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Nintendo - Zelda Bonus Disc Hands-On, 2004 Releases Trailed
Thanks to Game Informer for their hands-on impressions of Legend Of Zelda: Collector's Edition, as the GameCube bundle/bonus compilation approaches release. The article describes "The first two old-school games [The Legend Of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link] look just as they did when they released way back in the day", and shows comparison screenshots for the N64 titles [The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask], for which "...the graphics are now in high-res." Elsewhere, 1UP has news on Nintendo release dates for 2004, as "The four-player GameCube Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is still on track for February 9", and "will share that ... release date with Metroid: Zero Mission for Game Boy Advance... [which] expands on the original 8-bit Metroid adventure with revised levels, new story elements, and other added features."
From the GameInformer link: The first two old-school games look just as they did when they released way back in the day. We did notice some slowdown, though, particularly when a large group of enemies are on-screen or if there are a lot of projectiles floating around.
This slowdown was there on the original NES too, and in every emulator I've used. An easy was to see it is to go to the graveyard in Zelda 1 and release as many ghosts as you can.
The flickering was due to a hardware limitation of the NES - you could only have a certain number of sprites per scanline. If too many characters were at the same vertical position on the screen, they couldn't be drawn simultaneously, so they'd flicker. This was really bad in Bubble Bobble. Many emulators don't enforce the sprite limit, preventing the flickering.
They're currently selling Link to the Past for the GBA. Giving it away free as a bonus might not be in their best interest.
I still don't understand why they're not selling the bonus disc. I don't want another GameCube, don't want any two of the games that are required to get the bonus offer, and don't want Nintendo Power.
Why not LET me pay $25, which is more than Nintendo Power without the cost of actually sending me the magazine I don't want. Nintendo Power used to be the only good source for Nintendo info, but with dozens of websites out there it's useless. I don't want it.
Couldn't Nintendo make MORE money this way?
-Trillian