Trace Memory

Trace Memory
Also known as: Another Code: Two Memories (JP/EU) Developer: CiNG Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo DS Released in JP: February 24, 2005 Released in US: September 26, 2005 Released in EU: June 24, 2005 This game has unused code. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences.

To do: US title screen.

Trace Memory is the story of a girl, her newly-found amnesiac ghost friend, and the successful prediction of a DS-with-camera by three years. A sequel called Another Code: R – A Journey into Lost Memories was released for the Wii, but Nintendo for some reason decided not to publish it in North America... at least until both games were remade for the Nintendo Switch almost twenty years later.

Debug Menu

While there is no known way of accessing the menu, there appears to be at least remnants of one in the American and European versions (the Japanese version does not appear to contain these options, so they were likely added during localization). Starting at offset 61630 in the European version and 61B54 in the US one are a number of strings which do not appear anywhere in-game and seem to point to a hidden developer menu:

VISUAL MYSTERY
Sound Test
BG Check Mode
Select Mystery
%s Not Found
Stopped With 'B' Button

The European version localizes these text strings into several languages, which were removed in the US version.

Assert Strings

Starting at offset 5BC44 in the Japanese version, 6024C in the European version, and 60714 in the US version are some assert strings from a file called isdoverlay.c. It remains unclear if all these strings are from the same file, but at least one part names a file which suggests it was used as part of the build process, sorting data between two folders on the root of the ROM's file system: "data" and "overlay".

(null)
ASSERTION FAILED  FILE=[%s] LINE=[%d]  EXP=[%s] 
WARING FILE=[%s] LINE=[%d]  EXP=[%s] 

isdoverlay.c
pInfo->m_info[i].m_VMA <= nVMA
(u64)pInfo->m_info[i].m_VMA + pInfo->m_info[i].m_SIZE > nVMA
pInfo->m_info[i].m_VMA == nVMA
pInfo->m_info[i + j].m_SIZE > (u32)nWrapSize
pInfo->m_info[i + j].m_SIZE > 0.pInfo->m_info[i + j].m_SIZE < 0xf0000000
nIndex < pInfo->m_header.m_nInfoCount
nIndex <= pInfo->m_header.m_nInfoCount

Regional Differences

In a somewhat unusual occurrence, Nintendo of Europe made the first pass at translating the game from Japanese. When they did so, the original English translation was a literal translation of the Japanese dialogue to British English (for example, "Candy" became "Sweets"). The European translation spells Ashley's surname differently than the other versions - it's "Robins" instead of "Robbins" - and it also gives her a lot of British terminology despite the fact that she's supposed to be an American teenager. The US version rewrote a large bulk of this text, somewhat changing the attitude of the main character (she's a little more skeptical, a little more opinionated, and in short, a bit more of a teenager in the American translation) and adding Easter eggs that were not in the other versions.

DAS/DTS

Japan and Europe call the game Another Code: Two Memories, which changed to Trace Memory for the US version likely due to trademark disputes (which would eventually be resolved by the time the Switch remake rolled around, which retains the Another Code name in all regions). Either way, this change burrowed deep into the game's writing with references to "trace" occurring where they did not in other versions.

One particular change was the renaming of the in-game Nintendo DS, which in Japan and Europe was called "DAS" or "Dual Another System". Since any trace of "Another" was purged from the game, the name changed to "DTS" or "Dual Trace System". This would cause some interesting changes in the US version:

Japan/Europe	US

The DAS/DTS menus were changed to remove references to "another" which wraps around a graphic seen in the background, and instead places a large "TRACE" logo above said graphic. Also pictured is a change in localization where the sentence "DUAL ANOTHER SYSTEM START" changed to "Dual Trace System Start."

Japan/Europe	US

The inscription on the front of the DAS/DTS was also changed.