Blackjack (NES)

Blackjack

Platform: NES Year: 1992 Developer: Odyssey Software

This page is for NES release of Blackjack. For other games in the series see Blackjack.

Blackjack is an unlicensed game developed by Odyssey Software and published by American Video Entertainment. In this game, you set your configurations and play a game of blackjack. The goal of the game is to get as close to 21 as possible, as to have a higher number than the dealer. Face cards are worth 10 points while an Ace can be either 1 or 11 (if the player has 11+ points already, it counts as 1 point. Going over 21 results in a "bust", in which the player loses the round.

The NES version of Blackjack is pretty barebones. It's basic blackjack, but with a few different configurations. These include the number of decks used (1 to 3), the amount of money to win to beat the game ($1000, $5000, $10,000), how many players and which controllers are used, and the starting cash for each player ($100, $250, and $500).

Screenshots

The game's title screen. The main menu. Getting a blackjack. I win!

This page needs more screenshots.

Music

The game has a short soundtrack. Instead of composing original music, the game's composer Mike Smith, copied Billy Joel's Root Beer Rag to the NES. It's a decent conversion, consisting of the song in its entirety that lasts over 3 minutes before looping. However, this is the song you'll hear throughout most of the game, though you have the option to turn music and/or sounds off. The Victory music was also re-arranged and used in Maxi 15 (NES). To compose the music, Mike wrote MIDI files on his keyboard and the MIDI files were converted to Odyssey's sound driver by George Rucker.

The Maxi 15 version of the title screen was completely changed to an original song, probably for legal reasons. However, the rest of the songs in the Maxi 15 version were kept the same.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Programmer	Length	Listen	Download
01	Root Beer Rag	Billy Joel	Mike Smith	George Rucker	3:56		Download
02	Game Over	Mike Smith	Mike Smith	George Rucker	0:04		Download
03	Victory	Mike Smith	Mike Smith	George Rucker	0:26		Download
04	Title Screen (Maxi 15)	Mike Smith	Mike Smith	George Rucker	3:38		Download

Credits

• Ripper: Gil-Galad (NSF), Doommaster1994 (VGZ)
• Recorder: Doommaster1994
• Game Credits:
  • Music and Sound: Mike Smith
  • Music and Sound: Art Cestaro credited as Art V Cestaro III
  • Music and Sound: George Rucker credited as George C Rucker III
  • Not Credited Composer: Billy Joel

Though Art and George are credited for music and sound, Art said that he was only the audio director, and told Mike what kind of music he wanted in the game, so it was probably his decision to include Root Beer Rag. George Rucker programmed the Odyssey sound driver.

(Source)

Game Rip

Format	Download
	N/A

Ripping NES music is an arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site. The music was recorded in VirtuaNSF.

The VGZ files were logged in both MESS VGM Mod during gameplay and NSFs converted to VGZ using NEZPlay VGM Mod. The title music was trimmed to loop properly.

Audio Devices

The game uses the RP2A03 to play music and sound effects. The DPCM channel is not used. The game uses Odyssey Software's NES sound driver.

Releases

USA Title: Blackjack Platform: NES Released: 1992-??-?? Publisher: American Video Entertainment