Elliogle: Created page with "== Disc Archaeology == ''Findings from a byte-level analysis of the European retail disc image (425,287,680 bytes / 207,360 blocks).'' === A hidden fifth language — including a rejected take === The M4 release advertises four languages, shipping its two text-bearing scenes in each (`A035E/F/G/I.DAT`, `A099E/F/G/I.DAT`) with flag-graphic selectors (`FLAGE`, `FLAGF`, `FLAGG`, `FLAGI`). But the disc carries..."

2026-08-14T08:46:19Z

Created page with "== Disc Archaeology == ''Findings from a byte-level analysis of the European retail disc image (425,287,680 bytes / 207,360 blocks).'' === A hidden fifth language — including a rejected take === The M4 release advertises four languages, shipping its two text-bearing scenes in each (<code>A035E/F/G/I.DAT</code>, <code>A099E/F/G/I.DAT</code>) with flag-graphic selectors (<code>FLAGE</code>, <code>FLAGF</code>, <code>FLAGG</code>, <code>FLAGI</code>). But the disc carries..."

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== Disc Archaeology ==
''Findings from a byte-level analysis of the European retail disc image (425,287,680 bytes / 207,360 blocks).''
=== A hidden fifth language — including a rejected take ===
The M4 release advertises four languages, shipping its two text-bearing scenes in each (<code>A035E/F/G/I.DAT</code>, <code>A099E/F/G/I.DAT</code>) with flag-graphic selectors (<code>FLAGE</code>, <code>FLAGF</code>, <code>FLAGG</code>, <code>FLAGI</code>). But the disc carries more:
* <code>FLAGJ.3DO</code> — a '''Japanese flag graphic''' among the selectors.
* <code>A035j.dat</code> — a full 28,299,532-byte '''Japanese-language version of scene 35'''.
* <code>A035jbad.dat</code> — a second, different 28 MB encode of the same Japanese scene, '''literally named "bad"''' — a rejected take pressed onto every European disc beside its replacement.
There is no Japanese <code>A099</code>, so the fifth language is incomplete — a vestige of an abandoned five-language plan, shipped with 56 MB of Japanese video (half of it explicitly marked as a reject) that the release never uses.
=== Why the disc is twice the size of the NTSC releases ===
The European image is ~205 MB larger than the US pressing, and the accounting is exact: localization was done by brute force. Rather than overlaying translated text on shared video, the two text-bearing scenes were '''re-encoded wholesale per language''' — scene 35 exists six times (four languages plus the two Japanese takes, ~28 MB each, +141 MB) and scene 99 four times (~12.8 MB each, +38 MB), with the remaining ~33 MB being extra filler on a larger disc layout. The language variants are also fresh encodes, not copies — their sizes differ from the US originals of the same scenes.
=== A 308 KB symbol file at the disc root ===
<code>/play.sym</code> is a full Macintosh debug-symbol file for the player — 11,358 type, structure and function entries, opening with the source object <code>:Objects:main.c.o</code> — the complete source-level map of the engine, shipped on retail.
=== Structure notes ===
The 26 shared scenes use lowercase <code>.dat</code> names while the language-variant scenes are uppercase <code>.DAT</code> — two generations of the asset pipeline visible in the case convention. A <code>flagback.3do</code> backdrop serves the language menu. The score digits keep their <code>ONE</code>/<code>TWO</code>/<code>TRE</code>/<code>FOR</code>/<code>FIV</code>/<code>SIX</code> names.
=== No text credits ===
No staff names, "ReadySoft" or "Elite" exist as text anywhere on the disc — all credits are inside the video.
=== Filesystem notes ===
The root directory copies verify hash-identical. The copies of <code>/System/Drivers</code>, <code>Folios</code>, <code>Programs</code>, <code>Scripts</code> and <code>rom_tags</code> disagree between generations — the common multi-pass mastering artifact; not dump damage.
=== Unallocated space ===
21,244 blocks (~42 MB) belong to no file. Every byte was checked: 100% standard <code>iamaduck</code> mastering filler.

=== Regional Comparison ===
The 1993 US, 1993 Japanese and 1994 European (Elite, M4) releases share the same core: 29 scene files (<code>A004</code>–<code>A099</code>, their gappy numbering inherited from the arcade original's scene list) that are '''byte-for-byte the same sizes across all three regions''' — the laserdisc footage was converted once and never touched again. What changed:
* '''Japan (1993)''': a near-identical twin of the US release — the same file set, with the executable rebuilt 4 bytes smaller (its internal source file renamed from <code>3doplay.c</code> to <code>3do.c</code>). A full-image sweep finds '''no Japanese text anywhere''': the Japanese release shipped entirely in English, on a slightly larger pressing with more filler.
* '''Europe (1994, M4)''': the real localization. The two text-bearing scenes ship in four languages each (<code>A035E/F/G/I.DAT</code>, <code>A099E/F/G/I.DAT</code> — English, French, German, Italian, ~28 MB and ~12 MB per language), selected via flag graphics (<code>FLAGE</code>–<code>FLAGI.3DO</code>). The disc also carries a vestigial '''fifth language''': a Japanese flag (<code>FLAGJ.3DO</code>) and a Japanese scene 35 — twice (see the EU page's Disc Archaeology).
* The score-digit overlays are charmingly named <code>ONE</code>, <code>TWO</code>, <code>TRE</code>, <code>FOR</code>, <code>FIV</code>, <code>SIX</code> in every region.
* No region contains any text credits — no ReadySoft, Bluth or staff names exist as strings on any disc.

Dragons Lair(EU) - Revision history