Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (video game)

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters

Names
English	Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters
Japanese Japanese 遊（ユウ）戯（ギ）王（オウ）デュエルモンスターズ Base 遊戯王デュエルモンスターズ Furigana ユウギオウデュエルモンスターズ Rōmaji Yugiō Dyueru Monsutāzu
Development
Platform	Game Boy
Languages	Japanese
Developer	Konami
Publisher	Konami
Release dates
Japanese	December 16, 1998
Series
Series	Duel Monsters
Next	Duel Monsters II: Dark duel Stories
Links
Promotional cards Guide books: book 1 · book 2 List of cards

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters is the second Yu-Gi-Oh! video game, following Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule: Breed and Battle. It is the first game in the Duel Monsters series, followed by Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters II: Dark duel Stories, and the only game released for the Game Boy.

This game predates the OCG by two months, and many cards seen here soon made appearances in the earliest OCG sets. It was published in Japan by Konami on December 16, 1998; while a few (non-Yu-Gi-Oh!-related) games would be released for the handheld over the next four years, Duel Monsters was one of the last games published for the original Game Boy.

Cards

Main articles: List of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters cards and Gallery of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters cards

Thirteen of the secret cards, which Takahashi designed for the game (the missing secret cards are #356: "Super War-lion" and #357: "Yamadron")

Duel Monsters features 365 cards. These consist of:

• 300 monsters and 50 Magic Cards accessible during normal gameplay:
  • 100 monsters and 12 Magic Cards from the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga.
    • The majority of these cards appear in chapters up to and including Duel 91: "Death to the Undead!", released July 27, 1998.
    • Card #217: "B. Skull Dragon" appears later in Duel 96: "The Deadly Guardian!!", released September 7, 1998. Unlike the other manga monsters, its card number is not within the first 100.
    • Card #067: "Perfectly Ultimate" is mentioned but not seen in the manga. It makes its first visual appearance in this game.
  • Card #013: "Tyhone", which previously appeared in Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule: Breed and Battle
  • 199 monsters and 38 Magic Cards, original to the game
    • At least 9 of these monsters were designed by fans.
• 15 secret monsters, at least 13 of which were designed by Kazuki Takahashi. These can only be obtained through a secret password menu or as prizes at the national tournament.
  • One of the 15, #364: "Black Luster Soldi" appeared in the manga in Duel 117: "Running on the Edge!", released February 15, 1999, roughly coinciding with the date it was made publicly available in the game, February 21, 1999.

Game options

The title screen and main menu

The following options are available at the main menu:

• Campaign (キャンペーン Kyanpēn): the game's story mode. Face AI opponents.
• Versus (たいせん Taisen): battle other players, using the Game Link Cable.
• Trade (トレード Torēdo): trade with other players via the Game Link Cable.
• Records (せいせき Seiseki): statistics and other information about the player.

There is also a password menu, which is only accessible by entering a secret code at the main menu.

Campaign

Duel Monsters is set during the Duelist Kingdom arc of the manga.

• The first stage is "In the Ship" (船（ふね）の中（なか） Fune no Naka). It takes place on the Duelist Kingdom ship.
• The second stage is "Duel Kingdom" (デュエル王国（キングダム） Dyueru Kingudamu). It is set on the Duelist Kingdom island.
• The third stage is "Simon Muran" (シモン・ムーラン Shimon Mūran), a stage unrelated to the manga arc, featuring a character who debuts in this game.
• The final boss stage is "Maximillion Pegasus", known as "Pegasus J. Crawford" (ペガサス・Ｊ（ジェー）・クロフォード Pegasasu Jē Kurofōdo) in Japan.
• The dark stage is "Yami Yugi", known as "Dark Yugi" (闇（やみ）遊（ゆう）戯（ぎ） Yami Yūgi) in Japan.

The player must defeat each character in a stage five times to advance to the next stage. A character that has been defeated five times can be Dueled additional times for more cards. Defeating Maximillion Pegasus five times causes the ending credits to roll. After that an additional Dark Stage appears, with Yami Yugi as an opponent.

A total of sixteen opponents are featured in Duel Monsters: four in Stage 1, nine in Stage 2, and one each in the last three stages.

Stage	Opponents
Stage 1: "In the Ship"	Yugi Muto Tristan Taylor Joey Wheeler Ryou Bakura
Stage 2: "Duel Kingdom"	Weevil Underwood Mai Valentine Rex Raptor Mako Tsunami Seto Kaiba Mokuba Kaiba Puppeteer of Doom PaniK Bandit Keith
Stage 3: "Simon Muran"	Simon Muran
Final Boss: "Maximillion Pegasus"	Maximillion Pegasus
Dark Stage: Yami Yugi	Yami Yugi

Versus

Players can battle other players, who have the same game, using the Game Link Cable via the Versus menu. The Deck can be altered before the battle, from this screen.

After a battle, the winner can take one card from the opponent's trunk. After every ten battles, the player is awarded a certain card.

If this option is selected without a second game being connected, Tea Gardner appears and prevents the action.

Trade

Players can trade cards with other people who have a copy of the game, via the Game Link Cable.

