The Legend of Zelda actually got a full remake on the Super Nintendo. It's called BS Zelda. BS Zelda was a Japan exclusive thing though on a product called the Satellaview. With that said I this mod is a superior way to experience Zelda 1 in 16-bit glory. BS Zelda was far too easy, had a smaller map, and the extra events that were added were cool, but if you want to experience the original game as intended (minus QoL additions that were added) then this mod is the way to go.
Thanks for those insights! I haven't played the BS Zelda myself, but I've read that the overworld and dungeon layouts as well as some other mechanics are little different. Have you been able to play it and can confirm?
@@otggaming3180 Yes! The dungeon layouts are different, and some parts of the overworld are drastically different. Like there is one part of the game where tornados are going left to right on the screen and you have to dodge them to get a heart container. There is a rom hack called "Zelda Third Quest" which is basically just BS Zelda, but you play as Link and the timer that was part of the original game was removed so that it plays more like a normal Zelda game.
@@RegalPixelKingThanks for sharing that! I just added the Third Quest rom hack to my list of games to play and will check it out. So much good stuff is out there, but so little time :)
I wish the aesthetic was more cohesive, Links sprite design, dungeon doors, removing some bush secrets, the snakes. It just needs a little more love graphically imo, overall they did a great job.
Yeah, I get that. I've dabbled a little bit in the modding process. It requires a ton of work and you feel like it's never really finished and that there's always something that could be improved just a bit more.
Zelda Classic has some remakes better than this one in my opinion. If you don't know what that is, it's a program that plays "zquests" which are custom made based on the z1 engine, but with extra features from link to the past, link's awakening and scripts. Old quests pre 2.55 aren't that crazy but some are. If you're interested in that kind of thing it's awesome stuff but yeah there's a "NewFirst" quest that comes with the older versions that is better done in my opinion, despite still using the original z1 sound effects. Would have to check the database but i'm pretty sure this has been remade even further.
@@Valientlink Someone else mentioned this in another comment and it was the first I'd heard of it. But I will definitely be checking it out and really appreciate you bringing it to my attention :)
That's nice. I would personally like to see a version that runs on an original NES but uses the graphics/engine from Link's Awakening DX. That game did look so much better, despite a Game Boy being no more powerful than an NES (as far as I know). But back when the original Zelda came out, cartridge space was much more limited, and the developers weren't yet as experienced in making good pixel art. Just porting Link's Awakening to the NES would also be cool.
There's a couple of romhacks you might enjoy that are similar to what you describe. If you haven't already you might enjoy checking them out: The Legend of Zelda - DX: www.romhacking.net/hacks/2236/ The Legend of Zelda - Modern Classic Edition: www.romhacking.net/hacks/1295/
I beat the game for the first time with that texture pack, i did got s couple of glitches specifically the walking animation, but it went away after a while or by resetting the game, other than that it was a great experience
D0pe! Never messed with them in the past, I recently figured out how to set up the HD Texture Packs for Quake III Arena for PC. So now I am going to try and Clean Up a Ton of Games like this in my collection
Same here. I didn't realize just how many rom hacks and texture packs were out there. Really enjoying going back and playing some of these games with the upgrades.
At first I thought it was just going to swap out the tiles with those from BS Zelda, but then I noticed some tiles from Cadence of Hyrule as well and the dungeon walls didn't have the stone faces in the middles (which I always thought was a nice touch that BS Zelda added as all doors, bombable walls, and false walls in Zelda 1 were always in the dead center of the wall and by adding the statue graphics there they made this limitation feel more natural and less video-gamey). Still, I'd definitely call this a mod rather than a remake. I wouldn't know what to classify BS Zelda as because at first it seems like Zelda 1 on SNES with the Super Mario All Stars treatment of playing like the classic NES game with enhanced graphics, but it has new dungeons, some alterations to the world map which itself has been shrunken to half the width of the original, and was split into episodes and only playable during the broadcast time like a live TV broadcast with events that altered the game happening at specific times as well as streaming audio allowing voice actors playing characters like the Old Man to speak to players regardless of what screen they were on in order to provide hints and information about time specific events to help players finish that week's two dungeons within the broadcast time limit. It took preservationists a long time to fully restore the game as they had to find each episode that happened to still be saved on the expensive cartridges that were made to be overwritten with new data as keeping older episodes saved on those expensive cartridge didn't allow players to replay them, so it is a miracle the game didn't become lost media. Then romhackers had to figure out how to get it running and combine the episodes together. For the longest time the result of all of that hard work was as close as we could cone to experiencing the game as it was, but then a chip was made that allowed for huge amounts of data to be stored on an SNES cartridge for things like FMV sequences and CD quality music, compatible with actual SNES hardware, and fans were able to translate and recreate the music and dialog from the original BS Zelda broadcasts to the best of their abilities with what surviving recordings they could find to finally recreate the full experience playable on reproduction cartridges on actual SNES hardware, minus the limitations of having to play at a specific time and day of the week then having to wait a week for the next 2 dungeons. But, while BS Zelda was somewhere between a remake of the original and an innovative new quest in Zelda 1 style, there was actuality an amazing fan remake of Zelda 1 for PC originally released around the turn of the millennium called Zelda Classic, which included faithful remakes of the original game's 2 quests, a remake of the original with the BS Zelda graphics, and a very difficult new quest to showcase the quest editor that allowed people to make their own Zelda 1 style adventures with custom graphics, sound effect packs, and music (all midi of course, it was the old days). Over time new features were added. Zol and Vire Tribbles that when split into gels and keese could grow back into regular or tribble variants of Zols and Vires if not defeated quickly enough. Two super powerful new enemies in the form of the "Octorock on Crack" (nickbamed Cracktorock by the community) which was later renamed to the Magic Octorock, and the Darknut Death Knight. The Master Sword and Gold Ring as new stronger equipment tiers. The ability to add slashable bushes with the option of them having a chance to drop items like in later games. The hookshot. The option to make a quest with 3 triforce pieces to find instant of 8. Animated tiles so water effects and such no longer had to be done via palette cycling. Foreground tiles. The ability to start with or gain the ability to slash your sword instead of stabbing. Tiles that cause damage wheb touched like spikes or lava. Conveyor tiles. The flippers item. The fire boomerang. Options for dungeon specific keys, or having arrows be a resource separate from rupees. I'm sure I'm missing a lot more but it was a golden age for people that loved Zelda 1 with many brand-new quests as well as countless takes on upgraded remakes of the classic first quest releasing regularly with each engine update allowing for more possibilities. For a long time NPC dialog strings were limited to the same length as in the NES original and desigbers had to employ clever tricks to work around this, and one day they just allowed for multiple strings in one conversation. The last time I played they had just released a huge update allowing quest makers full control over editing enemy stats like HP and damage as well as, if I recall, the ability to similarly tweak the power of the player's equipment and create new monsters by defining their stats as well as giving them attacks, AI, and abilities from existing monsters. I played countless custom quests including some creative reimaginings of the original classic.
is there anything more turn of the millennium than dodging octoroks on your pc to a midified "shape of my heart" by sting? i mean, probably, but the zelda classic experience is up there. 😄
@@SidShakal Back around 2010-2011 I was feeling nostalgic for a very amateurish and immature custom quest based on Cheech and Chong that I had fond memories of playing with my brother nearly 10 years prior and had to dig through old archives of the Armageddon Games forums on the wayback machine for hours before I tracked it down. The fact that my PC at the time could not handle ZC midis well at all, with the notes being played with seemingly random timing only added to the "so bad it's good" factor. The second dungeon boss was an Octorock on Crack/Magic Octorock, and the recorder would softlock you if you tried using it to warp, dropping you on a water tile in the very top left tile of the screen/map. There was also a single wall breakable by only a super bomb, which only yielded rupees, and not even enough to cover the costs of the bomb. I also remember playing a quest back in the day called Zelda: Ages which was very difficult and featured a dual world's system via time travel, and one detail that stuck with me was that you could meet the princess that lived in the past and her name was Hilda, long before we got an actual Princess Hilda in A Link Between worlds. I also vividly remember a puzzle in one quest that had me stumped for s long time until I slept on it. To enter a dungeon I had to light a sconce behind a fence in the first room. The candle was too short and the magic book way overshot it. The solution was to hit a keese with the magic from the rod in the right position so the fire would appear right on top of the sconce thus opening the door. Too many more memorable moments for me to list
Are you referring to the Satellaview version? I thought about referencing that, but from my understanding the game has some differences in overworld and dungeon layouts that keeps it from being considered a remake?
I think it looks amazing and the qol improvements are very interesting. By the way do you remember the exact name of the shader you were using in this video?
Because it's more fun to look at than just black bars. Also, with some high quality scans and an OLED with HDR, you can get some pretty convincing bezels, especially if you use the reflection shaders in RetroArch.
@@otggaming3180 HTH, please share the word (and feel free to adjust your title). When in doubt, you can often consult a dictionary. By the way, is RetroArch pronounced like that? I assumed it was "ark" as in archive, but I can't find a definitive answer.
Not currently. It requires the Mesen emulator which will run on Windows and Linux. Or if you're using a system that runs RetroArch, there is a Mesen core also available for it.
@3:34, you always could press Up-A. except it was on the player 2 controller on the original NES. Instead of player 1.
Someone else mentioned this too. I never knew that, so appreciate you sharing the knowledge :)
The Legend of Zelda actually got a full remake on the Super Nintendo. It's called BS Zelda. BS Zelda was a Japan exclusive thing though on a product called the Satellaview.
With that said I this mod is a superior way to experience Zelda 1 in 16-bit glory.
BS Zelda was far too easy, had a smaller map, and the extra events that were added were cool, but if you want to experience the original game as intended (minus QoL additions that were added) then this mod is the way to go.
Thanks for those insights! I haven't played the BS Zelda myself, but I've read that the overworld and dungeon layouts as well as some other mechanics are little different. Have you been able to play it and can confirm?
@@otggaming3180 Yes! The dungeon layouts are different, and some parts of the overworld are drastically different. Like there is one part of the game where tornados are going left to right on the screen and you have to dodge them to get a heart container.
There is a rom hack called "Zelda Third Quest" which is basically just BS Zelda, but you play as Link and the timer that was part of the original game was removed so that it plays more like a normal Zelda game.
@@RegalPixelKingThanks for sharing that! I just added the Third Quest rom hack to my list of games to play and will check it out. So much good stuff is out there, but so little time :)
I wish the aesthetic was more cohesive, Links sprite design, dungeon doors, removing some bush secrets, the snakes. It just needs a little more love graphically imo, overall they did a great job.
Yeah, I get that. I've dabbled a little bit in the modding process. It requires a ton of work and you feel like it's never really finished and that there's always something that could be improved just a bit more.
Zelda Classic has some remakes better than this one in my opinion. If you don't know what that is, it's a program that plays "zquests" which are custom made based on the z1 engine, but with extra features from link to the past, link's awakening and scripts. Old quests pre 2.55 aren't that crazy but some are. If you're interested in that kind of thing it's awesome stuff but yeah there's a "NewFirst" quest that comes with the older versions that is better done in my opinion, despite still using the original z1 sound effects. Would have to check the database but i'm pretty sure this has been remade even further.
@@Valientlink Someone else mentioned this in another comment and it was the first I'd heard of it. But I will definitely be checking it out and really appreciate you bringing it to my attention :)
Up + A at pause menu (player 2) has always let you save the game.
Man, thanks for the tip! That would have been good to know 30 years ago lol. Always learning something new.
That's nice. I would personally like to see a version that runs on an original NES but uses the graphics/engine from Link's Awakening DX. That game did look so much better, despite a Game Boy being no more powerful than an NES (as far as I know). But back when the original Zelda came out, cartridge space was much more limited, and the developers weren't yet as experienced in making good pixel art.
Just porting Link's Awakening to the NES would also be cool.
There's a couple of romhacks you might enjoy that are similar to what you describe. If you haven't already you might enjoy checking them out:
The Legend of Zelda - DX: www.romhacking.net/hacks/2236/
The Legend of Zelda - Modern Classic Edition: www.romhacking.net/hacks/1295/
I beat the game for the first time with that texture pack, i did got s couple of glitches specifically the walking animation, but it went away after a while or by resetting the game, other than that it was a great experience
Yeah, mine was too. No issues for me, although I only played the first quest. But that was a great experience. Thanks for leaving a comment!
D0pe! Never messed with them in the past, I recently figured out how to set up the HD Texture Packs for Quake III Arena for PC.
So now I am going to try and Clean Up a Ton of Games like this in my collection
Same here. I didn't realize just how many rom hacks and texture packs were out there. Really enjoying going back and playing some of these games with the upgrades.
At first I thought it was just going to swap out the tiles with those from BS Zelda, but then I noticed some tiles from Cadence of Hyrule as well and the dungeon walls didn't have the stone faces in the middles (which I always thought was a nice touch that BS Zelda added as all doors, bombable walls, and false walls in Zelda 1 were always in the dead center of the wall and by adding the statue graphics there they made this limitation feel more natural and less video-gamey).
Still, I'd definitely call this a mod rather than a remake. I wouldn't know what to classify BS Zelda as because at first it seems like Zelda 1 on SNES with the Super Mario All Stars treatment of playing like the classic NES game with enhanced graphics, but it has new dungeons, some alterations to the world map which itself has been shrunken to half the width of the original, and was split into episodes and only playable during the broadcast time like a live TV broadcast with events that altered the game happening at specific times as well as streaming audio allowing voice actors playing characters like the Old Man to speak to players regardless of what screen they were on in order to provide hints and information about time specific events to help players finish that week's two dungeons within the broadcast time limit. It took preservationists a long time to fully restore the game as they had to find each episode that happened to still be saved on the expensive cartridges that were made to be overwritten with new data as keeping older episodes saved on those expensive cartridge didn't allow players to replay them, so it is a miracle the game didn't become lost media. Then romhackers had to figure out how to get it running and combine the episodes together. For the longest time the result of all of that hard work was as close as we could cone to experiencing the game as it was, but then a chip was made that allowed for huge amounts of data to be stored on an SNES cartridge for things like FMV sequences and CD quality music, compatible with actual SNES hardware, and fans were able to translate and recreate the music and dialog from the original BS Zelda broadcasts to the best of their abilities with what surviving recordings they could find to finally recreate the full experience playable on reproduction cartridges on actual SNES hardware, minus the limitations of having to play at a specific time and day of the week then having to wait a week for the next 2 dungeons.
But, while BS Zelda was somewhere between a remake of the original and an innovative new quest in Zelda 1 style, there was actuality an amazing fan remake of Zelda 1 for PC originally released around the turn of the millennium called Zelda Classic, which included faithful remakes of the original game's 2 quests, a remake of the original with the BS Zelda graphics, and a very difficult new quest to showcase the quest editor that allowed people to make their own Zelda 1 style adventures with custom graphics, sound effect packs, and music (all midi of course, it was the old days). Over time new features were added. Zol and Vire Tribbles that when split into gels and keese could grow back into regular or tribble variants of Zols and Vires if not defeated quickly enough. Two super powerful new enemies in the form of the "Octorock on Crack" (nickbamed Cracktorock by the community) which was later renamed to the Magic Octorock, and the Darknut Death Knight. The Master Sword and Gold Ring as new stronger equipment tiers. The ability to add slashable bushes with the option of them having a chance to drop items like in later games. The hookshot. The option to make a quest with 3 triforce pieces to find instant of 8. Animated tiles so water effects and such no longer had to be done via palette cycling. Foreground tiles. The ability to start with or gain the ability to slash your sword instead of stabbing. Tiles that cause damage wheb touched like spikes or lava. Conveyor tiles. The flippers item. The fire boomerang. Options for dungeon specific keys, or having arrows be a resource separate from rupees. I'm sure I'm missing a lot more but it was a golden age for people that loved Zelda 1 with many brand-new quests as well as countless takes on upgraded remakes of the classic first quest releasing regularly with each engine update allowing for more possibilities. For a long time NPC dialog strings were limited to the same length as in the NES original and desigbers had to employ clever tricks to work around this, and one day they just allowed for multiple strings in one conversation. The last time I played they had just released a huge update allowing quest makers full control over editing enemy stats like HP and damage as well as, if I recall, the ability to similarly tweak the power of the player's equipment and create new monsters by defining their stats as well as giving them attacks, AI, and abilities from existing monsters. I played countless custom quests including some creative reimaginings of the original classic.
