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Rewriting The Past With Zelda
The Hegemon writes: "Someone hacked the rom for the original Zelda on NES. He created an entirely new game called Zelda Outlands or ZeldaC. You can see it at this site. I am sure most of us remember how great the original was. I think it would be interesting to play it over in an entirely different way." Now I need to download and play with this, but projects like this are tres cool, I think. Taking a legacy piece of technology and creating something new with it, in a framework that's familar to people.
- That forbidden forest was too scary. Please change it to a forbidden HAPPY forest with some little furry animals running around.
- Along with the forest, all that right right right, left left left stuff has to go. Please change it to up up down down left right left right. Got to keep it in line with other games. Thanks.
- Give Link a spunky side kick that helps him fight crime. Pref a girl, but whatever you think is right. Heck, make it an animal and give it two tails. Worked for other games....
- Give it that open source appeal. Make the old man look like Linus, the bosses look like goons from Apple, Oracle and Microsoft, and then the final boss have the heads of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison.
- Finally, give link a dart gun and the ability to look around corners. That way, Link would only 'stun' his enemies. With all those Dodongos and Octoroks running around, it would be like a great espionage game with Link as some spy type.
I don't think this stuff is too much to ask. Please get on this right away.Bryan R.
Bryan R.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, or $12.50 as seen on eBay.....
My brothers and I played the original Zelda to death. One thing we loved was the flexibility - you could skip certain items or visit the dungeons out of order to grab special weapons, and that allowed you to play the game in a somewhat different order or fashion than the designer intended.
:-), here's one from the annals of Classic Games: "beat" Zelda (that is, get to the last room with Ganon) without ever picking up a sword.
At one point we decided to see if we could play through the game without getting the final sword. Turns out you can, the enemies just take 2X hits. Harder, but not impossible. Then we decided to see if we could do it without the intermediate sword either. Again, you can, but everything takes 4X hits.
However, at some point it occurred to me that maybe, you could play through the game without any sword *at all*. It seemed impossible, since the first thing you do on the first screen of the game is pick up the first (wooden) sword. Also, you start with no other items, weapons or money. However, there are certain places where you can find coins, and certain items you can buy to get started...
In short, it turns out you *can* play through the entire game, in *both* quests, without ever getting a sword at all. It requires quite a bit of creativity and figuring out alternate weapons to use against different monsters, but in every instance it is possible to find an alternate way to pass each game obstacle. The only thing you can't do is defeat Ganon at the end of the game, as that really does require a sword (though any sword, so even the initial wooden sword works there). But you can go through the entire game, right up to the last room, without any sword at all.
I was impressed that there was so much flexibility built into the game - in most games, creature X can only be defeated by weapon Y, there's only one path to each item, one possible order you can do things in, etc. Zelda, in contrast, was *very* well designed to allow alternate solutions to just about everything, right up to the extreme of never using a primary weapon at all.
So if anyone is in search of a challenge (i.e. buggered bored
There's nothing worse than looking forward to a game, beating it, and then...it's over. Talk about your replay value. I wish they would incorporate this idea into more of today's adventure/RPG video games. They did it then...why not now?
A game came out for the PS2 recently called Shadow of Destiny and I think one of the major things they were aiming for in the game was replayability. The game centers around time travel and they wanted you to go back and play again and again to see how the different choices you make affect everything.
Very good game, I highly recommend it. It's one of the main reasons I got a PS2 in the first place.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
I love the fact that the download is a patch to the rom cart, not the whole thing, so that should at least delay the lawyer onslaught. Nintendo's lawyers are known for being amongst the most ruthless at taking out rom posters, and I wouldn't want to see stuff like this killed.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
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We have fought the AC's, and they have won.
Zelda was fun, but I doubt it could hold your interest now. No matter how fond your memories of the old games are, playing them now reveals them to be shallow and tedious.
Interestingly, these same qualities make a few of the old games BETTER than you remeber. Fire up MAME and Robotron, focus on the center of the screen and start counting Brain Waves.
Here is the mirror for it, courtesy of google. Click here for zelda mirror
I think the two (RPG) games I've found with the best replay value are Chrono Trigger (SNES, find a ROM, it's all over I'm sure) and Chrono Cross (PSX).
Chrono Trigger was probably, barring Final Fantasy 4 (2 in the US) the best RPG for the SNES, hell, it might even be better. Wicked plot, great character development, and all-around FUN gameplay. The premise is basically that you need to travel through time in order to stop an immense destructive force that will (in the future) completely obliterate life as we know it on the planet. The time-travel is well done (unlike in Zelda: Ocarina), in that things you do in the past tend to have a reasonable impact on the future. For instance, if you get a treasure in 600 A.D. you cannot get it in 1000 A.D. even if it would be available, however you can get it in 1000 A.D. *and* 600 A.D. To top it off, the game has over 20 endings to find. Once you beat it normally (which can be done in one of a few ways), you get to play in what is called a 'New Game+'. This is exactly like starting a new game, except you keep all of your items and equipment (except for key items needed to move the plot along), and you keep all your stats at the end of the last game. Plus, you get to fight the final boss effectively whenever you want, and by doing so at different points during the story, you get new endings (whcih reflect the situation of the story at the time). It's a LOT of fun to tear through the beginning of the game with high-level guys too.
Chrono Cross is a lot like Chrono Trigger, except you move around between dimensions instead of between time. It has a 'New Game+' and multiple endings as well. Not only that, it features 44 characters, lots of side-quests, and a branching storyline. You need to play through the game at least three times to get all the characters, and to go through the different branches.
If you haven't played the Chrono series, and you're looking for good replay, give them a go. I *STRONGLY* recommend playing Chrono Trigger first, since Chrono Cross has lots of references to it, and is much more enjoyable for having played CT.
-wd
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chip norkus(rl); white_dragon('net'); wd@routing.org
mercenary albino programmer for hire
"question = (to) ? be : !be;" --Shakespeare
The thing I think I enjoyed most about the original Zelda, was the fact that once you beat the game, the ENTIRE game started again. All items, secrets, EVERYTHING was in a different place. Talk about a surprise. Sleepless for a week to beat the game, then sleepless for another week to beat it again - just to see if there was anything else. Cudos to Nintendo.
There's nothing worse than looking forward to a game, beating it, and then...it's over. Talk about your replay value. I wish they would incorporate this idea into more of today's adventure/RPG video games. They did it then...why not now?
A version of the old Zelda has already been made for the PC. It features the original quest, and the original quest with a different graphic style. It even includes an editor to create your own quests! The site has many quests that were designed and uploaded using this. The port also has additional features added to the Zelda game. Go and check it out now at www.classicgaming.com/zeldaclassic, and I'm sure you can d/l it on FilePlanet (www.fileplanet.com). It is, I feel, a superior version that is actually made for PC!
(AP) - Nintendo of America announced today that due to incredibly low sales of their 1986 hit 'Zelda', they are over 65 billion Yen in debt, and are declaring Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.
'All these ROM downloads have taken away literally thousands of sales per day', said an anonymous Nintendo spokesman. When asked how Nintendo could possibly lose sales on an item that hasn't been in production for nearly a decade, the spokesman refused comment.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Anybody who's ever looked at Zophar's Domain (here) in the past two or three years or so knows that there are lots of re-writes and edits of old NES games, from Metroid to Super Mario.
Now all we need is for someone to hack the N64 version to add characters from "Conker's Bay Fur Day" to "Zelda:Ocarina of Time"...
Does the Hookshot work on the "Mighty Poo"?
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