Aaron Freed’s Contact Info & Biography

(…which desperately needs to be rewritten to reflect my website’s current focus)

  1. Contact Info
  2. Biographical Info
    1. Marathon qualifications
    2. Music qualifications
    3. Miscellaneous qualifications
  3. Q&A
    1. Music
    2. Marathon
    3. Baseball
    4. Other
  4. Endnotes

Contact Info

The fastest way to contact me is Discord (@aaron6608 or @Aaron#6608). We’ll need a server in common; I recommend the servers for hellpak or The Fourth Curtain (Alex Seropian’s podcast about games ⟨podfollow.com/thefourthcurtain⟩), both of which I check regularly. I may still take a while to respond, especially if we’ve never interacted before – I frequently have limited energy for social interactions. I apologize for this in advance.

I’m technically still a member of the Marathon server, but please don’t ping me there; I’ll never see it, much less respond. (Please don’t ask why; it’s irrelevant and linked to a lot of unpleasant baggage.) I will respond to DMs eventually, but I recommend DMing me if and only if:

If you need help, people would probably provide it on the Marathon server before I’d respond to any DM you sent me, so I recommend asking in its #classic-marathon, #forge⁽¹⁾, or #tech-support channels. (#development is intended only for engine and editor development, so VAF and Aleph Bet are the only projects I work on that would be relevant there – but again, don’t ping me there: I’ll neither read it nor respond.)

I’m also on GitHub as aaronfreed, naturally. If you notice any errors, omissions, or unclear passages, and you aren’t on Discord, you’re welcome to create an issue, submit a pull request, or start a discussion. I do ask users to be respectful (of both me and others) and note that I maintain this page on my own time, for free, while also juggling multiple active development projects that I also work on, also for free. The rules I outline for my discussion section apply equally well to issues and pull requests.

I’m also on the Pfhorums (as The Man) and Reddit (as u/aaronnotarobot), but I can’t promise to respond to messages on either quickly. Lastly, I do, of course, have an email address, but:

  1. Email is very nearly the worst way to contact me.
  2. The days when it was a good idea to post an email address on a public webpage are long over.

Contents · Mapmaking (basic) · Mapmaking (advanced) · Marathon soundtracks · Discography · Portfolio · Website index

Biographical Info

What qualifies you to write a Marathon mapmaking guide?

I’m Aaron; I’ve got a long history modding for the Marathon trilogy. I’ve worked in some capacity (not always mapping-related) on current and forthcoming mods like:

Basically, I’ve been busy mapping for this engine off and on since about 1997, during which I’ve acquired all kinds of stupid arcane knowledge about it. Have you ever heard of ambient light delta? Neither had Aleph One’s developers until I pointed it out. I’m not saying that because I think it’s worth being proud of having acquired so much useless and pointless knowledge, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me… no, hang on. Sorry, that’s Taken.

Anyway, I want Marathon mapping to be more accessible, so I wrote beginning and advanced guides that document some of its frustrating problems and solutions to them. Other pages you may be interested in:

Contents · Mapmaking (basic) · Mapmaking (advanced) · Marathon soundtracks · Discography · Portfolio · Website index

What qualifies you to write about music?

I have well over a decade of classical training in performing, composing, and arranging music on both piano and computer sequencers. I’ve also spent thousands of hours working on sounds and music for various creative projects over the decades. I’ve released over ten hours of music. My recent/forthcoming major releases are:

I’ve worked on several games’ soundtracks:

And sound effects:

I’ve also written notes (sorry!⁽³⁾) on:

Contents · Mapmaking (basic) · Mapmaking (advanced) · Marathon soundtracks · Discography · Portfolio · Website index

What qualifies you to write about…

…neurodivergence?

Forty-two years of being neurodivergent.

…As tempted as I am to just drop the mic there, I’ve also written literally millions of words for largely neurotypical audiences, which has been quite elucidating regarding our communication differences. Additionally, I’ve had several years of professional training at reading neurotypicals. Not that I’m by any means perfect at it yet.

…politics?

A bachelor’s degree in political science, decades of voracious reading on the topic, and… well, I go into some of the other reasons at some length in my autobiography.

…baseball?

A history of suffering dating at least back to the Atlanta Braves’ heartbreaking 1991 World Series loss. (Familial obligation would compel me to continue rooting for them even if I weren’t an Atlanta native: I’m a second cousin of their Triple Crown and Cy Young-winning starter.) Also, mathematical training, obsessive reading on baseball history, and knowledge that the knuckleball is objectively the greatest pitch ever invented may play into it.

