Internet Archeology Unearths Old Interview

Here's a very old interview with veteran Origin sound expert Martin Galway. C64.com conducted this Q&A based on his substantial roots in the Commodore 64 market, but the questions spread into his slightly more modern efforts. Based on the comments about Digital Anvil's recent founding and the Wing Commander Movie's upcoming release, we can place this one in about early 1998. He would have been working on Starlancer at this time. Find the full article here.

Tell us about the Origin years.

It was more hands-off. I was less involved with music than I used to be. There were those that had composed for longer than I had and were simply better at it than me, for example George Oldziey. I can't get that "orchestral sound". All my music is minimalist, I think it's because I learned my trade on the SID!!! In the future I think there will be an outlet for my style though, we'll have to see.

I became more involved with dialogue, which simply didn't exist in the 80's. From scriptwriting, to directing actors, to editing the dialogue later and processing it to get a good clear sound in the game.

Why was Digital Anvil built up?

Because Electronic Arts, who owns Origin, wouldn't give Chris (and by implication the team) the flexibility we needed to produce the kind of games we wanted to. Several new game ideas got canned. The Wing Commander feature project is a case in point, they weren't interested in doing it there. So we all left. We just secured the rights from them do to it ourselves and we're working on it now (for December 1998 release), because that's what we wanted to do. I understand one of the other games that was canned is one that we may acquire to complete later. It's about doing what we want. Origin employees are faced with such projects as Ultima Underworld 3, Privateer 3, Wing Commander 6, Ultima 9... Can you see a pattern there?

Tell us who's employed and such things.

In addition to all that corporate blurb on the web site, all the best staff from the Strike Commander, Wing Commander and Privateer teams all moved over to DA to continue making kick-ass space fantasy games. In addition, Tony Zurovec and the best of the Crusader team moved over here, and they're still into guns, explosions & carnage, except that this time it involves cars too, something we're all into!