The Great Waldo Search (NES)
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- For other games in the series, see Where's Waldo?.
The Great Waldo Search is a game developed by Radiance and published by T*HQ, and is based on the book of the same name. The player controls a magnifying glass through each of the five levels, and must find Waldo and a scroll within the time limit. The player can also find clocks for more time, as well as point bonuses. Some of the clocks will make the player find a certain object before returning to the level. The player can also find Woof hidden through the levels which starts a bonus game where Woof is flying on a magic carpet and must collect as many of the bones as possible. The game is over if the time runs out on any of the levels. There are no lives or continues, so the player must perform a perfect run. The game also has a Normal and Expert difficulty. The game was also released for the SNES and Genesis.
The game was poorly received by critics for the dull gameplay, and the lack of content, as the five levels can be cleared in only minutes. There is also no extra reward for beating the game on the Expert difficulty.
Contents
Screenshots
Music
The Great Waldo Search contains only six tracks; a very small number of songs for an NES game. In addition, most of the songs are short loops. Also, some songs have desynchronization issues, in which the channels go out of sync, leading to a lot of dissonance. In addition, the percussion track plays on the square channel instead of the noise channel, further adding to the dissonance.
The title music is quite impressive, as it is a digitized loop of the Where's Waldo? Theme from the cartoon Where's Waldo? by Jeff Barry. The loop is pretty clean as well.
The title music arrangement and the other songs were written by Doug Brandon, one of his first works in the industry. According to Brandon, he created the music in Cubase for the Atari ST. The music was then converted to Mike Riedel's sound driver.
Recording
| # | Title | Composer | Arranger | Length | Listen | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Title Screen | Jeff Barry | Unknown | 0:29 | Download | |
| 02 | Main Menu | Doug Brandon | Unknown | 0:46 | Download | |
| 03 | Kingdom of the Carpet Flyers | Doug Brandon | Unknown | 0:46 | Download | |
| 04 | The Enchanted Underground | Doug Brandon | Unknown | 0:50 | Download | |
| 05 | Water Monks vs. Fire Druids | Doug Brandon | Unknown | 0:42 | Download | |
| 06 | Land of the Gargantuas | Doug Brandon | Unknown | 0:38 | Download |
Credits
- Rippers: MrNorbert1994
- Recorder: Doommaster1994
- Game Credits:
- The Music Written & Composed by: Jeff Barry
- Title Music Produced by: Jeff Barry
- Title Music Produced by: Richard Goldsmith
- Music: Doug Brandon
- Unknown Arranger: Unknown
- Uncredited Sound Driver: Mike Riedel
- The Music Written & Composed by: Jeff Barry
(Source)
The game credits Jeff Barry for the theme song at the title screen, and there is a staff roll after completing the game.
The arranger is unknown, but it may have been the game's programmer Stephen Rozner, as he was credited for sound in other games.
Game Rip
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Audio Devices
The game uses the 2A03 of the NES. The game uses Mike Riedel's sound driver.
Releases
Links
- gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/563421-the-great-waldo-search - GameFAQs.
- mobygames.com/game/nes/great-waldo-search - MobyGames.
| Where's Waldo? | |
| Where's Waldo? |  •  •  • •  •  •  •  •  •
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| The Great Waldo Search |  • • 
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| Wally o Sagase! Ehon no Kuni no Daiboken | 
|
| Where's Waldo? The Fantastic Journey |  • •  •  •
|
| Notable Songs | Where's Waldo? Theme |
| Notable Personnel | Jeff Barry • Doug Brandon • Nicolas Marquis |
| Notable Companies | Radiance Software • Bethesda Softworks |
