Tommy Tallarico

Tommy Tallarico Studios

Tallarico continued working with Virgin Interactive as head of music and video division until 1994, when he went on to found Tommy Tallarico Studios. David Perry formed Shiny Entertainment at the same time, and the two studios collaborated on Earthworm Jim and MDK.^[10] In 2005, Tallarico wrote part of an orchestral score for Advent Rising performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.^[11]

In September 1999, the "oof" sound effect was created for the game Messiah, by sound designer Joey Kuras, a Tallarico Studios employee, and possibly by Tallarico himself.^[12][13] Tallarico has at times claimed that Kuras created the sound, that it was a collaboration between the pair, and that he created it himself.^[13][14] In 2006, the same audio was used in the online game platform Roblox as the default sound effect that played when a player character died, and later became iconic in meme culture due to its usage in Roblox.^[15] Tallarico, who claims ownership of the sound, disputed Roblox's use of it in June 2019.^[16] This dispute ended in July 2022 when the Roblox Corporation pulled the sound effect from all games on its platform.^[17]

Television

In 1997, Victor Lucas, founder of the Electric Playground, started Electric Playground TV with Tallarico, which provided gaming news and reviews. In 2002, Reviews on the Run, the reviews section of Electric Playground, was spun-off into its own program, which Tallarico and Lucas hosted as well. In the U.S., Reviews on the Run was broadcast on G4 TV as Judgment Day.^[18][19] In 2006, Tallarico began to spend less time on the show owing to other projects, missing almost all of 2007 and 2008. In 2009, Scott Jones took over his spot as full-time co-host with Victor Lucas.^[20][21]

Concerts

In 2002, Tallarico co-founded Video Games Live, a symphony orchestra concert series that plays music from video games, with Jack Wall.^[22] Tallarico hosted and played guitar for the shows. He also created the visuals—scenes from video games, as well as lights and lasers—that are played in sync with the music.^[23][24]

Tallarico has produced seven VGL albums. The first album, Video Games Live Volume 1, debuted at No. 10 on Billboard Top 10 for Classical Music Crossovers.^[25] The second volume, Level 2, also sold as a Blu-ray DVD concert, debuted at No. 8 on the same Billboard list.^[26] In August 2013, Tallarico also opened a crowdfunding campaign for the third album Level 3 on Kickstarter.^[27] According to Tallarico, he chose to fund the album through Kickstarter because he had not been successful in attracting support from the recording industry, which he claimed was because music producers "don't think gamers are willing to pay for music"^[28] and did not recognize the perceived "culturally artistic significance" of video game soundtracks.^[27] The Level 3 campaign successfully met and surpassed its goal of $250,000.^[29]

In 2014, Tallarico and electronic dance music artist BT began working on Electronic Opus. As with Video Games Live, Electronic Opus presents EDM music alongside a symphony orchestra. They used Kickstarter to fund an album, with a goal of $200,000. The show opened at the Miami Winter Music Conference in 2015.^[30][31] In 2016, Tallarico co-produced the Capcom Live! concert tour with Shota Nakama.^[32][33]

In 2024, video game music composer Laura Intravia accused Tallarico of selling music arrangements from Video Games Live concerts that he did not own the rights to.^[34]

Intellivision Entertainment

Following the death of Intellivision Productions founder Keith Robinson in 2017, Tallarico purchased a stake in the company from the Robinson estate. In May 2018, Intellivision Entertainment was re-formed with him as president. In the winter of that year, he announced that the company would create the Intellivision Amico with a release date of October 2020.^[35]

By September 2022, the Amico had been delayed at least three times.^[36] The console has been viewed very negatively by critics, drawing criticism for its delays,^[37] fundraising tactics,^[38] and use of NFTs.^[39] The status of the console has been described as "grim" by TechRaptor^[40] and compared to a car crash by Kotaku.^[41]

In February 2022, Tallarico stepped down from his role as CEO of Intellivision, remaining on board as the company's president and largest shareholder. He was replaced by the company's former chief revenue officer Phil Adam.^[42] As of 2025^[update], the Amico has not been released.^[43][44]

Game Audio Network Guild

In 2002, Tallarico founded the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.), a non-profit to recognize achievements in video game music and audio,^[45] and served as its CEO and chairman of the board.^[46] The guild hosts annual awards for achievement in game audio.^[47]

Misleading claims

In November 2022, British YouTuber Hbomberguy published a video essay which documented many of the grandiose claims that Tallarico had made concerning his career—including the number of video games he worked on, the number of Guinness World Records he earned, being the creator of the "oof" sound effect in his Roblox legal dispute, being featured on MTV Cribs, and being the first American to work on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise—and concluded many were either exaggerations or knowingly false.^[13][48]

Tommy Tallarico

Tommy Tallarico Studios