It’s no secret that Capcom’s The Scrooge McDuck series “Ducktales for the Nintendo Entertainment System is a bona fide classic, especially in terms of video game music. But since it’s a NES game, it only has a dozen or so fast tracks to enjoy. However, an early prototype currently doing the rounds expands on the final soundtrack with another song by (I assume) original composer Hiroshige Tonomura.
This one The Scrooge McDuck series “Ducktales build, which is dated February 5, 1989 according to The Cutting Room Floor, is the earliest look we’ve gotten so far into the development process of the iconic platformer. (The last game came out around September 15, 1989.) As such, several key elements are missing (such as red diamonds, treasure values, HP refills and last level names). You can read all about it on the TCRF wiki; what i’m particularly excited about is the new music on the stage selection screen:
It definitely has a different feel to the original card theme. Where the track that has reached the official The Scrooge McDuck series “Ducktales release is more mysterious and repetitive, the prototype song is upbeat and adventurous as you would expect from a game based on a children’s cartoon. I also really like the subtle bass line that powers the whole thing.
While, let’s face it, the song isn’t as immediately iconic as the song played during the moon phase, it’s always nice to have a little more insight into how a video game was created, especially one that relies as much on music as The Scrooge McDuck series “Ducktales. There’s no telling why the developers preferred the final scheme over this newly discovered treasure, but I’m glad there are people like TCRF cataloging these discoveries.