The Legend of Zelda’s 30th birthday

This is a translation of an article on Nintendo of Japan’s website; part 6 of a 6-part series on The Legend Of Zelda in celebration of the series’ 30th anniversary. Part 5 of this series consists of a number of magazine scans which I will leave untranslated. Translation mine, all other contents, text, images are copyright by 任天堂株式会社. See below for a link to the original article.

In the final instalment of our 6-week The Legend of Zelda nostalgia project, we have a message from the creator of the series, Shigeru Miyamoto, to all of its players.

---

Hello! This is Shigeru Miyamoto.
Already 30 years have passed since I created The Legend of Zelda for the Famicom Disk System.

The Disk System was the hardware of my dreams, because it had a large memory, and I could create save games of arbitrary size. Loading data took some time, but hearing the disk drive clang whenever I entered a dungeon made me just as happy as the “puzzle solved” sound did.

What fascinated me about the then popular PC RPGs was that my character became stronger and stronger, until in the end, I could mop the floor with the enemies from the first dungeons. Zelda let the player experience that in an action format, along with solving puzzles. Because of that, rather than calling it an RPG, I called it an “action adventure”. However, the world was experiencing a full-blown RPG boom at the time, and people kept asking me “Is Zelda an RPG, too?” It got so tiresome, I started calling the games RPGs myself about the time Ocarina of Time came out. (laughs)

While we were developing Zelda, we had people play test it. People were used to games with stage-based gameplay, like Super Mario. They said, “I don’t know what to do!”
At that time, Link had a sword right from the start, but then I thought through it again from the perspective of someone who doesn’t know the first thing about the game. I made the change to have him start with no equipment at all, forcing him to get the sword himself, which makes it easier to get into the game.

Well, in the new title scheduled for next year, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the Wii U and the Nintendo Switch, Link will start out with nothing on him.

From that point onwards the hero, will awake and follow his own path. Some people say that with its unnoticeable load times and its free exploration of a vast continuous landscape, the game is close to the original The Legend of Zelda.

Mr. Aonuma, the producer, and Mr. Fujibayashi, the director, said jokingly, “How about we go to Ganon totally empty-handed?” There are so many ways to play this game. You can use any kind of weapon, you can even steal weapons from enemies, people are free to find their own style of fighting.

Please look forward to it.

---

Did you enjoy our article series over these last six weeks? If you felt just a little nostaliga, we’re happy.
With the Nintendo Classic Mini Family Computer, you can enjoy 30 classic games including the original The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link. Please go ahead and give it a try!

Also, next year the new The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be released for Wii U and Nintendo Switch. I’m sure you will be able to feel Zelda’s freshness.
Thank you for staying with us to the end.

---

edited by: 企画部　ひろＰ (HiroP)

Original article: 『ゼルダの伝説』30周年によせて。

Original text and images are copyright by 任天堂株式会社

List of related articles:

1. A look at the “puzzle solved” sound in the original The Legend of Zelda
2. I started up a Famicom Disk System that was slumbering in the depths of the storehouse
3. Why was The Adventure of Link so unusual?
4. Comparing the Hyrule of the Past and the Present
5. The Legend of Zelda’s 30th birthday

 

Comparing the Hyrule of the Past and the Present

This is a translation of an article on Nintendo of Japan’s website; part 4 of a 6-part series on The Legend Of Zelda in celebration of the series’ 30th anniversary. Translation mine, all other contents, text, images are copyright by 任天堂株式会社. See below for a link to the original article.

Part 4 of our six-week The Legend of Zelda nostalgia project is about “the Hyrule of the past and the present“.

The next addition to the series, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, scheduled for release in 2017, is set in the same Hyrule as the first The Legend of Zelda game from 1986. For this article, I compared these two worlds of Hyrule from differing eras.

Comparison No. 1: The Old Man

Start playing either game and you’ll soon meet the Old Man. In the first game, you will receive the sword from him. How kind he is…

In the new game, he won’t give you any weapons. Instead, you can help yourself to the roasted apples and torches he keeps at his side. In this game, you have to find your own weapons by snatching them away from enemies. Talk about survival skills!

Comparison No. 2: Spectacle Rock

In the first game, there is a place where two boulders are lined up. If you step back a bit, they look like a pair of spectacles. That’s why the place is called “Spectacle Rock”.
And indeed, Spectacle Rock makes an appearance in the new game as well. They’re more mountains than boulders, but they are clearly shaped like spectacles, don’t you think? You’ll have to see for yourself when the game is released.

 

Comparison No. 3: The Raft

The first game had a raft that moved automatically as a means to cross bodies of water. A raft exists in the new game, too.
When you have to cross rivers and can’t swim through them because of the intense cold, the raft is indispensable. If you look closely, you can see that Link seems to be able to make his own wind. That’s right, in the new game, he can cross rivers by creating wind at will and steering the raft in any direction of his choosing.

Comparison No. 4: Skulls

Finally, I compared game objects shaped like skulls. In the first game, the rooms of the last dungeon formed the shape of a skull.

In the new game, there are skull-shaped enemy hideouts. You can make use of their shape, for example by dropping one of the lanterns that can be seen in the eyes, to sweep all of the enemies at once.

What do you think? I heard that there are many more connections like that between the original The Legend of Zelda and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Searching for them seems like a good way to enjoy the games.
See you next time!

