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The original title that started the beloved Zelda franchise, "The Legend of Zelda" on the NES, has been the imprint to which almost all subsequent games in the franchise would follow suit, mostly those in 2D, but almost every title afterwards followed a similar structure to that of the original. The original NES title has been a beloved title for years, though some don't see themselves going back to it due to some of the hurdles found in it, like the sword stab, lack of direction, non-existent overworld map, secrets seemingly placed at random, etc., but it still is remember by many fondly.

This very game was the main focus for renowned romhacker, infidelity, which has worked before on porting NES titles as native SNES games, like porting Megaman 2 and Megaman 4 to the SNES before it, making "The Legend of Zelda" his 3rd game that he has successfully ported over from the 8-bit NES console into the 16-bit SNES. The porting process is quite the hurdle, as not only does the logic and coding of the game need to be reimplemented into the SNES (which uses 65816 assembly, compared to the NES' 6502), but the way in which graphics work would also need to be reworked to work with the hardware and technicalities of the SNES.

The process was quite a hefty one, and infidelity has been really active over at his Twitter account, showcasing the many aspects of the game in which he has encountered interesting things to tackle and resolve during the porting process, from getting the game to load the title screen graphics properly to start with, to then have the game load the music adequately, and then handle the game save/load, having the proper Link movement working, to then working on all of the game's mechanics, slowly but steady, to reach the point of a stable release. Not only that, but infidelity has also worked on getting MSU-1 support working for the game (for those unaware, MSU-1 allows a SNES game to have CD-quality audio tracks).

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The amount of work put into the porting process is nothing short of a technical wonder, from beginning to end, and the game has also been tested to work on real hardware, so those with flashcarts can find the ROM and try it out on their own SNES systems! Those wanting to try it out might have to search around for the ROM online, but it shouldn't be hard to find. It hasn't been confirmed yet if infidelity will work on Quality of Life features for his port or not, hopefully something similar to what The Legend of Zelda Redux romhack does for the original NES title could be possible, but not known if infidelity himself would work on that.

 

[Reploid]

Why tho?

 

[pustal]

Why tho?

 

[x65943]

I really wonder how one man can be so productive in his free time, this is also the guy who ported super Mario world to NES right?

 

[JuanMena]

It's been at least 3 weeks since this...

 

[ShadowOne333]

It's been at least 3 weeks since this...

I wanted to wait until the port was in a stable position, and it seems to have reached it this week.

 

[BraveDragonWolf]

ok

 

[raxadian]

While this is amazing... I can't help but to ask what is the point?

 

[Xzi]

While this is amazing... I can't help but to ask what is the point?

It has a lot of SNES-oriented enhancements and additions, you'd have to read the whole Twitter thread. Could be considered a definitive edition of sorts.

 

[Hanafuda]

Call me when they make Super Zelda All Stars.

 

[mss1988]

How about BotW NES port?

 

[JuanMena]

Call me when they make Super Zelda All Stars.

2003 called, it wants you back.

 

[FanNintendo]

Would be nice if the game has been remastered or enchanted graphics add more color

 

[raxadian]

2003 called, it wants you back.

Unfortunately the Emulation of the Nintendo 64 games was terrible, now if you have a New HD 3DS, more so hacked, you can get all the pre Gamecube games.

 

[SAIYAN48]

How does this compare with the BS-X version of Zelda 1? That's a good port.

 

[Xzi]

Unfortunately the Emulation of the Nintendo 64 games was terrible, now if you have a New HD 3DS, more so hacked, you can get all the pre Gamecube games.

Really? I don't remember them being any worse than original hardware, though the games ran pretty badly even on N64 in retrospect lol.

 

[SAIYAN48]

New music but old graphics; This is a great feat, but I think I like the BS-X version with its 16-bit graphics.

 

[Hanafuda]

2003 called, it wants you back.

Fair point. I even had that disc. Not quite what I was thinking, but yeah that did happen.

 

[RichardTheKing]

I do understand the respect people have for this game, as it started the great Legend of Zelda franchise, but the overall experience is just too dated these days - has been for two or three decades now.
The lack of direction given, with not even an overworld map available, was a technological limitation of the time, with the overall concept being refined into something workable with A Link to the Past; there was no reason for this lack of direction to be revisited with BotW and TotK. It's antiquated and the exact opposite of fun.

though some don't see themselves going back to it due to some of the hurdles found in it, like the sword stab, lack of direction, non-existent overworld map, secrets seemingly placed at random, etc.

Two of these also apply to the recent change-in-formula - the aforementioned lack of direction, and randomly-placed secrets. As for the overworld map, while the Switch games do have one, they don't show where anything is until after you've stumbled across it, so it's essentially the same thing (except permanently showing things after being found, but at that point it's a tad late since that would've been appreciated while you were trying to find the thing in the first place).

However, to Zelda 1's credit, it doesn't have breakable weapons or shields, nor does it have limited stamina. Half because of tech limitations, and half because those stupid things hadn't really been thought up yet, back then. BotW and TotK should've learned from this, from how these made Skyward Sword a painfully frustrating game.



As for this being ported to SNES, isn't there essentially a SNES-esc texture pack for this game? That could be added to this, to make it truly a "SNES" game, visuals and all.

 

[MikaDubbz]

How about BotW NES port?

Oh man, give us that BOTW tech demo done in the original NES style as a full game please.