Maka Maka（摩訶摩訶，SFC）“bug百货商店”：英文补丁、bug修复与平衡性调整（封闭测试，WIP）

Name: Maka Maka (摩訶摩訶)
Platform: Super Nintendo (Super Famicom)
Genre: Comedy RPG, turn-based
Description: Maka Maka is a turn-based comedy RPG in the Dragon Quest mold, from Sigma for the Super Famicom (Japan, April 24, 1992). It opens with lightning striking the hero's house and turning his parents into giant water fleas. Characters by comedy manga artist Koji Aihara. It never left Japan; a fan translation started in 2008 was never released.

Title screen: the logo reads MA·KA·MA·KA in Latin letters.

Dialogue in English: the hero's parents, in a pathetic, dreadful state.

Why it is infamous: The Japanese strategy site gcgx.games says it has so many faults you're tempted to call it a "department store of bugs".
According to an anonymous 5ch poster who says he was a programmer on it, the team's lotcheck slot was already booked, so they forced in a version he expected Nintendo to send back, and it got through. He says a version with the known bugs fixed was submitted a few days later and never came out (we don't have it; every fix here is our own). Sigma answered complaints by saying it was all "as designed" (仕様です), he says. The Japanese Game Catalog @wiki says the game is so chaotic that it is hard to tell what is a bug and what is by design, yet its script and music are praised and it still has a cult following.

--about the translation--

Project lead: Sonix
Group: Patch Clan (translation, bug fixes, balance and hacking)
Progress: Closed beta, still in testing; not public yet. The public release will be open to everyone at www.patchclan.com, as one patch. No date yet.

• Hacking: 2437 of 2437 strings in English, all displayed in-game
• Review: every line read in-game
• Testing: Mesen only, not yet real hardware; story played in order to about 25 minutes, the rest reached by jumping to scenes with memory edits

Improvements in this version:

1. The translation

• The whole game in English, including menus, the name screen and the ending credits.
• Variable-width font: about 36 characters per 26-column line.

The Myna Bird announces Wendy's love letter. Repeatedly.

Story in English: the plane was a trap to kidnap Dr. Pascal.

COMMAND menu in English: Call, Check, Party, Items, Morph, Equip.

Save menu in English: the Spirit Medium offers Save and Revive.

Battle messages in English: a fierce critical blow.

• Name entry: the kana grid is now an A–Z and a–z keyboard.

A–Z name keyboard. You even name your special move.

• Title logo redrawn in Latin letters.

2. Original-cartridge bugs fixed in this patch (open ones: section 4)

Game-stopping: freezes, crashes and dead ends

• Kusaya (repels weaker enemies) used at hero level 1 froze the game.
• Giving an item to someone with a full bag could crash the game.
• Repeatedly canceling the item-passing menu corrupted the command window, could leave you unable to move, and caused the original's broken shop (buy for 0, sell for 1,650).
• Losing the story fight with Baselan left your companions blocking the way → now you can retry.
• Talking to Slap Granny from the wrong side on the pier walked the party into the sea, leaving it stuck for good.
• Using the Cell Key, then the stairs, without talking to Christine (a prisoner) locked her cell for good.
• The hero could vanish from the party for good in Montechicago.
• Walking the right edge of the flower garden palace skipped the pier scene, leaving you stuck later.

Other notable fixes

• Defense dropping to 0-3 or jumping to 255 on stairs or at level-up.
• TP wrapping around to 65535 when you spent more than you had.
• Morph techniques used outside battle always coming out as the hero's.
• Only half of the townspeople turning into water fleas.
• Ending credits with missing letters and wrong names.

Morph techniques in English: Puny Genocide, Stomp Bomber, Shock Therapy.

Minor fixes: full list at the end.

Kept on purpose

• Debug mode: enter 019477X (X from 1 to 9) as "Your Name", the last of the four names; 0194771 = no random encounters, 0194772 = undo a lost fight. An 11:03 Any% All Glitches speedrun uses it.

3. Balance changes
Only these numbers changed (before → now):

• Safe steps after a battle: 20 → 32 (entering a map with the counter at zero: 1-19 → 1-31).
• 24 enemies' "defend" and "wait" actions never happened: the game always swapped them for the first attack. Now they happen: Bomb Roller explodes about 30% of the time and Joe Frog attacks about half the time (before, both did it every time).
• Bomb Roller's explosion: 70 → 35 damage.
• Echo Parrot's counter: full damage, could kill → half, never below 1 HP.
• Tyrannoplant's attack: always the whole party → half the time the whole party, half the time one member.
• Gym Gal: 1000 → 400 HP.
• Field Barrier, a technique Teary Boy learns (it made the final boss trivial): 3 turns for 20 TP → 2 for 30. Aura Barrier: 4 → 3 turns.
• Leather Dress, an early find in a false-bottomed chest in the first village that broke the early game: the fee to appraise it, 100 → 3000. It is still there.
• Kamikaze Band: wiped out fire resistance → normal.
• 13 story items valued at 0 (Cell Phone among them): sold and lost → shops refuse.

4. Not ready yet

• Not yet played start to finish. Fixes for later parts of the game were checked in the code, and some also in the game, by loading straight into that scene with memory edits. The ending credits have not been seen scrolling yet.
• Reported, not reproduced yet: getting trapped inside Gourmet Gal's body, a dark laboratory, some visual glitches.
• Dungeon stairs misplacing the party: safety check added; never reproduced on the original.

Patch Clan splash, Beta v0.1: "Buggy since 1992. Repairs in progress."

History sources: gcgx.games · 5ch retro-board thread, 2007-2015 · Game Catalog @Wiki

• The hero and Teary Boy losing field Morph after battles.
• Energy Drain pushing Defense below 0.
• Level drain plus level-up stacking stats every time.
• The level-raising monster not raising stats.
• Ando's heal past max HP making the next hit fatal.
• Battles in front of the passage-blocking bat making it vanish.
• Equipment passed to a full bag keeping its bonus on both.
• Bags shrinking to 8 slots after a trade.
• The Walnut Badge multiplying (0 became 15).
• Slap Granny's medicine lowering the wrong character's item count.
• Michael's Bail Out (guaranteed escape) never taking its TP.
• The appraiser reading ELECTRIC resistance from the COLD value.
• The past-world ship vanishing or duplicating.
• A light-blue Grunt, a common enemy that should not be there, outside Nangoku Castle.
• Window frames turning yellow after the Sunport boat scene.
• Walk-through walls and wrong exits.
• The RC Car checking the floor at the wrong position.