McDonald's Treasureland Adventure

To do: Document the prototype, which has different enemies and shops/restaurants.

McDonald's Treasureland Adventure is a game starring Ronald McDonald as he goes on an adventure to find some treasure. Despite having the characters from McDonaldland, it has little to do with McDonald's itself.

3D Object Demo#

Watch on YouTubeA simple 3D object demo can be accessed from the password screen. It was used to test the 3D graphics engine created by Kazuhiko Ishida to display the game's opening Treasure logo. (The existence of this Easter egg was first hinted at by Masato Maegawa during an interview in Issue 219 of Retro Gamer magazine.)

Enter the password Balloons, Ruby, M, Ronald. Press Start three times, until you hear an explosion sound, then quickly hold Up + Left. The McDonald's sign sprite will change into a 3D model.

An unused model also exists. Use Game Genie codes NK3A-CJHA YV3A-CJHC in the Japanese version to replace the final object with a familiar-looking spaceship.

Level Select#

At the title screen, press Left, Right, A, B, C and listen for a sound, then start the game.

Regional Differences#

Items#

Japan/Europe	US

Both types of ring items became flowers in the US version, possibly because they looked a bit too similar to the rings from the Sonic the Hedgehog games. The rings in the Japanese/European version's HUD will flash when you have collected a full set, whereas the flowers in the US version's HUD will never flash.

The magic powerup was also redrawn in the US version, possibly due to the original icon resembling a sperm cell.

Enemies#

Japan/Europe	US

The natives in Stage 3 were given a more robotic look in the US version, most likely because the international versions have a stereotypical-looking tribesman.

Copyright#

Japan/Europe	US

The Captain was added to the copyright text in the US version. He doesn't actually appear during the game proper, but does show up in the digitized group photo at the very end of the game, which is probably what necessitated the addition.

Treasure was also removed from the legal information. Gunstar Heroes has a very similar "1993 TREASURE" mention in all regions, albeit in a more low-key fashion during the rotating logo sequence on the title screen, so why it was removed here is anyone's guess.

Title Screen#

Japan/Europe	US

The US version was given a minor name change, becoming "Treasureland Adventure" with a lower-case "L" rather than "Treasure Land Adventure", and the logo was slightly redrawn as a result. Oddly, the logo on the game's US boxart retains the "Treasure Land" spelling. A trademark symbol was (somewhat awkwardly) appended, and "PASS WORD" was changed to the more natural "PASSWORD". Treasure was once again omitted from the legal text.

Difficulty#

The Japanese and European versions default to Normal difficulty; the US version defaults to Beginner difficulty instead.

HUD#

Japan/Europe	US

In addition to the aforementioned rings becoming flowers, slashed zeroes were changed to "open" zeroes in the US version, the balloon icon was moved to the left by one pixel and uses a slightly different palette, and the icon of Ronald's face was touched up, likely to accentuate his "clown white" makeup.

Text Boxes#

Japanese	English

The Japanese version uses an alternating vertical line pattern for its text boxes while the English versions use a solid color fill. When viewed with composite video on NTSC TVs of the time, the Japanese text boxes would give the impression of a seamless transparency effect instead.