Fire Bam (FDS)
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- Not to be confused with Fire Rock (FDS).
Fire Bam is an action-adventure game developed and published by HAL Laboratory and jointly developed with Live Planning. The game was released in 1988 in Japan, though interestingly, the entire game is in English.
The player takes the role of a young warrior named Bam. The evil demon king Domes has taken over all but the city, and it is up to Bam to stop him.
The game is heavily influenced by Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES). While the game does not have the same experience and magic system, the action of the game is identical, especially in the dungeons; There are keys needed to open gates, elevators that can be moved up and down with their respective directional buttons, and you can even fire projectiles from your sword. Throughout the game, you will spend most of your time in the forest. This is not only because this is where all of the dungeons in the game are, but also because you need to kill enemies in the forest to earn Fire, the game's currency. Then, you must locate stores to upgrade your inventory. Before facing Domes for the second and final time, Bam will need the magic sword from his parents in order to deal damage. After each Wind or Maze section, there is a boss, and later in the game, multiple bosses in one dungeon. After each dungeon, the player will have to face the Litra, which can only be hit from behind. While the game is clearly based on Zelda II, it also uses elements from later Zelda games, such as the various footwear Bam can obtain, like the fire shoes that allow Bam to traverse in the lava, the speed shoes, or even the wing shoes which allow Bam to jump higher.
While the game plays like Zelda II, one thing to note is that the Bam gains traction the longer the D-pad is pressed left or right, which can alter the distance of his jump. This can be a bit confusing and even tedious, especially in the later stages.
Contents
Screenshots
Music
Fire Bam was composed by HAL Laboratory's lead composer at the time, Hideki Kanazashi. Like all of his other games on the platform, Kanazashi took advantage of the extra sound channel of the FDS, the RP2C33. It is mostly used as a bassline, but with the wavetable synthesis it provides, makes for much fuller bass sounds than the 2A03 could make. The main drawback is most of the songs last only a few seconds. Like Kanazashi's other soundtracks, there is a wide variety of genres. Most of the songs have either a rock or orchestral feel. The safer areas have happy and upbeat music while the dungeons and other dangerous areas in the game are all accompanied by tense and ominous themes. The game's ending theme has an end, and then transitions into a ballad-like loop. Kanazashi did the same thing with the ending music to Adventures of Lolo 2 (NES).
Hideki wrote the soundtrack in Music Maker, which utilized Music Macro Language.
The song titles are taken from the HAL Game Music CD. However, there are a few things to note; On the CD, all of the game's soundtrack is condensed into one track called Fire Bam Kumikyoku (ファイヤー・バム組曲 = The Fire Bam Suite), but the liner notes give the name of each song in the track. However, the Boss Defeated track listed below is counted as the Boss section of the track. There is also a track on the CD, Shouri (勝利 = Victory) which did not make it into the final game. Finally, the Ending tune heard on the CD has some significant changes compared to the final release of the game; most notable, a drum track as added, and the song is extended.
Recording
| # | Title | Composer | Length | Listen | Download |
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| 01 | Ie | Hideki Kanazashi | 0:29 | Download | |
| 02 | Machi | Hideki Kanazashi | 0:33 | Download | |
| 03 | Mori | Hideki Kanazashi | 2:00 | Download | |
| 04 | Kaze | Hideki Kanazashi | 0:21 | Download | |
| 05 | Boss | Hideki Kanazashi | 2:01 | Download | |
| 06 | Boss Defeated | Hideki Kanazashi | 0:05 | Download | |
| 07 | Meiro | Hideki Kanazashi | 0:38 | Download | |
| 08 | Litra | Hideki Kanazashi | 0:20 | Download | |
| 09 | Last Stage | Hideki Kanazashi | 0:22 | Download | |
| 10 | Domes | Hideki Kanazashi | 0:22 | Download | |
| 11 | Ending | Hideki Kanazashi | 1:15 | Download |
Credits
- Ripper: MrNorbert1994
- Recorder: Doommaster1994
- Game Credits:
- Sound Composer: Hideki Kanazashi credited as H.Kanazasi
- Tools: Music Maker
- Uncredited Sound Driver: Hiroaki Suga
(Source)
The game's credits are displayed during the ending. Because the text box was too small, the developers cut off the h in Kanazashi's last name. This is acceptable in Japan however, as si would naturally be pronounced shi (し). The game also credits the program Kanazashi used to create the music, Music Maker.
Albums
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Game Rip
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Audio Devices
The game uses the 2A03 of the NES, as well as the RP2C33 of the Disk System for music and sound effects. The game uses Hiroaki Suga's sound driver.
Releases
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Links
- gamefaqs.gamespot.com/famicomds/578554-fire-bam - GameFAQs.
- mobygames.com/game/nes/fire-bam - MobyGames.
