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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.

 

[Kioku]

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

Apparently OoT is best played on the Gamecube, and MM is best played on the Wii.. Ninty was weird with these games..

 

[Immortallix]

I like how there's not even 1 screenshot in this news article

 

[OrGoN3]

I like how there's not even 1 screenshot in this news article

If you don't know what the game looks like by now.....(the point is to have it render the same as on the nes so I don't think you'd see a difference in screenshots)

 

[PhyChris]

Awesome! Zelda II next please

 

[impeeza]

Back in the day Fuzhou Waixing Computer Science & Technology studios, did make a port of the legend of Zelda: a link to the past FOR THE NES!! was called
Sai Er Da Chuan Shuo: San Shen Zhi Li (Zelda: Triforce of the gods)

Was a great game even whit the limitations of the NES.

 

[osaka35]

Oh neat. This'll be fun for randomizers, being able to randomize items between a link to the past and this game. I'm not sure of all the possibilities, but I'm guessing some nifty stuff is possible now because of their dedication

 

[AkikoKumagara]

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.

I disagree. It's fun to go back and play. I don't want my hand held. It's more fun to explore and discover things without being told every little detail about what you're supposed to do and the original Legend of Zelda nailed it with that aspect. Is it for everyone? Nah. That doesn't mean it's not worth playing or "too dated".

 

[Bladexdsl]

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

oh the port is stable and finally released now is it? i see...you know what time it is than??

Nintendo...start your DMCAngines!

 

[Ligeia]

I would love to see it get a SNES graphical update to get a proper definitive SNES remake of the first Zelda.

 

[Jayro]

Well I downloaded the archive, now how do I compile the game? The Discord server is dead af.

 

[eyeliner]

Does this have MSU-1 support?
Does anyone know why?
Guess I can experiment in an emulator. My flashcard is one that doesn't support weird chips.

I'd like to one day play it.

 

[reminon]

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.


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.

I'm sorry, but do you need your hand held in every other aspect of your life as well?

 

[_47iscool]

Though it could already be played on SNES using Project Nested.

 

[HarveyHouston]

What we need is QoL, not just more ports. I mean, don't get me wrong; it's not a bad achievement, and I'm sure the guy did a fantastic job, but IMHO it's nothing groundbreaking at this point, so I don't expect this to get a lot of attention.

 

[realtimesave]

would be cool if it had 16bit graphics. I'll stick with my g&w. I haven't finished the game just yet.

 

[kineticUk]

What we need is QoL, not just more ports.

There are slight (qol) changes and though the author has said his focus is on porting the original games, there’s a very impressive attention to detail. I like what he’s doing, the choices he’s making etc. It’s like enhanced backward compatibility on Super NES imo.

 

[LuigiXHero]

Zelda 1 has a BS-X version that is a SNES port already with new graphics and sound. Yeah it's two quests has different dungeons and the timer and stuff. But there been a hack to make it more accurate to Zelda 1 for years. I guess it's interesting but it's been done before by nintendo. Just wish it was zelda 2 that game needs more love.

I guess MSU-1 is cool but BS Zelda has that also. Guess it's mostly if you want the nes graphics or not. Also sad it isn't open sourced.

 

[RichardTheKing]

I'm sorry, but do you need your hand held in every other aspect of your life as well?

No - when it comes to open-world games, I find a lack of map markers to be frustrating, as it's not respecting my limited time. Having to wander around and stumble upon stuff, instead of being pointed towards things, is a waste of limited time.

I'm currently playing Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, on PC, and I absolutely love how side-quests, research stations, backpacks, etc. are explicitly marked on the map - trying to find each of these on my own, in this huge urban jungle, would indeed be unnecessarily frustrating, and the devs realised just how dumb that would be. Same goes for Ghost of Tsushima, for each character's specific quest lines and missions - they're all visible on the map from the get-go.
Why couldn't BotW and TotK be the same? Or have the option to be such - have a toggle in Options?

 

[JuanMena]

Zelda 1 has a BS-X version that is a SNES port already with new graphics and sound. Yeah it's two quests has different dungeons and the timer and stuff. But there been a hack to make it more accurate to Zelda 1 for years. I guess it's interesting but it's been done before by nintendo. Just wish it was zelda 2 that game needs more love.

I guess MSU-1 is cool but BS Zelda has that also. Guess it's mostly if you want the nes graphics or not. Also sad it isn't open sourced.

Arent those 4 chapters?

And then the official/unnoficial continuation of A Link to the Past, named: Ancient Stones or something like that.

 

[CharlesDeGaulle]

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.


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.

Lol, you can't let go of TOTK, can you ?

While I fondly hate this game for the 20 hours of my life it utterly wasted, I have to admit it has one quality: thanks to it, I now consider the concept of 'respect of the player's free time' as part of a game quality.

Zelda 1 could be accomplished in a couple of hours, not 150, so wandering around wasn't that redundant.
The 7 yo me had to go from friends to friends in order to find hints on how to find and beat temples.

Never had the guts to dive in hard mode, then I became a Sega loyalist.