Graeme Norgate is a British
video game music
Video game music (VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led to t ...
composer who has composed music for a variety of video games developed by
Rare. His first project at Rare was writing music for the
Game Boy
The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...
game, ''
Donkey Kong Land
''Donkey Kong Land'', known in Japan as is a 1995 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It condenses the side-scrolling gameplay of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) game ''Donkey Kong Countr ...
''. He also contributed to the soundtracks of ''
Blast Corps
''Blast Corps'' is an action game developed by Rare (company), Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. The player uses vehicles to destroy buildings in the path of a runaway nuclear missile carrier. In the game's 57 Level (video ga ...
''
and ''
GoldenEye 007''.
Norgate was later an employee of
Free Radical Design
Free Radical Design Ltd. was a British video game developer based in Nottingham. Founded by David Doak, Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton and Graeme Norgate in Stoke-on-Trent in April 1999, it is best known for its ''TimeSplitters'' series of games.
...
,
the company was eventually bought out by
Crytek
Crytek GmbH is a German video game developer and software developer based in Frankfurt. Founded by the Yerli brothers in Coburg in 1999 and moved to Frankfurt in 2006, Crytek operates additional studios in Kyiv, Ukraine and Istanbul, Turkey. It ...
and renamed to Crytek UK; Norgate retained the position of audio director after the company's buyout. Norgate later moved to
Dambuster Studios
Deep Silver Dambuster Studios Ltd. is a British video game developer based in Nottingham, England and owned by Deep Silver, itself part of the Embracer Group-owned Plaion. The studio was founded on 30 July 2014, and was set up initially to take ...
after Crytek closed down Crytek UK.
Originally working at a bank before joining Rare in 1994, Norgate worked on the music of such games as ''GoldenEye 007'' and ''Blast Corps''. A friend of fellow Rare composer
Robin Beanland
Robin Beanland is a British composer of video game music, composing music for numerous Rare titles, such as the ''Killer Instinct'' franchise, ''Conker's Bad Fur Day'' (which he also co-wrote the screenplay with Chris Seavor), and many others ...
, the two worked on the original soundtrack to ''
Killer Instinct
''Killer Instinct'' is a series of fighting game, fighting video games originally created by Rare (company), Rare and published by Midway Games, Midway, Nintendo, and Microsoft Studios, Xbox Game Studios. The original Killer Instinct (1994 vide ...
''
in the 1990s. He also composed music (but was not fully credited) for other Rareware games such as ''
Diddy Kong Racing
''Diddy Kong Racing'' is a 1997 kart racing game developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64. The game revolves around Diddy Kong and his friends' attempt to defeat the intergalactic antagonist, a wizard pig named Wizpig, through win ...
'', ''
Jet Force Gemini
''Jet Force Gemini'' is a 1999 third-person shooter developed and published by Rare (company), Rare for the Nintendo 64 video game console. The game follows the story of three members of a galactic law enforcement team as they try to stop a horde ...
'',
/ref> and ''Perfect Dark
''Perfect Dark'' is a 2000 first-person shooter developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64. The first game of the '' Perfect Dark'' series, it follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute research centre, as she attempts ...
''.
Norgate played synthesizer and programmed drums
The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
for the bands 'FWNT' and 'The Catch' between 1991 and 1992. He also works under the alias of Virez when remixing, he has remixed several songs for bands such as Sigue Sigue Sputnik
Sigue Sigue Sputnik were a British new wave band formed in 1982 by former Generation X bassist Tony James. The band have had three UK top-40 hit singles, including " Love Missile F1-11" and " 21st Century Boy".
The band's music, image and in ...
, Goteki
Goteki () are a British electro band. They are the musical brainchild of composer Ross Tregenza. They were heavily involved in the development of UK electronic body music (EBM) and cybergoth genres in the early 2000s. Goteki split up in 2006, b ...
, Code 64
Code 64 is an electronic music band from Sweden. Their music can best be described as a mixture of synthpop, electronic body music and electropop.
Biography
Code 64 is a synthpop, darkwave, electronica band that signed with the small Norwegian ...
, Seize
Seize or seise may refer to:
*Seisin, legal possession of property
*Seizing, a class of knots used to semi-permanently bind together two ropes
*Seize (band), a British electronic band
*The jamming of machine parts against each other, usually due t ...
and Illumina.
Video game soundtracks
References
External links
*
*
*
Bandcamp store
Artist profile
at OverClocked ReMix
OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-commercial organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs, both with new technology and software and by vari ...
Timesplitters Music Box
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norgate, Graeme
Year of birth missing (living people)
Composers from London
English composers
English male composers
English video game composers
Living people
People from Chingford
Rare (company) people