd | |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | Composer, musician |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Labels | Origin Systems Imagine Studios |
Kirk Winterrowd is an American video game music composer and musician, best known for his work for Origin Systems, namely several of the Ultima titles. He also served as a voice actor in Ultima VIII: Pagan.
A pagan is an adherent of paganism.
Ultima is a series of open world fantasy role-playing video games from Origin Systems, Inc. Ultima was created by Richard Garriott. Electronic Arts has owned the brand since 1992. The series sold over 2 million copies by 1997.
Origin Systems, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. It was founded on March 3, 1983, by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert. Origin is best known for their groundbreaking work in multiple genres of video games, such as the Ultima and Wing Commander series. The company was purchased by Electronic Arts in 1992.
The Avatar is the main player character and protagonist in the Ultima series of video games by Origin Systems. The character was first introduced as "The Stranger" in the 1981 role-playing video game Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness.
Martin Galway is one of the best known composers of chiptune video game music for the Commodore 64 sound chip, the SID soundchip, and for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. His works include Rambo: First Blood Part II, Comic Bakery and Wizball's scores, as well as the music used in the loader for the C64 version of Arkanoid.
Warren Evan Spector is an American role-playing and video game designer, director, writer, producer and production designer. He is known for creating immersive sim games, which give players a wide variety of choices in how to progress. Consequences of those choices are then shown in the simulated game world in subsequent levels or missions. He is best known for the critically acclaimed video game Deus Ex that embodies the choice and consequence philosophy while combining elements of the first-person shooter, role-playing, and adventure game genres. In addition to Deus Ex, Spector is known for his work while employed by Looking Glass Studios, where he was involved in the creation of several acclaimed titles including Ultima Underworld, Ultima Underworld II, System Shock, and Thief: The Dark Project. He is employed by OtherSide Entertainment, where he is part of the development team for the upcoming game System Shock 3.
Chris Roberts is a British-American video game designer, programmer, film producer and film director. He created the Wing Commander series while at Origin Systems and is now working on the crowdfunded space simulator Star Citizen.
Ultima VII: The Black Gate is the seventh installment of the Ultima series of role-playing video games, released on April 16, 1992. In it the player returns as The Avatar, a would-be paragon of moral virtue who faces down many dangers and deceptions in order to cleanse the medieval fantasy world of Britannia of assorted plots and schemes, monster infestations, and the undermining of crown authority.
Ultima VIII: Pagan is a role-playing video game, released as the eighth part of the Ultima series. It was not as well-received as its predecessors, Ultima VII and Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle. Developed in 1994, it is a DOS-only title and is also the first game in the series to be rated M in North America.
Ultima IX: Ascension is the ninth and final part of the main series of the role-playing video game series Ultima. Developed by Origin Systems and published by Electronic Arts, Ultima IX was released in 1999 for Microsoft Windows after years in development hell. Following the Avatar's escape from Pagan, he is transported back to Britannia for one final battle with the Guardian, who is increasingly ruining the physical and moral fabric of that land by the use of eight columns. The Avatar must fight his way to the runes of virtue found in each of the columns, and cleanse them in the shrines of Virtue, then face off against the Guardian himself.
Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle is a role-playing video game released in 1993 as part of the core Ultima series, its story beginning eighteen months after the conclusion of Ultima VII: The Black Gate. In Serpent Isle, the Avatar follows Batlin to the eponymous land called Serpent Isle, finding three city-states founded by those who left Britannia generations before and ancient ruins from a still-older lost civilization that was there long before them.
Strike Commander is a combat flight simulation video game designed by Chris Roberts and released by Origin Systems for the PC DOS in 1993. Its 3D graphics-engine used both gouraud shading and texture-mapping on both aircraft-models and terrain, an impressive feat at the time. Significant plot elements were presented through in-game cut-scene animations, a hallmark storytelling vehicle from Chris Robert's previous Wing Commander games. Strike Commander has been called "Privateer on Earth," due to the mercenary role-playing in the game.
Fujisankei Communications International, Inc. (FCI) is the American arm of the Fujisankei Communications Group, a Japanese media conglomerate of television and radio channels, magazine, newspaper, record and video game companies. The Fujisankei Communications Group regroups more than 90 companies, like Fuji TV in Japan, among others. Founded in 1986 in New York City and owned by Fuji Media Holdings, FCI makes productions from the Fujisankei Communications Group available to the United States and the rest of the western world.
The Faery Tale Adventure is a 1987 action role-playing video game designed by David Joiner and published by MicroIllusions for the Amiga, and later ported to the Commodore 64, MS-DOS, and Sega Genesis. The MS-DOS version is titled The Faery Tale Adventure: Book I. Microillusions also released a "Book 1" version for the Amiga which was going to be the start of a series of games, according to Talin, but bankruptcy prevented it. The initial version was produced for the Amiga 1000 and featured the largest game world to that date. A sequel, Halls of the Dead: Faery Tale Adventure II, was released in 1997.
David R. Watson is a bowyer currently living in Austin, Texas. He has composed music for the Ultima series, including "Stones". Watson is a fencing master, a composer, and musician; and has a varied career of video game support including level designer in X-COM: Apocalypse, lead mission analyst in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and music composer in Ultima.
Mike McShaffry, a.k.a. "Mr. Mike," is a video game programmer, entrepreneur and author. He is known as the director of Ultima VIII: Pagan. He graduated from the University of Houston and began his video game industry career working for Origin Systems in 1990. He worked on titles such as Martian Dreams, Ultima VII: The Black Gate, Ultima VIII: Pagan, Ultima IX: Ascension and Ultima Online. In 1997 he formed his own company Tornado Alley. After that, he worked at Glass Eye Games for a while on Casino games, which were notable for being the first games he worked on that his mom enjoyed playing.
Dana Karl Glover is an American trumpet player and music composer for video games. He is also stated as Dr. Dana or Karl James. Glover wrote the music to video games like Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi, Ultima VII: The Black Gate, or Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle. In addition he directed, produced and wrote the music to the short horror movie Shadows in 2007.
Joe Basquez is an American songwriter, composer and musician from Austin, Texas. He is best known for his work at Origin Systems Inc, specifically, his compositions for Ultima Online in collaboration with Kirk Winterrowd.
Denis Loubet is an artist who has worked on several pen-and-paper role-playing games and video games, including the MMORPG Ashen Empires.