Avoid the Noid (DOS)

Avoid the Noid

Platform: DOS Year: 1989 Developer: ShareData, Inc. Online: Download

Avoid the Noid is an arcade game based on a campaign of Domino's Pizza. You have to reach the 30th floor of Doom Industries in 13 minutes (shown as 30 minutes). It was designed and programmed by James Michael Ferguson († 2018), a ShareData employee in his early 20s. While many sites credit California Merchandising Concepts for development, they likely just allowed ShareData to use the Noid character. According to its documentation, version 1.0 "is freeware to benefit all Dominoes Pizza outlets across the country".

The game lives a lot from its imaginative artwork, classical music and digital samples. It is also very wisely programmed, as many options are available both in-game and on the command-line, and still plays smoothly on Windows XP (only the screen transitions and samples are way too fast).

Gameplay-wise, you're best off closely watching and learning the game mechanics. Judging from comments all over the internet, you can either just love or hate it—you'll have to taste for yourself!

Screenshots

The title screen. Game start. That's how it goes! Any but the RETURN key! Marching on... Terrifying classic!

Music

The game's soundtrack comes in three types, each of which can be turned off.

The first type, Music, consists of 13 classical songs, one for every game screen. All except three have been eagerly recognized on reddit, vgmrips, YouTube, and VGMPF. If you recognize any of these composed by "Unknown", please post it on one of those places!

In the common version 1.0, all songs play on the PC Speaker and have many wrong note heights and durations. You can toggle between legato and staccato, whichever you find more bearable. Ending is not heard in version 1.0. It is implemented, but not called, possibly because that particular implementation loops badly. How they were arranged is unconfirmed, although the machine code suggests that the notes may have been typed as programmable interval timers in an x86 assembler.

In version 1.1, the same songs were newly arranged (often shorter) for the then-fresh OPL2 sound chip, still with a few wrong heights. The driver and all 21 instruments match AdLib Play and Ad Lib's STANDARD.BNK, suggesting that those arrangements were created in AdLib Visual Composer and optimized using AdLib Convert.

The other two types are:

Sound Effects	Digitized Sound
Uncomfortably high-pitched square waves: Your score is increasing. A useless telephone rings. A useful telephone rings. You use a Noid Avoider. You disarm the door on floor 29.	1-bit PCM samples that briefly pause the game: You notice a trapdoor. A Noid kicks you. A Noid laughs (in 8 "ha" sounds), possibly recorded from after freezing the 2nd pizza in a commercial voiced by Pons Maar. A Noid hums over the phone. A water balloon bursts. Explosions.

Recording

All songs were recorded from the game on a Pentium 60 MHz with:

1. a Sound Blaster 16 CT1740 plugged in.
2. a microphone in front of the PC speaker in the dead of night.
3. a microphone in front of the PC speaker and F5 pressed once.

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
101	Title	Unknown	Unknown	2:40		Download
102	Floors 1-3	Louis-Claude Daquin	Unknown	0:56		Download
103	Floors 4-6	George Frideric Handel	Unknown	1:20		Download
104	Floors 7-9	Frédéric Chopin	Unknown	0:49		Download
105	Floors 10-12	Semen Klimovski	Unknown	1:47		Download
106	Floors 13-15	Frédéric Chopin	Unknown	0:54		Download
107	Floors 16-18	Unknown	Unknown	1:09		Download
108	Floors 19-21	Franz Lehár	Unknown	0:57		Download
109	Floors 22-24	Johann Strauss II	Unknown	0:37		Download
110	Floors 25-27	Jean-Philippe Rameau	Unknown	2:09		Download
111	Floors 28-30	Gioachino Rossini	Unknown	1:37		Download
112	Roof	Richard Wagner	Unknown	1:38		Download
113	Ending	Unknown	Unknown	1:09		Download

