Smurf,music

[Rik]

Has anyone noticed the theme music for Smurf,Rescue In Gargamel's Castle,is totally different in Colecovision and Atari 2600 versions of the game?in my case anyway,I bought the CV version expecting the well known "Smurf tune",just like the one the 2600 plays,and got a totally different tune,kind of disappointing,because the 2600 tune in my opinion is way better.Are the tunes supposed to be different between the two versions?or did the factory screw up?

[Lord Thag]

Huh! You're right, I just checked. The 2600 one plays the familiar smurf tune, and the CV one playes something else. There is no way this was an accident, as you would have to code the program to play the music the way it does. What probably happened is that two seperate teams worked on the two versions of the game simultaneously, and each team used different music. Anyone know for sure?

 

By the way, are you the same Rik that runs the Handheld Gaming Museum? If so, thanks for adding the high score forum! I plan on breaking out some games this weekend and getting some more scores posted.

[NovaXpress]

The Colecovision FAQ says that the CV version was created by a French company called Belokapi. Looking into it, it appears that Belokapi is just the European distributor for the Smurfs, not a development house.

[ColecoNation]

Based on the interview I had with Dave Johnson (Coleco employee during the CV years), it appears that Coleco did most of the design and programming of the CV games in house (especially the early releases like Smurfs). He also mentioned that they would often design the Atari 2600 and Intellivision conversions also in house, but had third-party companies do the programming. So, there's a good chance that some of the Coleco games could differ between the various consoles. I wonder if there are any others...

 

I've never played the 2600 version of Smurfs, but you say that the tune is more like the Smurf's theme song? If so, that's pretty cool. Maybe the CV programmers (being low on experience since the CV was so new) just couldn't get the sounds to work as well as the 2600 programmers (who may have been working with 2600 for a year or more by then)? I'm no programmer, but I've heard that it can be tricky to program sounds for the CV.

 

If you're interested (and haven't read it yet) you can check out the Dave Johnson interview in the lastest issue of ColecoNation (www.ColecoNation.com).

 

+ Nathan

[+FujiSkunk]

It's not completely different.

 

The Atari 2600 plays the familiar Smurfs theme as an intro, and then has a different tune playing as background music during the game. This other tune is a simplified arrangement of the music featured in the Colecovision game.

Edited June 15, 2006 by skunkworx

[Vic George 2K3]

Smurf Paint N Play Workshop for the ColecoVision has the Smurf theme music playing in the background of one of the pre-painted scenes.

[ColecoNation]

Smurf Paint N Play Workshop for the ColecoVision has the Smurf theme music playing in the background of one of the pre-painted scenes.

 

And it was released over a year after the first Smurf game, possibly by someone with a little more experience on the CV...