Tim Wright
Encyclopedia
Tim Wright alias CoLD SToRAGE, is a Welsh video game music composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 most known for his work in video game soundtracks such as Shadow of the Beast
Shadow of the Beast
Shadow of the Beast is a side-scrolling platform computer game produced by Reflections Interactive and published by Psygnosis in 1989. The original version was released for the Commodore Amiga, but the game has been ported to many other systems...

 II & III, Agony, Lemmings, Wipeout and Colony Wars.

His first commercial works were created using the Commodore Amiga in the early 1990s and featured in computer games published by Psygnosis / Sony Computer Entertainment Studio Liverpool
SCE Studio Liverpool
SCE Studio Liverpool is a video game development house head-quartered at Wavertree Technology Park in Liverpool, England. It is part of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios. Founded in 1984 as Psygnosis, the company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment and...

.

Wright left Sony in 1997 to form Jester Interactive Limited
Jester Interactive
Jester Interactive is a video game developer based in North Wales in the United Kingdom and was founded in 1997 as a trading arm of Morgan Computing Limited. It would later trade under the name Jester Interactive Limited, and after going into administration in 2003 would re-emerge trading as...

 with the key goal of developing music creation software for home consoles. In his role as Creative Director at Jester he designed MUSICtm, MUSIC 2000, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

tm Music Generator and MUSIC 3000 before leaving along with his brothers to form Checkmate Solutions Limited
Checkmate Solutions
Checkmate Solutions was a video game developer based in Hooton, Cheshire in the United Kingdom, which was founded in 2003. The company was best known for specialising in the design & development of music sequencing software, most notable of which was Ejay....

.

At Checkmate Wright developed several musical sequencing products for Empire Interactive plc. under the eJay brand. After several products were developed Wright left to form his own company, Tantrumedia Limited.

Wright currently manages Tantrumedia Limited and their audio division where he composes music, designs music sequencing software and oversees the production of websites and other multimedia projects.

Career

While working as a computer programmer for Littlewoods/Index The Catalogue Shop
Littlewoods
Littlewoods is the name of a former retail and gambling company founded in Liverpool, Merseyside, England by John Moores in 1923.It started as a shopping catalogue company, processing orders by post in the early 1970s. In 1981, it expanded to a call centre, processing orders via telephone. At its...

 In the late 1980s, Wright penned compositions for computer based Demos, one of these entitled Puggs In Space
Puggsy
Puggsy is a 1993 platform/puzzle game, designed by Traveller's Tales and released by Psygnosis on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Sega Mega CD/Sega CD consoles, and the Amiga computer...

 caught the eye of Psygnosis' then Managing Director, Ian Hetherington
Ian Hetherington
Ian Hetherington was co-founder of Psygnosis, a company responsible for creating many early computer games. Along with Jonathan Ellis, Hetherington founded Psygnosis from the ashes of the defunct game company Imagine Software where Hetherington was the Financial Director...

. This led to Wright creating music for a number of Psygnosis' Amiga and Atari ST games, some of which won awards. This initial freelance work eventually led to him leaving his programming job for Littlewoods and going to work full time at Psygnosis Ltd as their Senior Sound Artist on projects such as Lemmings
Lemmings (video game)
Lemmings is a puzzle computer game developed by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis in . Originally developed for PC and Commodore Amiga, Lemmings was one of the most popular computer games of its time, and several gaming magazines gave it some of their highest review scores at the time...

, Wipeout
Wipeout (video game)
Wipeout is the first in a series of futuristic racing video games developed and published by Psygnosis. It was originally released in 1995 for Sony PlayStation and PCs running MS-DOS, and in 1996 for Sega Saturn...

, Wipeout 2097 and Colony Wars (refer to Video Gameography below for full list of titles).

Leaving Psygnosis in 1997, Wright was involved in the formation of Jester Interactive Ltd
Jester Interactive
Jester Interactive is a video game developer based in North Wales in the United Kingdom and was founded in 1997 as a trading arm of Morgan Computing Limited. It would later trade under the name Jester Interactive Limited, and after going into administration in 2003 would re-emerge trading as...

  with the intention of bringing music creation and mixing to Sony's original PlayStation console. The MUSICtm and MTV Music Generator series received industry awards & accolades, and spawned several incarnations of the MUSICtm Software
Music (software)
Music is the common name of a series of music creation programs created by Jester Interactive and published by Codemasters. The programs are tools that allow the user to create music. This can be done either by inserting pre-made riffs and other sound samples, or creating original riffs by...