…ancient languages?

I was just about to commit the answer, “Nothing whatsoever: I’m entirely self-taught in both Latin and Greek,” when I remembered that many lifetimes ago, I got a perfect score on the SAT (U.S. college entrance exam, formerly an initialism for “Scholastic Aptitude Test”). Whether or not most students realize it, SAT vocabulary is soft training in Latin and Greek. That said, the extent of my formal foreign language training is slightly over a decade of Spanish from elementary school to college and around two semesters of German in college; so in other words, I still don’t have direct formal training in either Greek or Latin.

Contents · Mapmaking (basic) · Mapmaking (advanced) · Marathon soundtracks · Discography · Portfolio · Website index

Q&A

Music

Q: Who are your biggest musical influences?

A: Johann Sebastian Bach is almost singlehandedly responsible for my understanding of harmony; Brian Eno is almost singlehandedly responsible for my understanding of creativity. The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Nobuo Uematsu, Vangelis, & King Crimson round out the big seven, in that order.

My other influences include ABBA, Steve Albini, the Beach Boys, Beastie Boys, Black Sabbath, Kate Bush, Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, Ludwig van Beethoven, Chris Christodoulou, John Coltrane, Daft Punk, Miles Davis, Deathspell Omega, Nick Drake, Enslaved, Tim & Geoff Follin, Marvin Gaye, Genesis, Michael Giacchino, Philip Glass, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Jerry Goldsmith, Ludwig Göransson, Joy Division, Bernard Herrmann, Joe Hisaishi, James Horner, Kōenji Hyakkei, Yokō Kanno, Kōji Kondō, Magma, Metallica, Yasunori Mitsuda, Janelle Monáe, Ennio Morricone, Motown (the whole label), Joanna Newsom, Nightwish, Nine Inch Nails, Opeth, Radiohead, Steve Reich, Ren, Rush, Yokō Shimomura, Ringo Shīna, Howard Shore, Igor Stravinsky, System of a Down, Talk Talk, Talking Heads, Tears for Fears, Tool, Nobuo Uematsu, John Williams, Windir, David Wise, Yes, Frank Zappa, & Hans Zimmer.

I elaborated further on many of my biggest influences here.

Q: What do listeners think your music sounds like?

A: They clearly agreed on Eno, Follin, Magma, Mitsuda, Tears for Fears, Uematsu, & Vangelis being influences, as those are among the comparisons it’s received. It’s also been compared to the works of Minako Hamano (Super Metroid), Quincy Jones, Kouichi Kyuma (Metroid Prime), Marty O’Donnell (Halo, Destiny), Krzysztof Penderecki, Ben Prunty (FTL: Faster Than Light), Michael Salvatori (Halo, Destiny), Scott Lloyd Shelly (Terraria), Tangerine Dream, David Wise (Donkey Kong Country), & Kenji Yamamoto (Metroid series).

In a few cases, this was semi-coincidental; although I admire Prunty & Shelly’s work, I hadn’t heard much of it at the time people made the comparisons, but our shared influences (especially Eno and Vangelis) likely made the stylistic similarities inevitable. Likewise, Tangerine Dream was likely more “we’re both influenced by Bach, the Beatles, Beethoven, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Reich, & Yes, and we both use a ton of Mellotron” than direct influence. And while I found the Penderecki comparison especially flattering, I can’t claim it was entirely intentional; I think I pulled off electronic repliche of some of his string textures and dissonances partly by luck.

However, I’ve deeply admired the others’ work for a long time – in Jones’ case, since I was literally two years old, as Michael Jackson’s Thriller was literally the first album that made me take an interest in music. Meanwhile, Super Metroid and Halo: Combat Evolved probably rank in my top ten soundtracks of all time (and if I allowed series to make multiple appearances in such lists, Metroid Prime would be at least top twenty).

I’ve seen tracks I’ve worked on classified as progressive rock, progressive metal, post-rock, industrial metal, jazz, blues, drum & bass, ambient, techno, dark ambient, black metal, and drone. This list probably isn’t complete.

Q: What’s your workflow for composing and arranging music?

A: I compose primarily in Apple’s Logic Pro, using East West’s Composer Cloud+ and Cherry Audio’s GX-80 to supplement its instrument library, and master my compositions in iZotope RX Standard. While I’m a competent pianist, I consider my playing too rhythmically inexact to work for game music, which often must loop precisely; any variance in tempo will therefore stick out.

Q: Why don’t you ever write lyrics in English?

A: Writing in languages I speak competently but not fluently, such as Latin or Greek, forces me to choose words and imagery more economically. Conciseness is not a trait my English writing has ever been accused of.

Q: Can I buy your music or donate to you in any way?

A: Unfortunately, my circumstances prohibit that right now, probably indefinitely. I listed several charities that need money more than I do in my commentary for Mūsica ex tempore malōrum. Send it to one of them instead.

Contents · Mapmaking (basic) · Mapmaking (advanced) · Marathon soundtracks · Discography · Portfolio · Website index

Marathon

Q: What happened to [insert project name here]?

A: I had way too many active projects and inevitably burnt out over several of them. I eventually plan to resume working on some of them, but I make no promises as to which ones I will resume, nor when I will do so – people should have learned a long time ago to stop trusting my estimates of these things anyway.

Q: Is [insert project name here] ever going to get finished?

A: Art is never finished. Artists just stop working on it. However, I don’t think I’ve stopped working on Eternal or hellpak vol. 2 for good; I just need some time off from them. Marathon Chronicles will probably take longer, until a few collaborators have more time to work on it (assuming they ever do).

As for software projects: I may resume work on VAF at some point, but unless someone with vastly more knowledge of (and enthusiasm for working in) C++ is ready to help revive Aleph Bet, it’s probably dead.

Q: Will you map/write music/make sound effects/write terminals/script for my Marathon scenario?

A: Sorry, I already have way too many unfinished projects, not to mention severe anxiety and trust issues. Unless I know you really well, the answer is no. (And if you have to ask if I know you that well… I don’t.)

Contents · Mapmaking (basic) · Mapmaking (advanced) · Marathon soundtracks · Discography · Portfolio · Website index

Baseball

Q: Who are your favorite pitchers?

A: I’ll divide these into eras. (Hall of Famers are bolded.)

1871–1919: Bud Fowler, George Stovey, John Montgomery Ward, Jim Devlin, Addie Joss, Ed Walsh, Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Mordecai Brown, Rube Waddell.

1920–1946: Bullet Joe Rogan, Martín Dihigo, Bob Feller, Carl Hubbell, Bill Foster, Leon Day.

1947–2000: Pedro Martínez, Bob Gibson, Greg Maddux, Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson, Harvey Haddix, Dock Ellis, Bill “Spaceman” Lee, Steve Carlton, Dwight Gooden, Dave Stieb, Phil Niekro, Joe Niekro, Charlie Hough, Tim Wakefield, Hoyt Wilhelm, Jim Abbott.

2001–present: Armando Galarraga, Roy Halladay, Jacob deGrom, Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shōhei Ohtani, Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes, Cam Schlittler, Jacob Misiorowski, Trey Yesavage, Carlos Zambrano, Dontrelle Willis, R. A. Dickey, Matt Waldron.

(The knuckleball is by far my favorite pitch, and it’s really not even close.)

My pick for greatest of all time is Pedro Martínez. His 1997-2003 is very likely the most dominant seven-year span any pitcher has ever had. The average ERA across those seven years was 4.48. Pedro’s was 2.20, good for a 213 ERA+; he also posted a WHIP of 0.940 and a FIP of 2.26. Of those seven seasons, 1999 and 2000 are the clear highlights. In 1999, he led MLB pitchers with 9.8 rWAR, 23 wins, 85.2% win%, 2.07 ERA, 243 ERA+, 1.39 FIP, 0.923 WHIP, 0.4 HR/9, 13.2 K/9, and 8.46 K/BB and won a unanimous Cy Young Award; in 2000, he led MLB pitchers with 11.7 rWAR, 1.74 ERA+, 291 ERA+, 2.17 FIP, 0.737 WHIP, 5.3 H/9, and 8.88 K/BB and won another unanimous Cy Young Award.

Pedro’s 291 ERA+ in 2000 is by far the highest full-season total in the entire history of integrated baseball (1959–present); it’s telling that the next four single-season ERA+ totals in integrated baseball came during shortened seasons (Trevor Bauer’s 284 in the COVID-shortened 2020 [60 games], Shane Bieber’s 273 in 2020, Greg Maddux’s 271 in the strike-shortened 1994 [114 games], Greg Maddux’s 260 in the strike-shortened 1995 [144 games]). You have to go to 1968, when Bob Gibson had a 258 ERA+ (for an astonishing 1.12 ERA), to find another performance that dominant in a season that wasn’t shortened. Gibson’s dominance in 1968 was a major factor in the pitcher’s mound being lowered by five inches in 1969. (Gibson also is the only one of these pitchers that threw more innings than Martínez.) Oh, and the next one on the list after Gibson’s 258? Martínez’s 243.

