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[Rich!]

So, I just stumbled upon this today. It's a full fledged redesign of Zelda 1 that completely transforms the game. The hack is fully complete and includes a full set of dungeons. It can be played to the end with no glitches or crashes. So far from what I have played, it has the following:

• - Completely new world AND a Dark World.
• - Complete graphical overhaul, visually similar to Link's Awakening DX
• - Completely new music using the Capcom 6C80 Sound Engine, with DPCM usage (CV3)
• - New enemies and bosses.
• - Completely new weapons including the hookshot, flippers, rocs feather, etc. All work as intended.
• - Magic Meter
• - Increased inventory (three items accessible at any one time, use select to switch)
• - World Map
  and much more

It's so far damn good and damn impressive for the NES. I took a quick video of me attempting to find the first dungeon, straight after the start - which shows a few of the new features as well as how shit I am at Zelda 1:

http://youtu.be/10vrWMTduRE

Here's the link to the thread regarding it:

http://acmlm.kafuka.org/board/thread.php?id=7308

And here's the info:

Will this work on...?
This game will NOT work on the N8 Everdrive, or PowerPak's. The N8 Everdrive uses 512kb PRG & CHR-ROM. I contacted the creator, but he wasn't interested in creating a revision to his product. PowerPak's are in the same boat. Loopy's MMC5 patch works on MMC5 games, but, my work is too large for it to handle.

The game has been tested on the following emulators
FCEUX PC - Latest Build http://sourceforge.net/projects/fceultra/files/Binaries/2.2.2/fceux-2.2.2-win32.zip/download
Nestopia PC - Latest Build http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/nestopia/Nestopia140bin.zip?download
Nintendulator PC v0.975 Unofficial Release - Latest Build http://www.qmtpro.com/~nes/nintendulator/nintendulator_bin_ansi.zip
Nintendulator PC v0.970 Official Release - Latest Build http://www.qmtpro.com/~nes/nintendulator/nintendulator0970bin_ansi.zip
nesDS Special Build http://www.mediafire.com/download/y65cr1y3pu4xcx6/nesds1.3a_(1).zip
Retroarch Using Nestopia Core Wii/WiiU - Latest Build http://www.libretro.com/wp-content/...-content/releases/Wii/.cip4-download-info.csv

Note on Retroarch on the WiiU. You will need to launch Retroarch from within a usb loader, such as Wiiflow or USB Loader GX, for Retroarch to load properly. There is a bug/glitch within the Homebrew Channel, that causes the emulator to load all of it's configuration files incorrectly, and you will not be able to save in any way shape or form. So just be careful.

There is a fast way to learn if my rom will play perfectly on an emulator you use. Watch the intro after the title screen fades away. I have a golden scroll moving up the screen. If that scroll & text comes up garbage, then you should stop playing unfortunately. This is because the emulator you are using, is not utilizing the MMC5 register $5130 correctly. I perform chr swaps for 3 specific things, the intro, a mini game, and the Ganon fight. If you continue to play the game with the garbaged gfx, it will obviously look bad, and it might even crash.

The link to the patch is at the top of that thread. Apply it to A PRG0 Version of The Legend of Zelda NES ROM using Lunar IPS. If your ROM is not the PRG0 version (it'll state in the filename) then the game will crash if you try to enter your house or use a weapon.

So yeah, thoughts?

 

[sixteen-bit]

Interesting GBC-style sprite work

 

[FreedomFighter]

I'd buy it.

I like the music. A lot of more recent tunes have been chiptuned.

 

[Rich!]

Some screenshots:

 

[Night_Trekker]

I don't understand why the hacker didn't just use all the Link's Awakening artwork. The "improvements" aren't that great.

But yes, this is extremely impressive.

 

[The Cool One]

This looks awesome

 

[spindashing]

Not bad at all, hot damn.

