Friday the 13th (NES)
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- For other games in the series, see Friday the 13th.
Friday the 13th is an action game developed by Atlus and published by LJN. It is based on the popular movie franchise of the same name, but does not appear to be based on any particular film in the series.
In this game, you take the role of not one character, but rather six camp counselors. There are three men and women, each with a slow, medium, or fast attribute. The game has two distinctive features; inside the cabins, the game is in a pseudo-3D view, and outside, it is a traditional non-linear sidescroller. In the outside segments, you kill zombies, hoping they drop items such as weapons, lighters, and medicine. The player can view a map anytime by pressing Start. Doing so shows a map of Camp Crystal Lake and all the various locations. The goal is to acquire the torch. To do this, the player must collect a lighter, go to each of the large cabins on the map and light the fireplaces inside. The torch will do massive damage to Jason Voorhees.
There are other locations you can go to in the outside area such as a forest, as well as a cave. If you navigate the cave correctly, you will face Pamela Voorhees disembodied head as a boss. If you beat her, you can use her sweater to absorb damage from Jason.
One of the main mechanics in the game is the "Jason Alarm." At random intervals in the game, you will hear the alarm every couple of seconds and see a timer countdown. When this happens, the player must look at the map to see which cabin Jason will strike at, and get there before the timer runs out. After entering the cabin, the player must explore the cabin until they find and confront Jason. If the player fails to get to the destination in time, Jason either kills a camp counselor (counts as the player's lives), or the children, depending on whether the cabin housed a counselor or children. If all the children or counselors die, the game is over.
The game has an interesting mechanic; if the player enters a cabin where another counselor is present, they can interact with each other, allowing the player to give the counselor items, as well as switch between the two. This helps if you need to heal another counselor with medicine or want to play as a stronger character.
The goal of the game is to ultimately kill Jason Voorhees. However, the scenario must be repeated thrice before the game is finally completed, and even then, like the movies, the game's ending leaves the player on a cliffhanger.
The game received mixed reviews from players and critics. Some thought while the design of the game was nice, the execution was poor. Also, if you worked hard enough to get the torch weapon, dying causes you to lose it. In addition, every camp counselor has to light all fireplaces to get their own! Another criticism is that the main in-game music is so repetitive that you have to hit the mute button. The game also received notoriety when it was reviewed by the Angry Video Game Nerd.
The game was developed by only a few people; Hideyuki Yokoyama worked on the game's production, planning, and graphics while Hirohiko Takayama did the music. According to Hideyuki, a freelance programmer with the last name Yamaguchi worked on the game as well.
Screenshots
Music
Friday the 13th has a short amount of music. The in-game music is a repetitive loop that only lasts a few seconds. However, the cabin music is lengthy, as well as spooky and atmospheric. According to Hirohiko, the main instrument was supposed to be a pipe organ. The rest of the music is about as repetitive as the in-game music. Because Takayama usually wrote much better quality soundtracks (like Xexys for example), it is possible he did not have much time to write a proper soundtrack, or was directed by the game's developers to keep it short.
To make the game's music, Hirohiko wrote the music in assembly on MS-DOS (possibly on a PC-9801), using a sound driver by Tsukasa Masuko.
The song Cabin Theme was later used in the unreleased NES game Happily Ever After (NES), also composed by Takayama.
Recording
| # | Title | Composer | Length | Listen | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Cabin Theme | Hirohiko Takayama | 1:39 | Download | |
| 02 | Outside Theme | Hirohiko Takayama | 0:19 | Download | |
| 03 | Fight Theme | Hirohiko Takayama | 0:16 | Download | |
| 04 | Death Theme | Hirohiko Takayama | 0:01.3 | Download | |
| 05 | Ending Theme | Hirohiko Takayama | 0:16 | Download |
Credits
- Ripper: TNSe^1999
- Recorder: Doommaster1994
- Game Credits:
- Uncredited Composer: Hirohiko Takayama
- Uncredited Programmer: Tsukasa Masuko
(Source: Verification from staff; game lacks credits.)
According to Hideyuki, LJN would not allow Atlus to put credits in their games, let alone the company name. Hirohiko has confirmed working on the soundtrack, and Tsukasa has confirmed programming the game's sound engine.
Game Rip
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NSF ripping is an arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site. The music was recorded in VirtuaNSF.
Releases
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Links
- mobygames.com/game/nes/friday-the-13th - MobyGames.
- gamefaqs.com/nes/563418-friday-the-13th - GameFAQs.