Q: Who are your favorite position players?

A: This is nowhere near a complete list, but Josh Gibson, Ichiro Suzuki, Ken Griffey Jr., Babe Ruth, Jim O’Rourke, Henry Aaron, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Tris Speaker, Willie Mays, Tony Gwynn, Stan Musial, Rogers Hornsby, Honus Wagner, Chipper Jones, Dave Malarcher, Freddie Freeman, and Mookie Betts certainly number among them.

Q: Who are your favorite two-way players?

A: Again, nowhere near a full list, but let’s start with Shōhei Ohtani, Clark Griffith, John Montgomery Ward, Bullet Joe Rogan, Martín Dihigo, Leon Day, Bud Fowler, Jim Devlin, Charlie Ferguson, Jimmie Foxx, and Don Newcombe.

Q: Who would you put on your all-time team at each position?

A: It depends to some extent whether we’re using a designated hitter. I was born in Atlanta in 1983. I believe this legally qualifies as an allergy to designated hitters (the Atlanta Braves were known for having some of the best-hitting pitchers in the league, alongside the Los Angeles Dodgers).

Catcher: Josh Gibson. No offense to other catchers, but this isn’t even close; it almost feels like cheating to list him. He holds career records for batting average, slugging percentage, and on-base plus slugging; he is one of only four major-league players who won multiple batting Triple Crowns (alongside Oscar Charleston, Rogers Hornsby, and Ted Williams); he is estimated to have hit 962 career home runs; and until his late-career decline, he fielded superbly. Runners-up: Yogi Berra, Cal Raleigh, Johnny Bench, Roy Campanella, Yadier Molina.

First base: Jimmie Foxx, partly because he’s one of the greatest of all time, and partly because if he we get into a bind, he can pitch. Runners-up: Lou Gehrig, Albert Pujols, Freddie Freeman, Frank Thomas, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Second base: Rogers Hornsby. A career .358/.434/.577 hitter with a 175 OPS+; he hit for average (.358 is the fourth-highest batting average of all time behind Josh Gibson’s .371, Ty Cobb’s .366, and Oscar Charleston’s .365), and he raked (his 301 home runs are quite impressive given that his first five years in MLB overlapped with the dead-ball era). In fact, he’s the only person ever to hit 40 home runs and bat .400 in the same season. His five-year span from 1921 to 1925 arguably qualifies as the most dominant five-year span any hitter has ever had: he batted .402/.474/.690 with an OPS+ of 204, 144 HR, 598 RBI, and 615 runs scored. To my knowledge, no other hitter has a five-year span with a .400 average. Capping it all off, he was also an above-average defender. Runners-up: Jackie Robinson, Dan Brouthers.

Shortstop: Honus Wagner. His nickname “The Flying Dutchman” gives an idea as to his fielding prowess, and he was no slouch as a hitter either. His 131.1 Baseball Reference WAR beats second-place Álex Rodríguez by a decisive 13.7 points. Runners-up: Cal Ripken Jr. (what can I say, the dedication to a single team still impresses me), Ernie Banks, Mookie Betts, Arky Vaughan.

Third base: Chipper Jones. One of the best switch-hitters in the history of the game, a career .303 hitter with 468 home runs. Runners-up: Wade Boggs, Brooks Robinson, Ray Dandridge.

Outfield: A truly painful position to select. Willie Mays, Oscar Charleston, Rickey Henderson, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Frank Robinson, Mel Ott, Turkey Stearnes, Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Trout, Andruw Jones, Willie Stargell, Reggie Jackson, Roberto Clemente, Henry Aaron, Aaron Judge, Ronald Acuña Jr., Ichiro Suzuki, Tony Gwynn, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Mookie Betts (again), Larry Doby, Willie Keeler, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, and of course Babe Ruth have to be in consideration. How do you even choose?

That said, I’ll go with:

Swap one of these out for Babe Ruth if we’re not using a DH. Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, and Ken Griffey Jr. are my alternates; all three were incredible fielders, with the former two’s arms rivaling Ichiro’s and the latter pulling off perhaps more impossible-looking catches than any other player I’ve ever watched.

