The fictional NES game in Mickey Rourke movie The Wrestler

[rbudrick]

Those that have seen the movie probably remember the scene where Rourke and a friend are playing the NES game Wrestle Jam '88. Looking on the Wikipedia entry for the movie, I noticed this:


A scene in the film features a fictional Nintendo Entertainment System video game called Wrestle Jam '88, starring the characters of Robinson and The Ayatollah. Aronofsky requested a fully functioning game for the actors to play with, with programmer Randall Furino and the film's title designer Kristyn Hume creating a playable demo with a working interface and AI routines that also featured 1980s era-appropriate graphics and music.

I thought this quite interesting. I know it's probably a PC program that was made to look like it was running on an NES, but do you think this guy made a real NES rom for the movie? I can't recall if the graphics were NES-possible.

-Rob

[ProgrammingAce]

It'd be such a pain in the ass to program an NES game where a simple flash game would have worked just as well.

You could throw the flash game together in hours. You're looking at weeks for the NES game.

[jb143]

There was a thread not too long ago that talked about this and had a link to an article on the game...
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=128788

Here's a link to the article...
http://kotaku.com/5158834/the-making...rs-unsung-hero

I'm pretty sure it was a PC program, just made to look 8-bit. And was aparently fully functional.

[rbudrick]

Thanks, JB!

Looks like the creator of the game's theme music uploaded it on Youtube (he was separate from the two programmers).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJqFc5KeQmE

He just put Pro Wrestling in the video, though.

Apparently the game's programming employed "Logic Studio, some nifty 3rd party "8-bit" plug ins, and Reason 4" according to the comments, but that might be only referencing the theme music. They even wired real NES controllers to the PC.

I will send him a message to see if the game is downloadable now or ever.

-Rob

[Draven]

I always thought the Ayatolla looked ALOT like Andre the Giant. The way their legs were shaped, the way they walked, etc. Of course, I haven't played Wrestlemania on NES in quite some time, but I thought they were very close in appearance (minus the turban, etc). Anyone else think this the first time they saw Rourke playing it?

[rbudrick]

It also looks like someone else put a copy up on DP :|

I'm not following you there, Stonic. What do you mean?

-Rob

[Kitsune Sniper]

I'm not following you there, Stonic. What do you mean?

-Rob

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1521720&postcount=17

There's an MP3 version of the song hosted on this very site.

[hbkprm]

love the movie

[rbudrick]

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1521720&postcount=17

There's an MP3 version of the song hosted on this very site.

Ahh, gotcha. Thanks, Kitsune

No response yet on the youtube email I sent. I honestly don't expect a reply.

-Rob

[Kitsune Sniper]

He probably gets asked that same question all the time. Don't feel bad.

[rbudrick]

He probably gets asked that same question all the time. Don't feel bad.

Yeah, probably. However, he was answering questions in the thread below the vid.

-Rob