Odd Copy of Sword & Sorcery 3DO (JPN Lucienne's Quest)

[InsaneDavid]

I picked up some 3DO games from a regular at a local flea market, they're jewel case only and most of them only include the booklet - many of these are missing the booklet covers. Anyway I noticed he had a copy of Sword & Sorcery so I picked it up, curious about how it plays before I toss big money down for the localized version, Lucienne's Quest.

I know there are a few JPN 3DO games that don't run in USA consoles due to missing Japanese character sets not hardcoded to the games themselves. However I've never read of such a problem with Sword & Sorcery so I figured I'd have no trouble playing it on my USA FZ-1.

So I pop it in my system, get the 3DO logo boot screen, then I get what I assume is a Sword & Sorcery initialization and copyright screen (image of the characters with the 3DO logo and so forth). The 3DO loads for a few seconds (access light flashes) and then I get this screen...

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/SwordSorcery01.jpg

...and nothing else, everything stops right there with no way passed it. A friend of mine roughly translated it as "On this machine, English ROMS usage / initialization is impossible / cannot be used" or something to that effect. (this may be incorrect, if anyone can give solid translation of the screen that would be great.

There are a couple of other strange things I noticed about this copy, namely a label on the front of the jewel case...

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/SwordSorcery02.jpg

"Studio 3DO Titles Library
(Please return to Casey Grimm)
Disc: 432 Copy: 1"

Google points me to information that he was the Titles Testing Supervisor for 3DO. There's also some writing on the disc about this, although the disc seems like the authentic JPN Sword & Sorcery from all that I've been able to check...

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/SwordSorcery03.jpg

Of course this whole thing could simply be that Sword & Sorcery won't run on a USA 3DO, if that's the case confirmation of this would be great. (and should be added to the rarity guide) Information here (http://www.digitpress.com/archives/didyouknow_3do.htm) seems to state I should have no problems running this game. Any help would me most appreciated!

[dojosky]

Hrmm is the memory FULL in ur 3DO system ? or maybe that game requires a 3DO Testing System that has the switch on the back for encrypted and unencrypted games ? ...

[InsaneDavid]

Hrmm is the memory FULL in ur 3DO system ? or maybe that game requires a 3DO Testing System that has the switch on the back for encrypted and unencrypted games ? ...

I cleared out the 3DO backup memory, thinking that was the problem first myself. Honestly it matches up to the retail Japanese Sword & Sorcery disc with no special, extra or missing markings.

[InsaneDavid]

Research continues and Wikipedia says:

"The 3DO is one of few CD-based units that feature neither regional lockout nor copy protection, making it easy to use for pirated software. Although there is no regional lockout present in any 3DO machine, a few Japanese games cannot be played on non-Japanese 3DO consoles due to a special kanji font which English language consoles could not read. Games that did not and still had compatibility issues include Sword and Sorcery (which was released in English under the title Lucienne's Quest) and a demo version of Alone in the Dark."

I guess my copy confirms this, can anyone else back this up as well?

[Lemmi_Is_God]

Research continues and Wikipedia says:

"The 3DO is one of few CD-based units that feature neither regional lockout nor copy protection, making it easy to use for pirated software. Although there is no regional lockout present in any 3DO machine, a few Japanese games cannot be played on non-Japanese 3DO consoles due to a special kanji font which English language consoles could not read. Games that did not and still had compatibility issues include Sword and Sorcery (which was released in English under the title Lucienne's Quest) and a demo version of Alone in the Dark."

I guess my copy confirms this, can anyone else back this up as well?

yes i can i used to own that game but traded it away because it wouldnt play on my US 3do system, it will only play on the Sanyo 3do system

[InsaneDavid]

yes i can i used to own that game but traded it away because it wouldnt play on my US 3do system, it will only play on the Sanyo 3do system

And we have secondary confirmation - thank you! :)