(In short: Ask me tomorrow and I’ll probably give you a different answer.)

Designated hitter: I don’t believe in designated hitters. I’m making my pitchers take batting practice – knowing how to hit makes pitchers smarter. (Besides, most of the pitchers I list were/are solid hitters.) But Babe Ruth. Ted Williams will be the alternate. Ruth is probably tied with Barry Bonds as the greatest left-handed slugger of all time (Josh Gibson is of course the greatest right-handed slugger), while Williams ranks in the company of Ichiro Suzuki, Tony Gwynn, Willie Keeler, Ty Cobb, and Tris Speaker when it comes to lefty contact hitters (though Williams had plenty of pop in his bat, too – the dude hit 521 homers over the course of his career).

(My opposition to designated hitters may be related to my having been born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1983. I believe this legally qualifies as a genetic predisposition.)

Pitchers: Jacob deGrom, Dennis Eckersley, Bob Gibson, Zack Greinke, Randy Johnson, Walter Johnson, Addie Joss, Clayton Kershaw, Sandy Koufax, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martínez, Christy Mathewson, Phil Niekro, Satchel Paige, Chris Sale, Ed Walsh, Smokey Joe Williams, Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Another painful choice. You’ll note that I haven’t even attempted to divide this list into starters and relievers, and I’m sure this is nowhere near whittled down enough to serve as an actual baseball roster, but I’ve left several favorites off this list as it is, so this is the shortest list you’re getting. And it’s not even really as whittled down as it looks, because of the next, even more important category:

Two-way/utility:

I’m bolding the positions I’d most frequently use each of these players at.

  1. John Beckwith (SS/3B/C/P)
  2. Cool Papa Bell (OF/P/1B)
  3. William Bell (P/OF)
  4. Roger Bresnahan (C/OF/3B/1B/2B/P)
  5. Ray Brown (P/OF)
  6. Bill Byrd (P/OF)
  7. Bob Caruthers (OF/P)
  8. Leon Day (P/OF/2B)
  9. Jim Devlin (P/1B/OF)
  10. Martín Dihigo (SS/OF/1B/P/3B/2B)
  11. Charlie Ferguson (P/OF/2B)
  12. Wes Ferrell (P/OF)
  13. Rube Foster (P/OF/1B)
  14. Clark Griffith (P/OF)
  15. Guy Hecker (P/1B/OF)
  16. Michael Lorenzen (P/OF)
  17. Dave Malarcher (3B/2B/SS/P)
  18. Oliver Marcell (3B/SS/P)
  19. Hurley McNair (OF/P)
  20. José Méndez (P/SS/3B/2B/OF)
  21. Don Newcombe (P/OF/1B)
  22. Shōhei Ohtani (P/DH/OF)
  23. Jim O’Rourke (OF/C/1B/3B/SS/P)
  24. Roy Parnell (OF/P)
  25. Ed Rile (1B/P)
  26. Bullet Rogan (OF/P/2B/1B)
  27. Lázaro Salazar (OF/1B/P)
  28. Ben Sanders (P/OF/1B)
  29. George Sisler (1B/OF/P)
  30. Hilton Smith (P/OF)
  31. Al Spalding (P/OF/1B)
  32. Bobby Wallace (P/SS/2B)
  33. John Montgomery Ward (P/SS/2B/OF)
  34. Jim Whitney (P/OF/1B)
  35. Nip Winters (P/1B)
  36. Smoky Joe Wood (P/OF)

I realize how many players I just listed. A team comprised of any nine of these players could probably beat almost any other team in history. Several other players could probably be moved to this category as well: I doubt anyone who ever saw Ichiro Suzuki’s lasers from right field to third base doubts that he’d have been an utterly dominant pitcher; Jacob deGrom’s plans to become a shortstop were derailed after his college coaches discovered his generational pitching talent; Jimmie Foxx had a 1.59 ERA (243 ERA+) as a two-way player at age 37, raising the question of how good he’d have been had he pitched his entire career. Carlos Zambrano and Dontrelle Willis were hard-hitting pitchers who probably should’ve been converted into outfielders after they got the yips.

Contents · Mapmaking (basic) · Mapmaking (advanced) · Marathon soundtracks · Discography · Portfolio · Website index

Other

Q: As succinctly as possible, how would you sum up your principles?

A: In no particular order:

Contents · Mapmaking (basic) · Mapmaking (advanced) · Marathon soundtracks · Discography · Portfolio · Website index