 before Wright finally departed with his brother Lee
Lee Wright
Lee Wright is a British computer/video game programmer. He was the co-founder of software houses Jester Interactive Limited and Checkmate Solutions Limited, and his recent works include eJay music sequencers for Empire Interactive Limited...

 to form Checkmate Solutions Limited
Checkmate Solutions
Checkmate Solutions was a video game developer based in Hooton, Cheshire in the United Kingdom, which was founded in 2003. The company was best known for specialising in the design & development of music sequencing software, most notable of which was Ejay....

 to design a new range of eJay
EJay
eJay is a series of musical arrangement software and games, primarily for Microsoft Windows. The first edition, Dance eJay, was released in , supports eight tracks of audio and, as with its successors, permits the arrangement of sound bites by a drag-and-drop interface...

 music sequencing software.

In 2003, Wright formed his own multimedia company called Tantrumedia
Tantrumedia
Tantrumedia is a Business to Business company based on the Wirral in the United Kingdom. They provide a plethora of services including; web development, Linux web hosting, software development, musical composition & sound effect production, audio post production, art & design, printing, company...

 Ltd, involved in web space provision, website creation, software production, design & print and, of course, music. He also set up an official website to host much of his musical output under the name.

In 2005, as well as releasing the Cold Storage double album Melt, he designed a new version of the Dance & HipHop eJay
EJay
eJay is a series of musical arrangement software and games, primarily for Microsoft Windows. The first edition, Dance eJay, was released in , supports eight tracks of audio and, as with its successors, permits the arrangement of sound bites by a drag-and-drop interface...

 music software for Empire Interactive, and made a return to Wipeout
Wipeout (video game)
Wipeout is the first in a series of futuristic racing video games developed and published by Psygnosis. It was originally released in 1995 for Sony PlayStation and PCs running MS-DOS, and in 1996 for Sega Saturn...

, this time for the Sony PSP with Wipeout Pure.

2006 saw Wright create more music for games, this time on Nintendo DS, Sony PSP and PC for forthcoming titles.

In 2008 Wright released his Android Child and Cold Storage HD albums.

In 2009 Wright penned music for more games on DS, Wii and PS3, most notably Gravity Crash
Gravity Crash
Gravity Crash is a multidirectional shooter released on the Playstation Network. Its visual style pays homage to arcade games of the 1980s.-Gameplay:...

. He also released his 4th Studio Album entitled Project Moonbounce 2009 which features sounds created by bouncing radio signals off the moon as part of World Moonbounce or EME (Earth Moon Earth) day.

The soundtrack album to Sony's PS3 game Gravity Crash
Gravity Crash
Gravity Crash is a multidirectional shooter released on the Playstation Network. Its visual style pays homage to arcade games of the 1980s.-Gameplay:...

is released in 2010 and is Wright's 5th Studio Album entitled Gravity Crash Anthems. This is quickly followed by his 6th Studio Album, Tik Tak.

Wright creates his longest track ever Tangerine which weighs in at 9 minutes and 31 seconds. This track is given away free to anyone who participates in a 2010 Cold Storage Easter Promotion, and as such is a limited edition download, unavailable in the public domain.

Personal

Timothy Brian Wright was born at 6 Fford Las, Cymau
Cymau
Cymau is a small village situated in the community of Llanfynydd, Flintshire on the edge of the mountains of north-east Wales. Its name is derived from the Welsh word cymau, an old form of the plural for cwm, "valley" or "hollow"....

, North Wales
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...

 and spent his formative years attending the nearby Llanfynydd County Primary School, a Welsh first language school. He exhibited musical aspirations at the age of 3, singing self-penned songs into a portable cassette recorder
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...

.

At the age of 5 he moved with his family to a farm just outside Henllan
Henllan
Henllan is a village in Denbighshire, Wales with a population of approximately 750 and lies in the countryside, approximately 2.25 miles north-west of the walled-town of Denbigh.-Church and tower:...

 in North Wales
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...

. At the age of seven he began attending weekly formal Piano lessons. Wright lived on the farm with his mother, father and 4 siblings until he was 18, attending both Henllan County Primary School and Denbigh High School
Denbigh High School, Denbigh
-Overview:It is situated on Ruthin Road, Denbigh in North Wales and caters for approximately 850 pupils from the ages of 11 to 18.. The school is the only mainstream English/Welsh High School in the area where the next nearest is Rhyl High and Blessed Edwards .Most of the school children come from...

.