From the trade screen, the player has three options, "chest", "check card" and "exchange card". The player must open the "chest" menu and select which cards they wish to trade. They can review the cards they have selected in the "check card" screen. The cards are traded when both players select "exchange card".

Communication Fusions can be conducted by trading certain cards.

If this option is selected without a second game being connected, Tea Gardner prevents the action.

Records

The records screen shows the player's name and communication battle statistics.

Obtaining cards

Initial Deck

Main article: Initial Deck (Duel Monsters 1)

The player starts the game with a 40-card Initial Deck which includes 33 Monster Cards, selected randomly from a pool of 100 monsters, as well as seven Magic Cards, which are always the same.

All cards in the Initial Deck are also available as drops, except for #337: "Raigeki", which can only be obtained as a victory bonus. In addition to being drops, sixteen other cards are also available as victory bonuses, and #289: "Change Slime" is available as a communication bonus (but not as a victory bonus). Victory bonus cards are indicated in the following tables with a pink background and a dagger (†) after the card's name, except for #337: "Raigeki", which instead uses a red background and a double dagger (‡).

For display purposes, the list of monsters is split into groups of ten. This has no significance in-game, and is only done here for viewing convenience.

Monsters

#	Card
005	Ryu-kishin†
008	Mushroom Man
009	Shadow Specter
024	Skull Servant
029	Mountain Warrior
045	Oscillo Hero #2†
048	Sangan
058	Kuriboh
075	Man-eating Plant†
101	Wings of Wicked Fl

Monsters

#	Card
102	Mask of Darkness†
105	Tomozaurus
107	Kageningen
123	Dark Plant
129	Nemuriko
130	Weather Control
134	Mystical Capture C
139	B.eye Silv. Zombie
140	Toad Master
142	Flame Manipulator

Monsters

#	Card
143	Chronolord
144	Wind Djinn
145	Phantom Thief†
147	Monster Egg
148	Sinister Shadow
152	The Melting Red Sh
154	Fire Reaper
155	Larvas†
157	Firegrass
158	Man Eater

Monsters

#	Card
159	Dig Beak
160	M-warrior #1
161	M-warrior #2†
167	Ancient Jar
173	Dark Prisoner
174	Hurricail†
176	Fire Eye
177	Monsturtle
179	Phantom Dewan
180	Arlownay†

Monsters

#	Card
181	Dark Shade
182	Masked Clown
183	Lucky Trinket
184	Genin
185	Eyearmor
187	Gate Deeg
188	Synchar
189	Fusionist
190	Akakieisu
191	LaLa Li-oon

Monsters

#	Card
192	Key Mace
193	Turtle Tiger
194	Terra the Terrible
195	Doron
196	Arma Knight
197	Mech Mole Zombie
198	Happy Lover
199	Penguin Knight†
200	Petit Dragon
202	Air Marmot of Nefa

Monsters

#	Card
203	Phantom Ghost
205	Dorover
206	Twin Long Rods#1
207	Droll Bird
208	Petit Angel
209	Winged Cleaver
210	Hinotama Soul
211	Kaminarikozou
212	Meotoko
214	B. Flame Kagemusha

Monsters

#	Card
215	Flame Ghost
218	Two-mouth Darkrule
222	Midnight Fiend
226	Skull Stalker
227	Hitodenchak
228	Wood Remains
229	Hourglass of Life
232	Madjinn Gunn
237	Haniwa
238	Yashinoki†

Monsters

#	Card
239	Vishwar Randi
240	The Drdek
242	Candle of Destiny
243	Water Element
244	Dissolverock
245	Meda Bat
247	Root Water
253	Angelwitch
254	Embryonic Beast
261	Wicked Mirror

Monsters

#	Card
268	Sectarian of Secre
271	Megirus Light
276	Ray & Temperature†
279	King Fog
282	Mystical Sheep #2
285	Serpent Marauder
289	Change Slime
292	Psychic Kappa
298	Wicked Dragon with
300	Kurama†

Magic Cards

#	Card
337	Raigeki‡
338	Mooyan Curry†
339	Red Medicine†
343	Sparks ×2
344	Hinotama
350	Dark-piercing Ligh†

Opponent drops

When an opponent is defeated, the player is given a card.

Each opponent has a different list of cards the player can get for beating them, with each card on the list having an assigned probability of randomly obtaining it. See Yugi Muto (Duel Monsters 1) § Drops for example.

Victory bonuses

The player wins a certain card from each opponent after every ten wins against that opponent, up to 100 wins.

Eighteen cards in the game are only available as victory bonuses; these are indicated in the below tables with a pink background and a superscript dagger (†) after the card's name. Specifically, the 100 victory bonus of every character is only available as a victory bonus, except for Mako Tsunami's 100 victory bonus, #337: "Raigeki", which the player's Initial Deck contains one copy of.

Fourteen victory bonuses are also available as communication bonuses, indicated with a yellow background and a superscript double dagger (‡). Sixteen victory bonuses are also available in the Initial Deck (though none of them are also communication bonuses), indicated with a green background and a superscript section sign (§). All of these, except for #337: "Raigeki", are also available as drops, as are all of the other victory bonuses which are otherwise available.

