Meta:Taloon's Great Adventure: Mystery Dungeon
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 cartridge was first shared publicly, anonymously via. SNES Central on an unspecified date. On August 26, 2022, a German user 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 seconds video clip of gameplay.[3] 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 confirms that Enix USA were not aware of this game back then.[4]
It is currently unknown when the ROM was built for the translation, and there are limited video and screenshots of this version.
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.
- It features a unique English logo instead of the Japanese original.
- 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.
Fan 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 Template:Druaga.
- 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's case, Nina is called 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 in the unofficial translation).
Gallery
Cartride
Gameplay
Nina talking about starting a new life.
Video
Trivia
- If this game had been translated to other European languages (French, Spanish, 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 Europe in 2000.
- 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.[5]
See Also
Template:Torneko 1 Miscellaneous Navbox
References
- ↑ https://snescentral.com/article.php?id=0154 SNES Central; used with permission.
- ↑ snescentral#5076 via Discord.
- ↑ https://www.ebay.de/itm/284945074186
- ↑ 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.