In his early teens he formed a short lived band called TUCAN with a fellow student. After completing his A Level examinations, he moved away to attend the Polytechnic of North London
University of North London
The University of North London was a university in the United Kingdom from 1992 to 2002. On 1 August 2002, it merged with London Guildhall University to form London Metropolitan University. The former University of North London premises now form the new university's north campus, situated on...

 where he studied Electronics and Communications Engineering for 2 years. Whilst at college he also formed another two-man band in the shape of the snappily named Infinite Remix III Jnr.

Upon his return to Wales after his studies, he worked for 6 months at Sharp Manufacturing UK
Sharp Corporation
is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. Headquartered in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan, Sharp employs more than 55,580 people worldwide as of June 2011. The company was founded in September 1912 and takes its name from one of its founder's first...

 in Llay near Wrexham, but quickly moved on to work for Littlewoods
Littlewoods
Littlewoods is the name of a former retail and gambling company founded in Liverpool, Merseyside, England by John Moores in 1923.It started as a shopping catalogue company, processing orders by post in the early 1970s. In 1981, it expanded to a call centre, processing orders via telephone. At its...

 in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, where he was part of the core team that programmed the in-house software for Index The Catalogue Shop. It was soon after moving to the Wirral
Wirral Peninsula
Wirral or the Wirral is a peninsula in North West England. It is bounded by three bodies of water: to the west by the River Dee, forming a boundary with Wales, to the east by the River Mersey and to the north by the Irish Sea. Both terms "Wirral" and "the Wirral" are used locally , although the...

 that he also met and eventually married his first wife Michelle.

Leaving Littlewoods
Littlewoods
Littlewoods is the name of a former retail and gambling company founded in Liverpool, Merseyside, England by John Moores in 1923.It started as a shopping catalogue company, processing orders by post in the early 1970s. In 1981, it expanded to a call centre, processing orders via telephone. At its...

 he spent 4 very prolific years at Psygnosis before leaving to form Jester Interactive
Jester Interactive
Jester Interactive is a video game developer based in North Wales in the United Kingdom and was founded in 1997 as a trading arm of Morgan Computing Limited. It would later trade under the name Jester Interactive Limited, and after going into administration in 2003 would re-emerge trading as...

 with his brother. It was around this time that he also met his second wife Claire. 2003 saw Wright leave Jester to form Checkmate Solutions Limited
Checkmate Solutions
Checkmate Solutions was a video game developer based in Hooton, Cheshire in the United Kingdom, which was founded in 2003. The company was best known for specialising in the design & development of music sequencing software, most notable of which was Ejay....

 again with his brother Lee
Lee Wright
Lee Wright is a British computer/video game programmer. He was the co-founder of software houses Jester Interactive Limited and Checkmate Solutions Limited, and his recent works include eJay music sequencers for Empire Interactive Limited...

.

In 2006, Checkmate Solutions Limited
Checkmate Solutions
Checkmate Solutions was a video game developer based in Hooton, Cheshire in the United Kingdom, which was founded in 2003. The company was best known for specialising in the design & development of music sequencing software, most notable of which was Ejay....

 was dissolved leaving Wright to Manage Tantrumedia Limited
Tantrumedia
Tantrumedia is a Business to Business company based on the Wirral in the United Kingdom. They provide a plethora of services including; web development, Linux web hosting, software development, musical composition & sound effect production, audio post production, art & design, printing, company...

, a company he originally incorporated in 2003 as a vehicle for his work on websites and music production.

Wright currently lives on the Wirral in the United Kingdom with his wife Claire and their son Jacob.

Video gameography

  • Puggs in Space (Amiga, 1989)
  • Awesome
    Awesome (video game)
    Awesome is a science fiction action video game released by Psygnosis for the Amiga and Atari ST in 1990. It features a variety of gameplay styles, from overhead shooting to Asteroids-esque sequences, and a pre-rendered ray-traced intro sequence...

    (Amiga
    Amiga
    The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...

    , 1990)
  • Carthage (Amiga, 1990)
  • Tentacle (Eldritch the Cat, Amiga, 1990)
  • The Killing Game Show
    The Killing Game Show
    The Killing Game Show is a run and gun shooter game developed by Raising Hell Software for the Amiga and Atari ST. It was released in 1990 and published by Psygnosis. It was re-released later under the name Fatal Rewind for the Sega Genesis and published by Electronic Arts. The music and sound...

    [FMV Intro] (Amiga, 1990)
  • Lemmings
    Lemmings (video game)
    Lemmings is a puzzle computer game developed by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis in . Originally developed for PC and Commodore Amiga, Lemmings was one of the most popular computer games of its time, and several gaming magazines gave it some of their highest review scores at the time...

