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[vinheim3]

Hey TiGers, prepare your anus for a waaaall of text

I bet some of you who've played the Legend of Zelda series and enjoyed it are probably thinking "damn, these are incredible, it doesn't get better than this!" or "there's no way a LoZ fan-game could compete with these". Well I'm here to tell you that you are completely wrong and it gets better. Much, much better.

I'd like to introduce 2 types of LoZ fan-games. There are the rom hack games that take the basic framework/engine of an existing LoZ game and pour their creativity into it and there are Zelda Classic (ZC) games that do the same thing, but focus very strongly on the core engine of LoZ 1.

For the rom hack games, I've made some short reviews on them on another post: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=18560.810. There's 1 post near the top and another near the bottom. Don't worry about the negatives, the gameplay makes up for it.

Second, for the Zelda Classic games, which may as well be the pinnacle of gameplay in the history of videogames since forever. These quests have taken the core engine of the LoZ1, add some additional functionality, graphics and music through scripting and the level editor and let their creativity do the rest. One of the unique functionalities is how people have emulated side-scrolling screens. You can find them at:
http://purezc.com - click Top Rated Quests link on the left
http://zeldaclassic.com - click Top Ten Lists on the left, I recommend trying the ones most downloaded and Lost Isles which is a top rated

Here's some of the best I've played, assume that graphics, gameplay, sound, exploration is already awesome and story is mediocre before reading the additional comments.

Best game in history award
Lost Isle - The biggest quest I've encountered so far. The overworld itself is 24x16 from what I've explored and I'm only up to the 2nd dungeon! (for comparison, it is 3x bigger than LoZ1's 16x8). This game also has beautiful graphics, beautiful exploration (jotting down pathmaps and notes on a notebook and even these simple lines are a piece of art), Nintendo Hard overworlds and dungeons and so far, best-themed dungeons. One is based off OoT Water Temple and another off MM Stone Tower/Temple.

If you play this game, you will want to sacrifice yourself to the god found in the nearest book in the nearest library you can find.

Inventory screen

Perfect
Hero Of Dreams - Massive overworlds and challenging/interesting-themed dungeons as well as interesting characters. You will wet yourself when you encounter dungeon 8 if you haven't already done that before reaching it.

Example of side-scrolling

MegaMan: Dr. Wily's Revenge DX - Everything is MegaMan-themed here. All the items, people, enemies, things like stop signs and cars, you name it. Except the triforce and the fact that the land underneath you was called Hyrule, but that's explained. Apart from this theme, the dungeons are a beauty to explore, and the bosses aren't just the rehashed LoZ1 bosses, there are unique ones that are challenging.

Hookshot, no clue why he's a monkey

Isle of the Winds - exploration is top notch here. You can explore the majority of the 16x16 overworld after dungeon 1 and can attempt any dungeon from 2 to 7 in any order. Based on Wind Waker, this quest is extremely challenging (you will probably need a full potion for the very 1st boss! and still die to it a couple times).

Ice-themed dungeon

Origins - If you want to play a remake of LoZ1, play this one. It takes the same structure and themes as LoZ1's overworlds and dungeons, but redesigns the whole thing with beautiful graphics and fun dungeons.

Revamped Zelda 1 graphics

Masterpieces

Link to Tortuga - Immersive pirate theme with constantly changing village and huge challenging dungeons.

Crabcake Cove

Link in Cestria - Small overworld that has managed to fit tons of interesting content and great exploration in it. Each dungeon has a unique theme you'll have never seen (except maybe the water level changing one, if there is a water level changing one, I forgot)

A dungeon built on a desert

Link's Birthday DX - Challenging and interestingly-themed dungeons. Everything else is excellent. Sounds bland, but you will have a hell of a time playing this.

Forest-themed dungeon

Excellent

Ganonco2 - A story based on you working for Ganon's corporation. Interesting theme, but the dungeons are the main attraction as well as the battle tower.

'Merica Forest, right now red trees are faded, but you can change that to white or blue trees here (and in some other screens)

CastleHaunt2 - Halloween-based quest which relies on you using your own intuition to progress. Not just pure exploration. You will NEED to take a note of what looks suspicious to you.

Link considering himself one bad dude

CastleHaunt3 - Same as above, only harder and more beautiful.

Minish Cap graphics

WolfStyle DX - Oriental-themed quest with Normal and Hard difficulty. Hard is a bitch to play!! Excellent oriental music too.

Level 1 hard mode, these guys do 1 damage on contact and 2 damage through projectile

Mario Xmas - Extremely vulgar content, which makes it beautiful. For example, eating toad's hearts, a child-molesting priest, a caveman who thought you were dead and wanted to rape you are among the least threatening content here. You will feel sick and awesome.

Vulgar mario-themed with other weird themes mixed in like priests and aliens


WHY SHOULD I PLAY THESE GAMES VINHEIM!!??

Well apart from the descriptions I've given, these quests are basically higher-quality LoZ games as compared to the commercial ones, as well as being 2 to 3 times longer than commercial ones and also costing 100% less than the commercial ones! They also follow the simplistic gameplay of LoZ1, which I have now deemed to be the best engine out there for fan-games after DRoD. Sure the stories feel effortlessly written, but it hardly matters when you are balls deep in fun.