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
201	Title	Unknown	Unknown	3:48		Download
202	Floors 1-3	Louis-Claude Daquin	Unknown	1:53		Download
203	Floors 4-6	George Frideric Handel	Unknown	1:06		Download
204	Floors 7-9	Frédéric Chopin	Unknown	1:20		Download
205	Floors 10-12	Semen Klimovski	Unknown	2:57		Download
206	Floors 13-15	Frédéric Chopin	Unknown	0:51		Download
207	Floors 16-18	Unknown	Unknown	1:30		Download
208	Floors 19-21	Franz Lehár	Unknown	0:52		Download
209	Floors 22-24	Johann Strauss II	Unknown	0:31		Download
210	Floors 25-27	Jean-Philippe Rameau	Unknown	0:55		Download
211	Floors 28-30	Gioachino Rossini	Unknown	1:51		Download
212	Roof	Richard Wagner	Unknown	1:25		Download
213	Ending	Unknown	Unknown	1:01		Download

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
301	Title	Unknown	Unknown	3:48		Download
302	Floors 1-3	Louis-Claude Daquin	Unknown	1:53		Download
303	Floors 4-6	George Frideric Handel	Unknown	1:06		Download
304	Floors 7-9	Frédéric Chopin	Unknown	1:20		Download
305	Floors 10-12	Semen Klimovski	Unknown	2:57		Download
306	Floors 13-15	Frédéric Chopin	Unknown	0:51		Download
307	Floors 16-18	Unknown	Unknown	1:30		Download
308	Floors 19-21	Franz Lehár	Unknown	0:52		Download
309	Floors 22-24	Johann Strauss II	Unknown	0:31		Download
310	Floors 25-27	Jean-Philippe Rameau	Unknown	0:55		Download
311	Floors 28-30	Gioachino Rossini	Unknown	1:51		Download
312	Roof	Richard Wagner	Unknown	1:25		Download
313	Ending	Unknown	Unknown	1:01		Download

Credits

• Ripper: Professor Chaos
• Recorder: Professor Chaos
• Game Credits:
  • Filename: 'NOIDSND '
    Last modified: 09-05-89 19:26:07
    Written by: Scott Schryver
  • Not Credited Composer: Unknown
  • Not Credited Composer: Louis-Claude Daquin
  • Not Credited Composer: George Frideric Handel
  • Not Credited Composer: Frédéric Chopin
  • Not Credited Composer: Semen Klimovski
  • Not Credited Composer: Franz Lehár
  • Not Credited Composer: Johann Strauss II
  • Not Credited Composer: Jean-Philippe Rameau
  • Not Credited Composer: Gioachino Rossini
  • Not Credited Composer: Richard Wagner
  • Not Credited Arranger: Unknown
  • Not Credited Programmer: Unknown
  • Not Credited Programmer: Ad Lib

(Source for filename: Unused and unterminated string in both versions' NOID.EXE. It does not clarify whether Schryver was programmer, arranger, or both, and for PC Speaker only or also for OPL2. Source for Ad Lib: Code comparison.)

Source verification is needed.

Game Rip

Format	Download
	Download (Info)

All samples are in SOUNDS.SND and LAUGH2. All OPL2 instruments, songs, and their CRC-32 checksums are in MDIDF.BIN, compressed using LZ and Huffman, and were ripped from RAM. All PC Speaker songs are embedded in NOID.EXE. All sample frequencies, sound effects and drivers are hard-coded.

Audio Devices

Music
Sound

Version 1.1 checks for an Ad Lib Music Synthesizer Card or compatible at port 388_hex. If it is found, all music plays on its OPL2 chip. While the driver can handle other addresses, the game does not offer the gamer a such option.

If none is found, or the gamer types the NOADLIB option, or it's version 1.0, all music plays on the computer's built-in PC Speaker. Pressing the F5 key toggles legato vs. staccato.

Music, sound effects and samples can be disabled from the start by typing NOSONG, NOSOUND and NODIGI and toggled by pressing F3, F4 and F6. The OFF option disables everything, and the F9 and S keys toggle the sound effects and accordingly turn the music and samples on/off as well.

(Source: Help.)

Releases

USA Title: Avoid the Noid Platform: DOS Released: 1989-??-?? Publisher: ShareData, Inc.     USA Title: Avoid the Noid Platform: DOS Released: 1990-01-?? Publisher: ShareData, Inc.

Links

• mobygames.com/game/dos/avoid-the-noid - MobyGames.
• gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/941658-avoid-the-noid - GameFAQs.

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