Dark Technologies
| Dark Technologies | |
 |
|
| Founded | ca. 1988 |
| Closed | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England |
| Other Names | Enigma Variations Dark Tech5 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 was founded in Harrogate, England. The company was originally run out of programmer Richard Naylor's home, but the company later started an office. The company primarily developed titles for the popular computers at the time such as the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum. They also developed some titles for the Game Boy.
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.
For Sensible Soccer: European Champions, Mark Cooksey wrote the music in Notator for Atari ST and converted his driver to the Game Boy.
For The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt and Kick-Off, Barry Leitch wrote the music in assembly, using a sound driver by Richard Hutchinson.
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.
On The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt and Kick-Off, Barry Leitch wrote the music in assembly micros, using a driver by someone named "Mule the Top Ladd".
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.
GBC/GBA
For Gex: Enter The Gecko, Jeremy Taylor wrote MIDI files and converted to an assembly-based driver.
For GBC and GBA titles, Allister Brimble used QuickThunder, a sound driver by Michael Delaney. Thomas Petersen used FastTracker II and converted his sound files to own sound driver, using his tools.
Audio Personnel
- Allister Brimble
- Barry Leitch - Composer.
- 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).
