The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck

n/a

Master System US/EU JP
The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck
System(s): Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear
Publisher: Sega Enterprises, Ltd. (JP, EU) Sega of America (US)
Developer: Sega Enterprises, Ltd.
Distributor: Tec Toy (BR) Samsung (KR)
Licensor: The Walt Disney Company
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Official in-game languages: English English 日本語
Release Date RRP Code EU 1991-12 7072 EU (Classic) 1994-08-19 7072-50 DE 1991-12 DM 89.9589.95 7072 UK 1992-01 £32.9932.99 7072 UK (Limited) 199x AU 199x BR 199x 026130 KR 199x JP 1991-12-20 ¥3,8003,800 G-3309 US 1991-10 $39.9539.95 2404 EU 1992-02 2404 DE 1991 DM 89.9589.95 2404 UK 1992-02 £24.9924.99 2404 BR 1992-04 013560

The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck, called Donald Duck no Lucky Dime (ドナルドダックのラッキーダイム) in Japan, is a platform game developed for the Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear in 1991. The game stars Donald Duck, who must travel across seven levels save his three nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie from the evil Magica De Spell, as well as the "Lucky Dimes" stolen by her.

A limited edition box set was sold in the UK, which included a music cassette tape featuring songs from various Disney films, a Donald Duck T-shirt, and a Land of Illusion poster.

The game was released at the same time as QuackShot, and it is often considered to be the 8-bit counterpart of that game as a result, though the games differ significantly in gameplay and story. The Lucky Dime Caper was followed by Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck, which was also released for the Master System and Game Gear.

Story

Introduction

Scrooge McDuck tells his grand-nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, about his "Lucky Dime," the first coin he ever earned in his vast fortune. He gives a Lucky Dime to each of them as birthday gifts. The wicked witch Magica De Spell appears and steals all of the dimes along with kidnapping Huey, Dewey, and Louie, believing that their good fortune will make her even richer than Scrooge. Donald Duck must embark on a mission to travel around the world, save his three nephews, and recover the Lucky Dimes.

Gameplay

The game is a platformer where the player controls Donald Duck. Donald walks with and and "ducks" with . He jumps with and swims with . Donald can attack most enemies by jumping on them. He can also use one of two special weapons, a Hammer or Flying Disks, with . He starts the game with the Hammer but can find Flying Disks as an item. Weapons can be used while jumping but not while ducking. Flying Disks can be thrown directly upwards with +. He enters doors with .

In the Master System version of the game, Donald loses his weapon when he takes damage from an enemy or hazard. If he takes another hit without having a weapon, he loses a try. Stages are timed, with one of three time bars appearing at the bottom of the screen: initially a blue time bar, then yellow, and finally red. If the bar runs out when it is red, Donald loses a try. In the Game Gear version, Donald keeps his weapon when he takes damage and instead loses a health point, depicted as lozenges in the corner of the screen. He loses a try if he loses all of his health points. Stages are not timed in this version.

Additionally, there are differences in stage layout and enemy positions between the Game Gear and Master System versions. The Master System game allows players to back track, but the Game Gear version does not.

Items

Items are randomly dropped by defeated enemies. In the Game Gear version, items are also sometimes pre-placed in the stage.

	Treasure Box
	Releases an item if attacked. There is also an enemy that disguises itself as a Treasure Box.
	Hammer
	Arms Donald with a Hammer, which he can use to attack enemies in close range. He loses the weapon if he takes damage.
	Flying Disk
	Arms Donald with Flying Disks, which he can use to attack enemies from a distance. He loses the weapon if he takes damage.
	Star
	In the Master System version, each star makes Donald attack faster with the Hammer or the Flying Disks. Collecting 5 stars makes Donald temporarily invincible and resets the number of stars. In the Game Gear version, collecting a star give Donald another health point, up to a maximum of 3. Every star collected after the third awards 500 bonus points.
	Yellow Gem
	Awards 500 bonus points.
	Blue Gem
	Awards 1,000 bonus points.
	Key
	Allows Donald to enter locked doors.
	1-Up
	Gives the player an extra try.

Stages

In the first three stages, which can be played in any order, Donald must rescue his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. After these stages have been completed, another three stages appear, which can also be played in any order, in which Donald recovers each nephew's Lucky Dime. After completing these, Donald progresses to the final stage, where he must face Magica De Spell and recover Scrooge's Lucky Dime.

