Dark Technologies
| Dark Technologies | |
 |
|
| Founded | ca. 1988 |
| Closed | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England |
| Other Names | Enigma Variations Phoenix Interactive The Dungeon G3 Interactive Spellbound |
Dark Technologies was an English game developer founded around 1988 by Darren Melbourne and Mark Greenshields as Enigma Variations (in reference to the Edward Elric song). The company later changed their name to Dark Technologies in 1994, and then Phoenix Interactive, and then it became The Dungeon, which was evolved into G3 Interactive and Spellbound Interactive. It was folded into Mobius Entertainment in 2003, ending the 15-year legacy of the company. Barbara Walker joined the company in 1994, but when she left, Martyn Lane joined the company in its final years. Notable employees include Richard Naylor, Paul J. McKee and Stephen Hey.
While it is said that Enigma used the Dark name to avoid issues with Nintendo and Sega, this is unlikely, as both the Enigma and Dark names have been used in Nintendo games.
Something interesting to note is that Dark Technologies is credited as the developer in the beta version of Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday, but in the final version, Phoenix Interactive is credited as the developer.
Contents
Games
Music Development
DOS
Dark's only DOS game was Alien Olympics, which uses the Midpak sound system.
Game Boy
All of Enigma's Game Boy games used David Whittaker's sound driver, which the company purchased from Whittaker for an undisclosed amount of money. Some games were composed by Whittaker himself, while the others were composed by Kevin Bateson.
NES
The company used David Whittaker's sound driver. Their only NES game was The Lion King, and the only composer who got to use the engine was Kevin Bateson.
Like their Game Boy sound driver, the company purchased Whittaker's sound driver for an undisclosed amount of money.
SNES
Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday uses the SLICK/Audio engine, courtesy of Lawrence Hiler. The Beta version of the game uses David Whittaker's sound driver.
Audio Personnel
- Allister Brimble
- Ben Daglish - Composer.
- David Whittaker - Composer.
- Jeremy Taylor - Composer.
- Kevin Bateson - Composer.
- Mark Cooksey - Composer for Sensible Soccer: European Champions (GB).
- Michael Delaney - Sound programmer.
- Richard Rinn - Composer.
- Sean Conran - Composer.
- Thomas Petersen
Picture Gallery
Enigma Variations logo.
8-bit version of the Dark Technologies logo used in The Lion King (NES).
16-bit version of the Dark Technologies logo used in Alien Olympics (DOS).
The Phoenix Interactive logo used in the final version of Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday (SNES).