    (Amiga, 1990)
  • Shadow of the Beast 2
    Shadow of the Beast
    Shadow of the Beast is a side-scrolling platform computer game produced by Reflections Interactive and published by Psygnosis in 1989. The original version was released for the Commodore Amiga, but the game has been ported to many other systems...

    (Amiga, 1990)
  • Armour-Geddon
    Armour-Geddon
    Armour-Geddon is a 3D computer game developed and published in 1991 by Psygnosis for the Amiga, MS-DOS and Atari ST platforms.There is also a sequel of this game called Armour-Geddon 2: Codename Hellfire available only for Amiga...

    (Amiga, 1990)
  • Leander
    Leander (computer game)
    Leander is a computer game for the Commodore Amiga developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Psygnosis in 1991. It was the first game to be developed by Traveller's Tales....

    (Amiga, 1991)
  • Amnios (Amiga, 1991)
  • Powermonger
    Powermonger
    Powermonger is a real-time strategy game developed by Bullfrog in 1990, derived from the Populous engine but presented using a 3-dimensional game map...

    (Amiga, 1991)
  • Lost Souls (Atari ST, 1991)
  • Agony (Amiga, 1992)
  • Aquaventura (Amiga, 1992)
  • Sensible Soccer (Amiga, 1992)
  • Shadow of the Beast 3
    Shadow of the Beast
    Shadow of the Beast is a side-scrolling platform computer game produced by Reflections Interactive and published by Psygnosis in 1989. The original version was released for the Commodore Amiga, but the game has been ported to many other systems...

    (Amiga, 1992)
  • Puggsy
    Puggsy
    Puggsy is a 1993 platform/puzzle game, designed by Traveller's Tales and released by Psygnosis on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Sega Mega CD/Sega CD consoles, and the Amiga computer...

    (Amiga, 1993)
  • Last Action Hero
    Last Action Hero
    Last Action Hero is a 1993 American action-comedy-fantasy film directed and produced by John McTiernan. It is a satire of the action genre and its clichés, containing several parodies of action films in the form of films within the film....

    (Mega CD, 1993)
  • Combat Air Patrol (PC, 1993)
  • Phoenix Rising (Mega CD, 1993)
  • Sensible Soccer
    Sensible Soccer
    Sensible Soccer, often affectionately known as Sensi, is an association football video game series which was highly popular in the early 1990s and which still retains a cult following...

    (Mega CD, 1993)
  • Mary Shelley's Frankenstein / Bram Stoker's Dracula (Mega CD, 1994)
  • Microcosm (Amiga CD32
    Amiga CD32
    The Amiga CD32, styled "CD32" , was the first 32-bit CD-ROM based video game console released in western Europe, Australia, Canada and Brazil. It was first announced at the Science Museum in London, United Kingdom on 16 July 1993, and was released in September of the same year...

    , 1994)
  • No Escape (Mega CD, 1994)
  • Mickey Mania (Mega CD, 1994)
  • Magician's Castle (Amiga, 1994)
  • The Misadventures of Flink (Amiga, 1995)
  • Wipeout (PlayStation
    PlayStation
    The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...

    , Sega Saturn
    Sega Saturn
    The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...

    , N64, PC, 1995)
  • Wipeout 2097
    Wipeout 2097
    Track listing Saturn/Windows versions * CoLD SToRAGE: "Canada"* CoLD SToRAGE: "Body in Motion"* CoLD SToRAGE: "Kinkong"* CoLD SToRAGE: "Plasticity"* CoLD SToRAGE: "Messij Xtnd"* CoLD SToRAGE: "Tenation"* CoLD SToRAGE: "Surgeon"...

    (Amiga, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, PC, 1996)
  • Krazy Ivan
    Krazy Ivan
    Krazy Ivan is a mech first-person shooter released for PC, Sega Saturn and PlayStation in 1996 by Psygnosis.The player took the role of Ivan Popovich, a Russian soldier controlling a giant mechanical suit, defending the Earth from robotic aliens....

    (PlayStation, Sega Saturn, PC, 1996)
  • Formula One (PlayStation, PC, 1996)
  • Adidas PowerSport Soccer (PlayStation, 1996)
  • Chomper (Psion 3, Psion 5, Psion Revo, 1997)
  • Thunder Truck Rally (PlayStation, PC, 1997)
  • Codename: Tenka (PlayStation, 1997)
  • Colony Wars
    Colony Wars
    Colony Wars is a trilogy of video games developed and produced by Psygnosis for the PlayStation. The three games in the series are Colony Wars , Colony Wars: Vengeance , and Colony Wars: Red Sun . The style of gameplay is a 3D science fiction space shoot 'em up.-Games:-Prologue:Colony Wars takes...