Yugi Muto

Wins	#	Card
10	314	Horn of the Unicor
20	350	Dark-piercing Ligh§
30	199	Penguin Knight§
40	161	M-warrior #2§
50	114	White Magical Hat
60	270	Wetha
70	118	Supporter in the S
80	276	Ray & Temperature§
90	039	Curse of Dragon†
100	038	Gaia The Fierce Kn†

Tristan Taylor

Wins	#	Card
10	310	Vile Germs
20	312	Silver Bow & Arrow
30	238	Yashinoki§
40	300	Kurama§
50	155	Larvas§
60	180	Arlownay§
70	257	Stone Armadiller
80	174	Hurricail§
90	252	Nekogal #1
100	018	L Leg of Forbidden†

Joey Wheeler

Wins	#	Card
10	333	Sogen
20	301	Legendary Sword
30	064	Tiger Axe
40	043	Karbonala Warrior
50	078	Axe Raider
60	014	Battle Steer
70	012	Swamp Battleguard
80	068	Garoozis
90	016	Time Wizard‡
100	082	Red-eyes B. Dragon†

Ryou Bakura

Wins	#	Card
10	335	Yami
20	236	Guardian of the La
30	338	Mooyan Curry§
40	294	Dragoness the Wick
50	339	Red Medicine§
60	259	Dimensional Knight
70	340	Goblin's Secret Re‡
80	225	Fiend Sword
90	341	Soul of the Pure†
100	342	Dian Keto the Cure†

Weevil Underwood

Wins	#	Card
10	330	Forest
20	050	Basic Insect
30	305	Lazer Cannon Armor
40	053	Killer Needle
50	306	Insect Armor with
60	054	Gokibore
70	049	Big Insect
80	055	Giant Flea
90	052	Hercules Beetle‡
100	278	Petit Moth†

Mai Valentine

Wins	#	Card
10	332	Mountain
20	327	Follow Wind
30	062	Harpie Lady
40	318	Elegant Egotist
50	272	Mavelus
60	316	Electro-whip‡
70	117	Spirit of the Book
80	125	Faith Bird
90	317	Cyber Shield‡
100	063	Harpie Lady Sister†

Rex Raptor

Wins	#	Card
10	331	Wasteland
20	326	Raise Body Heat
30	080	Uraby
40	081	Crawling Dragon #2
50	011	Sword Arm of Drago‡
60	080	Uraby
70	081	Crawling Dragon #2
80	011	Sword Arm of Drago‡
90	079	Megazowler‡
100	032	Two-headed King Re†

Mako Tsunami

Wins	#	Card
10	334	Umi
20	328	Power of Kaishin
30	309	Steel Shell
40	070	Fiend Kraken
50	071	Jellyfish
60	073	Kairyu-shin‡
70	070	Fiend Kraken
80	071	Jellyfish
90	073	Kairyu-shin‡
100	337	Raigeki§

Seto Kaiba

Wins	#	Card
10	302	Sword of Ruin
20	321	Malevolent Nuzzler
30	005	Ryu-kishin§
40	077	Grappler
50	091	Mystic Horseman
60	023	The Wicked Worm B
70	026	Battle Ox‡
80	033	Judge Man
90	090	Gyakutenno Megami‡
100	001	B.eye White Dragon†

Mokuba Kaiba

Wins	#	Card
10	336	Dark Hole
20	313	Horn of Light
30	324	Invigoration
40	075	Man-eating Plant§
50	102	Mask of Darkness§
60	076	Krokodilus
70	051	Armored Lizard‡
80	066	Kojikocy‡
90	234	Beautiful Headhunt
100	017	R Leg of Forbidden†

Puppeteer of Doom

Wins	#	Card
10	320	Stop Defense
20	119	Trial of Nightmare
30	233	Dark Titan of Terr
40	163	Lisark
50	165	The Judgement Hand
60	297	Cyber Soldier of D
70	136	Witty Phantom
80	275	Terra Bugroth
90	286	Gatekeeper
100	019	R Arm of Forbidden†

PaniK

Wins	#	Card
10	335	Yami
20	303	Dark Energy
30	083	Castle of D. Magic
40	088	Metal Guardian
50	086	Barox
60	084	Reaper of the Card
70	281	Mystic Clown
80	087	Dark Chimera
90	127	Ansatsu
100	085	King of Yamimakai†

Bandit Keith

Wins	#	Card
10	325	Machine Conversion
20	322	Violet Crystal
30	098	Clown Zombie
40	036	The Snake Hair
50	093	Zanki
60	286	Gatekeeper
70	094	Crawling Dragon
80	124	Ancient Tool
90	099	Pumpking the King†
100	020	L Arm of Forbidden†

Simon Muran

Wins	#	Card
10	323	Book of Secret Art
20	311	Black Pendant
30	304	Axe of Despair
40	307	Elf's Light
50	308	Beast Fangs
60	213	Aqua Madoor
70	145	Phantom Thief§
80	106	Spirit of the Wind
90	022	Summoned Skull‡
100	042	Faceless Mage†

Maximillion Pegasus

Wins	#	Card
10	284	Tao the Chanter
20	241	Dark Assailant
30	040	Dragon Piper
40	287	Ogre of the Black
50	045	Oscillo Hero #2§
60	329	Dragon Capture Jar‡
70	291	Fireyarou
80	149	Lord of the Lamp
90	044	Rogue Doll
100	315	Dragon Treasure†

Yami Yugi

Wins	#	Card
10	006	Feral Imp
20	007	Winged Dragon #1
30	041	Celtic Guardian
40	319	Mystical Moon
50	010	Blackland Fire Dra
60	348	Swords of Revealin
70	031	Koumori Dragon
80	060	Great White
90	345	Final Flame
100	021	Exod. of Forbidden†

Communication bonuses

The player receives a certain card after every ten battles against different human opponents via the Game Link Cable, up to 200 unique opponents. While fifteen of these cards are also available as drops and victory bonuses, five of them can only be obtained as communication bonuses; these are indicated in the below table with a pink background and a superscript dagger (†) after the card's name.

