Evolution: Eternal Dungeons

What? Dreamcast is evolving! Dreamcast evolved into Neo Geo Pocket! Sting's 32-bit dungeon crawler, Evolution, is divided by 2 for a handheld demake.

Debug Text
Beginning at in the European ROM are a series of ASCII strings suggesting debug functionality. In the Japanese ROM these strings begin at roughly, in the game's custom Japanese encoding. NB: Comments are not included in the ROM.

OPEN TOWN DGN CLEAR SHIPEV JUKE  // There is a jukebox at the bar in town KIT STAFF FLAG RETURN LV-UP LV-SET Y'S PARTS // Likely allowed setting Cyframe (weapon) parts BOOST BOSS PARTY IRAI // Dispatch M/L/G // Stands for Mag/Linear/Gre, a party formation M/L/C // Stands for Mag/Linear/Chain, a party formation M/L/P // Stands for Mag/Linear/Pepper, a party formation MANDA // Mandasks, the Blind boss MONO  // Monograptus, the Descent boss RAF   // Rafflesian, the Heaven boss SHEDE // Shadenischus, the Shades boss PAN   // Pannam Aohitori, the Sheol boss ON OFF D1CLS D2CLS D3CLS D4CLS D5CLS NO.1 NO.2 NO.3 NO.4 NO.5 NO.6 KANPAN // Deck HOSO1 SENSYA // Tank HOSO2 NIGE1 // Escape 1 ZAKO // Small Fry NIGE2  // Escape 2 V-FORM HOSO3 DORYOK // Cooperate SOTIJA // OIKAKE // Pursuit ROCK HASI-1 // Bridge-1 HOGEKI // Bombardment HASI-2 // Bridge-2 R-BOSS DASSYU // Dash EUGENE // Probably the final boss WAKARE // Parting NIGE-B // Escape-B ENDING OP-ATO // After OP TRAN-P D-RET BLIND // The first dungeon, "Blind" DECENT // The second dungeon, "Descent" HEVEN // The third dungeon, "Heaven" SHADE // The fourth dungeon, "Shades" SHEOL // The fifth dungeon, "Sheol" DEEP SHIP SAVE D1ON D2ON D3ON D4ON D5ON D2OFF D3OFF D4OFF D5OFF

Later on in the ROM, at (Europe) are the strings used to populate the pause screen, seen at right. Note the conspicuous gap between SAVE and RETURN, and the inclusion of DEBUG in the list below.

RETURN ITEM EQUIP SKILL STATUS PARTY TALK SAVE DEBUG PANNAM

Internal Names
As in all Neo Geo Pocket/Color titles, both ROMs have an internal name in their headers, at : Assuming, as is likely, that these refer to Nippon and the United States, this would be nothing out of the ordinary, except that the game was never released in America. This suggests a North American launch had been expected during localisation.

Build Dates
Present at in the Japanese ROM and  in the European ROM, respectively, are the following strings: