Patrick "Pat" Phelan is a
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
audio
composer,
manager
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities ...
, and
producer
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
.
Background
At the age of 11, Phelan's parents bought him a
VIC-20
The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit home computer that was sold by Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the ...
. He learnt how to program and began to write games. At age 13, he got his first
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis ...
, a
Korg MS20 and learning how to program the MS20's patch bay gave him his grounding in understanding the fundamentals of
sound synthesis.
A few years later, the VIC was replaced with a
Commodore 64. Soon there was a confluence between his gaming obsession, and his love for sound and music. Influenced by
Rob Hubbard and
Ben Daglish
Ben Daglish (31 July 1966 – 1 October 2018) was an English composer and musician. Born in London, his parents moved to Sheffield when he was one year old. He was known for creating many soundtracks for home computer games during the 1980s, inc ...
, Phelan began to write music specifically for games. When he progressed to the
Atari ST, Phelan began collecting keyboards and using the ST's built-in
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, an ...
connectors, started to
sequence
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is called ...
complex arrangements, classical scores as well as audio for high-powered games.
In the early 1990s, Phelan joined
Gremlin Graphics, and was involved in the development of
Zool. Later on, he took on other responsibilities and managed the audio department before eventually moving into more senior creative roles.
Phelan left to set up Full Circle where he provided audio solutions for games, music for TV, consultancy and games design services. His clients included Infogrames, Climax, Headfirst and The BBC.
Games developed
Some of the games Phelan helped develop include:
*
Doctor Who: The Adventure Games
*
Outrun Online Arcade
*
Disney's A Christmas Carol
*
New International Track & Field
*
Driver 76
* Spooks
*
Micro Machines
* Slam Tennis
*
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare
*
Shadow Fighter
Shadow Fighter (hangul:섀도우 파이터, ''Shaedou Paiteo'') is a Korean animation. It is a product of the major anime broadcaster Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, and the 3D animation was done by Yellow Film. The story centers on the fight ...
* UEFA Challenge
*
Motorhead
*
N2O: Nitrous Oxide
*
Soulbringer
*
PGA European Tour
The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fi ...
*
Hardwar
*
Top Gear 2
*
Actua Soccer series
*
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. He first appeared in the second issue of '' 2000 AD'' (1977), which is a British weekly anthology comic. He is the magazine's longest-running c ...
*
Actua Golf 2
*
Realms of the Haunting
* Fightbox
*
Normality
* Sand Warriors
*
Loaded
*
Actua Ice Hockey series
*
Hogs of War
''Hogs of War'' is a 2000 turn-based tactics video game developed by Infogrames Sheffield House and published by Infogrames for the PlayStation and Microsoft Windows. The game is set in the First World War-era where anthropomorphic pigs eng ...
*
Slipstream 5000
''Slipstream 5000'' is a 3D airplane combat/racing video game developed by The Software Refinery and published by Gremlin Interactive for IBM PC compatible computers in July 1995.
Release
The game is compatible with DOS as well as Windows 95 and ...
*
Fatal Racing
*
Utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island socie ...
*
K240
*
Fragile Allegiance
*
Retribution
Retribution may refer to:
* Punishment
* Retributive justice, a theory of justice
** Divine retribution, retributive justice in a religious context
* Revenge, a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance
Film and televis ...
*
Litil Divil
''Litil Divil'' is a video game released by Gremlin Graphics Software in 1993. The game stars Mutt, a dog-like devil in the Underworld whose goal is to obtain the "Mystical Pizza of Plenty" from the Labyrinth of Chaos. ''Litil Divil's'' release ...
*
Lotus
Lotus may refer to:
Plants
*Lotus (plant), various botanical taxa commonly known as lotus, particularly:
** ''Lotus'' (genus), a genus of terrestrial plants in the family Fabaceae
**Lotus flower, a symbolically important aquatic Asian plant also ...
series
*
Zool
*
Premier Manager series
Current status
Phelan joined
Sumo Digital in 2005 he now works as an Audio Director.
Phelan, a member of
TIGA (The Independent Game developers Association) and
Gamerepublic (an Independent Trade Alliance), lives in England.
External links
Patrick Phelan Developer BIOat
Moby GamesFull Circle AudioArtist profile
at OverClocked ReMix
Reverbnation Page
*
Living people
Video game composers
Year of birth missing (living people)
{{UK-composer-stub