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Revision as of 08:53, 6 March 2024
Taloon's Great Adventure: Mystery Dungeon is an unreleased, localized translation of Torneko's Great Adventure: Mystery Dungeon for the Super Nintendo.
Information
Origins
A prototype cartridge was obtained from Nintendo of Europe in Germany, while the owner was working there.[1] According to the owner of the cart, the translation is finished.[2] The front of the cartridge features a label that says "Taloon's Mystery Dungeon", and a circled 3. The back features two labels reading "Protection label don't remove this label".
Discovery
The first mention of this prototype came from SNES Central, a fan website dedicated to anything related to the Super Nintendo. It was published on an unspecified date within their website. The website's archives shows it was discovered as early as August 28, 2008.[3]
In 2010, game counselor Tom Kirstensen has mentioned in volume 4 issue 1 of NintendoAGE eZine that he got to play this version of the game, and that it is his favorite unreleased video game. He was enjoying the game until Product Testing needed the EPROM card. Chunsoft sent him a Happiness Box
for being one of the first Americans to reach the end of the dungeon.[4]
eBay
On August 26, 2022, a German user named Retroecke on eBay put up a listing for the cartridge, priced 49,999.95€. The page shows in-game screenshots, close-up pictures of the cartridge and its chip, and a 22-second video clip of gameplay, but also informs that the cartridge is in PAL format only.[5] In the seller's description, it is claimed that the translation was done by Nintendo, using the standard names that were used in official English Dragon Quest media prior to Dragon Quest VIII. This version of the game was also confirmed to be the European release, as the cartridge itself runs on PAL regions instead of NTSC.
On August 29, 2022, Nob Ogasawara confirmed that neither Enix America were aware of this game back then, nor him,[6] as the company went though major changes before closing down in November 1995, when the parent company decided to no longer release products in North America due to poor sales overall, then opened once more in 1999.[7]
It is currently unknown when the ROM was built for the translation, and there are limited videos and screenshots of this version.
Description
The following content comes from its eBay description translated from German to English.[5]
This prototype is a piece of video game contemporary history from the house of Nintendo. It contains the previously unreleased English translation of the game Taloon's Mystery Dungeon from 1993 by the famous developer Chun Soft.
Key facts:
- Never officially published in English
- Only known copy in the world
- First game in the legendary Mystery Dungeon series
- From the house of the famous developer Chun Soft
- Ranked 78th best game in history (Source: Famitsu)
- Proof of Nintendo's plans to release the title outside of Japan
About the prototype: The prototype contains the game - Taloon's Mystery Dungeon, which was released in Japan as under the name Torneko no Daibouken - Fushigi no Dungeon. In Europe and the USA the title was NEVER released. Strangely enough, this prototype contains the translation of the game into English, proving that Nintendo was already concerned about the quality of the years about the quality of the games from Chun Soft in particular and Taloon's Mystery Dungeon in particular, and had specific plans for a release outside of Japan.
The game has been translated into English internally at Nintendo and is perfectly playable. There is a sticker on the front that bears the name of the game and the Contrary to the assumption, it is not prototype number 3 of several copies, since Nintendo itself only had one prototype at the time. On the back is a small note about the English language and some of the EPROMs look out of the module, but this does not affect the playability.
ATTENTION: This prototype is NOT the fan translation that was published in 2004. It already differs the start screen and the first game scenes.
About the source of the prototype: The prototype came from a former Nintendo employee who had who had access to Product Analysis, the department internally at Nintendo responsible for quality assurance of games and ultimately the final evaluation. The prototype was privately owned for a good 20 years and has never been publicly exhibited or given out of the hands (see topic dumping).
About the game: Torneko no Daibouken - Fushigi no Dungeon (translated as Taloon's Great Adventure: Mysterious Dungeon) was released in Japan on September 19, 1993. It is the first game in the famous Mysterious Dungeon series, which later made its way to Series made the leap to Europe. Here, for the first time, Taloon, the famous trader from the game Dragon Warrior IV, takes on the leading role in his own video game.
About the quality: The quality of the title was already outstanding for the time. Thus the Japanese game magazine Famitsu rated the title with a 9/10 for its release in 1993. But even almost 15 years later, the title has lost none of its playful class. So that the magazine's readers voted the title the 78th best gamer of all time.
About the developer: Behind the game is the famous software creator Chun Soft. In the 90s, many gamers in the West could not relate to this developer, even though Chun Soft had already made a name for itself as a high-end developer name as a noble developer. It wasn't until the release of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, the Danganronpa series and the brilliant 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors for the DS in the West, the developer's reputation rose. Also the recently recently released AI: The Somnium Files for Nintendo's Switch also comes from Spike Chun Soft.
On the subject of dumping: The prototype of this game has never been dumped or had the raw data in any other way from the module and then saved. (Please do not also no inquiries!)
Notable differences
Original
Though the Japanese version of the game was released on September 19, 1993, there are a few notable differences in this prototype.
- In the copyright section, Dragon Quest is named after its original Japanese title rather than the North American title, Dragon Warrior.
- The Dragon Quest series had no games released in Europe until the Game Boy Color game Dragon Warrior Monsters in 2000.
- It features a unique English logo instead of the original Japanese logo.
- The "T" in the word "Mystery" is represented with a dagger, similarly to the T in other Dragon Quest logos, where the same letter is usually shaped like a sword or an axe.
- The floors are referred as "Lowest B" in dungeons, with "[n] Fl" replaced by "B [n]" in the GUI; [n] is the floor's level.
Unofficial Translation Patch
The Torneko 1 English unofficial translation by Magic Destiny is an independent unofficial translation released in 2004 and is not related to this older, official translation.
- The opening title features an official English title and logo that uses Torneko's old name, Taloon, as he was referred to in the NES release of Dragon Quest IV.
- The franchise's moniker is translated to "Mystery Dungeon" moniker instead of "Fushigi no Dungeon", like in The Nightmare of Druaga: Fushigi no Dungeon.
- This moniker was first officially used in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team in 2006, 13 years after the prototype.
- A different font, Times New Roman, is used instead of Comic Sans, along with a different dialogue box texture.
- Like Torneko, Nina is named Neta.
- Different dialogues for Neta and King.
- Different words for the floors, stats, and choices in the menu screen while in a dungeon.
- The text that appears when a monster is attacked is different.
- The Maulusc is called Big Slug (Giant Slug
- The Maulusc is called Big Slug (Giant Slug
Gallery
Cartridge
The front of the cartridge.
The back of the cartridge.
Side view of the cartridge.
The back view of the circuit board.
Original image of the front of the cartridge, shared with SNES Central.
Original image of the back of the cartridge, shared with SNES Central.
Gameplay
Title screen.
Copyright info.
Nina talking about starting a new life.
Dungeon menu.
Fighting a Maulusc.
After failing in a dungeon.
Speaking with the King after failing in a dungeon.
Video
Trivia
- If this game had been translated to other European languages (French, Spanish, German, and Italian) and released to the public, it would have been the first Dragon Quest game to be released in Europe, 7 years before Dragon Quest Monsters which was released in the continent in 2000.
See Also
Template:Torneko 1 Miscellaneous Navbox
References
- ↑ Template:Cite web; used with permission.
- ↑ snescentral#5076 via Discord.
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/NA_eZine_Volume_4_Issue_01-2010/page/n17/mode/2up NintendoAGE eZine volume 4 issue 1 page 17, 2010.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Enix Corp. November 1, 1999.