 

[Funkyhamster]

So I'm a little confused by all the talk of which emulators this hack is and is not compatible with... If you stuck the ROM on a cartridge, would this hack be able to run on the NES hardware? Or does it take advantage of capabilities that aren't in the original NES specs?

 

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

Whoa thats cool

 

[Volotaire]

Wow, that's impressive.

 

[brainpann]

Looks cool but too bad it doesnt seem to work on real hardware. At least not via Powerpak or N8.

 

[Rich!]

So I'm a little confused by all the talk of which emulators this hack is and is not compatible with... If you stuck the ROM on a cartridge, would this hack be able to run on the NES hardware? Or does it take advantage of capabilities that aren't in the original NES specs?

It uses a custom mapper (MMC5 upgraded). If someone builds that mapper chip to spec then it'll play on real hardware. That'll likely happen at some point.

 

[BassForever]

There are so many impressive hacks of zelda thanks to the modding tools for ZC its not that impressive to see magic meter and more items/better graphics in a zelda 1 mod. If he did it all from scratch without ZC that's more impressive but seems like a lot of extra work.

 

[Rich!]

There are so many impressive hacks of zelda thanks to the modding tools for ZC its not that impressive to see magic meter and more items/better graphics in a zelda 1 mod. If he did it all from scratch without ZC that's more impressive but seems like a lot of extra work.

sigh

this has nothing to do with Zelda Classic which is a fanmade clone of Zelda 1 for Windows.

This is someone who took the original NES game, disassembled it, hacked it and edited it. It is native NES code edited in pure assembley. It's a significantly more impressive feat than anything anyone has ever done on Zelda Classic - it's not even comparable.

 

[Funkyhamster]

It uses a custom mapper (MMC5 upgraded). If someone builds that mapper chip to spec then it'll play on real hardware. That'll likely happen at some point.

Oh cool. Now I see why this hack is so impressive.

 

[Miguel81]

A Zelda game that looks like this released in '87 or '88 for the NES would have blown minds. It's a great feat, and props have to be given.

 

[Fuz]

Wow, that's impressive.

\|

Yep.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

Hmm. Intresting that someone would go through all this work, and then reuse quite a lot of maps tile for tile from Links awakening/oracle games.

Still impressive though!

 

[HolyBaikal]

When I saw the title, I thought it might have been about Zelda. That's a little disappointing.

But that's still really neat looking, though. I don't know about coding, but that must have been really difficult considering how limited the NES is.

 

[MAtgS]

Why is this a rom hack & not made in Zelda Classic? Would've been easier to download & run that way.

 

[Lupin the Third]

Why is this a rom hack & not made in Zelda Classic? Would've been easier to download & run that way.

Same reason I didn't give two poops about that "Game Boy" Smash Bros. port from a while ago: it's not actually for the Game Boy, it just looks like it. Not exactly an impressive feat!

A ROM hack that totally overhauls the most popular NES Action-RPG made? Actually impressive. Worth noticing.

 

[Rolodzeo]

Pretty impressive but it seems it's basically a port of Link's Awakening.

 

[mgs2master2]

I would like to to know what is the aim of the story in this mod.

 

[Aeana]

Pretty impressive but it seems it's basically a port of Link's Awakening.

...In the same way that Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons are ports of Link's Awakening? Because it seems like other than graphical style, this is a totally new game.

 

[RazorbackDB]

but would it run on a real NES?, it's impressive but if not i don't see the point of hacking zelda 1.

 

[PumpkinSpice]

Neat, but the slowdown seems pretty bad. With the graphics ripped right from it this seems like it would have been been better as a mod of Link's Awakening DX.

 

[Mango The Magician]

That's cool, but I don't understand the title.

 

[deltatheta]

Not trying to diminish the skill that went in to this, but I think the main reason that it looks so impressive for an NES game is that it's more than twice as large as any commercially released game for the system.