[Zecks]

fart

[SirNiko]

Any quests by Dark Flame Wolf are really good.

Zelda Classic isn't a ROM hack of Zelda, but actually started as a project to just remake Zelda 1 from scratch for programming practice.

I used to play these ages ago and Zelda Classic is pretty rad! I think I've played everything in your "Perfect" list already. It's been a while.

I love these "Suggest a game" threads.

[vinheim3]

DarkFlameWolf, Petoe and Freedom are all awesome, and when the first 2 collaborated for Lost Isle, it definitely didn't disappoint. Every screen is screenshot-of-the-week worthy, are beautifully crafted and detailed and the dungeons are massive. 1st dungeon's 1st floor was huge, before I even knew there were 3 floors, and the 2nd dungeon is a hell of a maze.

So you've played Hero of Dreams? What did you think of the 8th dungeon/island? The moment I experienced its gimmick, I understood its name and thought "fuck. yes." Also, you introduced me to MegaMan, which is how I realized how great these games are. These games are better than any indie or commercial game I've played in the past, hands down.

[Nillo]

The post could do without most of the superlatives and some screenshots/links to specific games would be helpful.

[baconman]

Origins - If you want to play a remake of LoZ1, play this one. It takes the same structure and themes as LoZ1's overworlds and dungeons, but redesigns the whole thing with beautiful graphics and fun dungeons.

Most of your forecasts are pretty spot on. But these? (There's a 2nd Quest one too.) I dunno. An extra dungeon is cool and all, but they take that nonlinear charm that makes classic Zelda what it is, and kinda destroys that. I liken them more to being like Link's Awakening, which successfully destroyed the classic formula with it's "dungeon entry keys."

Overall, I'd say that's been the wrecking factor in a lot of cool ZC quests I've encountered over the past 15 years - most of them feel really strictly structured and linear, which makes it more in the realm of Final Fantasy Adventure/Sword of Mana than... well, what I equate with being a good Zelda game.

[vinheim3]

The post could do without most of the superlatives and some screenshots/links to specific games would be helpful.

Ok, I've updated the 1st post.

Origins - If you want to play a remake of LoZ1, play this one. It takes the same structure and themes as LoZ1's overworlds and dungeons, but redesigns the whole thing with beautiful graphics and fun dungeons.

Most of your forecasts are pretty spot on. But these? (There's a 2nd Quest one too.) I dunno. An extra dungeon is cool and all, but they take that nonlinear charm that makes classic Zelda what it is, and kinda destroys that. I liken them more to being like Link's Awakening, which successfully destroyed the classic formula with it's "dungeon entry keys."

Overall, I'd say that's been the wrecking factor in a lot of cool ZC quests I've encountered over the past 15 years - most of them feel really strictly structured and linear, which makes it more in the realm of Final Fantasy Adventure/Sword of Mana than... well, what I equate with being a good Zelda game.

And a 3rd quest I haven't tried. What do you mean by non-linearity? As in you do each dungeon in order? In quest 2, you get access to dungeons 1, 2 and 7 and can do 1 and 2 independent of each other, not sure about 7. If you mean, by the overworld, before the 1st dungeon, you have access to the whole world -2 screens.

The only linear one I've played is something like Link to the Shadows/Future which is a ZC copy of A Link To The Past. The ones I've mentioned here give you a lot of open space.

[vinheim3]

How to get gams:

Rom hacks
You'll need a NES emulator for Zelda 1 hacks and a SNES emulator for ALttP hacks, which you can find here:
http://www.emulator-zone.com/

You'll need Lunar IPS to patch hacks onto the game they're based off:
http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/lips/
The program is easy to use, start it up, choose to patch, find the hack, find the original game. Make sure to back up the original game so you can use it again.

The hacks are found here:
A Link to the Past hacks
Zelda 1 hacks

You'll also need the original rom for the game. It's usually the American version, but Goddess of Wisdom uses the European version


Zelda Classic quests
You'll need the ZC program, I recommend v2.10 AND v1.92 "The 184 Player":
http://www.zeldaclassic.com/downloads.php#zc

The quests can be found at:
http://www.purezc.com/index.php?page=quests&sort=rating
http://www.zeldaclassic.com/topstats.phpI recommend most downloaded and Lost Isle from top rated

It's recommended to play the quest on the version it was made on. Also, for Lost Isle and Origin, they require you to play on a "Lost Isle" build of ZC which they link to. Also remember to back up all sfx.dat files as some quests (mostly by Freedom) give you their own one to use for that particular quest.

When you start ZC, you'll need to register a new name, I'd go for an abbreviation or shorthand version of the quest you want to register it with. Then press whatever button you assigned to "a" twice, locate the file, choose it, then you can start playing.

[Derek]

The writing is sloppy and hyperbolic to the max, but damn it if you don't make these quests sound fun as hell. Can I repost it to the front page as a guest article, vin (probably just the ZC reviews, not the rom hacks)?

