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Q: How did you get involved with Cinemaware?
So there we are around a table in Vegas. A gaming table of sorts. Around me the composer, were programmers, graphics artists,conceptual engineers, and one jolly businessman. At one side was a young gentleman who hadn't said much and who seemed out-of-place in sunny Nevada. I, not terribly reserved,fit right in to Las Vegas, unfortunately. Many are the similarjoints where I've had to use the servants' entrance.
So there we were ... jolly Bob Jacob began glumly ... "We've lost our lead!", he mentions a rival. "They've come out with a kitchen recipe data base program... we're doomed."
I believe the first to snicker was quiet Bill Williams seated beside me. Then uproarious, viking toasts, the works... a great team. Bob I'd met a few short months before. After winning the French "Tilt d'Or" in 1985 for Music of the Year (OLE! for C64/and all the other little computers..) I'd thought I'd hit the US West Coast and see what I could sell to whom. After 15 years in Europe it was time to check-out the software industry back "home." Seattle(0), Portland(0), finally in Eugene someone said look up Bob Jacob when in L.A... so many kilometers later I find myself finally across the table with Bob... little did I know he was looking for a composer - I'd brought a bag of games and game proposals. He didn't know it was his musically lucky day, as I was no newcomer to the composing game. We hit it off, collaborated, and succeeded. Although most of my work was on time... delay in the steep C learning curve would sometimes cause his booming voice to ring out reminding one of promises and deadlines.
He managed a fine group. We finished them - DOTC and SDI (Has anyone ever won S.D.I?)
A few years later in Paris, Bob and Phyllis came through and bought me a posh dinner so... I treated them to my specialty - a great long nightime ("don't worry, I'm not lost") walk in Paris.Ah yes... I remember it well...
Meanwhile back at the casino, little did I know how closely I'd be working with Bill Williams and Martha Williams. You see, I knew Forth and loved it.
I knew Basic and didn't hate it. When compiled bla bla bla ...
I didn't know C. Defender of the Crown is in C !
So I C-crammed enough until I could at least begin to understand what Bill was explaining. During my wonderful visit to the Williams' in Michigan, I learned how to compile the music into C tables that often worked. Forming the waveforms was again mere table compilation but I found his system was quite tricky to master... later several of my "masterpieces" were beautifully re-tooled by Bill himself.
Martha designed the logo that my company, Pigeon Music, has used since. She also did the wonderfully horrific "Alien Aubergine Attacks Altoist" back cover of my CD "Gameplay". Included on this "Top Scores from Computer Action Adventures" CD is Bill's music from Sinbad. Very cool. (My favorite Cinemaware Game) They lived in the country out near Flint in a modern half-geodesic type pod house.
It suited them ... calm, quiet, far from Las Vegas. But for those few years of collaboration we'd lost touch but what I learned, how I learned it (he had to wake me during linking at one point), and above all from whom I learned it - gentle Bill Williams, the best programmer ever.
I thought that then, I still think that. You have doubts... try "Alley Cat" Atari XL... the best game ever written... well, I was right about the comet...
Q: What did you pursue after Cinemaware?
I hardly knew there was a "during Cinemaware". By '88 I was in L.A. recording 'GamePlay' - 1989 found me driving around the country in my '72 Dodge Swinger - performing my one-man show (saxophone with Amiga plus JForth programmed images). The graphics from that show were exhibited in Portland and several other arty cities like that in 90-91. I stayed in Oregon where I had a cool talk-radio show (One of the themes from S.D.I. was used daily as the theme music.) and formed a couple of cool bands - (Duoglide, Valve World). The lure of Paris being too strong, I returned in '96 and here I am with the coolest band ever - "drum & sax" - Sometime recently I spent a week recording Mozart in Cairo... During these last few years some of my early music has been re-released - Mormos (70-73), Spoils of War(68-70!), plus more soon!!
Q: Where can we go to see and hear more?
Some sites to browse:
Amiga computer art: http://art.jimcuomo.com
Re-discovered Spoils of War photos too late for liner notes: http://spoils.jimcuomo.com
Duoglide has performed each year since '96 in Paris: http://duoglide.compositeur.net
Mormos - legendary acoustic band: http://mormos.compositeur.net
Current best-band-in-the-world: http://drumnsax.compositeur.net
Gameplay -Top Scores from Computer Action Adventures (including DOTC, S.D.I. and Sinbad): http://gameplay.jimcuomo.com
All this and more: http://www.jimcuomo.com
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