Mark Knight

Alt. Name: madfiddler, TDK, Skimpy
Date of Birth: January 8, 1973
Location: Brighton, UK
Website: www.madfiddler.co.uk

Biography / Trivia

It was with the violin that Mark Knight started out in music. Having received a solid training throughout his youth, he has become a renowned fiddler (or "madfiddler" shall we say!). He plays different types, yet the electric violins have found a special place on his shoulder blade and chin. Through the years, Knight did gigs with multiple bands, including Tricks Upon Travellers, K-Passa, Bluehorses, Silver Dogs, and MoonDance. Having also worked as a session musician and arranger, notably with Bjørn Lynne and Massive Attack, all-things violin is definitely Knight's passion when not busy in the game industry.

This Brighton boy has been employed by various British game companies since the early 90's. The first was Mindscape, at which he arranged music for a couple of Amiga conversions and then got on to create original material for games such as Captive 2: Liberation, Out to Lunch, CyberSpeed, and two Warhammer titles. Five years following his hiring, the development team was shut down and Knight went on freelance. The PlayStation port of Duke Nukem 3D was his next project and consisted of remixing 11 PC tracks and composing 20 original ones.

Soon after, he was hired by Bullfrog and this new position led him to score Populous: The Beginning and Dungeon Keeper 2. EA owning a large part of Bullfrog since 1995, his official employer eventually switched to these famous two letters. For his work on Theme Park World, Knight won a BAFTA award for "Best Sound" in 2000. While being in charge of audio, he took care of this aspect for a few other titles, without actually composing much music, until he left the company in January 2003.

Freelance for a time and keeping busy with non-game music contracts, then Knight joined Visual Science in April 2004. Not two years later, the company closed down and he was back on his own. In April 2006, he got a job back at EA, in a different studio this time. Six months later, bad luck struck once more and the studio shut down. From there, he has been able to get a few contracts for sound/dialog editing and music conversion. Since November 2007, he is working in Codemasters' audio department.

Between his first years at EA and today, no new original or elaborate soundtracks were composed. However, Knight kept entertaining his fans with his music by making available for download on his website a number of compositions in various styles he did for himself.

Games (23)

Year Title Platform Composer
1992 Battletoads AMI Mark Knight, David Wise
1992 Guy Spy and the Crystals of Armageddon AMI Marc François, Mark Knight
1992 Wing Commander AMI George Alistair Sanger, David Govett, Mark Knight
1993 Alfred Chicken AMI, CD32, SNES David Whittaker, Mark Knight
1993 Battleship NES Mark Knight
1993 Captive 2: Liberation AMI, CD32 Mark Knight
1993 D/Generation CD32, PC Sean Gugler, Mark Knight
1993 Evasive Action PC Frédéric Motte, Mark Knight
1993 Mario's Time Machine SNES Mark Knight
1993 Outlander SNES Ben Watkins, Mark Knight
1993 Overkill & Lunar-C CD32 Mark Knight
1993 SimLife AMI Mark Knight, Russell Lieblich, Steve Hales
1994 Out to Lunch AMI, CD32, SNES Mark Knight
1994 SimCity 2000 AMI Mark Knight, Sue Kasper
1995 CyberSpeed PC, PSX Mark Knight
1996 Supersonic Racers PSX Gerard Gourley, Mark Knight
1996 Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat PC, PSX Mark Knight, James Hannigan
1997 Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown PSX Mark Knight, Lee Jackson, Robert Prince
1998 Populous: The Beginning PC, PSX Mark Knight
1998 Warhammer: Dark Omen PC, PSX Mark Knight
1999 Dungeon Keeper 2 PC Mark Knight
2000 Superbike 2000 PC, PSX McSleazy, Mark Knight
? Mario's Mission Earth SNES Mark Knight

Albums (1)

Year Title Type
1996 Mega Video Game Music Volume 1 CD

Download Links

» Alfred Chicken (SPC)
» Captive 2: Liberation (Single Tracks)
» CyberSpeed (Single Tracks)
» Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown (Single Tracks)
» Dungeon Keeper 2 (Single Tracks)
» Mario's Time Machine (SPC)
» Out to Lunch (SPC)
» Outlander (SPC)
» Populous: The Beginning (Single Tracks)
» Supersonic Racers (Single Tracks)
» Warhammer: Dark Omen (Single Tracks)

Added by Rimo on Apr 3, 2008 06:49 PM Edited by Rimo on Apr 4, 2008 11:53 AM