Difference between revisions of "Adventures of Tom Sawyer (NES)"

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  | Track      = 15
 
  | Track      = 15
 
  | Title      = Ending Part 2
 
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  | TitleLink  = Sonata in C
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  | TitleLink  = Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major, K.545
 
  | Composer    = {{TrackListComposer|Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart}}
 
  | Composer    = {{TrackListComposer|Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart}}
 
  | Arranger    = {{TrackListArranger|Unknown}}
 
  | Arranger    = {{TrackListArranger|Unknown}}

Revision as of 05:32, 12 August 2020

Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Adventures of Tom Sawyer - NES.jpg
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Year: 1989
Developer: Winky Soft

Adventures of Tom Sawyer is an action game developed by WinkySoft and published by Seta Corporation. You take control of the titular character Tom Sawyer. The game starts out with Tom falling asleep in class, and the stages are in his dreams. His goal is to rescue Becky Thatcher from the evil clutches of Crazy Injun Joe.

You must traverse through 6 stages. It may sound simple enough, but there's one problem that makes it almost impossible; you die in one hit. Fortunately, the game offers infinite continues, which will come in handy if you plan on completing this game. However, most of the bosses are pushovers, and despite them taking several hits, have very repetitive and predictable patterns which makes them very easy to defeat. There are also very rare invincibility icons you can get. Also, most enemies will drop either a T icon or a skull icon. Collecting 20 T icons will reward the player with an extra life. However, touching the skulls will remove 10 T icons. If you have less than 10, then you'll have none.

Fortunately, to make the game a little more tolerable, the game has checkpoints, but these are so few and far between, and the fact that you'll lose all your lives from the one-hit deaths almost makes these completely redundant, not to mention the final stage is brutal because no matter how far you get, if you die, you get sent back to the beginning of the stage.

The game also supports two-player solo play, the second player playing as Huckleberry Finn.

Though the game has received mostly lukewarm reviews, some players remember the game fondly.

Screenshots

Adventures of Tom Sawyer - NES - Title Screen.png

The title screen.

Adventures of Tom Sawyer - NES - Prologue.png

Tom falls asleep in class and the game begins.

Adventures of Tom Sawyer - NES - Gameplay 1.png

Fighting a pirate in the first stage.

Adventures of Tom Sawyer - NES - Boss 1.png

The first boss.

Adventures of Tom Sawyer - NES - Boss 5.png

Fighting the fifth boss.

Adventures of Tom Sawyer - NES - Score Screen.png

This screen keeps track of your times.

Music

The game features 15 tunes, all of which feature a piano-like instrument, some of which accompanied by drums. While there's a lot of music, most of it contains repeated sections, and some of which are very short; take the first stage's music, which loops every 12 seconds. The game never uses the 2A03's triangle channel for neither music or sound effects.

It should be noted that the Japanese version has the stages in a different order, but the track ordering here orders the stages the way they are in the North American release.

It is unknown how the music for the game was made, but judging by the audio code, it appears to be written in hexidecimal notation, similar to that of Music Macro Language. For example:

$26 $07 $1F $07 $22 $07 $1F $07 ($ represents hex numbers)

$26, $1F, $22, and $1F are A-4, B-3, D-4, and B-3 respectively. The $07 bytes after each represent the note's length; in this case, they are a length of 7 frames/units, which means 16th notes at the tempo of approximately 128 BPM. The way the game addresses hexadecimal numbers to notes is interesting; natural notes start out at $0E (A-1), but then sharp/flat notes at 40 to the value, so A#1 is $4E. The second digit of the sharp/flat note's hex value depends on the natural note before it, so for example, D-2 is $12, so D#2 would be $52 (+$40 to the value). The driver will play as low as an A-1 and plays a B-6 as its highest.

Recording

# Title ComposerArranger Length Listen Download
01 Title Screen UnknownUnknown 0:18
Download
02 Prologue UnknownUnknown 1:08
Download
03 Stage Start 1 UnknownUnknown 0:38
Download
04 Stage Start 2 UnknownUnknown 1:10
Download
05 Stage 1 UnknownUnknown 1:18
Download
06 Stage 2 UnknownUnknown 0:36
Download
07 Stage 3 UnknownUnknown 1:01
Download
08 Stage 4 UnknownUnknown 0:53
Download
09 Stage 5 UnknownUnknown 0:44
Download
10 Stage 6 UnknownUnknown 0:44
Download
11 Invincibility UnknownUnknown 0:58
Download
12 Boss Theme UnknownUnknown 1:18
Download
13 Game Over UnknownUnknown 1:01
Download
14 Ending Part 1 UnknownUnknown 0:27
Download
15 Ending Part 2 Wolfgang Amadeus MozartUnknown 0:34
Download

Credits

(No source; Game lacks credits.)

Neither the Japanese or US versions of the game have credits, nor do their instruction manuals. Winky Soft made the NES game Formula One: Built to Win (NES) which credits Masa Konishi, but this game was made before that. Also, Winky Soft developed the MSX title Akanbe Dragon (MSX) which credits a Yukiko and Hiroko. The game's music does have a similar style to this game's soundtrack, but these two composers never seemed to appear credited in any other game, and their real names are unknown. Verification should be made by contacting Winky Soft staff from around 1989.

Audio Devices

The game uses the Ricoh 2A03 of the NES. The game uses a unique sound driver not found in any other game. The triangle channel is never used for music or sound effects.

Game Rip

Format

Download

NSF.png

N/A


Ripping NES music is an arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site. The music was recorded in the Synthesia Mod of NSFPlay.

Releases

  Japan.svg   Japan
Tom Sawyer no Bouken - FC.jpg
Title: トム・ソーヤーの冒険 (Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
Platform: NES
Released: 1989-02-06
Publisher: Seta
  USA.svg   USA
Adventures of Tom Sawyer - NES.jpg
Title: Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Platform: NES
Released: 1989-08-??
Publisher: Seta