Yes, Japanese PCE fans were occasionally exposed to the travails of TTi/Hudson Soft across the Pacific. They learned about the launch of the DUO in America (rebranded as "TurboDuo" and priced at $299.99 US), the localization of Power Golf 2 (did work on this ever begin?) and software exclusive to North America: Beyond Shadowgate, Darkwing Duck, Order of the Griffon and Dangerous Journeys.
WAIT! I wasn't expecting a NEW semi-legible screenshot from Dangerous Journeys (SCD), a game that, sadly, was never released. A very similar (but not identical) screenshot had appeared in TurboForce #4 (Spring 1993) as an upcoming release. TTi had been promoting Dangerous Journeys: Necropolis for an April 1993 release (see this TTi flyer, lovingly preserved at Chirs Bieniek's trove of artifacts). Dangerous Journeys: Necropolis was based on a new role-playing game system, published in 1992, by the legendary Gary Gygax (Monsieur D&D himself).
Unfortunately for Mr. Gygax, his Dangerous Journeys venture faced a constant legal battle with TSR (publisher of Dungeons & Dragons). With the threat of lawsuits looming, NEC and JVC abandoned their Dangerous Journeys projects. Gygax argued that TSR's lawsuit was unjustified and without merit. He also felt betrayed by NEC and JVC. Recognizing that TSR was determined to crush Dangerous Journeys, Gygax agreed to a settlement. TSR paid for every facet of the Dangerous Journeys franchise (e.g. costs of production, intellectual property rights, physical inventory of published books) in order to become sole proprietor.
CAUSE OF DEATH: Have we finally determined the truth? Did TTi abort Dangerous Journeys: Necropolis in response to TSR's agressive legal tactics? Should TG-16 fans blame TSR for the premature death of a promising RPG set in a mystical Egyptian setting? Jump to the discussion below to learn more details from Gary Gygax himself.
Dangerous Journeys: "A fantasy RPG based on a book by the esteemed game writer Gary Gygax."
Dangerous Journeys: "Four warriors have been imprisoned inside a castle. You must guide each of these characters through traps to reach freedom."
CAVEAT: This screenshot may be a mock-up (and thus not from a playable demo). Assuming it is not a completely fabricated mock-up, we can glean a few clues (upon which I speculate) about the game that was being developed…
(1) The user-interface (UI) clearly portrays a party of four characters (lower-right corner); this is corroborated by a promotional TTi flyer that prominently features four characters as well. Following the conventions of the era, their facial expressions may have animated to indicate various states of health, poisoning, death, etc.
(2) A map (center bottom) appears pretty standard, although the scale of the map is difficult to determine. It seems reasonable to assume the player is in one of the rooms of the large brown structure in the lower left region of the map.
(3) Mystical runes (lower-left corner) might represent basic UI functions.
(4) The main view (upper-half of screen) depicts a rather barren room: a lone table, chair accompany a handful of tchochtkes sitting on shelves, mounted on walls or resting on the ground.
(5) A line of text is displayed horizontally, effectively splitting the screen in half. It appears to be a string of random letters/symbols, save for "(Nay)" nestled snugly in the middle. As is, the text may have been code used in the debugging process. In the final game, however, this area of the screen would be useful for displaying descriptive text, amongst other things.
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Since the screenshot in the original print magazine was so tiny, you would be forgiven if you thought one of the characters was wearing a pair of sunglasses. Only by enlarging the image and adjusting the brightness/contrast reveals what now seems obvious—modern sunglasses would be anachronistic to the ancient setting and mythos of the Dangerous Journeys universe.
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Continued below…
GYGAX WAS BETRAYED BY NEC & JVC, PART II▲
We have already suggested that TSR's aggressive legal tactics (suing GDW, publisher of the
Dangerous Journeys books and modules) scared away NEC and JVC, who had secured licensing for
Dangerous Journeys RPG video games. Indeed, according to Gygax, TSR's strategy seemed intent on eliminating
Dangerous Journeys from the market, thereby eliminating a competitor to TSR's D&D franchise.
When I began work the genre was horror and Mike McCulley joined me as co-author to produce an RPG I named Unhallowed…As this was developing, NEC and JVC became interested in the game, licensed the system in fantasy, so I had to switch gears and rush into development of that genre. Here I enlisted the creative talents of Dave Newton, and between us we produced the Mythus RPG, the second genre of the umbrella system then named Dangerous Dimensions (the choice of NEC and JVC from several suggestions I provided). During the process a publisher for a fiction line was lined up and negotiations for other licenses were in progress. Game Designers Workshop (GDW) was on board as the publisher of the paper RPG. The prototype of the game was shown at the GAMA show in Las Vegas. [Is this the source of the screenshot above? What are the chances that the prototype was actually coded on PCE hardware?] At that point Williams was informed by her staff at the show that I was about to release a new fantasy RPG.
When we heard that TSR objected to the umbrella title, I immediately contacted NEC and JVC to determine if they would object to a name change to avoid a lawsuit one likely to have little merit, but costly. They agreed with my assessment and I changed the umbrella title to Dangerous Journeys.
Despite that, TSR sued, attempting to get a temporary injunction preventing release and sale of the new game products. In this they failed.
Detail: …
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