NES Dragon Ball: Mystery of Shenron (English Patched) NES ROM

[CSmith327]

Game Description:​

Dragon Ball: Mystery of Shenron (Dragon Ball - Shen Long no Nazoドラゴンボール 神龍の謎) is an Action-Adventure video game published by Bandai Co Ltd. and developed by TOSE released on 1986 for the NES.

Translation Credits:​

Released by: BlackPaladin
Language: English
Status: Fully Translated
Patch Version: v1.0
Date: 28 May 2026

Source and details: https://romhackplaza.org/translations/dragon-ball-shenron-no-nazo-english-translation-nes/

The game stars Goku and initially roughly follows the first two volumes of the Dragon Ball manga where he encounters many enemies and allies while collecting the Dragon Balls, culminating in the first wish from Shenron in the Emperor Pilaf Saga (levels 1 to 6). The game then moves on to an entirely original story line: Goku enters a Kung-Fu Tournament for levels 7 to 10 and faces off against various strong opponents. A year later (levels 11 to 14) Goku borrows the Dragon Radar from Bulma and heads out in search of his Grandpa Gohan's keepsake, the Four-Star Dragon Ball.

The game was stripped of its Dragon Ball licensing and released in the US in 1988 as "Dragon Power" with a poor translation and altered graphics and sprites for the characters during cutscenes. A more faithful localization that retained the Dragon Ball license was released in France in 1990.

It's often mistakenly thought of as the first ever Dragon Ball themed video game, but actually that distinction belongs to Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyou (Dragon Ball: The Great Unexplored Dragon Region) which was released a few months earlier for the Epoch Super Cassette Vision console. Although this game is the first Dragon Ball game produced by Bandai.

Download Links​

• Dragon Ball: Mystery of Shenron (English Patched) NES ROM

 

[CSmith327]

Planet Emu is nice (Heck, it's where I procured the audio samples for some Jaleco sports games on Famicom that utilized the ADPCM chip), But I have my own go-to sites.

I just wish Myrient never had to shut down. Yeah Minerva Archive backed it up but I kinda hate their site design and not having any direct links (it uses torrents). Myrient had all you ever needed and then some

 

[Scotty Scotty]

"I recommend the French romsite Planet Emulation. They're very accessible and have roms for a lot of older systems and even downloads for emulators of them and a news page that keeps track of updates to emulators. I think they're either light on ads or don't have any ads at all too. I used it to get both the Japan and France rom for this post."

Planet Emu is nice (Heck, it's where I procured the audio samples for some Jaleco sports games on Famicom that utilized the ADPCM chip), But I have my own go-to sites.

 

[CSmith327]

I DO make sure that the checksum matches. That's why I tried looking elsewhere for ROMs multiple times, but had miserable luck.

I don't own a PC. I'm on mobile.

Understandable, I use UniPatcher on mobile to apply patches (minus xdelta3 since it doesn't support those patches) and my file manager app can show checksums in the properties of files in it. (It's an old version of ES File Explorer Pro I bought back when it used to be a one time purchase instead of the weird "premium" thing they have going on now) I recommend the French romsite Planet Emulation. They're very accessible and have roms for a lot of older systems and even downloads for emulators of them and a news page that keeps track of updates to emulators. I think they're either light on ads or don't have any ads at all too. I used it to get both the Japan and France rom for this post.

 

[Scotty Scotty]

"Always make sure the checksum matches when finding a rom to apply the patches to. Most romhack sites will tell you what the target rom checksum sha-1 or md5 etc is on the page and if not sometimes the included readme file will if it has one..."

I DO make sure that the checksum matches. That's why I tried looking elsewhere for ROMs multiple times, but had miserable luck.

"You can use 7-Zip to check the checksum hashes of files, it's in the 7-Zip context menu when you right click on a file in Explorer if you have 7-Zip installed. I accidentally downloaded the wrong copy of this rom too and had to go find the one that matched. It uses the No-Intro (Japan) rom and not the TOSEC (J) [!] GoodNES rom. (which is also in the post)..."

I don't own a PC. I'm on mobile.

 

[DarioEMD]

Is there a Spain version of this or is only the France rom the only European rom? One with a Spanish localization would be nice, but I assume one doesn't exist otherwise they wouldn't have tried to make a patch for it

I think that's the only version released in Europe. For some reason France was big into anime from pretty early on.

 

[ChronoArcaile2025]

I vaguely remember seeing "Dragon Power" around when I was just a young butt back in the 80's. Nice to see it as it should have been.

same here! I barely even remember that Localized "Dragon Power" Version as a Kid,which I was first exposed to it from The Late Armake21's Review of it,which he did a great job roasting the crap out of that Version of the game.XD

 

[CSmith327]

The codes were included in every European version of the game. NA and JP versions don't have it.

Is there a Spain version of this or is only the France rom the only European rom? One with a Spanish localization would be nice, but I assume one doesn't exist otherwise they wouldn't have tried to make a patch for it

 

[Psxphile]

I've not been able to do what they said about the 2nd controller. I've tried both Mesen v2.1.1 and RetroArch (with FCEumm core) and couldn't get the 2nd controller to do anything. Unless something else has to be done first in the game for it to work.

The codes were included in every European version of the game. NA and JP versions don't have it.

 

[CSmith327]

I added the other TL by pacnsacdave. It has two roms in it. One with Goku wearing a touched up version of his regular gi and another of him with Roshi's gi. I won't add the 1999 translation since the quality of it is just atrocious and not of the standard of quality I would deem acceptable to include. Since the Spanish translation was based off of that bad translation and not the original Japanese then that one is probably even worse. So the two best ones are the new one by BlackPaladin and pacnsacdave's version.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 12:34 AM

Dude this is very useful, I think this should be added in the game description, I forgot but is it possible to map 2 controllers as one on RetroArch?

