Difference between revisions of "Nick Eastridge"

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{{Template: Infobox Composer
+
{{Infobox Composer
| Name        = Nick Eastridge
+
| Name        = Nicholas Eastridge
| Picture    =  
+
| Picture    = Nick Eastridge.jpg
| Born        = New York, USA
+
| Born        =  
| BirthPlace  = Unknown
+
| BirthPlace  = New Jersey, USA
 
| Nationality = American
 
| Nationality = American
 
| Flag        = USA
 
| Flag        = USA
| Alias01     = Nicholas Eastridge
+
| Aliases     = Ned Ludd<br>Eastridge Technology<br>Nick<br>Eastridge Design
| Website    = www.e-t.com/about.html
+
| Website    =  
 
}}
 
}}
  
Nick Eastridge is a American composer who was the main composer and sound programmer for Mindscape and The Software Toolworks. Most of the games Nick has been credited on have also credited [[Peter Stone]]. Peter says that he never worked with Nick Eastridge and that Nick only converted his MIDI files to the consoles. A great deal of games that he worked on did not have credits. Nick's first work was on Paperboy for the NES, where he had to port the music from the arcade. Eastridge's music consists of mostly jazz or blues. Not only did Nick compose music, but he also programmed the sound drivers at Mindscape. Unfortunately we do not know much about this composer.
+
'''''Nick Eastridge''''' is a American computer programmer. He developed several games for [[Mindscape]] and [[Majesco]] through his company [[Eastridge Technology]]. Though Nick received numerous music credits, he wasn't a composer and only knew sound implementation and programming. Nick single-handedly developed several games for Mindscape for the NES and Game Boy, the first games being the Game Boy and NES adaptations of [[Paperboy]]. Because Nick wasn't a composer, he outsourced music to local musicians. Unfortunately, he was left uncredited in most games he worked on.
 +
 
 +
Shortly before retiring from working on video games, he programmed games for [[Majesco Games]] for a short time under the name "Ned Ludd", as verified by his former co-worker [[Scott Marshall]].
 +
 
 +
==Music Development==
 +
===GB===
 +
Nick programmed a sound driver using the Game Boy's modified Z80. He wrote the music in [[assembly]].
 +
 
 +
For WWF King of the Ring, Nick reprogrammed his sound driver that he used at Gray Matter and Mindscape.
 +
 
 +
===GEN===
 +
Nick programmed his own sound driver which utilized both the Genesis' Z80 and 68000 processor. He then created a program to convert MIDI files to his Genesis sound driver. The only Genesis game to use his sound driver was Wayne's World. It is unclear what the driver is, but it was possibly a variation on the [[GEMS]] sound driver used by Sega themselves.
  
==Music Composition==
 
 
===NES===
 
===NES===
Eastridge made a MIDI to NES conversion tool. It is unknown what program he used to compose his MIDI files. It was most likely [[Cakewalk]].
+
Nick programmed a [[Nick Eastridge (NES Driver)|sound driver]] in 6502 assembly language. The music was entered in a custom [[MML]] consisting of hexadecimal values for note duration and pitch. According to [[Rich Shemaria]], Nick would send him the hexadecimal/numeric values for the note pitches and lengths, and while he (Rich) wrote the sheet music sketches, he'd write down the hexadecimal values alongside the notation. He would then hand over the sheet music to Nick, who would code the music into his sound engine. His music style sounds similar to [[Masaaki Kikuta]].
 +
 
 +
For ''Dirty Harry'', the game's two composers [[Steven Samler]] and [[Elliott Delman]] wrote [[MIDI]] files in [[Performer]] for the Macintosh. The MIDIs were then transferred to Nick, who coded them into his sound driver by hand. [[Peter Stone]] and [[Mark Knight]] also used the same methods, the only difference being the programs used to create the MIDIs ([[Dr. T's KCS]] for the Atari ST for Peter, and [[Cubase]] for the Atari ST for Mark). These were also coded into Nick's sound engine by hand.
 +
 
 +
Nick later wrote a utility that could convert MIDI files to his sound driver. This can be heard in games such as ''Paperboy 2'' and ''WWF King of the Ring''.
  
