Mark Van Hecke

Mark Van Hecke

Born	1954?
Birth Place	Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Nationality	American
Website	facebook.com/profile.php?ref=sgm&id=100000160974582

Mark Van Hecke is an American composer, music producer, and pianist who is known for his countless works at Absolute Entertainment. He attended the University of Wisconson-Milwaukee from 1973-1977. He began his video game music career as a composer at Absolute Entertainment where he worked from 1989 until the company closed their doors at the end of 1995. While at Absolute Entertainment he composed music for many of the games created by their in-house development company, Imagineering, Inc. Because the company developed several games based on TV/movie/media licenses, Van Hecke had to arrange the theme songs from the original shows to the NES. During his later years at Absolute, he became their audio director while composers like Stephen Melillo and Jim Wallace started creating music and sound effects. He now works as a freelance composer and producer.

Van Hecke said this about his music:

“

I considered Gyorgy Ligeti's "Lux Aeterna" a true ear (eye) opener. I also thought the same about "Trenody—to the Victims of Hiroshima" by Kristoff Penderecki. Then there is the endless hallowed hall of influences and entertainments. For example: The Beatles "You Can't Do That", The Drifters "Up on the Roof ", the Art Tatum recordings. Quicksilver Messenger Services "The Fool" establishes FM rock as a genre but the Doors did their 20 minute meanderings on any of their themes, mostly bad unfortunately . . . Nursery Rhymes . . . The Teddy Bears' Picnic sung by Bing Crosby. My theatrical scores for Shakespeare's Richard the Third, Julius Caesar and the Winter's Tale as well as my music for Therbert West Reanimator and the Glass Menagerie score as I did it for the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. I still play some of this music at the piano almost every day.

„

Music Composition

GB/NES

“

I used an Atari 1040 ST running Dr. T KCS and to simulate the sound generators of the NES (1 sine wave, 1 triangle, 1 square and a very simple noise generator). Output as a MIDI 1 file and then parsed using some proprietary software we wrote.

„

Van Hecke's MIDI files were converted to the NES using a sound driver by Stuart Ross.

GEN

Van Hecke used Dr. T's KCS for the Macintosh and his compositions were converted to the GEMS sound driver.

SNES

Dr. T's KCS on the Macintosh with a Kurzweil keyboard that was used for MIDI recording. His music was then converted to the SLICK/Audio sound engine by Bitmasters.

(Note: For the games that do not have credits such as InfoGenius Productivity Pak: Personal Organizer and Phone Book and Heavy Shreddin', we have contacted Van Hecke about these games and have received verification that he is the composer.)

Gameography

Note: Heavy Shreddin' (NES) and Jordan vs. Bird: One on One (GB) both lack credits. However, Mark verified composing these titles. Dan Kitchen confirmed Van Hecke's involvement with Fisher-Price: Firehouse Rescue (NES) as well. [1]

Released	Title	Notes
1990-??-??	A Boy and His Blob: Trouble On Blobolonia (NES)
1990-02-??	Destination Earthstar (NES)
1990-04-??	Ghostbusters II (NES)
1990-06-??	Heavy Shreddin' (NES)
1990-10-??	Battle Tank (NES)
1990-11-09	A Boy and His Blob In... The Rescue of Princess Blobette (GB)
1991-??-??	InfoGenius Productivity Pak: Personal Organizer and Phone Book (GB)
1991-02-??	The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants (NES)
1991-02-??	The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants (DOS)	Original Score
1991-03-??	Super Scrabble (GB)
1991-05-??	Flight of the Intruder (NES)
1991-11-??	Home Alone (GB) (ホーム・アローン)
1991-12-??	Barbie (NES)
1991-12-??	Home Alone (SNES) (ホーム・アローン)
1991-12-??	The Simpsons: Bart Vs. The World (NES)
1991-??-??	Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly (GB)
1991-??-??	Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (NES)
1992-??-??	Race America (NES)
1992-??-??	Jordan vs. Bird: One on One (GB) (マイケル・ジョーダン：ワンオンワン)
1992-03-??	Fisher-Price: Firehouse Rescue (NES)
1992-09-??	The Simpsons: Bart Vs. the Juggernauts (GB)
1992-10-??	Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (GB)
1992-10-??	Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (NES)
1992-10-??	Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (SNES)
1992-10-??	Race Drivin' (SNES)
1992-12-??	Jeopardy! (SNES)
1992-12-??	The Simpsons: Bartman Meets Radioactive Man (NES)
1992-12-??	Swamp Thing (NES)
1992-??-??	The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (GB)
1992-??-??	David Crane's Amazing Tennis (GEN)
1992-??-??	David Crane's Amazing Tennis (SNES)
1992-??-??	Barbie Game Girl (GB)
1992-??-??	Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (GB)
1992-??-??	Mouse Trap Hotel (GB)
1992-??-??	The Ren & Stimpy Show: Space Cadet Adventures (GB)
1992-??-??	The Simpsons: Bartman Meets Radioactive Man (GG)	Arranged by Matt Furniss
1992-??-??	Super Battletank: War In the Gulf (GEN)
1993-06-??	Family Dog (SNES)
1993-06-??	The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (SNES)
1993-09-??	Star Trek: The Next Generation (NES)	Arranged theme song from the television show.
1993-11-??	The Ren & Stimpy Show: Buckeroo$! (NES)
1993-??-??	The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (GEN)
1993-??-??	Family Feud (SNES)
1993-??-??	Goofy's Hysterical History Tour (GEN)
1993-??-??	Super Battletank: War In the Gulf (SNES)
1993-??-??	Toys (GEN)
1993-??-??	Toys (SNES)
1994-??-??	Super Battletank (GG)
1994-02-??	Turn and Burn: No Fly Zone (SNES) (スーパードッグファイト)
1994-11-??	Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit (SNES)	Audio Director
1994-11-??	Star Trek: Generations - Beyond the Nexus (GB)
1995-??-??	The Ren & Stimpy Show: Buckaroo$! (SNES)
1995-??-??	Star Trek: Generations - Beyond the Nexus (GG)
1996-12-??	Casper (SNES)
2003-10-31	Operation Armored Liberty (GBA)
Unreleased	Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors (SCD)	Audio Director, Queen Bee Music