Mr. Heberling,

Hi.  I have loved the incredible orchestration of the music on the CD version of the PC
CD-Rom title The Lord of the Rings Volume 1 by Interplay from 1993 for so many years.  I
originally played the game in my youth and have recently discovered it once again.  That
music really recalls fond memories and also from a musical standpoint fits so well with
the Lord of the Rings.  I was wondering if you knew of any possible way that I could
attain all of the musical tracks created for the game.  After looking on the back of the
CD jewel case, I found your name associated with the CD music for the game.  I searched
everywhere and have not discovered a way in which to procure that amazing music.  Do you
know of any way to find, buy, or attain this music?  Thanks for your time.

Blake Strack

 

Dear Mr. Heberling

Let me introduce myself.  I am a gamer as well as a music lover. I play PC games of all
sorts, though most are SciFi-related. In some cases, I play these games not for the
gaming itself, but because of the in-game music. Beyond that I wish to remain anonymous.

When I was younger, my father purchased a CD-ROM game with the title "Gateway 2:
Homeworld."  I started playing this game and was soon infatuated with it.

Years have past since.  My infatuation for GW2:H has not past.  I still play it, despite
the fact that the game is outdated.  Yet I still continue to play it.  There are several
reasons why, which I will explain more elaborately later.

More recently, I down-loaded Frederik Pohl's Gateway, which I play too--but for some
reason it does not quite hold the same meaning for me as does GW2:H.

Now, these are the reasons why GW2:H is still my favorite game:

1. The game's atmosphere is unlike any other I have ever encountered.  The music, the
text, the pictures--they all fit together perfectly!

2. The game's plot is intriguing and exciting, if not thrilling!  In my opinion, the
music definately underscores the different plot twists, changing situations, etc.
masterfully.

3. The game's pre-programmed responses to certain commands have brought me much
amusement; and for some reason I never tire trying to find new responses to different
commands.

Mr. Heberling, you must be wondering why I actually contacted you. The reason I write you
is three-fold.

My first and foremost reason is to congratulate you for your accomplishments in creating
such beautiful music for GW2:H. Truely, I belive this game and its music to be
masterpieces.  Each and every piece always brought back deep emotions when I listened to
it.

Secondly, I would like to ask you whether you would be willing to provide me with the
email addresses of Mike Verdu, Doug Brandon, Glen Dahlgren, Arfing Dog, and/or Michael
Lindner.  As you surely know, these people were all part of Legend Entertainment and,
just as you were too, instrumental in developing GW2:H and its prequel, Frederik Pohl's
Gateway.  I feel the need to also express my gratitude and congratulations to them.  If
you would please be so kind as to mention their email addresses in your response, I would
be much obliged.

3. I am in need of your help, sir.  It has occured to me that while GW2:H can be played
on newer computer models, the game's music is not heard.  On older computers, the music
is played without any problems.  Since I consider the music of GW2:H one of its greatest
assets, it has always been disappointing for me to have to play it without the music. (I
currently do not own any older computers that are capable of playing the game's music). 
A friend of mine was so kind as to provide me with the MIDI files of the various pieces
of music, but my soundcard plays them in a very different way from what I was used to
hearing on my old computer. These music pieces sound familiar, yet strange at the same
time. Without a doubt, I can recognize each and every one, but it sounds as if that same
piece of music that I came to love in years gone by were being played by completely
different instruments. What I am attempting to communicate to you is that, well, to put
it frankly, "it just ain't the same." I was wondering whether you had WAV or MP3 files of
those music pieces in their original form stored away somewhere and whether you would be
willing to share them with me.

Greetings and Thank You for your time

--canislupus1818

 

Eric!

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I feel at the moment! I've been trying to get to you for a long time (Think how old Daggerfall is).  You aren't mentioned in the credits I think. (I can't quite recall that actually, maybe your name is present, but it doesn't indicate what you did in the game.) I was a great fan of the game (and I'm a great fan of that genre in general) and I was blown away with the music.

It's not an easy thing to explain, to tell how much I appreciated it. Back then I had a basic 16bit sound card that played MIDIs worse than the old Spectrum computers. I experienced the music with really bad sounds, but good music is good music. The music is so cleverly written, wonderfully composed, it isn't really necessary to listen to it with professional equipment to value it, to appreciate it.

I played the game pretty frequently and eventually began to hum the melodies so much I decided I should pay my tribute to this anonymous musician.  I  covered a tune, now known as "tavern1.mid". But back then not even the song had a name. By the way, please forgive my rush. I haven't even properly introduced myself. As my previous mail says I'm a guitar player particularly interested in instrumental stuff, in the vein of Joe Satraini, . . .

. . .  a few years later, I've come up a site that had all the Elder Scrolls midi music. I've downloaded all of them. Some of the tunes, I've never heard in the games but they were all the magnificent stuff I was so familiar with. The MIDI files gave me the chance to analyze the music, to see what this genious composer did. It was difficult for me to follow the music only by ear, since sometimes I wasn't accurate. But with MIDI files, I now knew the notes and had a chance to cover some other of my favorites with correct harmonies. And that's just what I did. I covered 2 more Daggerfall tunes by following the MIDI scores.


I know it's a long story, but it's the story of the past 5 years, so I hope I'm not boring you.

Gary Noonan from Bethsoft was a freuqent visitor of the messageboard and saw my complaint about how I mailed them, and didn't even get a reply. I was immediately contacted by him personally and I sent my versions still in the pursuit of finding you. Bethesda simply loved the music. In fact they've even asked me if they could use it somewhere on their upcoming Elder Scrolls game Morrowind! There has even been a talk of, me composing a few Morrowind tunes. (which I did, but they didn't like them at all.)

But they still didn't know who did all the music. No one in the world knew. And I guess no one in the world cared either. Only a maniac from Turkey, me, insisted he should give his personal thanks for the inspiration... and everything.

Then one day, when I re-opened some of the files in my sequencer software (files like : Dag_9.mid, Dag_8.mid, Dag_6.mid...) I found a name... A name, none other than Eric Heberling. Now I had a name to look for.

It still took quite a while. Gary Noonan said he remembered the name, but didn't quite know how to contact you. I had composed two Morrowind tunes, in the vein of Daggerfall, since Morrowind was a sequel, but Gary thought they were to happy. He sent me an example mp3 of what they had in mind. The mp3 was full of stupid effects and wasn't anything musical. I lost my interest, and gave up composing for them.

I have made rock versions of the following files :

Tavern1.mid
Snow.mid (7/8 tune)
town2.mid

. . . they are masterpieces! I'm in love with your music. And please don't think that I've exaggarated anything. I haven't. Why would I otherwise track a composer for   5 years whom I even didn't know a name?

I feel like I've completed a mission in a game and gone up a level :) Now I  can take a good sleep.

I'll set up a site where you can download my personal and Daggerfall related stuff as soon as I can. (that is if you wish of course)

I will now check your site and hopefully learn a bit about this master composer.

Thank you for everything Mr. Eric Heberling. Your love and passion for music
is loved and appreciated. Let the world never forget your name.

Tansel Coskuner.
Istanbul/TURKEY

EH: While Gary Noonan didn't know how to contact me probably due to the fact that I never worked with him directly, other employees did, and I went on to score music for PBA Bowling II for Bethesda Softworks.