Tommy Tallarico
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Tommy Tallarico is an American video game composer. He created video game music since the 1990s. He is one of co-founders of Video Games Live, a show where video game musicians play their composed music for games in a live band.
Tallarico started music when he was learning piano at age 3. He was first hired when he traveled to California and one of the producers of Virgin Games asked him if he wanted to test video games and he accepted. The first game he tested was the Game Boy version of Prince of Persia. While testing it, he noticed that there were no audio designers for the game, so he asked if he could work on the music and that he'd even do it free of charge. The staff at Virgin let him port Francis Mechner's complex compositions from the computer versions to the Game Boy. He later went on to found Tommy Tallarico Studios and worked as a contractor for various developers, providing music and sound effect.
Tallarico is a cousin of Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler. For many years, Tallarico served as President of Intellivision Entertainment. On February 7, 2022, it was announced that Tallarico was stepping down as the CEO.
Audio Development
GEN
Tallarico used GEMS.
NES
Tallarico used Tommy T's Play Me Sound Editor.
SNES
Tallarico initially used Chip Level Designs' audio driver, except in The Jungle Book (SNES), for which he used Sculptured Software's Wolfgang driver instead. Tallarico initially had to work with sheet music and would write it in assembly, like most other non-Japanese composers that utilized Kankichi-kun, until a MIDI sequencer was implemented.
Earthworm Jim 2, Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.S: Covert Action Teams, Madden NFL 96, and the unreleased port of Spot Goes to Hollywood used the SLICK/Audio sound driver from Bitmasters. Spot Goes to Hollywood uses two different builds on its prototypes; the early prototype uses version 1.01 and the later prototype uses version 1.07b.
Gameography
Picture Gallery
Tallarico as a security guard in Super Caesars Palace (SNES).
Summer 1995.
Circa 2004. Unknown source.
Circa 2004. Unknown source.
Circa 2004. Unknown source.
Links
- tallarico.com - Official.
- facebook.com/tommytallarico - Facebook.
- facebook.com/TommyTallarico2 - Facebook fan page.
- twitter.com/TommyTallarico - Twitter.
- youtube.com/channel/UC7RSEVV68_0hsiXnSYAcMlA - Youtube.
- youtube.com/watch?v=R6K5B0iBUnA - Tallarico talks about video game music at TED.