 
===SNES===
 
===SNES===
Nick made MIDI files and converted them to the SNES. His instrument samples were taken from a Korg M1.
+
Nick created a MIDI conversion tool, and composers' MIDI files were converted to his [[Nick Eastridge (SNES Driver)|sound driver]]. His instrument samples were taken from different keyboards, including a Korg M1 for the slap bass. The instruments may have been provided by Sony. Because of the way his music engine was programmed, [[SPC]] files for games using his sound engine are undumpable. However, [[Peter Ferro|KungFuFurby]] has managed to reverse engineer the sound engine to make SPC dumps possible, and has dumped the SPC files for all games.
  
 
==Gameography==
 
==Gameography==
<br clear="all" />
+
{| class="wikitable" |
{{Template: Table Header
+
! Released
| Color    = FFF0FF
+
! Title
| Caption01 = Released
+
! Sample
| Caption02 = Title
+
! Notes
| Caption03 = Sample
+
|-
}}
+
| 1987-??-??
| 1988/12/??
+
| [[Dark Castle (DOS)]]
| [[Paperboy (NES)]]
+
|
| {{Song-List|01 - Paperboy - NES - Paper Route.ogg}}
+
| Arranger?
 +
|-
 +
| 1987-??-??
 +
| [[Infiltrator II (A2)]]
 +
|
 +
| Arranger?
 +
|-
 +
| 1987-??-??
 +
| [[Infiltrator II (DOS)]]
 +
|
 +
| Arranger?
 +
|-
 +
| 1988-??-??
 +
| [[Gauntlet (A2)]]
 +
|
 +
| Arranger?
 +
|-
 +
| 1988-??-??
 +
| [[Gauntlet (A2GS)]]
 +
|
 +
| Arranger?
 +
|-
 +
| 1988-??-??
 +
| [[Gauntlet (DOS)]]
 +
|
 +
| Arranger?
 +
|-
 +
| 1988-??-??
 +
| [[Paperboy (A2)]]
 +
|
 +
| Arranger?
 +
|-
 +
| 1988-??-??
 +
| [[Paperboy (A2GS)]]
 +
|
 +
| Arranger?
 +
|-
 +
| 1988-12-??
 +
| [[Paperboy (NES)]] (ペーパーボーイ)
 +
| {{Song-Box|01 - Paperboy - NES - Paper Route.ogg}}
 +
| Arranged [[Hal Canon]]'s music.
 +
|-
 +
| 1989-??-??
 +
| [[Captain Blood (A2GS)]]
 +
|
 +
| Arranger?
 +
|-
 +
| 1989-??-??
 +
| [[Gauntlet II (DOS)]]
 +
|
 +
| Arranger?
 +
|-
 +
| 1989-??-??
 +
| [[Super Pac-Man (DOS)]]
 +
|
 +
| Arranger?
 +
|-
 +
| 1989-12-??
 +
| [[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (A2)]]
 +
|
 +
| Arranger?
 
|-
 
|-
| 1990/10/??
+
| 1990-01-??
| [[Orb•3D (NES)]]
+
| [[Infiltrator (NES)]]
 +
| {{Song-Box|01 - Infiltrator - NES - Title.ogg}}
 
| Sound Driver
 
| Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1990/06/??
+
| 1990-06-??
 
| [[The Last Starfighter (NES)]]
 
| [[The Last Starfighter (NES)]]
| {{Song-List|01 - The Last Starfighter - NES - The Hero's March.ogg}}
+
| {{Song-Box|01 - The Last Starfighter - NES - The Hero's March.ogg}}
 +
| Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1990/07/??
+
| 1990-07-??
 
| [[Mad Max (NES)]]
 
| [[Mad Max (NES)]]
| {{Song-List|Madmaxnestitle.ogg}}
+
| {{Song-Box|01 - Mad Max - NES - Title Screen.ogg}}
 +
| Sound Driver
 +
|-
 +
| 1990-07-??
 +
| [[Paperboy (GB)]]
 +
|
 +
| Arranged [[Hal Canon]]'s music.
 
