Christopher P. Granner (born 1957 in

Mt. Kisco, New York Mount Kisco is a village and town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The town of Mount Kisco is coterminous with the village. The population was 10,959 at the 2020 United States census over 10,877 at the 2010 census. It serves as a ...

) is a freelance music composer, best known for composing music for

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

s and

pinball Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...

games.

Career and biography

Granner's father is organist/pianist, so he was interested in music since his childhood. He studied composition and computer sound/music at

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

under prolific musicians Ben Johnston,

Herbert Brün Herbert Brün (July 9, 1918 – November 6, 2000) was a composer, pioneer of electronic and computer music, and cybernetician. Born in Berlin, Germany, he taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1962 until he retired, several y ...

Salvatore Martirano Salvatore Giovanni Martirano (January 12, 1927 – November 17, 1995) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Born in Yonkers, New York, he taught for many years at the University of Illinois. He also worked in electronic music a ...

and Scott Wyatt. After finishing university with a

Bachelor of Music Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of prescr ...

and a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

in music composition he moved to Evanston-located

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

's music lab. There Granner heard that

Williams Electronics WMS Industries, Inc. was an American electronic gaming and amusement manufacturer in Enterprise, Nevada. It was merged into Scientific Games in 2016. WMS's predecessor was the Williams Manufacturing Company, founded in 1943 by Harry E. Williams ...

(which evolved in

Midway Games Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (series), Rampage'' ...

) was looking for composer, and he took the job and became leading composer in

coin-op A currency detector or currency validator is a device that determines whether notes or coins are genuine or counterfeit. These devices are used in a wide range of automated machines, such as retail kiosks, supermarket self checkout machines, a ...

and

industry. After leaving Midway Granner set up his own sound production studio CGMusic and produced music and sound for many

advertisement Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

s and pinball games. From 2006 to 2011, Granner had retired from composing music for games, after he was finished with Stern / Steve Ritchie Productions' pinball, ''World Poker Tour''. In 2011, Granner came out of retirement and joined the newly formed Jersey Jack Pinball, where he served as the composer and audio director for their first pinball game, ''The Wizard of Oz''.Pinball News: Jersey Jack Latest
Retrieved on 21 March 2011. In April 2012, Granner began audio work with Spooky Cool Labs, a Chicago-based startup company developing social games for Facebook and mobile platforms. He joined Spooky Cool, in-house, as Audio Director in October 2012. In June 2013, Spooky Cool was acquired by

Zynga Zynga Inc. () is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its missio ...

; Granner is currently serving as Audio Director of that studio, now known as Zynga Chicago, which produces games for the Hit It Rich! social casino.

Granner's Works

''Note: The titles shown are in chronological order.''

Pinball

Williams

* Road Kings (pinball) (with Bill Parod) *Millionaire *

Pin*Bot ''Pin-Bot'' (styled ''PIN•BOT'') is a pinball machine released by Williams in October 1986. It was designed by Python Anghelo and Barry Oursler. Rules The main objective of ''Pin-Bot'' is to advance through the planets of the Solar System, ...

(with Bill Parod) *

F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic aircraft, supersonic, twinjet, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experi ...

(with Steve Ritchie and Bill Parod) *Fire! (with Rich Karstens) * Big Guns *

Cyclone In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anti ...

Taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...

*Jokerz! (with Jon Hey) * Earthshaker! (with Jon Hey) *

Police Force The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

Whirlwind A whirlwind is a weather phenomenon in which a vortex of wind (a vertically oriented rotating column of air) forms due to instabilities and turbulence created by heating and flow (current) gradients. Whirlwinds occur all over the world and ...

Diner A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a com ...

FunHouse A funhouse or fun house is an amusement facility found on amusement park and funfair midways and is where patrons encounter and interact with various devices designed to surprise, challenge, and amuse them. Unlike thrill rides or dark rides, fu ...

(with Jon Hey) * Terminator 2: Judgment Day * Fish Tales *

Whitewater Whitewater forms in a rapid context, in particular, when a river's gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that froths, making the water appear opaque and ...

* Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure (with Rich Karstens) *

Red & Ted's Road Show ''Red & Ted's Road Show'' (also known as ''Road Show'') is a 1994 widebody pinball game designed by Pat Lawlor and released by Williams. It is part of WMS' ''SuperPin'' line of widebody games. Country singer Carlene Carter provided the voice of ...

Midway (Bally)

*Truck Stop *'' Elvira and the Party Monsters'' *'' Dr. Dude And His Excellent Ray'' (with Jon Hey) *''

The Addams Family ''The Addams Family'' is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 unrelated single-panel cartoons, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' over a ...

'' *''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, su ...

'' (with Rich Karstens) *''

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

*Pinball Magic (with Jeff Powell) *Airborne *The Pit and the Pendulum *Kingpin

Stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

*Monopoly *

RollerCoaster Tycoon ''RollerCoaster Tycoon'' is a series of simulation video games about building and managing an amusement park. Each game in the series challenges players with open-ended amusement park management and development, and allowing players to construc ...

^(PLD) *

The Simpsons Pinball Party ''The Simpsons Pinball Party'' is a 2003 pinball game released by Stern Pinball. Content ''The Simpsons Pinball Party'' is based on the animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' that airs on the Fox network. The game is said to feature one of the most com ...

(with

Dan Forden Daniel Warner Forden (born September 28, 1963) is an American sound programmer and music composer. He has worked on video games developed by Midway and its successor NetherRealm Studios since 1989. Forden achieved recognition for his audio wor ...

)^{(Keith P. Johnson, Joe Balcer)} * Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ^(SRP) *The Lord of the Rings^{(George Gomez

George Gomez is an industrial designer, video game designer, and pinball designer who has worked for Bally, Williams, and Stern Pinball, among other companies. He worked on the team that created the ''Tron'' video game, and headed the team that cr ...
)} *

Ripley's Believe It or Not! ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the ''Believe It or Not'' feat ...

^(PLD) *Elvis^(SRP) *The Sopranos^{(George Gomez)} *NASCAR (released as ''Grand Prix'' in Europe)^(PLD) *

World Poker Tour The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the fi ...

^(SRP)

Jersey Jack Pinball

* The Wizard of Oz (with Rob Berry) ''The names in superscript are the designers from the pinball machine, PLD stands for Pat Lawlor Design, SRP stands for Steve Ritchie Productions''

Video games

Williams

* Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest

Midway

Trog ''Trog'' is a 1970 British science fiction horror film directed by Freddie Francis, and starring Joan Crawford in a story about the discovery of a troglodyte (or Ice Age "caveman") in twentieth-century United Kingdom. The screenplay was written ...

* Strike Force * Terminator 2: Judgment Day *

Revolution X In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

* WWF WrestleMania

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

* Super Baseball 2020 (with

Brian L. Schmidt Brian L. Schmidt is a music composer for various video games and pinball machines. Biography He began in the video game music and sound industry in 1987 as a composer/sound designer and programmer for Williams Electronic Games in Chicago wr ...

;

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

version)

Atari Games Atari Games Corporation, known as Midway Games West Inc. after 1999, was an American producer of Arcade game, arcade Video game, games. It was formed in 1985 when the coin-operated Arcade game, arcade game division of Atari, Inc. was transfered ...

California Speed California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Incredible Technologies

* Golden Tee Fore!

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

* Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus (developed by

Studio Gigante Studio Gigante was a Chicago-based video game developer established in 2000 by John Tobias, Dave Michicich, and Joshua Tsui, several developers of Midway's popular '' Mortal Kombat'' fighting game series. Its name is a play on the name of the t ...

)

THQ THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initial ...

* WWE WrestleMania 21 (developed by Studio Gigante)

Zynga Zynga Inc. () is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its missio ...

*Wizard of Oz social adventure-sim game (developed by Spooky Cool Labs; now inactive) *Hit It Rich! social casino

References

External links

CGMusic: Chris Granner's Music Production StudioSoundtrack of Millionaire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Granner, Chris 1958 births American male composers Freelance musicians Kodaikanal International School alumni Living people Musicians from Chicago Pinball game designers Video game composers