The card #347: "Tremendous Fire" was notoriously powerful in this game, with the ability to instantly inflict 5000 damage. It is also considered one of the most difficult cards to unlock, requiring to battle 200 different opponents.

Because no official method of erasing a saved game was ever published, players could not easily keep resetting a second copy of the game to face more unique opponents. However, there is a secret method to erase the saved game coded into the game. To achieve this, players can press the following buttons at the title screen: ↓, ↑, B, ↓, ↓, →, ↑, ↑, ↑, ↑, B + ↓. Other non-standard methods of erasing the save file involve directly tampering with the cartridge, which risks damaging it or the console used to play it.

Opponents	#	Card
10	289	Change Slime
20	015	Flame Swordsman†
30	026	Battle Ox
40	329	Dragon Capture Jar
50	004	Baby Dragon†
60	051	Armored Lizard
70	340	Goblin's Secret Re
80	316	Electro-whip
90	011	Sword Arm of Drago
100	349	Spellbinding Circl†
110	016	Time Wizard
120	090	Gyakutenno Megami
130	066	Kojikocy
140	052	Hercules Beetle
150	346	Ookazi†
160	317	Cyber Shield
170	079	Megazowler
180	073	Kairyu-shin
190	022	Summoned Skull
200	347	Tremendous Fire†

Trading

Cards can be traded from other games using the Game Link Cable.

Duel Monsters can connect with other copies of Duel Monsters. Duel Monsters II: Dark duel Stories, Duel Monsters III: Tri-Holy God Advent (the Japanese edition of Dark Duel Stories), and Duel Monsters 4: Battle of Great Duelist can connect to copies of Duel Monsters.

Communication Fusion

Communication Fusions can be performed by connecting to a second copy of Duel Monsters or to a copy of Duel Monsters II: Dark duel Stories, using the Game Link Cable. This requires the two Fusion Materials and #289: "Change Slime". "Change Slime" has a chance of being included in the Initial Deck; after that, it can only be obtained with a chance of 1/2048 per Duel against certain opponents, or as the first communication bonus after battling against ten different opponents over the Game Link Cable.

Eight different cards are available as Communication Fusions, and none of them can be obtained by any other method in-game, though all of them can be traded back from later games.

#067 "Perfectly Ultimate" requires a total of eight Communication Fusions to obtain, each of which requires a copy of "Change Slime"; it also requires three copies of #278: "Petit Moth", which is only available as Weevil Underwood's 100 victory bonus. Because of this, it is considered to be an extremely difficult card to obtain.

Fusion Monster		Material 1		Material 2
037	Gaia the Dragon Ch	038	Gaia The Fierce Kn	039	Curse of Dragon
069	Thousand Dragon	004	Baby Dragon	016	Time Wizard
092	Rabid Horseman	026	Battle Ox	091	Mystic Horseman
056	Larvae Moth	278	Petit Moth	123	Dark Plant
				157	Firegrass
				274	Green Phantom King
				273	Ancient Tree of En
				008	Mushroom Man
				075	Man-eating Plant
				158	Man Eater
				238	Yashinoki
				180	Arlownay
072	Cocoon of Evolutio	056	Larvae Moth	123	Dark Plant
				157	Firegrass
				274	Green Phantom King
				273	Ancient Tree of En
				008	Mushroom Man
				075	Man-eating Plant
				158	Man Eater
				238	Yashinoki
				180	Arlownay
057	Great Moth	072	Cocoon of Evolutio	072	Cocoon of Evolutio
067	Perfectly Ultimate	057	Great Moth	072	Cocoon of Evolutio
217	B. Skull Dragon	022	Summoned Skull	082	Red-eyes B. Dragon

Ante

After a communication battle, the winner must take one card from their opponent's trunk.

Passwords

Nine of the fifteen secret cards in Duel Monsters can be unlocked via passwords. These passwords use kana, rather than numbers or letters. Each password is the name of a staff member who worked on the game, or who worked on the manga series at Shueisha at the time. Many later video games instead use passwords which consist of eight digits, found on cards released in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game, which did not premiere until after this game was released.

To access the password entry, the following button sequence must be entered on the main menu: ↑, ↓, B, ↓, ↓, ↑+B, B. This requires frame-perfect input to succeed; if the game is being played on an emulator, the password entry can also be accessed by changing RAM address $DFDE to 0x06 and pressing B. Alternatively, the Game Genie code 06F-DE2-F7E can be used, which removes the requirement for frame-perfect button entry and reduces the button sequence to ↑, ↓, B, ↓, ↓, B.