is there anything more turn of the millennium than dodging octoroks on your pc to a midified "shape of my heart" by sting?
i mean, probably, but the zelda classic experience is up there. 😄
This is fantastic! You just sent me much further down the rabbit whole of Zelda modding. Thank you for the knowledge my friend :)
This gave me a pretty good chuckle 😂
@@SidShakal Back around 2010-2011 I was feeling nostalgic for a very amateurish and immature custom quest based on Cheech and Chong that I had fond memories of playing with my brother nearly 10 years prior and had to dig through old archives of the Armageddon Games forums on the wayback machine for hours before I tracked it down. The fact that my PC at the time could not handle ZC midis well at all, with the notes being played with seemingly random timing only added to the "so bad it's good" factor. The second dungeon boss was an Octorock on Crack/Magic Octorock, and the recorder would softlock you if you tried using it to warp, dropping you on a water tile in the very top left tile of the screen/map. There was also a single wall breakable by only a super bomb, which only yielded rupees, and not even enough to cover the costs of the bomb.
I also remember playing a quest back in the day called Zelda: Ages which was very difficult and featured a dual world's system via time travel, and one detail that stuck with me was that you could meet the princess that lived in the past and her name was Hilda, long before we got an actual Princess Hilda in A Link Between worlds.
I also vividly remember a puzzle in one quest that had me stumped for s long time until I slept on it. To enter a dungeon I had to light a sconce behind a fence in the first room. The candle was too short and the magic book way overshot it. The solution was to hit a keese with the magic from the rod in the right position so the fire would appear right on top of the sconce thus opening the door.
Too many more memorable moments for me to list
Thank you, that was new to me and looks really great!
Never had a remake? But it already did on the SNES in Japan almost 30 years ago.
Are you referring to the Satellaview version? I thought about referencing that, but from my understanding the game has some differences in overworld and dungeon layouts that keeps it from being considered a remake?
Good to see ya back again!
Thanks my friend! Good to be back 🙂
Personally, I prefer both. It doesn't make sense to complain about any remaster because the original will always be there for you.
Thanks for leaving a comment. That's pretty much where I'm at too.
I think it looks amazing and the qol improvements are very interesting. By the way do you remember the exact name of the shader you were using in this video?
I believe it's "CRT-Aperture." It's a nice looking and lightweight shader that I use a good chunk of the time when I'm recording.
Everyone knows a TV can't display such a sharp picture, so why put a fake bezel on it? It's not fooling anyone.
Because it's more fun to look at than just black bars. Also, with some high quality scans and an OLED with HDR, you can get some pretty convincing bezels, especially if you use the reflection shaders in RetroArch.
Of course a good tv can display a sharp picture....this is just to spice up crop bars for a video that's natively 16:9.
These are the correct answers. I find messing around with bezels and shaders to be a lot of fun 😁👍
Little tip: you misspelled "whoa" in the title.
And this after I decided against "woe" and "whoah" 😔🙂 Appreciate the tip and will aim to improve!
@@otggaming3180 HTH, please share the word (and feel free to adjust your title). When in doubt, you can often consult a dictionary. By the way, is RetroArch pronounced like that? I assumed it was "ark" as in archive, but I can't find a definitive answer.
@@MCMarchives
I've heard folks say it both ways, but I'm on team "arch" after finding out RetroArch was first based on Arch Linux.
im blown away how to the point and fast this was thank you for nothing pointless just go go go
Thanks for the positive feedback! I purposely tried to make this video a little more succinct so I'm glad someone mentioned it :)
Yea...I've seen this before. I might give it a shot. Was it 100% complete?
You should give it a go. I've only played through the first quest but it was 100 percent complete. It's a great experience.
Can you still screen-wrap in this mod?
Good question. I couldn't find a definitive answer, so I just tried it and it works 👍
Will this work on a MiSTRA FPGA or Everdrive?
Not currently. It requires the Mesen emulator which will run on Windows and Linux. Or if you're using a system that runs RetroArch, there is a Mesen core also available for it.
Is it possible to play this on a Switch?
does it work with romhacks ? particularly zelda 1 redux
nevermind it turns out this remaster actually uses zelda 1 redux as a base. wow