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Dragon Slayer IV: DrasleFamily (MSX)

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Title Screen

Dragon Slayer IV: DrasleFamily

Developer: Nihon Falcom
Publisher: Nihon Falcom
Platform: MSX
Released in JP: 1987


GraphicsIcon.png This game has unused graphics.
SoundtestIcon.png This game has a hidden sound test.


The MSX Dragon Slayer IV was the third version of the game, following the Famicom/NES and MSX2 versions. It shares code with the latter, but the dungeon map is almost entirely based on the former.

Unused Sprites

The game's graphic tiles include four monsters which are never seen in-game in enemy groups 4 and 7. They do not have any associated color or behavior, so they are shown in grey here. These appear in the game data for all three versions of the game. This includes:

  • Bee form of the giant enemy, which would show if its behavior allowed it to climb a ladder.
  • Monch, an intelligent monkey (named in guidebooks).
  • An unknown humanoid with a helmet.
  • An unknown goat-like humanoid.

Ds4 monster unused msx1.png

The family has side-facing sprites that might have been intended for an introduction (like in the MSX2 version) or ending sequence (like the Famicom/NES version).

Ds4 family unused msx1.png

In the family home, two portraits appear on either side of the door, each of which represents one of the grandparent characters who allow you to save and load passwords. There is a third portrait of an unknown character amongst the background tile data, encoded in a blue color, which is never used. This same unused portrait is present in the Famicom/NES version.

Ds4 portrait msx1 unused.png

Many unused 8×8 background tiles contain what appears to be the Japanese character ア enclosed in a box. This unused marker tile appears in many places across the tile data, and is present in all three versions of the game.

Ds4 tile empty msx1.png

Unused Title Screen

At $006B25 in the ROM appears an unused version of the title screen. This is a remnant of data from the MSX2 version, which has a mostly identical tileset layout for its title screen, but because a few tiles were changed they will appear incorrect in this unused copy of the data in the MSX1 version.

Item Image and Tileset
MSX1 Title Background Ds4 bg msx1 title.png
MSX1 Unused Background Ds4 bg msx1 unused.png
MSX2 Title Background Ds4 bg msx2 title.png

Sound Test

Hold the K key while the game starts up. It should display "SOUND MODE" on the title screen. Press ENTER to begin the game. On the character select screen, pressing SHIFT just above the left portrait will restart the current song. Pressing SHIFT or Z just above the right portrait will switch to the next song.