Fatal Labyrinth

To do: Further regional differences: the game was upgraded quite a bit for the international release.

Fatal Labyrinth is a game that features a kid with an eating disorder that goes through a bunch of randomly-generated dungeon floors in what could very easily be considered a prototypical Mystery Dungeon game, coming out about three years before that series' first entry.

The game was originally released in Japan for the Sega Meganet online service before it got a physical release in US and Europe.

Music Transitions#

To do: Is this effect ever heard in-game? The sound driver doesn't seem to fill this nonzero byte anywhere, and there's no reference to $A01C08 anywhere in the main game code... The sequence (30->10->20) is also unusual, and inconsistent with trap doors.

Write a nonzero byte to Z80 RAM address $1C08 while the song for Floor 30 ($82) is playing. After doing so, at some point in the song, it will stop playing as normal and switch to an alternate sequence which transitions to the Floors 10-19 theme ($8A). This will play for a bit, and then another transition sequence will play, transitioning to the Floors 20-29 theme ($8B).

Version Differences#

Although the game never received a retail cartridge in Japan, the updated international version supports Japanese region detection. Most subsequent Japanese compilation releases are based on the international build.

The original Japanese Meganet version has some differences compared to later versions:

• In the original Meganet version, you are placed right in the dungeon without going to the town first.
• The original Meganet version plays notably slower.

Title Screen#

Japanese, Meganet Version	Japanese, Retail Version	English

Music#

When the game was re-released on the Mega CD via Game no Kanzume Vol. 2, most of the tracks were replaced by complete silence. Only various jingles, the title screen music, and ending theme were spared. The latter two were replaced with specially-created arranged CD audio tracks only used in that version of the game.

The Meganet version's ending track has been replaced in the retail version, possibly due to its similarity to Janet Jackson's 1986 song "When I Think of You". Curiously, the Game No Kanzume Vol. 2 version of the ending track seems to be based off of the Meganet version's ending track rather than the retail version's.

Sound Effects#

To do: Find out exactly how the remaining SFX are used in-game. Some further analysis may be needed as these comparisons were made by ear and inspecting at the recordings' waveforms.

All of the sound effects were revised for the Game no Kanzume Vol. 2 version of the game.