[vinheim3]

Hell yeah! The people need to know about these! And I haven't done any form of creative or whatever writing for 5 years so if you want to change any writing, it'd be cool to see them on the front page.

EDIT: My mistake. Lost Isle isn't 6x bigger than LoZ, only 3x, the maps are 8x8 rather than 16x8

[SirNiko]

Most Zelda Classic quests use the linear formula of Zelda 3 and beyond. This allows for puzzles that require specific items to solve and some basic scripting to tell a story.

There are a handful of open-world ZC Quests, but these tend to be rare among the top rated ones. Baconman, It wouldn't hurt you wanted to dig through the Pure ZC archive and pick out a handful of the better open-world quests.

You guys are making me want to download ZC again. It's been a few years.

[baconman]

You do understand, there are probably a few thousand or so quests to sift through, right? XD

I'll see what I can do next week on it. This does put me back in a ZC mood.

[phubans]

I'm so overwhelmed by the information presented in the OP that I can't even tell what exactly I'm looking at... I just see a bunch of incredible looking screenshots involving 16-bit Zelda (fan-made?) games... So these are basically just rom hacks of A Link to the Past? Or this is a completely new game using a Zelda-style engine/mechanics and created with fan-content? Can somebody sum up what I'm looking at in a short paragraph since I don't like reading?

[Ant]

Zelda Classic is basically a game engine that allows you to make Zelda games, it's the Zelda version of Game Maker.

I really wish they had some sort of export function so my chums could just click an exe to play a quest instead of having to faff about downloading and installing ZC first.

[vinheim3]

I'm so overwhelmed by the information presented in the OP that I can't even tell what exactly I'm looking at... I just see a bunch of incredible looking screenshots involving 16-bit Zelda (fan-made?) games... So these are basically just rom hacks of A Link to the Past? Or this is a completely new game using a Zelda-style engine/mechanics and created with fan-content? Can somebody sum up what I'm looking at in a short paragraph since I don't like reading?

They're actually Zelda fan-made games that are based off an engine used for Zelda 1, but Zelda 3, Oracle series and Minish Cap graphics look better so they are commonly used. Despite being off the Zelda 1 engine, they add new content such as hookshots and superbombs as well as scripting and other tricks to create interesting dungeon gimmicks.

[dEnamed]

Is there some sort of upscaling filter that could allow larger resolutions? Due to bad eyesight, the small windowsize makes it impossible to play. I tried -res startup commands with "big" but that was only a bandaid.

What it currently does on using res:

Code:

------------
|..........|
|..........|
|...GAME...|
|..........|
|..........|
------------

Where . means empty space with nothing but emptiness in it.
What I need:

Code:

------------
|GAAAAAMEEE|
|BLOOOOOODY|
|EVERYWHERE|
|INSIIIIIDE|
|THEWINDOOW|
------------

Any way to do this?

[vinheim3]

lol, you could try fullscreen? or the large window option?

if you're using windows 7 and want to do fullscreen, you'll have to make a .bat file with this in it:

Code:

@echo off
@echo ================================================
@echo Welcome to Franpa's Zelda Classic Colour Fix! v1.00
@echo ================================================
@echo Simply place this BAT file into your Zelda Classic folder and execute it instead of the games EXE file,
@echo this will close all instances of Explorer.exe then start the game, when closing
@echo the game, Explorer.exe is reloaded.

@echo off
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
Zelda-w.exe -fast
Start explorer.exe

then put it in the same folder as ur .exe, then run it.

[dEnamed]

Even in fullscreen, it only takes up a micro portion of the screen and the large flag doesn't do anything on my system. Nevermind then, I'll just skip on this.

[John Lee]

Maaaaaaaan, I have not played this in FOREVER, and you've reminded me of how great it was. Good to know people still make things in ZC! I'll get to playing a goodly number of these when I get my laptop.

[KennEH!]

Thanks for the colour correct batch file, really helped. Maybe that should be added to the blog post?

I only have really got to play is Lost Isle, and from a personal perspective it is far from perfect.

Using ammo for a weapon for currency as well really frustrates me. I find myself never wanting wanting to use arrows because if I waste them, I have no money to purchase upgrades and items that I may need. Silly form of resource management if you ask me.

I know the game is all about exploration, but I would like a little more direction as to what the hell I'm supposed to be doing. SPOILER: Wandering around the whole place with only a general idea of what to do from the "villagers". I didn't know I could even kill the dragons at the beginning, having them sit behind the spikes gave me an impression that I needed a ranged weapon, ironically.

The first dungeon is severely tedious. Every time you died (which was tons) you must go through numerous mandatory tasks every single time to progress where you were previously. I know you can create shortcuts, but it still takes forever. It wouldn't have been too bad if going to where I left off was easy, but sometimes I can't even get there because I died from enemies along the way. Finally getting to where I was stuck, I die trying to figure out what I am to do. Fuuuuun. I've only been to the first dungeon, so if anyone can confirm that this isn't a recurring theme I would be extremely grateful.

That being said I am enjoying this so far, and it definitely won't sop me from checking the others on the list.