Galaga: Demons of Death (NES)

Galaga: Demons of Death

Platform:	NES
Year:	1985
Developer:	Namco

For other games in the series, see Galaga.

Galaga: Demons of Death (released in Japan and Europe simply as Galaga) is a port of the arcade game of the same name. It was developed by Namco and published by Bandai, ironic seeing as the two would later merge together as Bandai Namco Games.

The game plays a bit similar to Taito's Space Invaders (ARC). In the game, the players take control of what is called a Fighter; a spacecraft at the bottom of the screen. Alien lifeforms appear and start floating in fixed positions on the top of the screen. After all the enemies for the stage appear, groups start descending the screen in attempt to dispatch the player, as they die in one hit. Most of the aliens die in one hit, but the Boss Galagas and other aliens found later in the game take more hits to dispatch. After the first few stages, a "triple formation" can occur, in which one alien splits up into three new aliens. The Boss Galagas have a special ability; sometimes when they attack the player, they'll deploy their tractor beam. If the player's Fighter is caught in the tractor beam, it is captured and the player must rescue it. If the player successfully hits the Boss Galaga and not the ship, rather than earn an extra life, the rescued Fighter will align alongside the player's Fighter and will act as a double shot. However, this can also be destroyed in one hit.

Every few stages, the player is introduced to a bonus stage. Here, 40 enemies fly in a pattern and fly off screen, and the player must dispatch as many as possible to attain a high score, thus netting extra lives.

The NES version is about on par with the arcade original, though it suffered the usual setbacks in audio and graphics, but most players and critics found it enjoyable and good enough compared to the arcade version. The game was later released for the Wii Virtual Console, but most would prefer just playing the arcade version on a modern console.

Screenshots

The title screen.

Shooting with two Fighter jets.

A Fighter has been captured by the Boss Galaga's tractor beam!

Rescuing my Fighter.

Perfect score on the Challenging Stage!

The end of the game.

Music

Galaga's music is taken from the arcade game by Nobuyuki Ohnogi. Fortunately, Ohnogi returned to port his arcade soundtrack to the NES, ensuring for an accurate sound, at least compared to what the 2A03 could offer at the time. Most of the music and sound effects are note-for-note.

The game's soundtrack consists entirely of short fanfares and jingles. The song titles are taken from the iTunes release by Bandai Namco Games. However, the songs and sounds aren't clearly identified, and so we have added the tracks deemed by the atwiki.jp page (see below) as music. Credit Sound is not used in the game, as no credits are required to play the game. Also, the 1st place Name Entry theme is missing from the arcade version; only the 2nd~5th place theme is present, which plays at the Results screen when the game is over. This track loops two times before abruptly stopping, and doesn't loop endlessly like the arcade version. Also, the track "In-Game Ambience" from the aforementioned soundtrack is actually two separate alternating sound effects in the NES version, so both are recorded below.

Ohnogi wrote the music in 6502 assembly using a sound driver written by himself and Fukashi Ohmorita.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Length	Download
01	Credit Sound	Nobuyuki Ohnogi	0:01	Download
02	Start Music	Nobuyuki Ohnogi	0:07	Download
03	In-Game Ambience 1	Nobuyuki Ohnogi	0:04	Download
04	In-Game Ambience 2	Nobuyuki Ohnogi	0:04	Download
05	Capture Music	Nobuyuki Ohnogi	0:04	Download
06	Rescue Music	Nobuyuki Ohnogi	0:04	Download
07	Mistake Music	Nobuyuki Ohnogi	0:03	Download
08	Challenging Stage (Start)	Nobuyuki Ohnogi	0:02	Download
09	Challenging Stage (Perfect)	Nobuyuki Ohnogi	0:07	Download
10	Challenging Stage (Clear)	Nobuyuki Ohnogi	0:07	Download
11	Name Entry (2nd~5th Place)	Nobuyuki Ohnogi	0:20	Download

Credits

Ripper: MrNorbert1994
Recorder: Doommaster1994
Game Credits:
- Not Credited Composer/Arranger: Nobuyuki Ohnogi

(Source: Various sources, including verification from composer; Game lacks credits)

Like most Namco games at the time, the game lacks credits. The entire development team of the original arcade version of Galaga has been revealed by several online sources. Before his unfortunate passing, we had received verification from Fukashi Ohmorita that Ohnogi ported his own music to the NES. Ohmorita also explained that he helped compress Ohnogi's sound driver to use less memory.