After successfully entering the button sequence, Yami Yugi appears and introduces the password mode, and then the player can enter a password. The screens used for password entry are the hiragana and katakana entry screens used to enter the player's name at the start of the game. Once a password is entered, Yami Yugi appears again and tells the player whether the entered password is correct, incorrect, or has already been used, and the game returns to the main menu.

The Passwords and instructions on how to access the Password menu were published in various supplementary material, including:

• Top Secret Cards
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Perfect Master BOOK, released December 21, 1998
• The 1999 #2 issue of V Jump, released December 21, 1998
• The 1999 #9 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump, released January 25, 1999
• The 1999 #4 issue of V Jump, released February 21, 1999
• Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters II: Dark duel Stories Ultimate Strategy Book Volume 2, released August 5, 1999

#	Card	Password	Rōmaji	Individual	Sources
351	Yaranzo	ヘイシヨシヒサ	heishiyoshihisa	Yoshihisa Heishi, long-time editor for Weekly Shōnen Jump	Top Secret Card
					VJ 1999 #4
					DM2 Strategy V2
352	Kanan the Swordmis	ハシモトカナコ	hashimotokanako	Kanako Hashimoto, director of graphics for Duel Monsters	Top Secret Card
353	Takriminos	チダタクリ	chidatakuri	Takuri Chida, programmer for Duel Monsters	Top Secret Card
					VJ 1999 #4
					DM2 Strategy V2
354	Stuffed Animal	キタウエカズミ	kitauekazumi	Kazumi Kitaue, executive producer for Duel Monsters	Perfect Master BOOK
					VJ 1999 #2
					DM2 Strategy V2
355	Megasonic Eye	シモムラサトシ	shimomurasatoshi	Satoshi Shimomura, producer for Duel Monsters
358	Seiyaryu	トリシマカズヒコ	torishimakazuhiko	Kazuhiko Torishima, editor-in-chief for Weekly Shōnen Jump	VJ 1999 #4
					DM2 Strategy V2
359	Three-legged Zombi	タカハシトシマサ	takahashitoshimasa	Toshimasa Takahashi, editor for Weekly Shōnen Jump	Top Secret Card
					VJ 1999 #2
					DM2 Strategy V2
361	Flying Penguin	ヤマダノブヒロ	yamadanobuhiro	Nobuhiro Yamada, director of game design for Duel Monsters	WSJ 1999 #9
					VJ 1999 #2
					DM2 Strategy V2
363	Fairy's Gift	タカハシカズキ	takahashikazuki	Kazuki Takahashi, creator of Yu-Gi-Oh! and original monster design in Duel Monsters	WSJ 1999 #9
					VJ 1999 #2
					DM2 Strategy V2

• 

  Top Secret Card with "Three-legged Zombi" password

• 

  Perfect Master BOOK with "Stuffed Animal" password

• 

  Weekly Shōnen Jump 1999 #9 with "Fairy's Gift" and "Flying Penguin" passwords

• 

  V Jump 1999 #2 with "Takriminos", "Yaranzo", and "Three-legged Zombi" passwords

• 

  V Jump 1999 #4 with "Fairy's Gift", "Seiyaryu", "Flying Penguin" and "Stuffed Animal" passwords

• 

  Duel Monsters II: Dark duel Stories Ultimate Strategy Book Volume 2 with seven of the nine passwords

Prizes

Main article: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters National Tournament prize cards

The prize cards

Eight of the fifteen secret cards were awarded at the Duel Monsters National Tournament on February 21, 1999. Physical copies of the top four cards were also awarded.

While two of the qualifying cards can also be unlocked with a password, and the four qualifying cards can be obtained by trading from Duel Monsters II: Dark duel Stories, the Top 4 cards cannot be obtained legitimately by any other means.

Position	#	Card	Physical card
Qualifying	352	Kanan the Swordmis
	362	Millennium Shield
	355	Megasonic Eye
	357	Yamadron
Top 4	365	Fiend's Mirror	Fiend's Mirror
Top 3	356	Super War-lion	Super War-lion
Top 2	360	Zera The Mant	Zera The Mant
Winner	364	Black Luster Soldi	Black Luster Soldi

Temporarily obtaining cards

Fusion Summon

Main article: List of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Fusions

The Extra Deck does not exist in this game. Instead, Fusion Summons are performed during Duels by trying to Summon a monster from the hand on top of a monster on the field. The game features 2,159 fusions, resulting in 52 different monsters; often the same monster can be Summoned using a variety of Fusion Material, though eight of the monsters have only a single possible fusion.

All but one of the fusions in Duel Monsters use only monsters as material. The exception is #063: "Harpie Lady Sister", which is fused by equipping #062: "Harpie Lady" with #318: "Elegant Egotist". In the ROM, this fusion is handled as an effect, and is not stored with the monster-only fusions.

While the player does not receive a permanent copy of a monster Summoned by fusion, if a fused monster was not previously encountered, an entry for it is added.

Evolution

#278 "Petit Moth" and its stages evolve into other cards after being on the field for one turn, in the order shown below. Permanent copies of the evolutions are not added to the player's trunk, though if the player has not previously encountered one of the evolutions, an entry for it is added, similar to fused monsters.