|-
 
|-
| 1990/09/??
+
| 1990-09-??
 
| [[Gauntlet II (NES)]]
 
| [[Gauntlet II (NES)]]
| {{Song-List|01 - Gauntlet II - NES - Title.ogg}}
+
| {{Song-Box|01 - Gauntlet II - NES - Title.ogg}}
 +
| Arranged [[Hal Canon]]'s music.
 
|-
 
|-
| 1990/09/??
+
| 1990-09-??
 
| [[M.U.L.E. (NES)]]
 
| [[M.U.L.E. (NES)]]
| {{Song-List|01 - M.U.L.E. - NES - Title Screen.ogg}}
+
| {{Song-Box|01 - M.U.L.E. - NES - Title Screen.ogg}}
 +
| Arranged [[Roy Glover]]'s music.
 
|-
 
|-
| 1990/12/??
+
| 1990-10-??
 +
| [[Orb•3D (NES)]]
 +
| {{Song-Box|01 - Orb•3D - NES - Title Screen.ogg}}
 +
| Sound Driver
 +
|-
 +
| 1990-12-??
 
| [[Dirty Harry (NES)]]
 
| [[Dirty Harry (NES)]]
| {{Song-List|01_-_Dirty_Harry_-_NES_-_Title.ogg}}
+
| {{Song-Box|01 - Dirty Harry - NES - Title.ogg}}
 +
| Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1991/??/??
+
| 1991-??-??
 
| [[Paperboy 2 (DOS)]]
 
| [[Paperboy 2 (DOS)]]
|  
+
| {{Song-Box|01 - Paperboy 2 - DOS - Paper Route.ogg}}
 +
| Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1991/02/??
+
| 1991-02-??
 
| [[Conan (NES)]]
 
| [[Conan (NES)]]
| {{Song-List|01 - Conan - NES - Title.ogg}}
+
| {{Song-Box|01 - Conan - NES - Title.ogg}}
 +
| Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1991/09/??
+
| 1991-07-??
 +
| [[Klax (GB)]]
 +
|
 +
| Sound Driver?
 +
|-
 +
| 1991-09-??
 
| [[Captain Planet and the Planeteers (NES)]]
 
| [[Captain Planet and the Planeteers (NES)]]
 +
| {{Song-Box|01 - Captain Planet and the Planeteers - NES - Title Screen.ogg}}
 +
| Sound Driver
 +
|-
 +
| 1991-09-??
 +
| [[Gauntlet II (GB)]]
 
|  
 
|  
 +
| Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1991/09/??
+
| 1991-09-??
 
| [[The Chessmaster (SNES)]]
 
| [[The Chessmaster (SNES)]]
 
|  
 
|  
 +
| Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1991/11/??
+
| 1991-11-??
 
| [[Paperboy 2 (SNES)]]
 
| [[Paperboy 2 (SNES)]]
 +
| {{Song-Box|01_-_Paperboy_2_-_SNES_-_Paper_Route.ogg}}
 +
| Sound Driver
 +
|-
 +
| 1992-??-??
 +
| [[Pit-Fighter (GB)]]
 
|  
 
|  
 +
| Arranger?/Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1992/03/??
+
| 1992-03-??
 
| [[Pit-Fighter (SNES)]]
 
| [[Pit-Fighter (SNES)]]
 
|  
 
|  
 +
| Arranger?/Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1992/04/??
+
| 1992-04-??
 
| [[Paperboy 2 (GB)]]
 
| [[Paperboy 2 (GB)]]
 
|  
 
|  
 +
| Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1992/04/??
+
| 1992-04-??
 
| [[Paperboy 2 (NES)]]
 
| [[Paperboy 2 (NES)]]
| {{Song-List|01 - Paperboy 2 - NES - In-Game.ogg}}
+
| {{Song-Box|01 - Paperboy 2 - NES - In-Game.ogg}}
 +
| Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1992/10/??
+
| 1992-10-??
 
