Chris Grigg

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Christopher Grigg
Chris Grigg - 1.jpg
Born 1960 or 1961
Birth Place
Nationality American   USA.svg
Website chrisgriggdesigns.com

Chris Grigg is an American composer and sound designer, best known for Maniac Mansion and several games by Epyx.

From 1983 to 1985, Grigg worked as a C64 developer at Waveform Corporation. When Waveform folded, Grigg co-founded the partnership Future Arts, which an acquainted Atari developer introduced to Lucasfilm Games. In 1987, Grigg freelanced for Electronic Arts and Epyx; after one game for Epyx, he became their music and sound director. After he left Epyx in 1991, he was a sound designer for various film studios including Pixar. He also worked for guitar amplifier manufacturer Line 6.

Grigg was also responsible for the primary sound driver for the Atari Lynx, as well as being one of the developers of GEMS.

Grigg is currently the chairman of MIDI Manufacturers Association and also works at MIPI Alliance.

Music Development

Commodore 64

At Lucasfilm Games, Grigg co-designed and used a sound driver (programmed by Randy Farmer for Habitat) and SCUMM's music driver (itself built upon Farmer's sound driver). Grigg arranged songs using Performer on a Macintosh 512K, transferred them over MIDI to a C64 running a self-programmed converter, and pasted them into assembly source code.

On Skate or Die (C64), Grigg used someone else's driver.

At Epyx, Grigg developed SPL (sound programming language) which also supported SID's built-in filter. Grigg knew that the filter varied between chips and used it sparingly, on shakers and noise sound effects. In VICE 3.2, they are most audible with 6581 (ReSID) and a bias of around -750, though how close it is to what Grigg heard is unconfirmed.

Genesis

For Andre Agassi Tennis, Grigg used the popular GEMS, which he also helped code.

Gameography

Released Title Sample Notes
1987-0?-?? California Games (C64)
1987-0?-?? Maniac Mansion (C64)
With David Lawrence.
1987-0?-?? PHM Pegasus (C64)
1987-??-?? Maniac Mansion (A2) With David Lawrence.
1987-??-?? Skate or Die (C64) Sound Effects. Driver by Unknown.
1988-01-01 Impossible Mission II (AMI) Arranged by Tamás Révbíró and Gábor Pongyor.
1988-0?-?? The Games: Summer Edition (C64) With Chris Ebert and Robert Vieira.
1988-0?-?? The Games: Winter Edition (C64) With Chris Ebert.
1988-0?-?? Impossible Mission II (AST) Arranged by Tamás Révbíró and Gábor Pongyor.
1988-0?-?? Impossible Mission II (C64)
Arranged by Tamás Révbíró and Gábor Pongyor.
1988-0?-?? Impossible Mission II (DOS) Arranged by Tamás Révbíró and Gábor Pongyor.
1988-0?-?? Impossible Mission II (ZXS) Arranged by Unknown.
1988-0?-?? L.A. Crackdown (C64) Music Driver. Composed and arranged by Unknown.
1988-0?-?? Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (C64)
Composed by Matthew Kane.
1988-??-?? 4x4 Off-Road Racing (AMI) Arranged Unknown's music from the Commodore 64 version.
1988-??-?? California Games (AMI)
1988-??-?? Impossible Mission II (A2) Arranged by Tamás Révbíró and Gábor Pongyor.
1988-??-?? The Legend of Blacksilver (C64)
Title Music Driver. In-Game Music Driver by Johnny Klonaris. Composed and arranged by Unknown.
1988-??-?? Maniac Mansion (AMI) With David Lawrence. Arranged by Brian Hales.
1988-??-?? Maniac Mansion (AST) With David Lawrence. Arranged by Brian Hales.
1988-??-?? Maniac Mansion (DOS) With David Lawrence. Arranged by David Warhol.
1989-??-?? Impossible Mission II (A2GS) Arranged by Tamás Révbíró and Gábor Pongyor.
1990-09-?? Maniac Mansion (NES) With David Lawrence. Arranged by David Warhol.
1990-??-?? California Games II (DOS) With Bob Aron, and Chris Ebert.
1990-??-?? Impossible Mission II (NES)
Arranged by Peter Gosztola.
1990-??-?? Xenophobe (LYNX) Arranged Michael Bartlow's music from the arcade version.
1990-??-?? Zarlor Mercenary (LYNX)
1992-??-?? Andre Agassi Tennis (GEN) With "Halestorm".
1992-??-?? Todd's Adventures in Slime World (LYNX) Sound Design
1994-??-?? Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm (SCD) Narrative Sound Design
1995-??-?? Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm (DOS) Narrative Sound Design
1996-??-?? Play-Doh Creations (W32) Dialogue Editor
1996-??-?? Toy Story Activity Center (W32) Sound Designer with Craig Snoke.

Picture Gallery

Links