Back in February 2024, we reported that feature phone preservationists had managed to archive a complete copy of the Japanese-exclusive Mega Man Legends game, Rockman DASH: Great Adventure on 5 Islands.
And now, a little over a year later, it appears that work on a fan translation of the game has finally been completed, giving more people a chance to experience this previously lost mobile title for themselves without any additional barriers.
Rockman DASH: Great Adventure on 5 Islands is a game that was originally released for i-mode phones in 2008, and is a spin-off that takes between the first two Mega Man Legends games. It features five islands, each with seven missions, and contains 3D gameplay that is considered similar to that seen in the mainline entries.
In 2018, the game was temporarily considered lost after Capcom stopped distribution of its i-mode releases, leading a group of dedicated preservationists to start the hunt for a phone containing all the necessary data to make it more widely available again.
News of the translation was shared with us, via RockmanCosmo on BlueSky, who has put together an article on the Mega Man fan website RockmanCorner about the fan translation. According to Cosmo, this new effort builds was the work of the programmer and translator Mega Alex, and builds on the efforts of an individual named Midori, who previously translated 5 Islands' cutscene script 10 years ago.
The fellow feature phone preservationist Yuvi is also credited with providing programming assistance on the hack, while Cosmo commissioned Cargodin and SprinqGueen to develop new artwork and a new logo for the release.
Referring to the challenges of creating the hack, Cosmo wrote:
"Editing the files was incredibly challenging. While some data was in simple .csv files, cutscene dialogue was locked in proprietary formats, forcing Mega Alex to edit them byte by byte in a hex editor. Even a single misplaced digit could crash the game. Space limitations added another hurdle, but preservationist Yuvi stepped in to modify string lengths for longer text. After seven months of painstaking work, Mega Alex completed the patch."
If you want to experience the game with the new patch, you'll need to download the newly released Keitai World Launcher, which has been created by the feature phone preservationist Yuvi for playing old Keitai games.
You can read more about the steps you'll need to take by heading over to the original article on RockmanCorner. As always, we also recommend checking out the Keitai Wiki Discord to find out more about these ongoing preservationist efforts.