| [[James Bond Jr. (SNES)]]
 
| [[James Bond Jr. (SNES)]]
 
|  
 
|  
 +
| Arranger?/Sound Driver
 +
|-
 +
| 1992-10-??
 +
| [[Miner 2049er (GB)]]
 +
| {{Song-Box|01 - Miner 2049er - GB - Title Screen.ogg}}
 +
| Sound Driver
 +
|-
 +
| 1993-??-??
 +
| [[The Incredible Crash Dummies (SNES)]] (クラッシュ・ダミー スリック坊やの大挑戦)
 +
|
 +
| Arranger?/Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1993/??/??
+
| 1993-??-??
| [[The Incredible Crash Dummies (SNES)]]
+
| [[The Ren & Stimpy Show: Veediots! (SNES)]]
 +
|
 +
| Arranger?/Sound Driver
 +
|-
 +
| 1993-??-??
 +
| [[The Ren & Stimpy Show: Veediots! (GB)]]
 
|  
 
|  
 +
| Arranger?/Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1993/02/18
+
| 1993-02-18
 
| [[Wayne's World (GEN)]]
 
| [[Wayne's World (GEN)]]
 
|  
 
|  
 +
| Arranger?/Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1993/04/??
+
| 1993-04-??
 
| [[The Terminator (SNES)]]
 
| [[The Terminator (SNES)]]
 +
|
 
| Sound Driver
 
| Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1993/04/??
+
| 1993-04-??
 
| [[Wayne's World (SNES)]]
 
| [[Wayne's World (SNES)]]
 
|  
 
|  
 +
| Arranger?/Sound Driver
 +
|-
 +
| 1993-06-??
 +
| [[The Great Waldo Search (SNES)]]
 +
| {{Song-Box|02 - Great Waldo Search - SNES - Kingdom of the Carpet Flyers.ogg}}
 +
| Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1993/09/??
+
| 1993-09-??
 
| [[Battleship (NES)]]
 
| [[Battleship (NES)]]
 +
| {{Song-Box|101 - Battleship - NES - Title Screen.ogg}}
 
| Sound Driver
 
| Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1993/09/??
+
| 1993-09-??
| [[WWF King of the Ring (NES)]]
+
| [[WWF King of the Ring (GB)]] (キングオブリング)
 +
|
 
|  
 
|  
 
|-
 
|-
| 1993/11/??
+
| 1993-11-??
 
| [[Steel Talons (SNES)]]
 
| [[Steel Talons (SNES)]]
| Sound Driver
+
|  
 +
| Arranger?/Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
| 1993/11/??
+
| 1993-11-??
 
| [[WWF King of the Ring (NES)]]
 
| [[WWF King of the Ring (NES)]]
 +
|
 
|  
 
|  
 
|-
 
|-
| 1994/05/??
+
| 1994-05-??
 
| [[Relief Pitcher (SNES)]]
 
| [[Relief Pitcher (SNES)]]
 
|  
 
|  
 +
| Sound Driver
 
|-
 
|-
 +
| 1999-12-??
 +
| [[Pong: The Next Level (GBC)]]
 +
|
 +
| Sound Driver
 +
|-
 +
| 1999-??-??
 +
| [[Tonka Raceway (GBC)]]
 +
|
 +
| Sound Driver
 +
|-
 +
| 2000-09-23
 +
| [[Frogger II: Swampy's Revenge (GBC)]]
 +
|
 +
| Sound Driver
 +
|-
 +
| 2000-09-25
 +
| [[Galaga: Destination Earth (GBC)]]
 +
|
 +
| Sound Driver
 +
|-
 +
| 2000-??-??
 +
| [[Nicktoons Racing (GBC)]]
 +
|
 +
| Sound Driver
 +
|-
 +
| 2001-06-10
 +
| [[Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (GBA)]]
 +
|
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| 2003-??-??
 +
| [[Operation Armored Liberty (GBA)]]
 +
|
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| Unreleased
 +
| [[Wing Commander: USA Version (AMI)]]
 +
|
 +
| Arranger?
 +
|-
 +
| Unreleased
 +
| [[Days of Thunder: Mindscape (NES)]]
 +
| {{Song-Box|01 - Days of Thunder Mindscape - NES - Title Screen.ogg}}
 +
| Sound Driver
 
|}
 
|}
  
[[Category:Composers]]
+
==Aliases==
[[Category:Foley Artists]]
+
In WWF: King of the Ring and Pong: The Next Level, he was credited as "Eastridge Technology", although when he was at Majesco, he was credited as "Ned Ludd". This was the case for Galaga: Destination Earth for GBC and Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure for GBA.
[[Category:Sound Programmers]]
+
 