I've not been able to do what they said about the 2nd controller. I've tried both Mesen v2.1.1 and RetroArch (with FCEumm core) and couldn't get the 2nd controller to do anything. Unless something else has to be done first in the game for it to work.

 

[Terrence Fartbubbler]

I vaguely remember seeing "Dragon Power" around when I was just a young butt back in the 80's. Nice to see it as it should have been.

 

[CSmith327]

Thanks for providing a pre-patched ROM of BlackPaladin's fan TL. I tried patching the JP ROM manually the other day, but it didn't appear to have the correct mapper and thus the screen was corrupted.

Always make sure the checksum matches when finding a rom to apply the patches to. Most romhack sites will tell you what the target rom checksum sha-1 or md5 etc is on the page and if not sometimes the included readme file will if it has one. You can use 7-Zip to check the checksum hashes of files, it's in the 7-Zip context menu when you right click on a file in Explorer if you have 7-Zip installed. I accidentally downloaded the wrong copy of this rom too and had to go find the one that matched. It uses the No-Intro (Japan) rom and not the TOSEC (J) [!] GoodNES rom. (which is also in the post)

There are two other translations

Tbh I didn't check that there was more than BlackPaladin's translation since I was looking at it from romhackplaza. I'll add them to the downloads too.

You pretty much covered everything. And not a problem with how this is prepared. While I would have preferred to have the translation patch available only, I can't stop anyone from uploading the patched ROM itself. So if you want to, go right ahead.

Also, I'm glad this patch has been so well received. It was hard... but it was fun. ;)

I'm glad you're satisfied with it. As for having the rom be patched it's a necessary evil for the repo I guess. If I only shared the .bps and .ips files (which I did save in the zip along with the readme) then people would be asking where to find the rom needed and complaining. Or end up using the wrong rom like Scotty did.

 

[Funsize]

The real mystery of Shenron is how long it took for them to be convinced for fraud

 

[BlackPaladin]

@BlackPaladin I didn't realize you had an account on here or else I would have asked if it was alright to post this. I hope I done you justice with how I prepared it. Is there anything you think I should change or append?

You pretty much covered everything. And not a problem with how this is prepared. While I would have preferred to have the translation patch available only, I can't stop anyone from uploading the patched ROM itself. So if you want to, go right ahead.

Also, I'm glad this patch has been so well received. It was hard... but it was fun. ;)

 

[Shinobi77Gamer]

lmao the first screenshot that shows up on the "new English patched" section the best part is that it's totally accurate to the show and stuff

 

[DarioEMD]

Yeah, but the original TL from 1999 is laughably bad with tons of grammatical errors.

"pacnsacdave's" TL is much better, but I personally didn't like the modified Goku and Bulma sprites.

"BlackPaladin's" new TL is the best of both worlds for me; a great TL without the modified sprites of the "pacnsacdave" version.

I agree with that. I'm just saying they could also be uploaded to have all the options.

Edit: And the spanish translation while we're at it, which is also kinda rough but it's something

https://www.romhacking.net/translations/3308/

 

[Scotty Scotty]

There are two other translations

https://www.romhacking.net/translations/131/

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5365/

Yeah, but the original TL from 1999 is laughably bad with tons of grammatical errors.

"pacnsacdave's" TL is much better, but I personally didn't like the modified Goku and Bulma sprites.

"BlackPaladin's" new TL is the best of both worlds for me; a great TL without the modified sprites of the "pacnsacdave" version.

 

[DarioEMD]

There are two other translations

https://www.romhacking.net/translations/131/

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5365/

 

[Juiceala]

I had this game as a kid, here in Spain it was released the same version as France, for a hyper fan like me at the time the game was amazing and i enjoyed it a lot, but nowadays it's just right, it shows that is a 86' game.
Btw the game can be pretty hard if food doesn't appear, i discovered a cheat back in the day that can be helpful: on the second controller if you press down you fill your energy, and if you press B you skip a level.

Dude this is very useful, I think this should be added in the game description, I forgot but is it possible to map 2 controllers as one on RetroArch?

 

[Scotty Scotty]

Thanks for providing a pre-patched ROM of BlackPaladin's fan TL. I tried patching the JP ROM manually the other day, but it didn't appear to have the correct mapper and thus the screen was corrupted.

 

[Slayzer Hiryu]

I had this game as a kid, here in Spain it was released the same version as France, for a hyper fan like me at the time the game was amazing and i enjoyed it a lot, but nowadays it's just right, it shows that is a 86' game.
Btw the game can be pretty hard if food doesn't appear, i discovered a cheat back in the day that can be helpful: on the second controller if you press down you fill your energy, and if you press B you skip a level.

 

[CSmith327]

@BlackPaladin I didn't realize you had an account on here or else I would have asked if it was alright to post this. I hope I done you justice with how I prepared it. Is there anything you think I should change or append?

 

[Infasis]

I think I watched Arino play this a long time ago. I remember it looking pretty fun

 

[CSmith327]

Done, I only played the first boss though but uploaded a few screenshots, feel free to pick what you'd like.

Done!

 

[Juiceala]

If you could take 4 good ones of different levels and a boss or two then that'd be great

Done, I only played the first boss though but uploaded a few screenshots, feel free to pick what you'd like.

 

[CSmith327]

I can take a few screenshots quickly for you on my ipad.

If you could take 4 good ones of different levels and a boss or two then that'd be great