Vindicators (NES)

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Vindicators
Vindicators - NES.jpg
Platform: NES
Year: 1989
Developer: Westwood Associates
Buy: Amazon

Vindicators is a one or two player arcade game released by Atari Games in 1988. Home ports were by Tengen. Vindicators was not licensed by Nintendo and used an alternate chip to defeat the 10NES lockout system. Ports were planned for the Atari Lynx and Apple IIGS, with the latter even completed, but both were cancelled. The arcade original was released for Windows PCs on Midway Arcade Treasures (2004).

The NES port was developed by Westwood Associates, although it was uncredited. The game was done by only four developers, which were game programmer Marco Herrera, graphic artist Joseph B. Hewitt IV, and music/sounds by Paul Mudra and Dwight Okahara.

Screenshots

Vindicators - NES - Title Screen.png

The title screen.


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This page needs more screenshots.

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Music

As expected, the music is taken from the arcade version composed by Atari's Hal Canon and Brad Fuller. It was ported to the NES by Westwood's Paul S. Mudra and Dwight Okahara. Paul said the following about the music:

I do remember working on Vindicators.

We had a coin-op version of the arcade machine supplied by Atari in our office that we used as reference.

I also remember that we received hand-written sheet music for the themes from Atari (which arrived in a manila envelope from Japan) that I transcribed and re-edited in a music editor to fit the specifications for our game.

I don't think Frank had to write any additional music for the game but Dwight and I worked on the sound design and implementation.

According to Paul, he used Deluxe Music Construction Set on the Amiga to write his music for the NES. It is most likely Dwight used the same method. Their MIDI files were converted to Westwood's NES sound driver.

Recording

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There are issues with the timing of this recording.

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# Title ComposerArrangerProgrammer Length Listen Download
01 Title Screen Hal Canon, Brad FullerPaul Mudra, Dwight OkaharaPaul Mudra 0:31
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02 Target Select Hal Canon, Brad FullerPaul Mudra, Dwight OkaharaPaul Mudra 0:22
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03 Level 1 Hal Canon, Brad FullerPaul Mudra, Dwight OkaharaPaul Mudra 3:00
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04 Level 2 Hal Canon, Brad FullerPaul Mudra, Dwight OkaharaPaul Mudra 3:00
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05 Level 3 Hal Canon, Brad FullerPaul Mudra, Dwight OkaharaPaul Mudra 3:00
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06 Level 4 Hal Canon, Brad FullerPaul Mudra, Dwight OkaharaPaul Mudra 3:00
Download
07 Ending / High Scores Hal Canon, Brad FullerPaul Mudra, Dwight OkaharaPaul Mudra 0:52
Download

Credits

(Sources: Arcade, verification from composers, game lacks credits.)

We have verified that Paul Mudra and Dwight Okahara composed the music. It is unknown why the game does not have credits, but it is presumably because the game was unlicensed and Westwood didn't want to burn bridges with Nintendo. However, Pac-Mania, released around the same time and was also published by Tengen, contains a credits scroll.

Game Rip

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This rip is missing songs.

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Format

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Ripping NES music is an arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site.

Audio Devices

The game outputs to the RP2A03 of the NES. The DPCM channel was never used. This game used Paul Mudra's NES sound driver.

Releases

  USA.svg   USA
Vindicators - NES.jpg
Title: Vindicators
Platform: NES
Released: 1989-11-??
Publisher: Tengen
  Australia.svg   Australia
NoBox.png
Title: Vindicators
Platform: NES
Released: 1990-??-??
Publisher: HES Interactive

Links