Days of Thunder (NES)

Days of Thunder

Platform: NES Year: 1990 Developer: Beam Software Pty. Ltd. Buy: Amazon

This is for the released version of the game. For the unreleased version, see Days of Thunder: Mindscape (NES).

Days of Thunder is a 3D racing game based on its movie counterpart. In this game, you play as Cole Trickle and must win the championship. The game tries to take on a 3D perspective, but the game fails this attempt with bad controls. Most players don't see past the first stage. Mostly because of it's completely unfair difficulty of you having to take your car to the pit stop to get it fixed or refueled, but the other racers don't pit.

The game was only developed by a few people; Trevor Nuridin, Andrew Bailey, Carl Muller, Parrish Heywood, Gary Liddon, Andrew Carter, Jamie Rivett, Tania Smith, and Gavan Anderson.

Years later, an unreleased version of the game was discovered, which is completely different from the released version.

Screenshots

The game's title screen. Qualifying for the race. Repairing the car in the pits. "I guess winning isn't everything, but it would be nice." Winning the race. Completing the game.

Music

Since this is a movie based game, it's no surprise the game has a decent at best soundtrack. There are only two real songs that play. The rest are just short fanfares. There are also two unused songs, one of them being the infamous Funeral March, composed by Frederic Chopin. It sounds like these songs may have been used in the game over screen, but nothing plays there. Tania Smith wrote the music in Music Macro Language using Beam Software's sound driver programmed by Brian Post.

The beginning of the title screen music has an uncanny resemblance to the Peter Gunn theme. Some of the digitized sound effect sound as if they are from other Mindscape games. For example, the engine sound is from Mad Max (NES).

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Programmer	Length	Listen	Download
01	Title Screen	Tania Smith	Tania Smith	Brian Post	3:33		Download
02	Pit Theme	Tania Smith	Tania Smith	Brian Post	1:01		Download
03	Lose Theme	Tania Smith	Tania Smith	Brian Post	0:07		Download
04	Win Theme	Tania Smith	Tania Smith	Brian Post	0:05		Download
05	Congratulations!	Tania Smith	Tania Smith	Brian Post	0:06		Download
06	Funeral March	Frederic Chopin	Tania Smith	Brian Post	0:06		Download
07	Unused Song	Tania Smith	Tania Smith	Brian Post	0:03		Download

Credits

• Ripper: Gil Galad
• Recorder: Doommaster1994
• Game Credits:
  • Not Credited Composer: Tania Smith
  • Not Credited Composer: Frederic Chopin
  • Not Credited Sound Effects: Gavan Anderson
  • Not Credited Programmer: Brian Post
  • Not Credited Intro Sound Effect: Carl Muller

(Source: Verification from composers; game lacks audio credits.)

There is a code you can input at the title screen which shows pictures of some of the development staff horribly rendered in MS Paint, but it makes no mention of Tania, Gavan, or Brian. We have received verification from Gavan Anderson that Tania Smith composed the music to this game.

Carl is listed in the game's secret staff screen. He has verified writing the sound effect that plays on the copyright screens.

Game Rip

Format	Download
	N/A

Ripping NES music is an arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site. The music was recorded in VirtuaNSF.

Releases

USA Title: Days of Thunder Platform: NES Released: 1990-10-?? Publisher: Mindscape, Inc.     EU Title: Days of Thunder Platform: NES Released: 1991-04-25 Publisher: Mindscape, Inc.