Uploaded June 2019 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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I recently got ahold of a complete-in-box Japanese Famicom copy of one of my favorite NES games, "Solstice: The Quest for the Staff of Demnos," and after acquiring a Famicom and a means of hooking it up (since it only outputs through RF, which is getting progressively harder to work with as time goes on), I popped it in... and was shocked to hear the main game BGM sounding VERY DIFFERENT than it was supposed to.

Since I also have an NES copy of Solstice lying around, I went out and bought an NES-to-Famicom conversion cartridge, and decided to try playing the NES original in my Famicom as well, to see if perhaps the music had been altered for the game's Japanese release. But nope! The same unfamiliar percussion greeted me when Shadax was first dropped into the castle.

I've tried a few different RF cables to see if perhaps the cable I was using was the source of the problem, but nope -- same deal every time. Ditto when trying to play the game on a CRT versus an HDTV.

I've also tried playing other NES and Famicom games on the system to see if any other titles had similar audio discrepancies, but not a single one of them does -- they all sound exactly as they should, to my ear. Even the rest of Solstice's soundtrack sounds fine to me on the Famicom -- it's ONLY the in-game BGM that's off.

My friend theorized it may just be the RF connection that's to blame, but when I was a kid playing Solstice on my parents' TV, I remember distinctly that my NES was hooked up to it via RF, and the music sounded as it should. So I'm pretty sure it's not the RF's doing.

My theory is that whatever crazy sound driver Tim Follin developed for use with this game makes use of some of the minor hardware differences in the sound board of the Japanese Famicom versus the overseas NES systems, and a few specific sounds that it produces simply aren't compatible with the Famicom.

Or, there could just be an internal problem with my particular Famicom -- a very, very specific problem!

Anyway, I made this comparison video in case someone with more knowledge of Famicom/NES tech specs might be able to identify the source of the discrepancy. And also to document that Japanese Solstice players were most likely missing out a bit, since the Japanese version of the in-game BGM is notably less atmospheric than the intended original version (at least IMHO).

Let me know what you think in the comments, and thanks for checking this out!