Wednesday, 02 September 2026
Indie Games

Inside the Digital Workspace of Voice Acting Icon Ray Chase: From MS-DOS Classics to Modern Roguelikes

Azzam Bilal Chamdy
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Executive Overview

For decades, the invisible architects of the video game industry have breathed life into our most beloved digital protagonists, transforming pixels and polygons into living, breathing entities. Among these luminaries stands Ray Chase, a prolific voice actor whose iconic vocal cords have powered major industry blockbusters—most notably starring as Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum in Final Fantasy XV and portraying the steadfast mutant hero Cyclops in the critically acclaimed animated series X-Men ’97.

Beyond his extensive résumé in recording booths across Hollywood and his role as co-founder of Sassy Chap Games—the minds behind the upcoming 2025 romance simulator Date Everything—Chase is a lifelong PC gamer whose roots stretch deep into the foundational era of personal computing.

In this installment of Disk Cleanup, we take an exclusive look inside Chase’s personal computing ecosystem. From early exposure to 1990s shareware on antiquated office hardware to an obsession with modern strategy roguelikes, sprawling medieval RPGs, and essential professional audio suites, Chase’s digital library offers a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a creator who divides his time between directing virtual romances, recording vocal performances, and tackling punishingly difficult game loops at 30,000 feet.

Ray Chase, the voice of Cyclops in X-Men '97, has '1,000 freaking hours' in Slay the Spire and is running…

Detailed Chronology: A Lifelong Journey Through PC Gaming

Ray Chase’s relationship with personal computers is rooted in the nascent days of the industry, long before high-refresh-rate monitors, multi-terabyte NVMe SSDs, and customizable mechanical keyboards became standard setup fare.

The DOS Era and the Basket of Shareware

Chase’s introduction to interactive entertainment began on a vintage MS-DOS system originally utilized for his father’s accounting work. Rather than high-budget cinematic adventures, his early gaming diet consisted of digital ephemera distributed via physical media shareware disks—a quintessential rite of passage for PC gamers of his generation.

"My grandfather gave me this basket of shareware games, and we played them nonstop for years," Chase recalls, looking back at the formative titles that shaped his early tastes.

Ray Chase, the voice of Cyclops in X-Men '97, has '1,000 freaking hours' in Slay the Spire and is running…

That modest basket laid the groundwork for an enduring appreciation of classic PC titles:

  • Duke Nukem (1 & 2): Early lessons in side-scrolling action and distinct character attitude.
  • Ken’s Labyrinth: An immersive first-person corridor shooter developed by Ken Silverman.
  • Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold: A classic sci-fi shooter that pushed the boundaries of early raycasting engines.
  • Wolfenstein 3D: id Software’s genre-defining masterpiece that essentially birthed the modern first-person shooter market.
  • Jack Pack: A lesser-known favorite that captured Chase’s imagination explicitly because it included a functional level editor, providing his earliest exposure to digital creation and user-generated content.

From Childhood Passion to Industry Titan

As Chase transitioned into a professional voice actor in the early 2000s, his hobby evolved alongside the medium. He secured major roles in blockbuster video games and animated features, cementing his status in pop culture history. His performance as Noctis in Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XV won praise from millions of role-playing fans worldwide. Simultaneously, his ongoing work voicing Cyclops in X-Men ’97—which recently aired its second season while early recording sessions for season four are already underway—keeps him intimately connected to the pulse of modern nerd culture.

In recent years, Chase has expanded his footprint in the industry beyond performance capture and voice work. Alongside his creative partners, he co-founded Sassy Chap Games to build Date Everything, a wildly inventive 2025 title where players romance a diverse cast of anthropomorphized household objects. According to Chase, the project was specifically engineered as a celebration of the breadth and talent found within the global voice acting community. With a massive content update recently deployed and the studio actively pitching its next narrative chapter, Chase’s personal PC remains a hybrid workstation: part creative development suite, part portable gaming station.

Ray Chase, the voice of Cyclops in X-Men '97, has '1,000 freaking hours' in Slay the Spire and is running…

Supporting Context & Metrics: Inside the Steam Library

When Chase opened up his current Steam library for inspection, he revealed a meticulously curated, lightweight collection of titles designed for portability, deep tactical mastery, and occasional immersion during arduous travel schedules.

Current Rotations: From Fancy Boy Outfits to Eternal RPGs

Chase’s current gaming schedule reflects a split between massive, systems-heavy role-playing epics and bite-sized, highly replayable indie experiences.

  • Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2: Described by Chase as "the eternal game," this historically grounded medieval RPG consumes hundreds of hours of his downtime. Rather than pursuing a straightforward min-maxed playthrough, Chase enjoys experimenting with unconventional character builds. He highlights a recent "smell build," where his character is outfitted with fine perfumes and immaculate, high-status garments to visually and olfactorily stun enemies on the battlefield. "I’m always laundering my clothes. It’s the best. I just fucking love that game," he laughs.
  • Deltarune (Chapter 5): Toby Fox’s episodic follow-up to Undertale also holds a spot in his active rotation, though enjoyed in measured bursts.
  • Mina the Hollower: Yacht Club Games’ retro-inspired action-adventure caught Chase’s attention not just for Jay Kaufman’s "astounding" soundtrack, but for its structural freedom. Chase intentionally broke the intended sequence of the game’s dungeons, tackling brutal challenges out of order to experience the stark contrast of returning to earlier areas with late-game power. He also expresses a deep, relatable appreciation for the game’s protagonist: "I also love that Mina is middle aged like me, and after she completes a dungeon she goes to sleep. She takes a nap, which I think is great."

The Philosophy of Permanent Consequences

Chase’s approach to interactive storytelling emphasizes acceptance over optimization. He is explicitly "not a secret ending kind of guy," preferring to live with whatever completion percentage and narrative outcomes his initial playthrough yields.

Ray Chase, the voice of Cyclops in X-Men '97, has '1,000 freaking hours' in Slay the Spire and is running…

He shares a memorable anecdote regarding Disco Elysium: during his playthrough, he failed a crucial dice roll associated with the game’s elusive cryptozoologist storyline, missing out on a major narrative reveal. Rather than reloading a saved game or consulting online wikis, Chase chose to leave the mystery unsolved. "I’m never going to go back and play it, and I won’t look it up either. I think that’s part of the fun, living with the consequences."

The Portable Powerhouses: Brotato and Slay the Spire

Because his professional life involves frequent travel, Chase’s oldest installed games by release date are also his most essential travel companions. Hardware efficiency is paramount when working on a laptop mid-flight.

  • Brotato: Blobfish’s frantic arena shooter tops his list of lightweight, indispensable software. Because it runs seamlessly on modest laptop hardware and does not require an external controller, it is his primary in-flight entertainment. Chase proudly notes that he 100%-ed the base game prior to the release of subsequent, punishing downloadable content.
  • Slay the Spire: With roughly 600 hours logged on Steam—supplemented by additional playthroughs on mobile devices—Mega Crit’s genre-defining deckbuilder stands as Chase’s most-played game. Having discovered the game in its earliest days when only two characters (the Ironclad and the Silent) were available, Chase eventually mastered every character class, climbing all the way to the punishing heights of Ascension 20. "There’s always something different, always something new to learn, and I absolutely adore it," he says.

Official Statements & Digital Workspace Diagnostics

A hallmark of the Disk Cleanup feature is an investigation into the non-gaming infrastructure and organizational habits of prominent industry figures. Chase’s workspace reflects a sharp dichotomy: chaos in the recording booth is met with absolute minimalism on the desktop.

Ray Chase, the voice of Cyclops in X-Men '97, has '1,000 freaking hours' in Slay the Spire and is running…

Essential Non-Gaming Software

Given his primary profession, Chase’s digital survival kit is straightforward and audio-centric. He relies heavily on industry-standard recording tools to handle remote sessions, audition pipelines, and indie game development tasks:

  • Reaper: A robust digital audio workstation (DAW) prized by voice actors and sound designers for its efficiency and routing flexibility.
  • Audacity: The legendary open-source audio editor utilized for rapid audio clean-up, quick splices, and on-the-fly voice capture.

"My voice recording software for sure. That’s pretty simple. I use Reaper and Audacity, [they] are my two favourites. And I absolutely could not live without voice recording software. That would be impossible."

Desktop Organization: The Zen of Minimalism

While some creative professionals maintain sprawling workspaces littered with temporary project files, reference folders, and unorganized shortcuts, Chase’s desktop is a model of digital hygiene.

Ray Chase, the voice of Cyclops in X-Men '97, has '1,000 freaking hours' in Slay the Spire and is running…

"Extremely tidy. There’s almost nothing on it. It’s just the audio that I recorded this morning before coming into this interview, and then my Recycle Bin. And that’s it, it’s empty. I don’t like having a bunch of stuff that I don’t know where the hell it is."

Operating primarily as a "one-screen guy" using the exact laptop he used to code and design Date Everything, Chase keeps his computing environment lean, focused, and free of clutter.


Future Outlook

As Ray Chase looks toward the horizon, his schedule remains intensely packed across multiple entertainment mediums. On the animation front, fans can anticipate continued narrative developments for X-Men ’97 as production pushes deeper into future seasons. In the indie game space, Sassy Chap Games is actively pitching the next narrative chapter of Date Everything following the deployment of their recent major content update.

Ray Chase, the voice of Cyclops in X-Men '97, has '1,000 freaking hours' in Slay the Spire and is running…

Yet, despite the demanding nature of voicing iconic heroes, directing indie romance titles, and managing global recording sessions, Chase’s personal computing habits remain grounded in the simple joys that hooked him decades ago. Whether he is orchestrating a visually blinding, high-fashion scent assault in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 or min-maxing potato builds on a cross-country flight, his Steam library remains a testament to a lifelong, unyielding passion for interactive media.

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