 +
==Image Gallery==
 +
<gallery>
 +
Nick Eastridge.jpg|Linkedin.
 +
Nick_Eastridge_-_02.png|U.S.1; Issue 1991-10-09.
 +
</gallery>
 +
 
 +
==Links==
 +
(The link to the Eastridge Technology website has been removed. For more information, see the Discussion page.)
 +
 
 +
[[Category: Composers]]
 +
[[Category: Foley Artists]]
 +
[[Category: Sound Programmers]]

Latest revision as of 10:35, 7 April 2024

Nicholas Eastridge
Nick Eastridge.jpg
Born
Birth Place New Jersey, USA
Nationality American   USA.svg
Aliases Ned Ludd
Eastridge Technology
Nick
Eastridge Design

Nick Eastridge is a American computer programmer. He developed several games for Mindscape and Majesco through his company Eastridge Technology. Though Nick received numerous music credits, he wasn't a composer and only knew sound implementation and programming. Nick single-handedly developed several games for Mindscape for the NES and Game Boy, the first games being the Game Boy and NES adaptations of Paperboy. Because Nick wasn't a composer, he outsourced music to local musicians. Unfortunately, he was left uncredited in most games he worked on.

Shortly before retiring from working on video games, he programmed games for Majesco Games for a short time under the name "Ned Ludd", as verified by his former co-worker Scott Marshall.

Music Development

GB

Nick programmed a sound driver using the Game Boy's modified Z80. He wrote the music in assembly.

For WWF King of the Ring, Nick reprogrammed his sound driver that he used at Gray Matter and Mindscape.

GEN

Nick programmed his own sound driver which utilized both the Genesis' Z80 and 68000 processor. He then created a program to convert MIDI files to his Genesis sound driver. The only Genesis game to use his sound driver was Wayne's World. It is unclear what the driver is, but it was possibly a variation on the GEMS sound driver used by Sega themselves.

NES

Nick programmed a sound driver in 6502 assembly language. The music was entered in a custom MML consisting of hexadecimal values for note duration and pitch. According to Rich Shemaria, Nick would send him the hexadecimal/numeric values for the note pitches and lengths, and while he (Rich) wrote the sheet music sketches, he'd write down the hexadecimal values alongside the notation. He would then hand over the sheet music to Nick, who would code the music into his sound engine. His music style sounds similar to Masaaki Kikuta.

For Dirty Harry, the game's two composers Steven Samler and Elliott Delman wrote MIDI files in Performer for the Macintosh. The MIDIs were then transferred to Nick, who coded them into his sound driver by hand. Peter Stone and Mark Knight also used the same methods, the only difference being the programs used to create the MIDIs (Dr. T's KCS for the Atari ST for Peter, and Cubase for the Atari ST for Mark). These were also coded into Nick's sound engine by hand.

Nick later wrote a utility that could convert MIDI files to his sound driver. This can be heard in games such as Paperboy 2 and WWF King of the Ring.

SNES

Nick created a MIDI conversion tool, and composers' MIDI files were converted to his sound driver. His instrument samples were taken from different keyboards, including a Korg M1 for the slap bass. The instruments may have been provided by Sony. Because of the way his music engine was programmed, SPC files for games using his sound engine are undumpable. However, KungFuFurby has managed to reverse engineer the sound engine to make SPC dumps possible, and has dumped the SPC files for all games.

