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Classic Gaming with Zelda Homebrew

Posted by Zonk on from the i-am-a-prisoner-in-the-dungeon-of-the-castle dept.

Belgarath writes "Zelda Classic is a free homebrew clone of the original Legend of Zelda for the NES. Additionally, it allows people to create their own zelda quests and games using the handy editor (called z-quest) included in the software. Until now only windows versions have been available but there are beta test groups for the Linux and Apple platforms."

3 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Did this too...got a letter from a lawyer. by Tronster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I took on the Nehe Open Source Zelda project two years ago. We made much progress (portals from overworld to underworld, most all weapons implemented, etc...) and then we got a letter from Nintendo's lawyers about the graphics. We had lifted them from an emulator (screen shots and Photoshop-action) and so we needed to scrap them.

    The project could have continued but that took a significant amount of air out of my sails. I gave the code to a friend at the BaltoLUG who added SDL to it and made it work on Linux. This new project is still up but not being actively developed: Openlynks. Sadely, the level editor was made in Visual Basic 6 and so unlike the C++/OpenGL game engine, it hasn't been ported over.

    The remains of the project pages are here.

  2. Re:Why do we celebrate clones? by Temporal · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Irrelevant. Copying the graphics, tile layout, user interface, etc. by hand is still copying, and counts as copyright infringement. There is no clause in copyright law that says only machine-based copying is illegal. Try retyping a book letter-for-letter then selling your retype; you won't get very far.

  3. Differences between Classic and Original. by Pentomino · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I tried this back in college, when it was just for DOS. Fun stuff, though you can tell that some parts of the game are based on idealized memories.

    For example, we all knew that blue Tektites were more likely to drop 5-Rupee pieces than most characters, and blue Moblins were more likely to drop bombs. But in Zelda Classic, it seems they drop these respective treasures three or four times per screen. Makes it a little too easy, I think, but nobody to my knowledge has reverse-engineered the game to the point where we understand what the probabilities really are.

    But the one feature I love the most about Zelda Classic: you can switch B-button weapons without taking five seconds to scroll up to the selection screen. I love that. I wish the N64 ports had that.