Mad Max (NES)

Mad Max

Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System Year: 1990 Developer: Eastridge Technology, Gray Matter Buy: Amazon

Mad Max is an action game developed by Eastridge Technology and Gray Matter and published by Mindscape. It is based on the Mad Max film The Road Warrior and is loosely based on the computer game, Road Raider.

The game is broken up into two sections:

Road War: The game is seen from a top-down perspective. The player takes control of Max's Pursuit Special, controlled oddly by the D-pad. The objective in this area is to get an arena pass from the shop. This is done by exploring the area for caves, where items such as food, water, and gas are obtained. The cave areas are also from a top-down perspective, but Max is on-foot. Here, he can shoot enemies with his gun which will dispatch them in a single hit. The player must also use keys to access certain areas of the cave. Once the player collects enough supplies, they must return to the shop and trade in their supplies for an arena pass. After that, they must locate the entrance to the arena. The player must do all of this before they run out of fuel, or they must restart from the beginning of the stage with all their progress for that level lost.

In the driving segments, you must avoid enemy vehicles and towers that throw dynamite at you. You have dynamite of your own to throw, but only in very limited quantities. At the shop, you can buy varying amounts of gasoline if you need it.

Arena: In the arena, you must destroy a certain amount of vehicles. To do this, you drive along a series of narrow roads and can either knock the opponents into the chasm below, or lead them into the traps which open and close randomly. However, the opponents can pull the same tricks on you, so you must exercise extreme caution. After dispatching enough cars, the boss appears, which is an even stronger vehicle that you must dispatch the same way. After this, you must find the exit and escape with enough gas to spare. After this, you go to the next level and are given a four-letter password to save your progress.

The game contains a four-letter password system, which is good for an NES game. Although there is a bug with one of the passwords that takes you to the final arena. After clearing this, you go to the final boss Humungus, where, if you used the password, you will not have enough ammunition in your crossbow to defeat him. You can also accidentally fall of the edge very easily, making the final boss battle even more frustrating than it needs to be.

The game was developed by only three people; Nick Eastridge as the programmer, Nick Gray as the graphic artist, and Rich Shemaria as the music composer. The same team worked on Infiltrator (NES), with the exception of the composer.

Mad Max received negative backlash from players and critics alike. They cited the awkward and stiff controls, the cryptic level design and gameplay, and the unfair difficulty. The game is also very unforgiving, as there are several ways to die, and most run out of gas rather than get destroyed by the enemy. One of the game's testers, Chris Pico, said he gave honest feedback to Mindscape about what they could do to improve the game, but they ignored his criticisms and released the game as it is. Though he asked for his name to be removed from the testing credits, they left his name intact in the game's documentation.

Screenshots

The title screen. The game's prologue. The main menu, which has an uncanny resemblance to Infiltrator (NES). Playing one of the Road War levels. Exploring a cave for items. Playing one of the Arena battles.

Music

Mad Max only sports two songs. Each play during various different parts of the game. Unfortunately, there is no music when driving around the level, which the player spends a bulk of the game doing. The track "Mad Max" plays during the title, at the gas station, inside the caves, and during the final boss fight. "Death" plays when the player loses a life, runs out of gas, and is viewing a cutscene in the arenas. It also plays during the game's ending.

The game's soundtrack was written by Rich Shemaria, who was Eastridge Technology's composer at the time, though only as a contractor. Rich wrote the music on sheet music paper, and gave his compositions to Nick Eastridge to implement into the game. On the sheet music, Shemaria also put the hex values for Eastridge's driver over each note for an easier conversion. The main theme was officially titled by Shemaria, but he does not remember anything about the "Death" music. However, he also told the VGMPF that he had originally composed more songs for the game, but notices they were not included in the final product. This was most likely due to time constraints and Nick Eastridge simply did not have the time to implement the songs.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
01	Mad Max	Rich Shemaria	Nick Eastridge	2:35		Download
02	Death	Rich Shemaria	Nick Eastridge	0:13		Download

Credits

• Ripper: Gil-Galad
• Recorder: Doommaster1994
• Game Credits:
  • Uncredited Composer: Rich Shemaria
  • Uncredited Arranger/Programmer: Nick Eastridge

(Source: Verification from composer, game's sound engine; Game lacks credits.)

Eastridge Technology never put credits in their games. However, Rich Shemaria has verified working on the game. He also verified Nick Eastridge arranged his music. The game uses Nick Eastridge's sound driver. For proof, Shemaria showed the VGMPF his original handwritten score for the main theme, which can be seen on his VGMPF page.

The game's instruction manual has a special thanks list of people who worked on the game, but none of the development staff are credited. Among the list of people is Chris Pico, one of the testers who requested to have his name taken off of the list, but Mindscape did not honor his wishes.

Game Rip

This rip is missing songs.

Format	Download
	N/A

Ripping NES music is an arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site. The recording was made in NSFPlay.

The game uses the RP2A03 sound chip. All channels are used for audio, but the noise and DPCM channels are only used for sound effects.

Releases

USA Title: Mad Max Platform: NES Released: 1990-07-?? Publisher: Mindscape Inc.

Links

• mobygames.com/game/nes/mad-max - MobyGames.
• gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/587428-mad-max-1990 - GameFAQs.