Dr. Chaos (NES)

Dr. Chaos

Platform: NES Year: 1988 Developer: Marionette Co., Ltd. Buy: Amazon

Dr. Chaos is an Adventure title developed by Marionette, the same guys who also brought us Pool of Radiance (NES). In this game, you play as Michael Chaos. Your brother Ginn was performing scientific experiments in a haunted mansion until everything went to Hell (quite literally). Now, evil monsters invade the mansion and it is up to Michael to get rid of them and save his brother before it is too late.

The game is broken up into three sections; the mansion, the rooms, and the warp zones. You must find your way through certain warp zones and kill the boss at the end to get a blueprint to a special weapon needed to get rid of the final boss. Along the way you can kill enemies with a knife, grenades, a pistol, and a machine gun.

The game was released in Japan for the Famicom Disk System instead of the Famicom itself. Some things are different, like the warp zones are much shorter and you can also save your game.

Screenshots

The title screen. Killing a rat in the mansion. Exploring a room.

This page needs more screenshots.

Music

The game's music is converted from the Famicom Disk System version. Hironari Tadokoro said he arranged the music for the NES version from the Disk System version. Both versions credit Ponii Ichinen as the composer, which is an alias. The name Ponii Ichinen (ポニー一年) translates to "One Year Pony". It is possible that it had to do with composers from Pony Canyon. We contacted Tadokoro and asked him about the alias, and he said that Ponii Ichinen was a team of composers including himself, but due to legal reasons, he wasn't allowed to talk about it. Hironari also said that he doesn't remember which songs he composed since it was a long time ago, and that even if he did, he may not be allowed to answer. However, the programmer of the game has told us that he believes that Hironari probably did all the music.

Hironari composed the music by programming the sound driver and writing it in Music Macro Language.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
01	Title Screen	Ponii Ichinen	Hironari Tadokoro	1:35		Download
02	Mansion Theme	Ponii Ichinen	Hironari Tadokoro	1:14		Download
03	Room Theme	Ponii Ichinen	Hironari Tadokoro	1:25		Download
04	Warp Zone Theme	Ponii Ichinen	Hironari Tadokoro	0:44		Download
05	Boss	Ponii Ichinen	Hironari Tadokoro	1:09		Download
06	Ending	Ponii Ichinen	Hironari Tadokoro	0:24		Download
07	Credits	Ponii Ichinen	Hironari Tadokoro	1:54		Download

Credits

• Ripper: Unknown
• Recorder: Doommaster1994
• Game Credits:
  • Music Composer: Hironari Tadokoro credited as Ponii Ichinen
  • Music Composer: Unknown credited as Ponii Ichinen
  • Assistant: Hironari Tadokoro credited as Punk Tadokoro

(Sources: NES, FDS)

The NES and Famicom Disk System version's credits are a little different, as some of the staff members use different aliases, the font is different, and the Pony Canyon logo is in a different place. Tadokoro is also listed as an assistant programmer.

Game Rip

Formats	Download	Size
	Download	8 KB

The NSF contains only the 7 songs. NSF ripping is an arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site. The recording was made in VirtuaNSF.

Releases

Japan Title: ドクター カオス: 地獄の扉 (Dr. Chaos: Hell's Door) Platform: Famicom Disk System Released: 1987-06-19 Publisher: Ponyca     USA Title: Dr. Chaos Platform: NES Released: 1988-11-?? Publisher: Fujisankei Communications, Inc.