Evolution: Eternal Dungeons

Evolution: Eternal Dungeons
Also known as: Shinkisekai Evolution: Hateshinai Dungeon (JP) Developer: Sting Publisher: Entertainment Software Publishing Platform: Neo Geo Pocket Color Released in JP: 2000 Released in EU: 2000 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has debugging material.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

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

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.

Beginning at 1AC489 in the European ROM are a series of ASCII strings suggesting debug functionality. In the Japanese ROM, these strings begin at roughly 1ABDB5, 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 1E7D70 (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

Version Data

Internal Names

As in all Neo Geo Pocket/Color titles, both ROMs have an internal name in their headers, at 24:

Japanese	EVOLUTION NP
European	EVOLUTION US

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 1AB24B in the Japanese ROM and 1ABB77 in the European ROM, respectively, are the following strings:

Japanese	VER.01/24
European	VER.ENGLISH. 03/15 00:00