Michiel van den Bos

Van den Bos also performs as an indie/alternative DJ under the name Mike Boss.

• Name — Michiel van den Bos • Birth Name — Michiel van den Bos • Alias — M.C.A., Mike Boss • Born — 23 May 1975 • Origin — Rotterdam, Netherlands • Instrument — Keyboards, guitar, PC • Genre — Electronica, orchestral music, ambient • Occupation — Composer, musician, DJ • Years Active — 1996–present • Label — Materia Collective • Website — Michiel van den Bos (YouTube)

Michiel van den Bos was born in Rotterdam on 23 May 1975. He attended the former Caland Lyceum in Rotterdam. Since childhood, he wanted to become a composer, and he started making music with the Commodore 64 and the Amiga in the 1980s. He learned to play piano and guitar as a hobby, and performed as a guitarist in several bands. At the age of 19, he experienced some upheaval and moved house four times following the death of his father.

From the early 1990s, Van den Bos composed under the alias MCA, as part of the group 'Vicious'. He later transitioned from demoscene composer to writing music for video games. He worked full time at a games store and a DVD/Laserdisc store, while overcoming the limitations of Impulse Tracker, to make soundtracks for Unreal, Unreal Tournament, and Age of Wonders based on textual map descriptions. Around this time, he was hired to compose music for Epic Games' Unreal and Triumph Studios and was given complete creative freedom. Van den Bos worked closely with Alex Brandon on the Unreal soundtrack and wrote an adaptive score. However, for Unreal Tournament, they received direction from Cliff Bleszinski, and handed in songs to spec.

Van den Bos composed four tracks for the original Deus Ex of Ion Storm CD with the Impulse Tracker in 2000. He declined an offer to compose OSTs for Age of Wonders 2 and Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic due to the death of his mother. At 27, he founded his own company and was then hired by Triumph Studios to make music for the Overlord series. Since 26 March 1999, Van den Bos has posted over 60 tracker music files on the Mod Archive. The module files are mainly of Unreal, Unreal Tournament and Age of Wonders.

In 2012, Van den Bos collaborated with other composers for One Big Album, a charity album, of which 80% of the proceeds were evenly donated between Starlight Children's Foundation and Save the Children. Subsequently, he scored music for various mobile games. Most notable are Hardlight's Sonic Jump, Sonic Dash and Sonic Jump Fever. Van den Bos returned to the Age of Wonders franchise with Planetfall in 2019.

In 2020, Van den Bos collaborated with Alex Brandon to reimagine iconic songs of Deus Ex for the album Conspiravision: Deus Ex Remixed to celebrate the 20th anniversary. Van den Bos made the full OST of Age of Wonders 4 which released in 2023. It is composed predominantly of completely new material with a few nods to legacy songs. In 2023, Van den Bos crafted the music for mobile game Sonic Dream Team. On 15 May 2023, Van den Bos released a composed and mixed lo-fi soundtrack called Age of Wonders 4 LoFi Fantasy which includes a few AoW 1 and 3 songs. Van den Bos made soundtracks for the AoW 4 expansions: Empires & Ashes (November 2023), and Eldritch Realms (June 2024).

Video games • Title — Year — System — Notes • Unreal (and the mission pack, Return to Na Pali) — 1998 — Microsoft Windows, Mac OS • Age of Wonders — 1999 — Microsoft Windows • Unreal Tournament — 1999 — Windows, Linux, Classic Mac OS, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast • Deus Ex — 2000 — Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, PlayStation 2 • Overlord — 2007 — Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, OS X, Linux • Overlord: Raising Hell — 2008 — Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, OS X, Linux • Overlord: Dark Legend — 2009 — Wii • Overlord II — 2009 — Linux, OS X, Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 • Jambo! Safari: Animal Rescue — 2009 — Wii, Nintendo DS • Age of Wonders III — 2014 — Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux • Unreal Tournament (cancelled) — 2014 — Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Linux • Deus Ex: Revision — 2015 — Microsoft Windows • Voidrunner — 2017 — Microsoft Windows • Age of Wonders: Planetfall — 2019 — Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, MacOS • The Stranger VR — 2020 — Microsoft Windows • Age of Wonders 4 — 2023 — PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S Mobile games • Title — Year — System — Notes • Flick Golf! — 2010 — Mobile • Zombie Flick — 2010 — Mobile • Cup stack — 2011 — Mobile • Sonic Jump — 2012 — Mobile • Samurai Beatdown — 2012 — Mobile • Sonic Dash — 2013 — Mobile • Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage — 2013 — Mobile • Sonic Jump Fever — 2014 — Mobile • ChuChu Rocket! Universe — 2019 — Mobile • Sonic Dream Team — 2023 — Mobile