That's one of the reasons Utah-based singer Jenny Jordan Frogley was called in to do some sessions. "There are places where you're playing Jack Driscoll and he gets hurt to near death. I had a sample sound of a singer and it was so ethereal. The design team loved it and I tracked down the woman who actually did the original work. But when we got her into the studio, it didn't fit right. So I called Jenny, whom I call for a lot of my projects, and asked her to sing for me."

"King Kong" is just one of many video-game soundtracks Thomas has been involved in. His first was "Quest for Glory V." He also did the game music for Vivendi-Universal's "Lord of the Rings" series. And he scored the Academy Award-winning short cartoon "The Chubb Chubbs."

Still, working with video games is one of the most enjoyable jobs Thomas has done, and he's picky about projects. "I personally don't work on M-rated games or R-rated films. I've had some very lucrative and high-profile offers to do so — and some of those offers have come during some very lean times — but I've always turned them down. (Because) how can you put a price on your personal character?"

Another thing Thomas agrees with is a tighter restriction on who can buy video games. "In contrast to the position of pretty much the entire balance of the game industry, I personally support legislation that would restrict minors from purchasing graphically violent or sexually explicit games. New evidence based on scholarly research, which links immersion in ultra-violent games to real-world violent behavior, has cemented my opinion on the subject."

His strong stand on video games hasn't diminished the demand of Thomas as a composer, however. "I'm currently working on an unnamed X-Men project and just finished composing the dance music for the upcoming Nauvoo Pageant later this year."

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E-mail: scott@desnews.com