Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones

Billy Bimmy and Jimmy Lee reunite and team up with a ninja and a kung-fu master to hunt down mysterious stones that will unlock a deadly foe who may or may not be one of their girlfriends.

Debug features
There is a common debug feature in a couple of Technos games. Usually all debug code is controlled by a memory flag, hardwritten at the end of the ROM at address $FFF6 in M6502 CPU address space. Various bits of this variable enable or disable various debug features.

Sample version
Bit 7 of the debug variable (to set it, use the Game Genie code ) switches between normal and "SAMPLE VERSION", which enables some debug features. During the game, hold the Start button on Controller 1, then press A to skip to the next level.

Free walk
Bit 5 of the debug variable (to set it, use the Game Genie code ) enables free walk mode, which allows you to walk any part of level instantly.

Leftover script
At offset value, a leftover text from an earlier localized script can be found. This text is identical to the final ending screen of the arcade version.

"WHEN THE THIRD STONE IS FOUND, ITS POWER WILL CHANGE THE WORLD"

As evident in the above comparison, prototypes of the NES version had a different English script that was closer to the Famicom version than the rewritten version included in the retail release. Here's a transcript of the prototype screenshot for those who cannot read it.

"BILLY WENT ON A JOURNEY TO COMPLETE HIS MARTIAL ARTS."

Unusable weapons
The text values for all the weapons that can be used by the player (i.e. "BARE HANDS", "SAI", "SHURIKEN") is located at offset value. The list includes two unusable weapons as well: the "KNIFE" (different from the "ARMY KNIFE" carried by the bald-headed "Gibson" enemies) and the "HAND SPEAR". This suggests that the blue knives thrown by the female "Davey" punks that appear in Missions 1 and 2, along with the small spears thrown by the Italian enemies in Missions 4 and 5, were originally meant to be usable by the player.

Logos


Tradewest logo extracted from the Japanese ROM, which suggests that the company was in negotiation for the rights of the U.S. version before it was nabbed by Acclaim. Tradewest was the publisher of the first Double Dragon on the NES and they eventually regained the western rights for the series with Super Double Dragon.



The American Technos Inc. logo also appears in the Japanese ROM, which implies that they were involved with the localization process at one point. There's no mention of American Technos in the final U.S. version of the game.

Billy and Jimmy profile shot


Profile shot of Billy and Jimmy Lee standing back-to-back stored among the ending graphics. Presumably meant to be used during the end credits.

Venus de Milo


A Venus de Milo statue apparently intended as background decoration for Mission 5-2, which is where this graphic is stored.

Ranzou


All four player characters have a ladder climbing animation, but since the only ladder in the entire game is in Mission 3, Ranzou never gets to climb it during a normal playthrough. It can still be seen if the player uses a cheat code to have Ranzou in his party before clearing Mission 3.

Hiruko


Unused sprites of Hiruko getting knocked over, which was probably intended for a boss fight against her similar to the one in the coin-op version. In its lieu, she ends up getting killed by a curse before the final room, during which she only falls forward and disintegrates.

Title
The Famicom version is subtitled The Rosetta Stone, the same subtitle used by its arcade counterpart. The Rosetta Stone in this instance refer to the three gemstones that the Lee brothers must find for Hiruko, which have nothing to do with the actual Rosetta Stone (and probably the reason why the subtitle was changed overseas). The NES version also has an earlier copyright date than the FC version, suggesting it might have been based on an earlier revision.

Difficulty
The difficulty of FC version has been adjusted to make the game a bit easier than its NES counterpart. As shown in the above comparison, each player character starts a stage with 10 health points more in the FC version compared to the NES version (e.g. the Lee brothers both start with 94 HP each in the FC version and 84 in the NES version).

The amount of enemies required to clear each area was also decreased in the FC version. For example, the very first area (the dojo) requires the player to defeat three enemies in the FC version, in contrast to the four enemies in the NES version. This also applies in 2P PLAY mode, where the amount of enemies required to clear an area increases proportionally.

Story
The game's plot underwent an extensive rewrite during the English localization for the NES version. Most notably, the NES version revolves around Billy and Jimmy saving Marion once again, whereas the FC version makes no mention of her in-game (which explains why Marion has no real presence in this game). Perhaps Acclaim's localization staff felt that Billy and Jimmy's motivation for helping Hiruko seek out the Rosetta Stones was a bit lacking in the original story. The identity of the final boss was also changed from a resurrected Cleopatra to Queen Noiram (who is revealed in the ending to be Marion under an evil spell). A comparison between the Japanese script and the English script can be seen here.

Text
All of the in-game dialogue are two lines per text box in the FC version and three lines per box in the NES version. Additionally, the FC version always indicates the speaker at the start of each box, while the NES version only does so the first time. When Chin and Ranzou are defeated, their bodies will remain on-screen when they give their losing speech in the FC version. In the NES version, they give their losing speech after they disappear.

Additionally, Hiruko has an extra portion of dialogue in FC version just before she falls into the ground and disintegrate during the penultimate area of Mission 5.

Ending
While the FC version is easier, the ending sequence changes depending on which character survives through the end, unlike the NES version (where the player receives the same ending sequence no matter what). Each playable character has his own epilogue, but in the FC version the only ones that are shown are for characters who are still alive at the end. For example, if Billy and Chin are killed and the player clears the final stage with only Ranzou, then Ranzou's epilogue will be the only one shown. This gives the player an extra incentive to keep all of his characters alive no matter what. This also means that Jimmy's epilogue is never shown in 1P PLAY mode.

On a related note, when Hiruko dies just before the player reaches final room, her portrait is removed from the game's "Player Select" screen, a detail not present in the NES version. Unlike the NES version, she does not have an epilogue in the FC version.