Coin-Op Collection
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Coin-Op Collection Presents: Double Dragon 3 The Rosetta Stone (RC1)
🕑 Added 2024-05-27 21:20:11 +0000 UTCThe next entry in the Technōs16 platform has arrived! Double Dragon 3 The Rosetta Stone is the last entry to the side-scrolling arcade beat 'em up trilogy created by Technōs Japan. It's my favorite entry to the series and Pramod is also a fan of the game...
Double Dragon 3 is the only title in the series not developed by Technōs, this was contracted to East Technology, a new comer to the coin-op market and has been scrutinized for it's difficulty, hit detection, departure from previous entries, and being the first game ever to incorporate micro-transactions in game. While all this is true, it didn't make it any less popular upon release in the summer of 1990!
East Technology brought novel gameplay mechanics in Double Dragon 3 and introduced new characters to the franchise including an additional Lee brother. Sonny's design is a palette swap of the Lee brothers, skinned in yellow. He is selectable on the player 3 side... 
In 2023, the release of Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of The Dragons saw Sonny retconned as a distant cousin of the Lee brothers.
The two regional revisions for Double Dragon 3 in the US and Japan vastly differ from one another. The North American version presented a significantly steeper difficulty curve, alienating players accustomed to the series. Additionally, it incorporated the first micro-transaction system allowing players to spend currency for in-game advantages from shops.
In contrast, the Japanese release offered a more traditional Double Dragon experience, with balanced mechanics and a focus on player skill, making it a more familiar entry point for fans. While it wasn't how I was introduced to the game, I find the Japanese version to be superior.
There are several additional playable characters besides the Lee brothers (pictured below). The Urquidez brothers (Roney and Sunny), the Chin brothers (Seime and Taime), and the Oyama brothers (Masao and Kunio).
To play as an additional character in the US variant, you must purchase them by selecting "extra guys" at the beginning of Mission 1 - USA (Urquidez), Mission 2 - China (Chin), and Mission 3 - Japan (Oyama) or in the middle of the final Mission (Egypt). In the Japanese variant, characters are selectable from a character select screen and when continuing.
The default dip setting for the Analogue Pocket is 2P, if you have an Analogue Dock, you can use an OTG USB hub to add additional USB port to support the 3P setting. Instead of covering development, I thought it'd be fun to give a little history on the game. You can find out more from Wikipedia or The Cutting Room Floor.
We'll see this core wrap up with a release of The Combatribes and compare it to Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone from a technical standpoint in the next Technōs release. I'm targeting The Combatribes to enter beta in late June to mid-July.
We'll see a couple of polls regarding updates to cores and a post about our upcoming Midway panel later this week. I strongly encourage all who support Coin-Op Collection to participate in these patron polls.
Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend, I'll publish an updated WWF WrestleFest core to the OpenFPGA Distribution page tomorrow morning when I announce Double Dragon 3's beta release for Patron's only to the public.
Comments
80's spaceman
Great post as usual. Thanks for the amazing work you guys are doing.
Rachel Schaeffer
Having an issue of black screen. Used both merged and split MAME roms. Size of ROM is 1.75MB
atrac17
Check discord. You need to use the DD3 directory.
Dr. Manga
I have the same problem as Anson Tsugawa. I suppose I have to do something with Python but I don´t know what.
atrac17
No problem, I knew the issue when you reported the ROM size.
Anson Tsugawa
Thank you for your help!
atrac17
You must use the technos GFX file from the DD3 folder. I can help troubleshoot in an hour or so.
Anson Tsugawa
No it is 6208 KB. It didn't even boot up until I changed the ROM name.
atrac17
Which version? I didn't have an issue. I'll follow up when I get home. Is the ROM over 7MB?
Anson Tsugawa
I created the ROM off the mra file, changed the ROM file name to match the json file, and the game boots up, sound works, buttons work, but the image is not, any idea if it's core setting that I need to adjust?
ronalvel .
Thanks for so much work!!
