The original Need For Speed was a groundbreaking game. Realistic vehicles, physics, handling and sound all raised the bar for racing games for many years. The rendering of backgrounds and track design were unmatched and The Need For Speed remains a major brand for Electronic Arts.

Markus was the Lead Artist for this game and guided the art team to create features not yet seen on console games. In addition to leading the art team, Markus was responsible for modelling and surfacing all the vehicles in the game.

One of the joys of being lead artist, is tailoring the assets to match personal interests. "I couldn't resist using my family car as one of the traffic cars. I'd hunt it down and try to take it out with the sports car!". The car to the right of the Lamborgini Diablo is the Tessmann's family car, a Nissan Access!