GEMS

GEMS
Creator	Jonathan Miller, Burt Sloane, Chris Grigg, Mark Miller
Released	1991-??-??
Platform	DOS

GEMS (Genesis Editor for Music and Sound Effects) is a piece of proprietary music software for DOS used solely for creating music on the Sega Genesis and Sega 32X in the proprietary format MOD (GEMS). The program was created by Jonathan Miller, Burt Sloane, Chris Grigg and Mark Miller. The program is MIDI compatible to make it easier to use.

It is estimated that close to 200 Genesis and 32X games used GEMS for music and sound.

GEMS was heavily criticized by video game music listeners because of its low fidelity in instrument design, but this was a fault of the default instrument patches. They could be modified (which they sometimes were) to produce a more realistic sound.

Like the Kankichi-kun driver used by Nintendo for the SNES, the driver was loaned out to several developers and modified, such as Brian Schmidt, Novotrade, Eastridge Technology, Andy Brock and Don Veca, and as a result, there are many, many variants.

Composers

The following composers used GEMS:

• Alex Rudis
• Bill Bogenreif
• Brian Coburn
• Chris Grigg
• Clifford Falls
• Devin Hurd
• Jason Scher
• Mark Miller
• Mike Ash
• Nathan Grigg
• Rolf Weber
• Russell Lieblich
• Steve Rockett
• Ted Allen
• Tommy Tallarico
• Dwight Okahara
• Frank Klepacki
• Paul Mudra
• Patrick Collins
• David Javelosa
• Fred Porter
• Kevin Bateson
• Allister Brimble
• Brian Howarth
• Eric Swanson
• Greg Turner
• David Warhol
• Paul Webb
• Dean Morrell
• James Hebdon
• Eric Nunamaker
• Kingsley Thurber
• Mark Ganus
• Roy Wilkins
• Sam Powell
• Rick Fox
• Darren Mitchell
• Mark Van Hecke
• Jim Wallace
• David O'Riva
• Jim Wallace
• Fat Box
• Byte-Size Sound
• Michelle Simon
• Matt Scott

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