The Legend of Zelda 2021 by eyevandy Many people have set out to improve The Legend of Zelda on NES. Some feel that this game is perfect. Some feel that it has many gameplay and presentation flaws. I feel that this is a great game that has a few rough edges, especially when it comes to localization. My goal in this hack was to answer the question: if Zelda 1 was released today, what would it look like? There may have been gameplay improvements, but I'll leave those for much more talented programmers. I've set out to fix the parts of the localization and presentation that are likely to have 21st century gamers scratching their heads. If you're interested in the background to my romhack, and some insight into how romhacking works, please visit http://chris.vandenheuvel.me/zelda/2021 for more information. Instructions: If you want to apply the full patch, first track down a ROM. You'll want the "PRGO" version (probably called "Legend of Zelda, The (U) (PRG 0).nes"). Use an IPS patching utility to apply the "The Legend of Zelda 2021.ips" patch. All of the various components of this patch have been broken out into smaller patches if you want to mix-and-match. See below for descriptions. I'm a big believer in owning the software that you emulate. If you don't already own a copy of The Legend of Zelda for NES, please track down a cartridge, or purchase a software copy on one of several consoles on which it is offered. Changelog: v1.1 (2021-08-05): Switched to completely new font based on the serif font used in Zelda branding. Added multiplication character to HUD in story scroll patch. Modified title screen to make small caps font less stylized. Incorporated "Heartless Automap" by snarfblam and gzip. v1.0 (2021-02-21): Initial patch. Notes: All of my patches are modular in that they keep everything in its original place in the ROM, so they should generally be compatible with any other hacks. If you like any one of these components and want to include them in your own hack, I'd be honored to have my work included with yours. Patch Descriptions: "The Legend of Zelda 2021" Contains all patches listed below. Either use this full patch, or combine the individual ones to get the changes you want. "FDS Font" This patch replaces the original Duck Hunt font with the custom one that appeared on the Famicom Disk System version. This is no longer included in the full patch, but the option is here for you. "New Font" Having the original FDS font is cool, but after actually playing the game with it subbed in, I think I understand why they didn't keep it in the English version. It's very flimsy and much harder to read, and I don't think it's any better at selling the game setting than the Duck Hunt font. I created a completely new font based on the one often used for "THE LEGEND OF" in Zelda title logotypes (which is probably Adobe's Charlemagne font). I finally feel like the text fits the game world, even though it's not likely Nintendo would have used the font in this way considering every other Zelda game uses a sans font. This is the one patch that doesn't stand well on its own, as the "X" character in this font no longer works well as a multiplication symbol the way the original ROM uses it. The fix is in the "Story" patch. "Game Text" A re-localization of most in-game text. The goal was to convey the original intent of every message, not necessarily to translate word-for-word from Japanese. Some hints were changed completely between Japanese and English, so I've changed those back. "Heartless Automap" This is included in the full patch, but if you are applying one-by-one you'll need to grab your own copy of this one. This hack of a hack by gzip takes snarfblam's classic Automap hack and removes the modified heart display behavior. I didn't feel that the original game's heart display was broken in the first place, but the Automap itself is a must-have for those of us that don't have the paper map that came with the original game. We also get the faster heart refill. "Intro Hint" A small change that updates Link's message in the intro, from "Look up the manual for details" to "Look for treasures in the dungeons." It's unlikely a new player has the manual, and this hint gives you a nudge in terms of what you should do first. "Rupee" In the original game, 1 rupee flashes between blue and yellow, while 5 rupees are solid blue. This bothers the heck out of me. Now 1 rupee is solid yellow. In case you're wondering, green rupees would require massive changes to the game because none of the palettes available in the game would work well. "Sprites" Nintendo has a history of removing religious references from Zelda games (see Ocarina of Time). I don't care much about being politically correct, but I always found it weird that this magical fantasy game had Christian crosses all over the place. I've replaced them with artwork that reflects the same items in later Zelda games. In all, the patch replaces Link's shields, the Darknut shields, the Book of Magic, and the gravestones. Some people will hate this patch and I understand completely. "Story" A completely new rewrite of the opening story scroll. There's no Japanese version to work from so I just made my best guess at how it would have been written today. This patch also replaces the "X" character used as a multiplication symbol throughout the game, with a new dedicated multiplication symbol. This looks nice on its own but becomes more important when you switch to a font that is less blocky than the original (like my font patch). Why include these two items together? Because the new symbol needed to take the place of an existing tile, and the best candidate was the weird two-dot quotation mark that this patch makes unnecessary. "Title Screen" I've replaced the Microsoft WordArt-style ZELDA logo with the modern one. I've also removed the rapier-style sword, which does not fit with Link's fighting style or with the general time period we are working with AT ALL. Instead I recreated the White Sword, based on the artwork from Hyrule Warriors which is in turn (very loosely) based on the manual artwork. "Treasure List" I've fixed text and formatting errors in the opening treasure list. Acknowledgements: Thank you to Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin for the comprehensive breakdown of Zelda 1's localization. Most of us reworking the text of this game use Mato's work as a starting point. He's written an excellent book on this subject - "Legends of Localization Book 1: The Legend of Zelda" - I recommend purchasing it if you love this game. Thank you to Trax for finding the code that sets the 1 Rupee flash. Thank you to snarfblam for the amazing automap hack which has to be one of the best NES hacks ever created. Thank you to gzip for removing the one thing that kept me from using snarfblam's automap hack. Thank you to ShadowOne333 and the team behind The Legend of Zelda Redux; even though I prefer a less comprehensive set of changes to LOZ, the work you did and the source you've given us makes many things easier for the rest of us.