    (PlayStation, 1997)
  • Brainless (PlayStation, 1998)
  • MUSIC: Music Creation for the PlayStation (PlayStation, 1998)
  • Tellurian Defence (PC, 1999)
  • Music 2000 / MTV Music Generator (PlayStation, PC, 1999)
  • MTV Music Generator 2 (PS2, 2001)
  • Supertruck Racing (PS2, 2002)
  • Pocket Music (Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, 2002)
  • Music 2002 Slinky Club Edition (PC, 2002)
  • Music 3000 / Funkmaster Flex's Digital Hitz Factory (PS2, 2003)
  • Jet Set Willy (JAVA Mobile Phone, 2004)
  • Wipeout Pure
    Wipeout Pure
    Wipeout Pure is a 2005 video game in the Wipeout series for the PlayStation Portable. The game was released simultaneously with the release of the PSP during its North American launch. The developers expressed a desire to return to the handling of Wipeout 2097 and to make various changes to the...

    (PlayStation Portable
    PlayStation Portable
    The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...

    , 2005)
  • Ring Factory (PC, 2005)
  • Dance eJay 7 (PC, 2005)
  • HipHop eJay 6 (PC, 2005)
  • Techno eJay 5 (PC, 2006)
  • R&B eJay 1 (PC, 2007)
  • eJay Virtual Music Studio (PC, 2007)
  • Sudoku (NDS, 2007)
  • TT Superbike Legends (PS2, 2008)
  • Spellbound Party (Wii, 2009)
  • Spellbound (NDS, 2009)
  • Gravity Crash
    Gravity Crash
    Gravity Crash is a multidirectional shooter released on the Playstation Network. Its visual style pays homage to arcade games of the 1980s.-Gameplay:...

    (PS3/PSP, 2009)
  • Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
    Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
    Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing is a racing game in the Sega Superstars series produced for Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS and Microsoft Windows, featuring characters from many Sega franchises. It is being published by Sega and developed by Sumo Digital...

    (Xbox 360/PS3/Wii/DS/PC/Mobile, 2010)
  • Skillz (Xbox/PC, 2010)
  • Sodium 2 (PS3, 2011)

Discography

  • XTM - The Game Mix (Album, 1993)
  • CD Consoles - LE MAGAZINE DES SCREENAGERS: Music Collector 1 (Album, 1996)
  • JOYPAD - le mag des consoles: Joypad CD LE BEST OF DE PSYGNOSIS (Album, 1997)
  • Psygnosis: The Future Is Now (Album, 1997)
  • Amiga Immortal 2 (Album, 2002)
  • MELT (Album, 2005)
  • WipEout Pure: The Official Soundtrack (Album, 2005)
  • Amiga Immortal 3 (Album, 2006)
  • ANDROID CHILD (Album, 2008)
  • Albino 2 - The Red Eye Mix (Single, 2008)
  • CoLD SToRAGE HD (Album, 2008)
  • Project Moonbounce 2009 (Album, 2009)
  • Gravity Crash (Virtual Vinyl Single) (Single, 2009)
  • Smile Inside (Single, 2009)
  • Dancing Dad - Christmas Hero! (Single, 2009)
  • Gravity Crash Anthems (Album, 2010)
  • Tik Tak (Album, 2010)
  • Tangerine (Limited Edition Single - Easter Sale Promotion, 2010)
  • Yin+Yang (Double 'A' Side Single, 2010)
  • Amiga Immortal 4 (Album, 2011)
  • 6E 61 32 (Album, 2011)
  • Escape from Barkhaven ( Single A & B Side, 2011 )
  • AMIGA Revisited 2011 ( 5 track compilation Album, 2011 )

Live Performances & Public Appearances

Event Location Date Performance
Video Games Live Hammersmith Apollo, London, UK 3rd December 2006 On Stage Special Guest, Meet & Greet, Autographs
Video Games Live Cardiff International Arena, Cardiff, UK 3rd December 2009 Meet & Greet, Autographs
ChipFest 6 Bier Keller, Liverpool, UK 27th August 2011 As CoLD SToRAGE playing selected hits Live
Sunrise Demo Party 2011 Strathmore Hotel, Luton, UK 10th September 2011 As CoLD SToRAGE playing selected hits Live

External links


Interviews

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