Typical American and European attributes of NES games

[Dwedit]

Anyone brought up Sculptured Software yet? They made the sound engine for Action 52.

Kinda hard to extrapolate from their few games though. (Monopoly, Daydreamin Davey, etc...)

[thefox]

Kinda hard to extrapolate from their few games though. (Monopoly, Daydreamin Davey, etc...)

Others from them that I remember off-hand: Empire Strikes Back, Stanley, Eliminator Boat Duel. Most of their games are technically quite OK, but have several issues in other areas. Still, they also had a strangely recognizable style. I think Daydreamin Davey stands out as being worse than most of their other games.

[Dwedit]

I don't think Monopoly even runs at 60FPS, but it's still one of the best computer versions of Monopoly ever made.

[Drag]

A very European stylistic trait is when all the text wiggles all the time. I don't mean like a "squigglevision" type of deal (like the results screen in Yoshi's Island), I mean each character is a seperate sprite and the whole text ripples back and forth like a flag blowing in the wind, or your score bobs up and down and/or changes colors continuously.

There's also a lot of shading, and I frequently see backlighting (the thing where there's a random highlight in the dark edges of objects, like if there were a bright spotlight shining directly from the side or from behind, sometimes it's a bright color like green or cyan).

[Drew Sebastino]

A very European stylistic trait is when all the text wiggles all the time.

Hmm... I never actually noticed that before. I don't know why, but the example that immediately came to mind for me was the letters before the bonus rooms in DKC3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ5lRBiCCzA#t=4m43s

I frequently see backlighting (the thing where there's a random highlight in the dark edges of objects, like if there were a bright spotlight shining directly from the side or from behind, sometimes it's a bright color like green or cyan).

Can you think of an example?

[Grapeshot]

I definitely think that a stylistic trait of European games is having sound effects or music but not both at once (and when there is both, they don't share the same channels.)

Maybe this is an artifact from being ported from the C64 but when C64 games were ported by the Japanese developers they tended to put some music in.

[Drew Sebastino]

I definitely think that a stylistic trait of European games is having sound effects or music but not both at once (and when there is both, they don't share the same channels.)

Well, I'm guessing this is too late, (It's a collection fairly late SNES games...) But the DKC games use all 8 channels for music, and that just the less noticeable instruments are dropped first in the song. (I forgot who told be this.) Maybe this was just a result of changing times, but the DKC games really don't feel very "European". One thing I wonder though is if all channels are used in Rare's NES games like RC Pro Am or Battletoads. I wonder how many sound channels this ever uses simultaneously: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75l1FoY-oXk It's definitely using the DPCM, the triangle, and a square wave, but I don't know if it's using the other square wave.

[Grapeshot]

Rare's games don't really have sound and music separated like that, but a lot of Codemasters games and Solstice and Overlord certainly do. So it's not even close to all European games, but I think it is distinctive.

On the other hand pretty much every Japanese developed game after 1985 at least had some music during gameplay. Except maybe Star Voyager? That's the only one I can think of .

[thefox]

I wonder how many sound channels this ever uses simultaneously: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75l1FoY-oXk It's definitely using the DPCM, the triangle, and a square wave, but I don't know if it's using the other square wave.

I don't hear any DMC there. All the other channels are definitely in. BTW, the sound quality of that video is absolutely terrible.

[Drew Sebastino]

What's "DMC"? Is that DPCM? Wait a minute, that "scratch" noise could probably just be the noise channel (which I had forgotten about) and not the DPCM channel. I do find that some things about Rare were generally different than most European game companies at the time though, so I wouldn't be surprised if all sound channels were being used in some of their games.

Actually, I don't think the game uses the DPCM channel for music, aside for "Title Theme With Drums". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCFqF-IeeAk

[tepples]

They mean roughly the same thing
delta pulse code modulation
delta modulation channel

[Memblers]

I definitely think that a stylistic trait of European games is having sound effects or music but not both at once (and when there is both, they don't share the same channels.)

This is really noticeable in Robocop 3, where all the in-game music uses just one pulse channel. Title screen music is awesome, though I like the C64 version just a little better.

I think longer songs was already noted as a trait, but it seems especially so for title screen songs. I was listening to the NES version of Skate or Die earlier, I thought it was interesting that I'd had that game for ages, but I never noticed until recently how long the title screen song is, I definitely never heard it all when I was kid.

(edit: yeah I know EA is a US developer, but it was Rob Hubbard song, and ported by Konami (I think).. talk about international).

[tepples]

And on NES we have the example of Skate or Die vs. Skate or Die 2: The Search for Double Trouble for what the music sounds like with and without Konami's influence. Same with Rampart (J) (ported by Konami) vs. Rampart (U) (ported by Tengen-affiliated Bitmasters, published by Jaleco). But in order to do this justice, I'd need someone to rip the NSF of Rampart (U), which I think is the only NES game I own that doesn't have a ripped NSF.

[Dwedit]

The C64 version of the Skate or Die theme is just awesome. BTW, is this Youtube video a fabrication (increased pitch and speed for "NTSC version") or real? Some comments claim it's real.

[rainwarrior]

Actually, I don't think the game uses the DPCM channel for music, aside for "Title Theme With Drums". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCFqF-IeeAk

Battletoads never uses any DPCM in its soundtrack.

The title theme with drums, and the pause music are both full-CPU-control PCM sounds. Some of the sound effects in game are PCM sounds too (briefly halting gameplay and/or messing up the parallax effect timing when they happen).