Silent Service (NES)

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Silent Service
Silent Service - NES - USA.jpg
Platform: NES
Year: 1989
Developer: Rare Co., Ltd.

Silent Service is a submarine simulator video game designed by Sid Meier and published by MicroProse for various 8-bit home computers in 1985 and for 16-bit systems like the Amiga in 1987. A Nintendo Entertainment System port of Silent Service developed by Rare was published in 1989 by Konami in Europe and by Konami's Ultra Games subsidiary in North America. The follow-up game, Silent Service II, was released in 1990. Tommo purchased the rights to this game and digitally publishes it through its Retroism brand in 2015.

Screenshots

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This page needs more screenshots.

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Silent Service - NES - Title Screen.png

The title screen.

Music

For 1989, David Wise of Battletoads and Donkey Kong Country fame did a good job writing this epic music. The only music that was used was the title screen. All other songs were supposed to play in the game, but it went unused.

The song titles and track orderings come from the NSFE file.

To write music on the NES, David had to write the music in 6502 assembly language.

Recording

Though the game was released in Europe, the PAL version's soundtrack sounds identical to the NTSC version; as it plays at the same pitch and tempo, so only the NTSC version has been recorded. David Wise is one of the few European composers who used the NTSC format to create music, instead of using the PAL format.

# Title Composer Length Listen Download
01 Title Screen David Wise 1:59
Download
02 Unused Theme 1 David Wise 0:44
Download
03 Unused Theme 2 David Wise 1:33
Download
04 Unused Theme 3 David Wise 0:53
Download
05 Unused Theme 4 David Wise 1:21
Download
06 Unused Theme 5 David Wise 1:20
Download
07 Unused Theme 6 David Wise 2:01
Download
08 Unused Theme 7 David Wise 1:33
Download
09 Unused Theme 8 David Wise 1:16
Download
10 Unused Theme 9 David Wise 1:11
Download

Credits

(Source: Verification from composer; game lacks credits.)

Like most of Rare's NES games, this one does not contain credits. According to various staff at Rare, this was to prevent their employees from job offers from other companies. We have contacted David Wise who has verified composing the game's soundtrack. Mark Betteridge may have also been responsible for the game's sound effects.

Game Rip

Format

Download

NSF.png


Ripping NSF music is an arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site.

Audio Devices

The game uses the NES's RP2A03 in the US and RP2A07 in Europe. It uses the later revision of Rare's sound driver, originally created by Rare founder Chris Stamper and modified by Mark Betteridge.

Releases

  USA.svg   USA
Silent Service - NES - USA.jpg
Title: Silent Service
Platform: NES
Released: 1989-12-??
Publisher: Ultra Software Corporation
  UK.svg   UK
Silent Service - NES - EU.jpg
Title: Silent Service
Platform: NES
Released: 1990-11-23
Publisher: Konami Industry Co., Ltd.