Where's Waldo? (NES)
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- For other games in the series, see Where's Waldo?.
Where's Waldo? is one of three NES games developed by Bethesda, the others being Home Alone (NES) and Wayne Gretzky Hockey (NES).
The goal is to find Waldo in each stage and beat the game within the time limit. The harder the difficulty, the smaller the square gets, the longer the screen gets, and Waldo will change not only the color of his clothes, but also his skin color. The levels are as follows: Train Station, Forest, Cave, Fairground, City, Subway, Castle, and the Launch Pad. Most of these levels consist of simply placing a cursor over Waldo, pressing A, and progressing to the next level. However, some of these levels are different. In the Cave, you must find Waldo in a dark cave. Unlike the other standard levels, pressing the A button in the wrong places doesn't deduct time, so click away! The Subway level is a puzzle level, which contains several octagon-shaped pieces which your pointer can go through, which, depending on the path, brings you to another octagon path. You must find Waldo and his glasses and advance to the center of the right of the screen to progress, but if Wizard Whitebeard runs into you, he will quickly drain your time limit, and you will most likely get a game over. The final level, the Launch Pad, features a slot machine-like interface; you must press the buttons to match Waldo in all 3 windows, and then the game is won.
The game was received negatively by critics. This was due to poor graphic design, making it too hard for first-time players to find Waldo, too short of a game to those who do know how to beat it, and the fact the cursor is much too sensitive to control, especially on harder difficulties. Also, despite the timer appearing to be in seconds, it is actually in minutes, and the programmers forgot to program a colon between the numbers.
Contents
Screenshots
Music
The game features a decent soundtrack by Julian Lefay. The title music is probably the most catchy of the songs. However, there is no in-game music; the only sound in the game is the one that plays when you incorrectly guess where Waldo is.
The Found Waldo jingle actually plays much longer than heard in game, and it can be heard here in its entirety. Interestingly, the Found Waldo and Game Over jingles were both previously used in Wayne Gretzky Hockey (NES) as the game start and goal music respectively.
There is also an unused song. Wayne Gretzky Hockey plays an identical track when the game is paused, so it was most likely intended for when the game was paused. However, you cannot pause the game.
To write the music, Lefay wrote the music in Sonix for the Amiga, which was then converted to Randy Linden's sound driver.
Recording
| # | Title | Composer | Arranger | Programmer | Length | Listen | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Title Screen | Julian Lefay | Julian Lefay | Randy Linden | 1:06 | Download | |
| 02 | Overworld | Julian Lefay | Julian Lefay | Randy Linden | 0:36 | Download | |
| 03 | Incorrect Guess | Julian Lefay | Julian Lefay | Randy Linden | 0:01 | Download | |
| 04 | Found Waldo | Unknown, Tommy Walker | Julian Lefay | Randy Linden | 0:08 | Download | |
| 05 | Game Over | Julian Lefay | Julian Lefay | Randy Linden | 0:07 | Download | |
| 06 | Rocket Landing | Julian Lefay | Julian Lefay | Randy Linden | 0:17 | Download | |
| 07 | Ending | Julian Lefay | Julian Lefay | Randy Linden | 1:01 | Download | |
| 08 | Unused | Julian Lefay | Julian Lefay | Randy Linden | 0:14 | Download |
Credits
- Ripper: MrNorbert1994
- Recorder: Doommaster1994
- Game Credits:
- Nintendo Programming: Randy Linden
- Music By: Julian Lefay
- Not Credited Composer: Tommy Walker
- Not Credited Composer: Unknown
(Source)
Like the other Bethesda NES games, the credits appear upon bootup. According to Lefay, Linden programmed the sound driver.
Game Rip
Ripping NES music is an arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site. The music was recorded in NSFPlay Synthesia Mod.
Audio Devices
The game uses the Ricoh 2A03. It is the only Bethesda game not to use the DPCM channel. It uses Randy Linden's sound driver.
Releases
Links
- mobygames.com/game/nes/wheres-waldo - MobyGames.
- gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/563477-wheres-waldo - GameFAQs.
| 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 | 
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| Where's Waldo? The Fantastic Journey |  • •  •  •
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| Notable Songs | Where's Waldo? Theme |
| Notable Personnel | Jeff Barry • Doug Brandon • Nicolas Marquis |
| Notable Companies | Radiance Software • Bethesda Softworks |
