Tommy Tallarico is rethinking the couch gaming experience. He told us more about Intellivision Amico and shared how to get started in the music industry.
Tommy Tallarico is a veritable video game industry icon. As one of the most successful video game composers in history, he has helped revolutionize the gaming world, creating unique audio landscapes that enhance the video gaming experience. He is considered the person most instrumental in changing the game industry from bleeps & bloops to real music now appreciated worldwide by billions of fans. As a well-recognized on-air television personality, live performer, show producer, creative director, game console CEO/President, sound designer and composer, Tommy brings his in-depth knowledge, years of experience, and love of cutting edge multimedia and pop culture to the masses. Tommy has worked in the gaming industry as a designer, product manager, producer, writer, hardware executive, games tester and heads of both music and video departments.
He produced, co-created, wrote and co-hosted 3 internationally award-winning syndicated and network television shows as well as creating, producing and hosting the continuing worldwide touring sensation Video Games Live. Since 2010 he has become a highly sought after live show creative director/producer. Clients include Disney, MGM, Blizzard/Activision, Capcom and artists such as Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin & EDM artist BT. In 2018 he was named CEO/President of legacy video game company Intellivision Entertainment to help launch a brand new home video game system called the Intellivision Amico.
An accomplished musician, Tallarico has been writing music for video games for over 30 years. He has won over 50 industry awards and has worked on more than 320 game titles; to date, they total sales of more than 250 million units and over 10 billion dollars in revenue. No one in the history of the video game industry has ever worked on more titles and projects. In 2008, he was enshrined in the Guinness Book of World Records with a two page feature article and interview and currently holds 5 Guinness World Records including the person who has worked on the most commercially released video games and the largest symphony show ever seen live (over 752,000 people in China). In 1994, he founded Tommy Tallarico Studios, the multimedia industry’s largest audio production house. In video games, television, film, radio, soundtracks, toys and even on floats in the New Years Day Rose Parade in Pasadena CA, Tallarico’s music has been heard by hundreds of millions of people around the world. Tommy is a cousin of rock star legend Steven Tyler (nee Tallarico) and in 2002 Tallarico’s music was used as the opening song for Aerosmiths’ “Girls of Summer” world tour.
His top titles include Earthworm Jim, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Disney’s Aladdin, Spider-Man and Metroid Prime as well as top selling popular game franchises such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man, Guitar Hero, Madden Football, Mortal Kombat, Time Crisis, Unreal, Lineage, James Bond, Blitz Football, The 7th Guest, Knockout Kings, Test Drive, Scooby Doo, WWE & Twisted Metal. His score for Advent Rising has been noted as “one of the greatest musical scores of all time” by websites such as Yahoo, Gamespot and others. Tallarico is the creator of the beloved Roblox “Oof” sound which became a worldwide sensation and arguably the most famous pop culture sound of the 21st century garnishing billions of views from memes and YouTube videos around the world.