My Elementary School Son Is Obsessed with Minecraft… and We Tried a Dragon Quest Mod
Disclaimer: This is one of popular post in the Japanese site of this blog, that's been recently translated. (Japanese version is available here.) Some information and version may be well dated by now but translating and sharing here as the original post from 2017 seem to have been very useful.
My elementary school-aged son is completely hooked on Minecraft, and I previously wrote about how he started doing YouTube-style gameplay commentary using Minecraft on PC.
He’s still playing Minecraft regularly, as always.
But recently, after watching some gameplay videos on YouTube, he came to me and said, “I want to try the Dragon Quest mod.”
Huh? What’s a “mod” anyway? That was me at first.
I managed to figure things out by digging through information online, but there were a few parts that I couldn’t solve with internet information alone—so I’m leaving some notes here in case it helps someone else.
The Dragon Quest Mod for Minecraft
With Minecraft on PC, you can download files called “mods” from the internet. By installing them, you can play worlds and experiences that don’t exist in vanilla Minecraft. The one my son got obsessed with is a Dragon Quest mod—basically, it turns Minecraft into a world that feels like it’s set in the Dragon Quest universe. It seems to be made by an individual, but the level of quality is amazing.
In regular Minecraft, there aren’t that many enemy variations, and gameplay tends to focus on building and exploration. But with the Dragon Quest mod, huge numbers of monsters appear that resemble the Dragon Quest world. So even just fighting monsters can be a big challenge! The difficulty of defeating monsters is also high, and you can go on adventures in places like dungeons—so you can enjoy a long, slow adventure over many hours of play.
The Dragon Quest mod is free to download, and as long as you can install it yourself, you can enjoy Minecraft even more without spending extra money—so I highly recommend it.
What You Need to Install the Dragon Quest Mod
The official website explains the installation process and details about the mod very thoroughly, so please refer to that for the main steps.
First, there are several files you need to download:
The main Dragon Quest mod file
Prerequisite files required by the Dragon Quest mod
A file called Forge 1.5
A Forge Lib file
If you follow the guide on the official installation page, you should be able to proceed without too much trouble.That said, the steps may differ depending on your Minecraft version.
We installed the mod quite recently—in October 2017. Our Minecraft version was the Java edition, version 1.12.2. It’s the newer version of Minecraft that starts from what’s called the “new launcher.”
Editing the .json File (Using the Official Guide)
I was following the official installation page step by step, but I ran into a problem at step 7—the part involving the .json file. The example .json file shown on the official page didn’t match the contents of my own .json file, and I couldn’t figure out exactly which parts I needed to rewrite.
My guess is that while the mod itself keeps being improved, the Minecraft game also keeps getting updated and changing versions. This .json file seems to play an important role when Minecraft launches. And if you fail to edit it correctly, the game won’t start properly at all.
We failed the first time editing the .json file, and we got an error where the modded Minecraft wouldn’t launch. So, while still using the official page as a reference, I carefully looked through the .json file and did a slow, methodical process:
Find something that seems like it should be removed (based on the reference pages)
Edit and save the file a little at a time
If an error happened, undo that part
If it seemed okay, delete that section…
Basically, a tedious trial-and-error process. When the required changes were obvious, it was fine. But around those areas, it was hard to tell which information was unnecessary. It turned into a staring contest with the .json file—trying things and forcing my way through by testing.
My husband and I each tried installing the mod on our own computers, and we both struggled at the same point. In the end, it seems the .json file I edited was the one that worked, because we were able to reach the next step (launching the Forge version of Minecraft).
I emailed my edited .json file to my husband, and he placed it in the correct folder on his computer. After that, he was able to install the mod successfully as well. (For the record, we each purchased Minecraft separately, and we were using the same version.)
Since it might help someone else, I’ll include the dqm3.json file that is currently working for me with the Dragon Quest mod. (It’s named “dqm3,” but the mod is actually DQMIV.)
I opened the file in Notepad and made changes, then copied and pasted it below. I highlighted parts that seemed important in the official guide in yellow. There’s a lot of messy content in the middle, but I think the main changes were at the beginning around the “id” section and near the later sections.
