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Shell Monsters Story
v1.0 beta
July 1, 2004
KingMike Translations (http://www.emuxhaven.net/~kingmike/index.html)

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INTROUCTION
***********
Shell Monsters Story is the first game in the long running series, also known as Kaijyu
Monogatari. This game follows in the tradition of Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior, but also
featuring a non-linear approach that lets the player decide the order to accomplish the
major goals of the game.
The story of the game is that there is a continent called Shell Monster Island.
On this island, there live small animals that protect the inhabitants.
There are three are guardians, but there once was four. In a battle against a demon, one of
the guardians was lost.
It was prophecised that one day the demon would return from the darkness.
One thousand years later, he did.
The elders managed to find three of the children destined to fight this demon, named Fat
Badger. They set out on a journey together, but Fat Badger used his evil powers to
seperate them.
One day, a mysterious young boy appears at the castle of Maiyo.

Set out to find your companions, and defeat Fat Badger before he returns.

****
TEAM
****
KingMike (http://kingmike.emuxhaven.net)
 - programming
Shiroi (http://www.otaku-universe.net/~shiroi/translation/index.htm)
 - main translation
Tomato, Tetsuo, Datenshi, Shih Tzu, and other visitors of MO's board (http://donut.parodius.com/MO)
 - various translations
DvD (http://www.otaku-universe.net/~shiroi/translation/dvd.htm)
 - ROM Expansion program

Also a big thanks to the authors of the tools used:
 FCEUltra, written by Xodnizel (http://fceultra.sourceforge.net)
  - Currently the best NES emulator. FCEU's debugger was invaluable in ASM testing.
 NESten, written by TNSe (http://tnse.zophar.net) and Quietust (who emulator, Nintendulator,
  found at http://nintendulator.sourceforge.net, was also used a little bit with this
  translation)
  - Used for tracing the game's original ASM
 Hexposure, by SnowBro, and Bongo`'s WinHex (http://stealth.romhack.net)
  - used for hex editing
 FEIDIAN (http://feidian.sourceforge.net), written by Mr. D (http://d.the2d.com)
  - used for dumping/inserting the title logo

 Emulators used for early testing:
  - NNNesterJ .22
  - Unofficial Nester ???
  - Famtasia 5.1

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PATCHING INSTRUCTIONS
*********************
YOU WILL NEED TO EXPAND THE JAPANESE ROM FROM 256KB TO 384KB BEFORE APPLYING THE PATCH!!!
You will also need the properly dumped Japanese ROM. I believe this is Kaijyu Monogatari (J).
DO NOT USE THE [hM04] dump, and do not use the bad dumps, of course!

To expand the ROM:
If you are using Windows, just use DvD's program included with the patch. Then use any IPS application program to apply the patch to the expanded ROM.
Otherwise, you'll need to use a hex editor to copy and paste an expanded ROM together. See
the KJEXPAND.TXT document for more information.

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EMULATION ISSUES
****************
This will require an emulator with support for the Namcot 106 mapper (iNES mapper #19).
This has been tried in:
FCEUltra v0.97.5
NNNesterJ v0.22
Unofficial Nester (the last one)
NESten (only works with mapper version 1.2, and the title screen is slightly glitchy)
Nintendulator (same as above)
Famtasia v5.1

***************
WHAT'S NOT DONE
***************
Some minor graphics glitches (like small palette glitches). This would take a while to perfect.
Also, maybe twice in my testing, I got a bug where leaving a town sent me to a hard to win battle (the one you must go through to enter Fat Badger's castle). As this only happened a couple times, both late in a game, I figured this was a extremely rare bug that didn't warrant holding up release. Just save often, and you shouldn't lose too much if it happens. Just reset and reload the game. Not sure if the fact that I was using savestates the whole
time was a factor (the original Japanese game used a unique method of saving that isn't well
supported by emulators, but I did hack the save routine in this patch to something more
emulator-friendly).

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PLAY INSTRUCTIONS
*****************
Control Pad - move characters, move cursor
Select - unused
Start - start the game
B Button - cancel a command, wait (in cave battle scenes)
A Button - confirm a command, move (in cave battle scenes)

At the title screen, use left/right to choose whether to select text speed or start/continue.
Use Up/Down to change. Press Start when ready.

Name your character a name, up to four letters.
Select END when done.
You can view the prolouge or skip it by pressing Start.

Now you will have your mission explained to you.
After that you can move with the direction pad, and open the command menu by pressing A.

In some caves, you will enter a battle scene that takes place across a grid. You may move one space per turn. Use the direction pad to choose a space to move to, and press A to make the
move. Press B if you prefer to wait in place. Touching an enemy leads to a command battle scene. Defeat the leader to open the exit door and return to the main screen.

Menus:
Field menu:
 Speak - talk to a character
   Meet - when two parites meet, have them join together
   Depart - have the leader of the current party leave.
  (Note that only a 1 or 2 member party may use the Boat)
 Magic - use a magic spell.
  (Note that the number and combination of party members affect what is available as the
   combination spell (spell 15 in each member's list)).
 Skill - use a character's special skill
  (Kupikupi's Save and Poyon's Random Warp can be used in the field. The hero's Kung Fu
   and Babubabu's Escape can be used in battle, but consume VP when used).
 Tools - Use, trade, or discard an item.
  (initially, each character can hold five items. However, each character can buy a Sand
   Rat, which takes up an inventory space, but can hold four more items, so they essentially
   increase the item limit from five to eight items)
 Strength - the character's level of power
  Level - level of experience, increasing this will raise the character's attributes
  Shell - the character's element, later weapons are only for certain elements.
  Experience - collect enough Experience points to raise your level.
  Pearls - the money.
  Vitality (VP) - your health, consumed by being hit and by using some Skills
  Magic Power (MP) - each spell consumes MP. When you don't have enough, you can't use a
   spell.
  Attack Power - higher numbers allow more damage to be done to enemies
  Defence Power - higher numbers decrease the amount of damage taken from enemies
  Weapon, Armor, Shield, Helmet - each character can hold one of each. Automatically
   equipped when bought.
  (note that Poison condition causes a character to lose 1 VP for each step taken outside
   of battle, and lose half of their attack rating inside battle)
 Location - reveal the coordinates of the party's location on the world map
  (note that some remote locations coordinates aren't displayed)
 Search - check to see if there is anything unusual about the area
  (to open doors, you will need to figure out and Use the appropiate key. Silver Keys
   disappear after use, the others don't)
 Pass - Switch leader control to the next member (hero->Kupikupi->Poyon->Babubabu)

Some of the items you will use:
 Godly Treat - recover 25 VP.
 Soldier's Friend - recover all VP.
 Poison Poppy - recover from Poison.
 Calico Fruit - revive a dead party member.
 Pearl Coin - buy and sell for 1000 Pearls.
 Silver Key - open some doors.
 Gold Key - open other doors.

Some of the magic you will use:
 Hospi - recover 25 VP.
 Hospi Peace - recover 40 VP.
 Poison Poppy - recover from Poison.
 Levitate - quickly return to the last town you visited.
 Aura Shield - reduce damage done to one character for the next 3 hits.
 Barrier - reduce damage done to each character for the next 3 hits.

*********
COPYRIGHT
*********
Kaijyu Monogatari is (c)1988 by Namco and Birthday.
English translation provided by KingMike (c)2001-2004, and Shiroi (c)2002-2004.
Do not distribute this patch with ROM, either included, or already merged together.