 

[way more]

That color scheme is garish but it sounds neat.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

...In the same way that Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons are ports of Link's Awakening? Because it seems like other than graphical style, this is a totally new game.

Several of the maps shown in the video are incredibly similar to screens from Links awakening, which is I assume what they meant.

There's some definte deja vu going on with the video in original post:
The starting area at 0:35 is the outside of the first house in LA, and the map below is the same telephone both, bu with the phone icon replaced with a treasure chest (though some of the tile patterns have been changed in these two).

The map above the starting house is based on the cucco statue area one map up and left from the starting position in LA, apparently with the trees (and corresponding gap!) brought over from the map on the right.

The map to the right is Madam Meow Meows house, but flipped (Even down to the grass pattern) and with a 1 tile path added behind the tree on the left, and the dogs house door removed.

The map below that is Mr Telephone guys house, but flipped in the same way madam Meow Meows house was, with some changes in tree positioning.

The path down from there is again almost carbon copies of Links awakenings maps from the similar walk to the beach, but all flipped. IT might not be immediately noticable, because the screens are e slightly bigger than LAs maps with some different screens being included in one, and the trees having slightly different positions (I guess they had trouble with the overlapping tree sprites used in LA).
Intrestingly here, they can't seem to have gotten the *jump action* to work while changing screens, so they made one of the jumps a ladder instead.

The first beach map is literally identical to the first beach map you get to through that same path in LA, but flipped again. The next map left is identical to the first map right in LA, but with 2 extra rows of sand tiles between the wall and first tree for some reason, and missing the sign/spiny enemies.
The map below that is a exact (unflipped!) copy of the map where you pick the sword up in LA, but with different sea shell/wreckage positions/ no spiny enemies again.

The map to the right of that is a flipped version fo the bottom left map tile in LA, again with changed seashell positions.

The next new map shown is the banana crocodiles hut but flipped missing the outmost trees on each side for some reason. Comparing the two also explains those 2 otherwise completely random bushes: They were there between the trees in links awakening, but the mod has moved the top row of trees up, but left the buses for some reason.

The map to the left of that matches the map to the right of the banandiles hut, but they've remembered to add the extra bushes to this map, so that there is an unbroken line between the trees to make up for the extra space. (They didn't even bother moving seashells here, and the sand changes at the exact same position in LA).

The next map over, again, is incredibly similar to links awakening, down to the same positioning for the treasure chest.

The map below that is the same as the one you bring Marin to before taking her to animal village.

Spoiler

I need to find a better way to spend sunday evenings...

 

[jett]

That's really impressive looking for NES.

They clearly overdid it though, there's like a never-ending barrage of slowdown in every screen.

 

[FSLink]

That's cool, but I don't understand the title.

Yeah was expecting it to be a rom hack that stars Zelda and you save Link or something.

Still very impressive for the NES, but yes there seems to be quite a bit of slowdown.

 

[trephine]

bout to try it on my psp using nester rx1.12

 

[The Lamonster]

meh not crazy about the GB color look.

 

[Meesh]

Subscribing to play the hell outta this later

 

[Nintendojitsu]

This looks too cool to pass up.

 

[flux1]

I don't really like the colors used, but still this sounds amazing. Going to try it out tonight.

 

[Salty Hippo]

meh not crazy about the GB color look.

Me neither, I wish he had hacked ALTTP. But still impressive.

 

[Rich!]

Me neither, I wish he had hacked ALTTP. But still impressive.

LTTP is a fucking bitch to work with. Hyrule Magic (the editor for it) literally breaks the game, and every time you fix a bug, a million more pop up. The majority of my work with it was music editing (I worked on parallel worlds) and even that was a fucking nightmare.

I am personally working on a hack of Oracle of Ages, but it's been on ice for a while. Screenshots:

Oracle of Ages is easy to script too, due to a custom language that's been coded for it:

That code there runs in the room above. I've set it so that when you kill the two enemies, the bridge extends and plays the "solution found" sound.