I hope it helps someone who is struggling to install the Dragon Quest mod.
**From here**
{"assetIndex":{"id":"legacy","sha1":"c0f…729","size":134284,"totalSize":111220701,"url":"https://launchermeta.mojang.com/mc/assets/legacy/c0fd82e8ce9fbc93119e40d96d5a4e62cfa3f729/legacy.json"},"id":"dqm3","libraries":[{"downloads":{"artifact":{"path":"net/minecraft/launchwrapper/1.5/launchwrapper-1.5.jar","sha1":"5150b9c2951f0fde987ce9c33496e26add1de224","size":27787,"url":"https://libraries.minecraft.net/net/minecraft/launchwrapper/1.5/launchwrapper-1.5.jar"}},"name":"net.minecraft:launchwrapper:1.5"},{"downloads":{"artifact":{"path":"net/sf/jopt-simple/jopt-simple/4.5/jopt-simple-4.5.jar","sha1":"6065cc95c661255349c1d0756657be17c29a4fd3","size":61311,"url":"https://libraries.minecraft.net/net/sf/jopt-simple/jopt-simple/4.5/jopt-simple-4.5.jar"}},"name":"net.sf.jopt-simple:jopt-simple:4.5"},{"downloads":{"artifact":{"path":"org/ow2/asm/asm-all/4.1/asm-all-4.1.jar","sha1":"054986e962b88d8660ae4566475658469595ef58","size":214592,"url":"https://libraries.minecraft.net/org/ow2/asm/asm-all/4.1/asm-all-4.1.jar"}},"name":"org.ow2.asm:asm-all:4.1"},{"downloads":{"artifact":{"path":"net/java/jinput/jinput/2.0.5/jinput-2.0.5.jar","sha1":"39c7796b469a600f72380316f6b1f11db6c2c7c4","size":208338,"url":"https://libraries.minecraft.net/net/java/jinput/jinput/2.0.5/jinput-2.0.5.jar"}},"name":"net.java.jinput:jinput:2.0.5"},{"downloads":{"artifact":{"path":"net/java/jutils/jutils/1.0.0/jutils-1.0.0.jar","sha1":"e12fe1fda814bd348c1579329c86943d2cd3c6a6","size":7508,"url":"https://libraries.minecraft.net/net/java/jutils/jutils/1.0.0/jutils-1.0.0.jar"}},"name":"net.java.jutils:jutils:1.0.0"},{"downloads":{"artifact":{"path":"org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl/2.9.0/lwjgl-2.9.0.jar","sha1":"5654d06e61a1bba7ae1e7f5233e1106be64c91cd","size":994633,"url":"https://libraries.minecraft.net/org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl/2.9.0/lwjgl-2.9.0.jar"}},"name":"org.lwjgl.lwjgl:lwjgl:2.9.0","rules":[{"action":"allow"},{"action":"disallow","os":{"name":"osx","version":"^10\\.5\\.\\d$"}}]},{"downloads":{"artifact":{"path":"org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl_util/2.9.0/lwjgl_util-2.9.0.jar","sha1":"a778846b64008fc7f48ead2377f034e547991699","size":173360,"url":"https://libraries.minecraft.net/org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl_util/2.9.0/lwjgl_util-2.9.0.jar"}},"name":"org.lwjgl.lwjgl:lwjgl_util:2.9.0","rules":[{"action":"allow"},{"action":"disallow","os":{"name":"osx","version":"^10\\.5\\.\\d$"}}]},{"downloads":{"classifiers":{"natives-linux":{"path":"org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl-platform/2.9.0/lwjgl-platform-2.9.0-natives-linux.jar","sha1":"2ba5dcb11048147f1a74eff2deb192c001321f77","size":569061,"url":"https://libraries.minecraft.net/org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl-platform/2.9.0/lwjgl-platform-2.9.0-natives-linux.jar"},"natives-osx":{"path":"org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl-platform/2.9.0/lwjgl-platform-2.9.0-natives-osx.jar","sha1":"6621b382cb14cc409b041d8d72829156a87c31aa","size":518924,"url":"https://libraries.minecraft.net/org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl-platform/2.9.0/lwjgl-platform-2.9.0-natives-osx.jar"},"natives-windows":{"path":"org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl-platform/2.9.0/lwjgl-platform-2.9.0-natives-windows.jar","sha1":"3f11873dc8e84c854ec7c5a8fd2e869f8aaef764","size":609967,"url":"https://libraries.minecraft.net/org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl-platform/2.9.0/lwjgl-platform-2.9.0-natives-windows.jar"}}},"extract":{"exclude":["META-INF/"]},"name":"org.lwjgl.lwjgl:lwjgl-platform:2.9.0","natives":{"linux":"natives-linux","osx":"natives-osx","windows":"natives-windows"},"rules":[{"action":"allow"},{"action":"disallow","os":{"name":"osx","version":"^10\\.5\\.