	The Northern Woods
	Beat a bear boss at the end and save Louie.
	The Great American Forest
	Rescue Dewey from a cage guarded by a big lion boss.
	The Andes Mountains
	Face two statues possessed by ancient spirits to free Huey.
	The Tropical Isles
	Recover the first Lucky Dime beating a big tropical crow.
	The Pyramids
	The second Lucky Dime is guarded by a Egyptian crow boss, who is assisted by a giant enchanted snake.
	The South Pole
	Find the third Lucky Dime after beating a big crow that kicks ice cubes at you.
	Magica's Castle
	The final battle, for the fourth and last Lucky Dime, is against the evil Magica De Spell in her castle, that is full of skeletons and ghosts.

History

During development, the game was known under the working title of DuckTales.

Versions

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck	The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck
English (US)	The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck	The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck
Japanese	ドナルドダックのラッキーダイム	Donald Duck no Lucky Dime

Magazine articles

Main article: The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

DK advert (1992)

Master System print advert in (BR) #15: "Outubro 1992" (1992-10-xx)

Master System print advert in (ES) #11: "Marzo 1993" (1993-xx-xx)
also published in:

• (ES) #18: "Marzo 1993" (1993-xx-xx)

Print advert in (JP) #1992-01: "January 1992" (1991-12-07)

Print advert in (ES) #11: "Marzo 1993" (1993-xx-xx)
also published in:

• (ES) #18: "Marzo 1993" (1993-xx-xx)
• (ES) #1: "Abril 1993" (1993-03-15)
• (ES) #59: "Abril 1993" (1993-0x-xx)

Print advert in Donald Duck (DK) #23: (1993-06-23)

Physical scans

Master System version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score (UK) PAL 94 (UK) PAL 90 (UK) PAL 92 (UK) PAL 92 (US) NTSC-U 84 (DE) PAL 73 (UK) PAL 87 (ES) 80 (FR) PAL 90 (FR) PAL 95 (ES) 55 (UK) PAL 92 (UK) PAL 92 (FR) PAL 70 (DE) 64 (DE) PAL 96 (CZ) PAL 61 (UK) PAL 95 (UK) PAL 94 (UK) 94 (UK) PAL 94 (SE) 87 (UK) PAL 78 (UK) PAL 78 (GR) PAL 72 (DE) 80

	84
Based on 26 reviews

The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck

Master System, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System, EU (Classic Master System)
Cover
Cart

Master System, UK (Limited Edition)
Cover
Cart Manual Cassette cover Cassette cover (back) Cassette T-Shirt

Master System, FR (Disney Gift)
Castle of Illusion Lucky Dime Caper Aladdin poster

Master System, BX†
Cover

Master System, AU
Cover
Cart

Master System, AU (Hotline sticker)
Cover
Cart

Master System, AU (Wide hotline/NIAL stickers)
Cover
Cart

Master System, BR
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System, BR (newer)
Cover
Cart

Master System, KR
Cart

Game Gear version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

{{{{{icon}}}|L}}
Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score (BR) 88 (JP) NTSC-J 68 (UK) PAL 90 (UK) 90 (UK) 89 (JP) NTSC-J 63 (UK) 91 (US) NTSC-U 72 (FR) 92 (ES) 84 (FR) 95 (FR) PAL 85 (UK) PAL 92 (DE) 91 (DE) 79 (DE) 85 (UK) PAL 92 (UK) PAL 90 (UK) 93 (UK) PAL 93 (UK) PAL 92 (UK) PAL 93 (JP) NTSC-J 63 (US) NTSC-U 80

	85
Based on 24 reviews

The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck

Game Gear, JP
Cover
Cart

Game Gear, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, BR
Cover
Cart Manual

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 a1710f13 MD5 653f10042a5ee5854ccf971456641a4d SHA-1 a08815d27e431f0bee70b4ebfb870a3196c2a732	256kB		Cartridge (EU)
?	CRC32 7f6d0df6 MD5 7de03b7f1cdc1f931b3a4746d9350033 SHA-1 5ac3e68b34ee4499ddbdee28b47a1440782a9c04	256kB	1991-05-28	EPROM cartridge				Page
?	CRC32 2d98bd87 MD5 d2930d3316e293700d2cedc4125cb9a3 SHA-1 ee70ac64973775adc2063a8cdff203965f2e7e1d	256kB		Cartridge (JP)
?	CRC32 07a7815a MD5 78a7964b341ccc4379a837ee998805c7 SHA-1 5cc5caa887a63c580c1e3ff344a4b0ade643f24b	256kB		Cartridge (US/EU)