#278 "Petit Moth" → #056: "Larvae Moth" → #072: "Cocoon of Evolutio" → #057: "Great Moth" → #067: "Perfectly Ultimate"

Only one copy of "Petit Moth" can be acquired per game, by defeating Weevil Underwood one hundred times (it can also be traded back from later games). Permanent copies of its evolutions can only be acquired by Communication Fusion.

Having only 300 ATK and 200 DEF, and with AI opponents attacking when they have a stronger monster, it is usually difficult to keep "Petit Moth" on the field for a turn; there are only thirteen monsters in the game with a base ATK of 300 or less. "Petit Moth" can be protected in a few different ways:

• Tristan Taylor does not have any monsters with more than 300 ATK and does not go out of his way to fuse cards, so will not attack an Attack Position "Petit Moth".
• "Petit Moth" is strengthened by all Field Magic Cards in the game. By default, this would only increase its stats to 390 ATK and 260 DEF, which would not be enough to protect it from any additional monsters (the base ATK values featured in the game jump directly from 200 to 300, and from 300 to 400). However, "Petit Moth" is a special case: instead of its stats being increased by 30%, they are increased to 750 ATK and 450 DEF, except for when #330: "Forest" is active, which instead increases its stats to 975 ATK and 585 DEF. These boosts are enough to protect it against dozens of additional monsters (over a hundred in the case of "Forest").
• #349: "Spellbinding Circl" reduces the targeted monster's level by 1; using it on a monster with a level of 0 reduces its level to -1, which reduces its ATK and DEF to 60% of their original values. This would require a separate copy of "Spellbinding Circl" for each of the opponent's monsters, as well as an extra turn for each monster to be debuffed. This would protect "Petit Moth" against any monsters with up to 500 ATK, and could be used in conjunction with a Field Magic Card increasing the ATK of "Petit Moth", to protect against additional monsters.
• #348: "Swords of Revealin" prevents the opponent from attacking for three turns.

The game's code allows certain Equip Cards to be used on "Petit Moth". However, since only a single card can be played per turn, and because "Petit Moth" is evolved into "Larvae Moth" as soon as its controller's next turn starts, it is not actually possible to equip any cards to "Petit Moth" before it evolves.

Rules

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters predates the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game and features its own rules for Duel Monsters, most of which are based on the manga Duel Monsters rules.

Deck construction

• A player's Deck must contain exactly 40 cards.
  • This is a hard cap: even when editing the Deck, only up to 40 cards can be used. Because of this, to change cards requires that a card first be removed from the Deck, before the new card can be added.
• A Deck can have up to 40 copies of the same card.

Duels

Setup

• Each player starts with 8000 LP and five cards in their hand.
• In campaign, the human player always goes first.

Playing cards

• Except for the first turn, the player draws one card at the beginning of their turn.
• A player may play one card per turn.
• A player can Summon a monster into one of the five available zones or activate a Magic Card.
• If a player attempts to Summon a monster into a zone occupied by another monster, the game will attempt to fuse the monsters. If the Fusion is valid, a new monster will be Summoned into the zone. If the Fusion is invalid, the second monster will replace the first.

Modifying ATK/DEF

#067: "Perfectly Ultimate" with an ATK of 1648, rather than 11648, due to the overflow glitch

• Certain Magic Cards will modify the ATK and DEF of a chosen monster by boosting or reducing its level: Equip Magic Cards will boost the monster's level by 1 each, to a maximum of 2 levels, while #349: "Spellbinding Circl" will reduce its level by 1. Each level increases a monster's ATK and DEF by 60%; #303: "Dark Energy" is the only card that specifies this increase.
  • "Spellbinding Circl" can reduce a monster's level to -1. In this case, its ATK and DEF are reduced to 60% of their original values; for example, #207: "Droll Bird", with original ATK and DEF of 600 and 500, has its ATK and DEF become 360 and 300.
  • Every monster is a valid target for at least one Equip Card. Nineteen monsters are valid targets for only one Equip Card.
• Field Magic Cards affect all monsters on the field of specified Types. A Field Card may either increase a monster's ATK and DEF by 30%, decrease them by 30%, or have no effect. There can only be one Field Card active at a time; if a Field Card is active, any further Field Cards attempted to be played will be destroyed. This increase/decrease does not count towards the number of levels.
  • There are several monsters which are affected, or unaffected, by certain Field Cards contrary to their Type, as well as several which receive additional boosts over the normal 30% or are otherwise modified:
    • #278: "Petit Moth", whose stats are changed from 300 ATK and 200 DEF to 750 ATK and 450 DEF, before gaining its 30% or 0% boost: it has 975 ATK and 585 DEF in #330: "Forest" and 750 ATK and 450 DEF in any other field, excluding the default field.
    • PaniK's monsters, whose stats are rounded to the nearest 100 after gaining their 30% boost.
    • #074: "Giant Rock Soldier", which is affected by #332: "Mountain", contrary to its Type.
    • #027: "Beaver Warrior" and #047: "Torike", which are not affected by "Forest", contrary to their Type.
    • There are no Field Cards which affect "Torike" or any Reptile monsters.
    • Fairy monsters (under #335: "Yami") and Machine and Pyro monsters (under #334: "Umi") only receive negative effects from Field Cards. These are the only monsters to receive negative effects.
    • Several monsters have 0 ATK or DEF; these values are unchanged by a Field Card even if it does affect the non-zero value.
  • Because of how they are implemented (as a set of hardcoded values), boosts from Field Cards are applied before level boosts, though this has no in-game effect.
• Due to a glitch, ATK and DEF values of over 9999 do not work correctly; the 10,000's digit is ignored. For example, #067: "Perfectly Ultimate", which has an original ATK of 3500, would have a boosted ATK of 11648 when boosted by a Field Card and two levels, but this glitch makes its functional ATK only 1648. This glitch can only affect the ATK values of "Perfectly Ultimate" and #217: "B. Skull Dragon", as no other original ATK and DEF values in the game are over 3000; a value of 3000 becomes 9984 after being boosted by a Field Card and two levels.