\\d$"}}]},{"downloads":{"artifact":{"path":"org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl/2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3/lwjgl-2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3.jar","sha1":"884511652c756fac16b37236f863f346bd1ea121","size":996625,"url":"https://libraries.minecraft.net/org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl/2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3/lwjgl-2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3.jar"}},"name":"org.lwjgl.lwjgl:lwjgl:2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3","rules":[{"action":"allow","os":{"name":"osx","version":"^10\\.5\\.\\d$"}}]},{"downloads":{"artifact":{"path":"org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl_util/2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3/lwjgl_util-2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3.jar","sha1":"fb693ba4e22a85432a32e8a048893dc7a92f42ac","size":173338,"url":"https://libraries.minecraft.net/org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl_util/2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3/lwjgl_util-2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3.jar"}},"name":"org.lwjgl.lwjgl:lwjgl_util:2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3","rules":[{"action":"allow","os":{"name":"osx","version":"^10\\.5\\.\\d$"}}]},{"downloads":{"classifiers":{"natives-osx":{"path":"org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl-platform/2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3/lwjgl-platform-2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3-natives-osx.jar","sha1":"a9b83ad85742cad09c3574a91b0423bac3f7a0f5","size":458181,"url":"https://libraries.minecraft.net/org/lwjgl/lwjgl/lwjgl-platform/2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3/lwjgl-platform-2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3-natives-osx.jar"}}},"extract":{"exclude":["META-INF/"]},"name":"org.lwjgl.lwjgl:lwjgl-platform:2.9.1-nightly-20130708-debug3","natives":{"linux":"natives-linux","osx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**To here**
Dragon Quest DQMIV Mod Installed Successfully!
After that, copying the DQM files went smoothly, and we were able to play using the Dragon Quest mod! Because we spent almost the whole day on Sunday struggling with the installation, it was genuinely moving when the mod finally launched.
But… the Dragon Quest mod is pretty heavy (it can be demanding on the computer). And it’s hard. The monsters are strong. My son was absolutely thrilled. He played the Dragon Quest mod on my computer, and he and my husband went on adventures together in the Dragon Quest world in multiplayer mode.
During installation, we also used the following websites as references:
A common installation issue seems to be that if the Forge version doesn’t match properly, it won’t work. It sounds like if it isn’t something like the “1.5.2…” version, you can’t use it with Minecraft 1.5.2—so you need to be careful when downloading the Forge file.
I also saw information saying that if your Java version is too new, it won’t work—but I personally didn’t reinstall an older Java version. The Java installed on our computer should be the latest version… I think.
That’s the story of our fun Dragon Quest mod installation…
It’s a really content-rich mod, and to properly enjoy it, you might need to use strategy and guide sites as well. My son is having a great time, and for our generation, Dragon Quest brings back so much nostalgia… (like, “Wow, I used to play this!”)
By the way, my son is now asking Santa for his own computer as a Christmas present. Since he’s been using the PC more for games and YouTube, I think he sees it as an extension of a game console. He’s only eight and still believes in Santa… and yet he’s asking for a computer. Cheeky…!
*Disclaimer: This is one of popular post in the Japanese site of this blog, that's been recently translated. (Japanese version is available here.) Some information and version may be well dated by now but translating and sharing here as the original post from 2017 seem to have been very useful.
