Mark Van Hecke

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Mark Van Hecke
Mark Van Hecke - 2.jpg
Born 1954?
Birth Place Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Nationality American   USA.svg
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. Although Hecke wrote music for a great deal of games, most of the games were low quality conversions of movies or cartoons that showcase very poor, obviously rushed music. Aside from composing, Hecke has also been credited as the audio director for several games. He now works as a freelance composer and producer.

Mark 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.

Mark's MIDI files were converted to the NES using a sound driver by Alex DeMeo.

SNES

Dr. T's KCS on the Macintosh with a Kurzweil keyboard that was used for MIDI recording.

(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 Mark about these games and have received verification that he is the composer.)

Gameography

Released Title Sample
1989-??-?? 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)
1990-??-?? Corvette ZR-1 Challenge (NES)
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)
1991-03-?? Super Scrabble (GB)
1991-05-?? Flight of the Intruder (NES)
1991-11-?? Home Alone (GB)
1991-12-?? Barbie (NES)
1991-12-?? Home Alone (SNES)
1991-12-?? The Simpsons: Bart Vs. The World (NES)
1991-??-?? Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (NES)
1991-??-?? 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)
1992-09-?? The Simpsons: Bart Vs. the Juggernauts (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-??-?? Amazing Tennis (GEN)
1992-??-?? Barbie Game Girl (GB)
1992-??-?? Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (GB)
1992-??-?? Mouse Trap Hotel (GB)
1992-??-?? Super Battletank: War In the Gulf (GEN)
1993-??-?? Goofy's Hysterical History Tour (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)
1993-11-?? The Ren & Stimpy Show: Buckeroo$! (NES)
1993-??-?? Bart Simpson's Escape From Camp Deadly (GB)
1993-??-?? Family Feud (SNES)
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-??-?? Star Trek: Generations - Beyond the Nexus (GG)
1996-12-?? Casper (SNES)

Picture Gallery

Links