Lost In Translation/Magical Drop III

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This page is a stub for arcade games that are part of the Lost In Translation series using information based on MAME (version 0.113u2).
For an example of preferred content and layout please refer to Out Run or The Ninja Warriors.


Magical Drop III
Neo-Geo marquee.
No screen shot.
Neo-Geo control panel.
Manufacturer Data East Corporation
Released 1997
Control
Method
8-way Joystick
4 Button(s)
Main CPU Neo-Geo
68000 (@ 12.000 MHz)
Z80 (@ 4.000 MHz)
Sound CPU Stereo
YM2610 (@ 8.000 MHz)
Video
Details
Raster (Horizontal)
320 x 224 pixels
59.19 Hz
4,096 Palette colours
Screens 1
ROM Info 20 ROMs
24,182,784 bytes (23.06 MiB)
MAME ID magdrop3

About The Game

Magical Drop III is an arcade video game.

More characters, more gameplay modes, more frantic gameplay, more fun! This is what every videogame sequel should be, and the sequel to one of the best puzzle games for the Neogeo is indeed a game not to be missed! Lots of fun for one or two players!

Additional Technical Information

Players : 2

Control : 8-way joystick

Buttons : 3

=> [A] Catch balloons, [B] Throw balloons, [C] Shift the balloons a line down

Trivia

Released in February 1997.

The game now features parodies of all the characters featured in the 22 cards of the major Arcana in a Tarot card deck. These are numbered from 0 to 21 as follows :

  • 00. Fool
  • 01. Magician
  • 02. High Priestess
  • 03. Emperor
  • 04. Empress
  • 05. Hierophant
  • 06. Lovers
  • 07. Chariot
  • 08. Strength
  • 09. Hermit
  • 10. (Wheel of) Fortune
  • 11. Justice
  • 12. Hanged Man
  • 13. Death
  • 14. Temperance
  • 15. Devil
  • 16. Tower
  • 17. Star
  • 18. Moon
  • 19. Sun
  • 20. Judgement
  • 21. World

Note that the only exception to this statement would be Black Pierrot since he does not appear in a Tarot card deck. Black Pierrot is an added bonus character to challenge really good Magical Drop 3 pros!

Note : In puzzle and adventure modes, only 8 characters are available : Fool, High Priestess, Emperor, Lovers, Chariot, Strength, Justice and Star.

Soundtrack releases :

Magical Drop III - Pony Canyon / Scitron - PCCBX-00002 - Mar 21, 1997

Updates

The Japanese version of this game features LOTS of stuff unavailable in any other version :

  • In Challenge Mode there is a story intro at the beginning explaining the reason behind the Magical Drop competition, an extra animation showing a close-up of the Magical Drop book as it opens, an ending for each character available in the game, a "Hard" difficulty setting, as well as a bonus fortune reading when you beat the Challenge Mode or you lose against the CPU and refuse to continue. All of this is absent in the USA & Europe versions.
  • In Challenge Mode, each character has a unique set of quotes before a battle begins, this even applies in the battles against the end bosses Tower & Fortune. In the USA & Europe versions there are only two possible quotes before a fight for all characters :
Quote #1
CPU : Get out of my way!
Player : I'll never lose to you!
Quote #2
CPU : You want to fight?
Player : Now let's see who is better!
  • In Adventure mode, each character has its very own story intro as well as its very own ending which is different from the one seen in Challenge mode. Aditionally this mode plays like a board game in which you compete against three other characters on the board, and if any of the others get to Empress' castle before your character, you will get a generic bad ending. If you arrive on a tile already occupied by a CPU-controlled character, you will have 2 options :
  1. The option on the right : you don't want to trouble and ignore the opponent (sometimes you will have to back off 1 tile)
  2. The option on the left : you fight the opponent. If you win, he or she will be eliminated but it would be the same for you if you fail, so be careful!
In the USA and European versions, there is no storyline and the only character on the board is controlled by the player.
  • Like in the previous game, each character has his/her own unique voice. The European version features less voice tracks and the USA version features a single voice track for all characters.

Tips and tricks

  • Play as Father Strength : At the character select screen, highlight Strength, hold C and press A or B. This trick does not work nor in puzzle mode nor in adventure mode.
  • Play with bonus characters : At the character select screen, highlight any character (Except World, World's number is 21 so she can't be used for this trick) and wait until the timer counts down to the number assigned to that character :
    • 00 - Fool
    • 01 - Magician
    • 02 - High Priestess
    • 03 - Empress
    • 04 - Emperor
    • 05 - Hierophant
    • 06 - Lovers
    • 07 - Chariot
    • 08 - Strength
    • 11 - Justice
    • 13 - Death
    • 15 - Devil
    • 17 - Star
    • 19 - Sun
    • 20 - Judgment

Then push C only three times. Moon, Hanged Man, Hermit, Temperance, Tower and Fortune will appear and will now be selectable. This trick does neither work in puzzle mode nor in adventure mode.

Secret Stages

  1. Moon (after level 6) : Finish the sixth stage without exceeding 90 seconds since the beginning.
  2. Hanged Man (after level 6) : Finish the sixth stage exceeding 300 seconds since the beginning.
  3. Black Pierrot (after level 10) : Finish the tenth stage with at least 150,000 points.

Series

  1. Chain Reaction (1995)
  2. Magical Drop Plus 1! (1995)
  3. Magical Drop II (1996)
  4. Magical Drop III (1997)
  5. Magical Drop III Wonderful! (1999, Sony PlayStation)
  6. Magical Drop F - Daibouken Mo Rakujyanai! (1999, Sony PlayStation)
  7. Magical Drop Pocket (1999, SNK NeoGeo Pocket Color)
  8. Magical Drop for WonderSwan (1999, Bandai WonderSwan)

Staff

Producer
Naomi Susa
Planner
S. Katagiri
Programmers
Tac. H
Poconyan
M. Saiki
Graphic Designers
S. Takeuchi
H. Hachiya
R. Sakurai
N. Ishizuka
S. Nishiwaki
Okakumi
I. Seta
T. Arakawa
H. Hashimoto
Y. Kaihou
Sound Designers
Koremasa
Hiroaki Yoshida (MARO) (Gamadelic)
NmRtk (Gamadelic)
Sin
Voice Actors
Yuichi Nagashima
Fumihiko Tachiki
Takehito Koyasu
Haruna Ikezawa
Tsumugi Osawa
Miina Tominaga
E. Tanaka
M. Sunada
Eriko
Ring-Ring
Gorilla
Zaku
Okakumi
Cast Coordinate
Radon'86 (Junko Araki)
Recording Studio
Japan Vistec (Osamu Iwata)
Publish
K. Oshima
T. Ebi
H. Miyashita
English Translators
Mikio Brooks
Monika Hudgins
Siobhan Fallon
Ron Aughenbaugh
Debugers
K. Kusanagi
H. Ohtsubo
Special Advisers
A. Wakabayashi (Nal)
A. Shibazaki<3

Cabinet and Artwork

Ports

Consoles
Sony PlayStation (1997)
Sega Saturn (1997)

Soundtrack Releases

Album Name Catalogue No. Released Publisher Comments
Magical Drop 3 PCCBX-00002[1] 1997-03-21 Pony Canyon CD version.

References

The contents of this page are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
The sources used include MAME (version 0.113u2) and history.dat (revision 1.28 - 2008-10-18).
Please see http://www.arcade-history.com for credits.