Battling

Battle screen showing #048: "Sangan" attacking #167: "Ancient Jar"

• Each turn, the player must decide if each of their monsters is going to attack or defend.
  • If "attack" is selected, the monster is put in Attack Position and must attack a monster on the opponent's side of the field. If there are none, it will attack the opponent directly. A monster cannot be left in Attack Position at the end of a turn, without declaring an attack, unless it is the first turn or another card is preventing it from attacking.
    • When a monster attacks a player directly, the monster's ATK is deducted from the LP of the attacked player.
    • When a monster attacks an Attack Position monster, the monster with lower ATK is destroyed and the difference is deducted from the LP of the controller of the destroyed monster. If both monsters have the same ATK, they are both destroyed.
    • When a monster attacks a Defense Position monster, if the attacking monster's ATK is higher than the defending monster's DEF, the defending monster is destroyed. If the attacking monster's ATK is equal to or lower than the DEF of the defending monster, the difference is deducted from the LP of the controller of the attacking monster, and neither monster is destroyed.
  • If "defend" is selected, the monster is put in Defense Position.
• The turn ends after the player has chosen an action for all of their monsters.

Winning

• When a player's LP are reduced to 0, the other player is the winner.
• If a player's hand is empty, the Duelist with the higher LP wins
• If a player has all five "Exodia" pieces in their hand, they win.

Development

Announcements

In Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 #26, released on May 25, production of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters was announced. The announcement featured screenshots of the game including the main menu, a Duel in progress, and the Puppeteer of Doom in the campaign mode. All three screens were changed significantly by the time the game was released. The feature also showed the in-game artworks of "B.eye White Dragon" and "Hitotsu-me Giant", and contained an invitation for people to submit designs for monsters to be included in Duel Monsters and Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule: Breed and Battle, which was being developed alongside it. The deadline for submissions was June 25, 1998. Applicants were asked to put their monster's name and picture on a postcard, and optionally its powers and stats, along with their name, address, phone number and age, and send the postcard to the Yu-Gi-Oh! Koku address. Copyright of the winning entries was to be taken over by the organizers.

Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 #28, released on June 8, contained the in-game artworks and some information on "Ryu-kishin" and "Feral Imp".

Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 #36, released on August 3, mentioned that players could play against and trade with friends using the Game Link Cable or play against characters appearing in the manga. It contained a screenshot of Weevil Underwood in campaign mode. The issue showcased four of the winners of the monster-design contest from issue #26; "Claw Reacher", "Hard Armor", "Turtle Tiger", and "Beast of Forest Destruction". However, "Beast of Forest Destruction" was not included in the final version of the game.

Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 #40, released on August 31, announced that the game would contain 350 cards. It contained artworks for a number of cards and showed a screenshot of Mai Valentine in campaign mode, using Super Gameboy colors.

Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 #42, released on September 14, announced that trial versions of the game would be playable at six stores in Japan on the weekend of September 26 and 27, 1998 and gave the address and phone number of each venue. It explained that attendees who answered a questionnaire would be presented with a "Seiyaryu" promotional card, "Seiyaryu" being a card Kazuki Takahashi designed for the game.

V Jump 1998 #11, released on September 21, contained a screenshot of a Duel in progress and an explanation of everything that was visible on screen and the rules for monster battles. It showcased four winning entrants from the monster-design contest; "Dark Shade", "Twin Long Rods #1", "Genin", "Doron", and "Larvas".

Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 #45, released on October 5, announced that the game would be released in December 1998. It contained a newer version of the main menu, different than the final version, but more closely resembling it than the one featured in the 1998 #26 issue. It also contained screenshots of the Deck edit screen, the Stage 1 opponents and the Stage 2 main screen. All screenshots used Super Gameboy colors.

Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 #47, released on October 19, contained the precise release date of the game; December 17, 1998. It announced that a national tournament would take place, the winners of which would receive in-game cards and metallic real-world versions of the cards. It showed "Zera the Mant" and "Black Luster Soldier" in the style of the "collector's cards" that existed before the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game. The issue contained information on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters bundled promotional cards and the game's Initial Deck.

Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 #48, released on October 26, contained information about the national tournament, including its schedule; qualifying rounds in mid-January 1999, second round of qualifiers in late January to early February, and finals in mid February. The first qualifying round took place at approximately 100 stores throughout Japan, with a rare card and qualification for the next second round awarded to winners. The second qualifying round was to take place at twelve locations, with a rare card and qualification for the finals awarded to winners. The final was to take place at Tokyo between 16 regional winners, with "Fiend's Mirror" awarded to the top four, "Super War-lion" to the top three, "Zera The Mant" to the top two and "Black Luster Soldi" and the ten Duel Monsters bundled promotional cards awarded to the winner.

Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 #50, released November 9, published information on the first two stages of the game's campaign mode. It also included details of the trials that had been announced in the 1998 #42 issue. 2000 people attended; 600 got to play while the others were allowed to watch on a screen.

Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 #52, released November 21, contained information on a visit Kazuki Takahashi made to the building where the game was developed.

Prototypes

An earlier version of the game featured a different graphic for the main menu. It did not include the copyright text, had a different font for the text Duel Monsters (デュエルモンスターズ), a different picture of Yami Yugi, and different text for the menu options:

• VS CPU (対　ＣＰＵ Tai Shī Pī Yū) instead of "Campaign" (キャンペーン Kyanpēn)
• VS MAN (対　ＭＡＮ Tai Man) instead of "Versus" (たいせん Taisen)
• Trade (こうかん Kōkan) instead of "Trade" (トレード Torēdo)
• Collection (コレクション Korekushon) instead of "Records" (せいせき Seiseki)

• 

  Main menu in Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 #26

• 

  Main menu in Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 #45

• 

  Final version of the main menu

An earlier version of the Puppeteer of Doom featured the Kaiba puppet more prominently with only a silhouette of the Puppeteer visible behind it.

• 

  Puppeteer in Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 #26

• 

  Puppeteer in the final version

Card-design contest

Fans were able to submit ideas for cards to be included in the game. Four of the winners were published in the 1998 #36 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump (WSJ). Another five were published in the 1998 #11 issue of V Jump (VJ). However one of the nine, "Beast of Forest Destruction" was not included in the final version of the game.

#	Card	Designer	Original artwork	Game artwork	Winner announced
155	"Larvas"	Atsushi Nakao (中尾篤志)			VJ 1998 #11
156	"Hard Armor"	Kiichi Hayashi (林 貴一)			WSJ 1998 #36
178	"Claw Reacher"	Hidekazu Ozaki (尾崎秀和)			WSJ 1998 #36
181	"Dark Shade"	Junko Kubo (久保淳子)			VJ 1998 #11
184	"Genin"	Manabu Iwasaka (岩坂学)			VJ 1998 #11
193	"Turtle Tiger"	Masahiro Yamamoto (山本将弘)			WSJ 1998 #36
195	"Doron"	Takeshi Fujii (藤井武志)			VJ 1998 #11
206	"Twin Long Rods #1"	Yasushi Ibusuki (指宿泰志)			VJ 1998 #11
n/a	"Beast of Forest Destruction"	Kentaro Miyamoto (宮本健太朗)			WSJ 1998 #36

Glitches

• ATK and DEF values over 9999 do not work correctly.
• When played on a PAL Super Game Boy, if the player attempts to access the versus or trade screens, Tea Gardner will not appear, though the player is still unable to complete the action.

Promotional cards

Main articles: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters promotional cards, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters trial session promotional card, and Akamaru Jump raffle card

Each copy of Duel Monsters came with three collector's cards, randomly selected from the following ten:

• "Black Skull Dragon"
• "Castle of Dark Illusions"
• "Dark Magician"
• "Hitotsu-Me Giant"
• "Mirror Force"
• "Monster Reborn"
• "Red-Eyes Black Dragon"
• "Ryu-Kishin"
• "Summoned Skull"
• "Swords of Revealing Light"

Another collector's card, "Seiyaryu", was given out at trial session for this game. Five copies of that card were also used as prizes in an Akamaru Jump raffle.

Game guides

Main articles: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Perfect Master BOOK and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Perfect Master BOOK Volume 2

Two game guides for Duel Monsters were published in Japan by Shueisha: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Perfect Master BOOK, published on December 21, 1998, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Perfect Master BOOK Volume 2, published in January 1999. Neither guide included any bundled promotional cards.

Manga scenes used

The following scenes from the manga were used to create graphics for this game.

Stage 1: Ship (Duel 64)

Stage 1 opponents' backdrop: Common room (Duel 64)

Yugi Muto (Duel 80)

Joey Wheeler (Duel 79)

Stage 2: Duelist Kingdom (Duel 65)

Weevil Underwood (Duel 65)

Mai Valentine (Duel 77)

Rex Raptor (Duel 79)

Mako Tsunami (Duel 71)

Mokuba Kaiba (Duel 74)

Puppeteer of Doom (Duel 74)

PaniK (Duel 80)

Bandit Keith (Duel 92)

Gallery

• 

  Cover

• 

  Back cover

• 

  Duel Monsters as it appears when played on a Super Game Boy

Reception

Duel Monsters sold 1.6 million copies, making it the 34th-best-selling Game Boy/Game Boy Color title of all time.

External links

• The Cutting Room Floor page
• Data Crystal page
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters on The Spriters Resource
• Retro Achievements page
• English fan translation project