NARC (NES)

NARC

Platform: NES Year: 1989 Developer: Rare Coin-It, Inc. Buy: Amazon

NARC is a linear run-and-gun game that was originally released as an arcade title. It was ported to the NES in 1989 by Rare and published by Acclaim.

In the game, players take on the role of a cop wearing what looks like a motorcycle helmet. Player 1 is Max Force and Player 2 is Hit Man. The goal of the game is to bust and kill as many drug dealers as you can. You can also collect drugs both found throughout the levels and those dropped by the enemies to collect points. While the players can use the machine gun to blast away enemies, they can also use missiles, which blow the enemies into pieces that scatter all around the screen. The primary goal is to defeat "Mr. Big" who is behind the entire drug cartel.

The NES version of NARC pales in comparison to its arcade counterpart; mostly because it was censored by Nintendo of America. Mainly, references to drugs have been removed. However, an uncensored prototype for the CES was discovered and has since been dumped. Also, the streak of blood on the game's cover was changed to yellow.

The NES version of NARC received all kinds of reception from critics from bad to positive. Some criticized the game for the player character(s) moving at a sluggish pace, the subpar graphics, as well as the repetitive sound from your gun firing bullets. Others praised it for its fluid control and music.

Screenshots

The title screen. Blowing up baddies in stage 1, the junkyard. Battling Mr. Big's true form.

This page needs more screenshots.

Music

NARC for the NES borrows its soundtrack from the original arcade version by Brian Schmidt. The original arcade game featured fast-paced heavy guitar tunes. Of course, the quality was considerably scaled down to work with the NES's 2A03. The NES version's music was arranged by Rare's in-house composer David Wise, who had to learn the music by ear. As a result, a few notes here and there are missing, but are mostly accurate arrangements, considering the drop in quality of the NES compared to the arcade. Only four of the songs from the arcade original were carried over, possibly due to time constraints. One of the songs is a variant of the track In-Game 4, but with the noise channel playing along to the square waves. This may have been intended for the final boss, Mr. Big, in which the used version plays.

David Wise wrote the music in hexadecimal, similar to how music was written in the arcade version. He used Mark Betteridge's version of the sound driver which was originally created by Chris Stamper.

The arcade version's music test gives the official names of a few of its songs. According to Schmidt, Marc LoCascio, the other composer of the arcade version, only worked on the NARC Rap which was not ported to the NES, most likely due to its use of digitized voices. In 2021, the arcade game's source code was released. In-Game 4 is titled in the source code as mr. big is tune.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Programmer	Length	Listen	Download
01	The "Stick"	Brian Schmidt	David Wise	Chris Stamper, Mark Betteridge	3:33		Download
02	NARC Theme	Brian Schmidt	David Wise	Chris Stamper, Mark Betteridge	3:08		Download
03	Driving Music (Spy Type Music for NARC)	Brian Schmidt	David Wise	Chris Stamper, Mark Betteridge	2:40		Download
04	Mr. Big Is Tune	Brian Schmidt	David Wise	Chris Stamper, Mark Betteridge	2:09		Download
05	Unknown	Brian Schmidt	David Wise	Chris Stamper, Mark Betteridge	2:09		Download

(Source)

Credits

• Ripper: N/A
• Recorder: Doommaster1994
• Arcade Credits:
  • Narc Design Team: Brian Schmidt
• Game Credits:
  • Not Credited Arranger: David Wise
  • Not Credited Programmer: Chris Stamper
  • Not Credited Programmer: Mark Betteridge

(Source: Brian Schmidt's Official Gameography, Arcade, Verified by David Wise, game lacks credits)

Like most of Rare's NES game, this one lacks credits. This was due to the company's staff getting many job offers for other companies. We have contacted David Wise who confirmed working on the arrangements for the NES version. According to Wise, Chris Stamper wrote the first version of the NES sound driver which was later updated by Mark Betteridge.

Game Rip

Formats	Download	Size
	Download	3 KB

Ripping NES music is a very arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site.

Releases

USA Title: NARC Platform: NES Released: 1990-08-?? Publisher: Acclaim Ltd.

Links

• mobygames.com/game/nes/narc - MobyGames.
• gamefaqs.com/nes/587478-narc - GameFAQs.