Gameography

Released Title Sample Notes
1987-??-?? Dark Castle (DOS) Arranger?
1987-??-?? Infiltrator II (A2) Arranger?
1987-??-?? Infiltrator II (DOS) Arranger?
1988-??-?? Gauntlet (A2) Arranger?
1988-??-?? Gauntlet (A2GS) Arranger?
1988-??-?? Gauntlet (DOS) Arranger?
1988-??-?? Paperboy (A2) Arranger?
1988-??-?? Paperboy (A2GS) Arranger?
1988-12-?? Paperboy (NES) (ペーパーボーイ)
Arranged Hal Canon's music.
1989-??-?? Captain Blood (A2GS) Arranger?
1989-??-?? Gauntlet II (DOS) Arranger?
1989-??-?? Super Pac-Man (DOS) Arranger?
1989-12-?? Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (A2) Arranger?
1990-01-?? Infiltrator (NES)
Sound Driver
1990-06-?? The Last Starfighter (NES)
Sound Driver
1990-07-?? Mad Max (NES)
Sound Driver
1990-07-?? Paperboy (GB) Arranged Hal Canon's music.
1990-09-?? Gauntlet II (NES)
Arranged Hal Canon's music.
1990-09-?? M.U.L.E. (NES)
Arranged Roy Glover's music.
1990-10-?? Orb•3D (NES)
Sound Driver
1990-12-?? Dirty Harry (NES)
Sound Driver
1991-??-?? Paperboy 2 (DOS)
Sound Driver
1991-02-?? Conan (NES)
Sound Driver
1991-07-?? Klax (GB) Sound Driver?
1991-09-?? Captain Planet and the Planeteers (NES)
Sound Driver
1991-09-?? Gauntlet II (GB) Sound Driver
1991-09-?? The Chessmaster (SNES) Sound Driver
1991-11-?? Paperboy 2 (SNES)
Sound Driver
1992-??-?? Pit-Fighter (GB) Arranger?/Sound Driver
1992-03-?? Pit-Fighter (SNES) Arranger?/Sound Driver
1992-04-?? Paperboy 2 (GB) Sound Driver
1992-04-?? Paperboy 2 (NES)
Sound Driver
1992-10-?? James Bond Jr. (SNES) Arranger?/Sound Driver
1992-10-?? Miner 2049er (GB)
Sound Driver
1993-??-?? The Incredible Crash Dummies (SNES) (クラッシュ・ダミー スリック坊やの大挑戦) Arranger?/Sound Driver
1993-??-?? The Ren & Stimpy Show: Veediots! (SNES) Arranger?/Sound Driver
1993-??-?? The Ren & Stimpy Show: Veediots! (GB) Arranger?/Sound Driver
1993-02-18 Wayne's World (GEN) Arranger?/Sound Driver
1993-04-?? The Terminator (SNES) Sound Driver
1993-04-?? Wayne's World (SNES) Arranger?/Sound Driver
1993-06-?? The Great Waldo Search (SNES)
Sound Driver
1993-09-?? Battleship (NES)
Sound Driver
1993-09-?? WWF King of the Ring (GB) (キングオブリング)
1993-11-?? Steel Talons (SNES) Arranger?/Sound Driver
1993-11-?? WWF King of the Ring (NES)
1994-05-?? Relief Pitcher (SNES) Sound Driver
1999-12-?? Pong: The Next Level (GBC) Sound Driver
1999-??-?? Tonka Raceway (GBC) Sound Driver
2000-09-23 Frogger II: Swampy's Revenge (GBC) Sound Driver
2000-09-25 Galaga: Destination Earth (GBC) Sound Driver
2000-??-?? Nicktoons Racing (GBC) Sound Driver
2001-06-10 Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (GBA)
2003-??-?? Operation Armored Liberty (GBA)
Unreleased Wing Commander: USA Version (AMI) Arranger?
Unreleased Days of Thunder: Mindscape (NES)
Sound Driver

Aliases

In WWF: King of the Ring and Pong: The Next Level, he was credited as "Eastridge Technology", although when he was at Majesco, he was credited as "Ned Ludd". This was the case for Galaga: Destination Earth for GBC and Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure for GBA.

Image Gallery

Links

(The link to the Eastridge Technology website has been removed. For more information, see the Discussion page.)