Akito Nakatsuka (NES Driver)

Akito Nakatsuka

Released 1986-08-27 Programmers Akito Nakatsuka Language 6502 Assembly

Akito Nakatsuka is an unofficial name of one of the many sound drivers used at Nintendo. It was programmed by Akito Nakatsuka, who probably programmed it by request of Nintendo, as their main composers were expected to code their own sound drivers. Akito had initially used Hirokazu Tanaka's sound driver.

Akito wrote the driver in 6502 assembly, and the music used a custom Music Macro Language.

Release History

The first game that uses Akito's sound driver appears to be the "I am a Teacher" games for the Disk System, and the last game being Wario's Woods, which makes it the last sound driver to be used in an official Nintendo NES game.

Output

Akito's sound driver outputs to the RP2A03 in the NTSC regions, RP2A07 for PAL regions, and has support for the RP2C33 for Famicom Disk System games. Akito's sound driver in PAL format sounds very close to NTSC, but the music plays slightly slower.

The driver is known for having instruments with square vibrato. In its later years, it started to implement drums through the DPCM channel.

Games

Released	Title	Sample
1986-08-27	I Am a Teacher: Super Mario's Sweater (FDS) (アイ アム ア ティーチャー スーパーマリオのセーター)
1986-09-26	I Am a Teacher: Basic Hand Knitting (FDS) (アイ アム ア ティーチャー 手あみのきそ)
1987-01-14	Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES) (リンクの冒険)
1987-02-21	Famicom Golf: Japan Course (FDS) (ファミコン ゴルフ: ジャパン コース)
1987-06-14	Famicom Golf: USA Course (FDS) (ファミコン ゴルフ: USA コース)
1987-10-??	Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES) (マイクタイソン・パンチアウト!!)
1988-11-30	Kaettekita Mario Bros. (FDS) (帰ってきた マリオブラザーズ)
1988-12-09	Vs. Excitebike (FDS) (ＶＳ。エキサイトバイク)
1991-09-20	NES Open Tournament Golf (NES) (マリオ オープン ゴルフ)
1994-02-09	Wario's Woods (NES) (ワリオの森)	Unconfirmed

Technical

Frequency Registers

C#6 = 32
C-6 = 35
B-5 = 38
A#5 = 3B
A-5 = 3F
G#5 = 43
G-5 = 47
F#5 = 4B
F-5 = 50
E-5 = 54
D#5 = 59
D-5 = 5F
C#5 = 64
C-5 = 6A
B-4 = 70
A#4 = 76
A-4 = 7E
G#4 = 85
G-4 = 8D
F#4 = 96
F-4 = 9F
E-4 = A8
D#4 = B2
D-4 = BD
C#4 = C8
C-4 = D4
B-3 = E1
A#3 = EE
A-3 = FD
G#3 = 10C
G-3 = 11C
F#3 = 12D
F-3 = 13F
E-3 = 152
D#3 = 167
D-3 = 17C
C#3 = 193
C-3 = 1AB
B-2 = 1C4
A#2 = 1DF
A-2 = 1FC
G#2 = 21A
G-2 = 23A
F#2 = 25C
F-2 = 280
E-2 = 2A6
D#2 = 2CF
D-2 = 2F9
C#2 = 327
C-2 = 357
B-1 = 389
A#1 = 3BF
A-1 = 3F8
G#1 = 435
G-1 = 475
F#1 = 4B9
F-1 = 502
E-1 = 54D
D#1 = 59E
D-1 = 5F3
C#1 = 64E
C-1 = 6AE