---

edited by: 企画部　ひろＰ (HiroP)

Original article: ハイラルの今と昔を比べてみた

Original text and images are copyright by 任天堂株式会社

List of related articles:

1. A look at the “puzzle solved” sound in the original The Legend of Zelda
2. I started up a Famicom Disk System that was slumbering in the depths of the storehouse
3. Why was The Adventure of Link so unusual?
4. Comparing the Hyrule of the Past and the Present
5. The Legend of Zelda’s 30th birthday

 

Why was The Adventure of Link so unusual?

This is a translation of an article on Nintendo of Japan’s website; part 3 of a 6-part series on The Legend Of Zelda in celebration of the series’ 30th anniversary. Translation mine, all other contents, text, images are copyright by 任天堂株式会社. See below for a link to the original article.

For part 3 of our six-week The Legend of Zelda nostalgia project, I am going to interview one of the developers involved in making The Adventure of Link and find out why this game is so unique among the series’ titles. The person I’m going to talk to is The Adventure of Link‘s director, Tadashi Sugiyama.

◆ Tadashi Sugiyama’s profile

Personality: young at heart!
Hobbies: bicycling, mountain climbing
Favorite food: Ramen

Titles he has worked on include The Adventure of Link (his first), Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, F-Zero X, Wii Fit, and Steel Diver, among many others.

I’m going to ask him some questions I imagine you readers might have. I put them together Q&A style. Enjoy!

---

Q1: I think The Adventure of Link is a unique game in the Legend of Zelda series. How did its development get started at the time?

Mr. Sugiyama’s response: We started based on these few words by Mr. [Shigeru] Miyamoto: “I want to make a side-scrolling action game where you can attack and defend both upwards and downwards.“ Actions like attacking while jumping, downwards-stabbing and defending high and low with the shield became the focus. Things you couldn’t do in the first game. Originally, rather than producing a sequel, we worked on a new type of game experience where you’d use a shield and sword and could move them up and down. We didn’t have the game system of the first part in mind. What today is called a „unique entry in the series“ was rather our struggle to create a new play style altogether, more of a side story. We added in the story and a setting with a 16-year old Link, attached „The Legend of Zelda 2“ to the title, and released it as the second part of the series.

---

Q2: What was the development environment like at the time?

 

Mr. Sugiyama’s reply: To be honest, I remember very little from what happened 30 years ago… (wry smile) Back then about 10 people worked on developing one title, very few people compared to today. I think the development time for The Adventure of Link was rather long for a title at the time. Data was exchanged in paper form, which seems old-fashioned these days.

---

Q3: Why did you decide to call it “The Adventure of Link”?

Mr. Sugiyama’s reply: I’d say because the title “The Adventure of Link” summarizes the game’s content neatly… (I don’t remember.) The first game was “The Legend of Zelda”, and at the time there weren’t many games with epic titles like “The Legend of…” or “The Adventure of…”, so we decided on calling it that, I think.

---

Q4: I had a very hard time fighting the enemies in the game. Was this degree of difficulty considered normal by players back then?

Mr. Sugiyama’s reply: Difficult game, isn’t it? (laughs) Basically, all of the action games from that period seem to be difficult. The games weren’t very rich in content, so to lengthen the play time, we made them so hard that it took some time to beat them. We had to do everything ourselves, including the debugging, and so we played the game a lot. We raised the difficulty to a level that felt entertaining to us.

I remember one story. A customer called and asked, “Why can’t I defeat the final boss?” We talked to him and realized he already had all of the equipment. We had to tell him there’s no other way to beat the game but to rely on your own skill. That was a hard thing to tell someone. And he seemed to be playing for his child… We were very sorry.

---

Q5: Things like leveling up Link and meeting enemies in random encounters (symbol encounters) are unique to The Adventure of Link. How did it get this way?

Mr. Sugiyama’s reply: While there were various limitations at the time, we added an element of repeatedly fighting enemies to level up Link. About the random encounters, since the field map was so small, we used that method to introduce an element of luck.

---

Q6: In your opinion, what elements of The Adventure of Link influenced the later titles in the Legend of Zelda series?

Mr. Sugiyama’s reply: I wasn’t directly involved in the series’ later games, but as an example, the names of the towns in The Adventure of Link were later used as names for characters (the town of Saria, Ruto, and Rauru, among others). Also, swordfighting action elements like attacking with the jump stab and the downwards stab were influenced by The Adventure of Link.

Saria

Ruto

Rauru

---

Q7: Lastly, how about a message for the fans for whom The Adventure of Link is their favourite among the Legend of Zelda games?

Mr. Sugiyama’s reply: People like that exist!? (laughs) I’m just kidding. I’m very grateful to hear people say that. As a creator, it makes me so happy that you are so much into it. Thank you. It’s been 30 years since its release; please continue giving The Adventure of Link your love!

---

And with that, Mr. Sugiyama has dragged up memories from 30 years ago and answered, one by one, very politely, all of this youngster’s ignorant questions. Thank you very much, Mr. Sugiyama, that was very kind of you.

I bet this cleared up some of the questions you guys might have had.

See you all next time.

---

edited by: 企画部　ひろＰ (HiroP) 

Original article: なぜ『リンクの冒険』は当たり前にならなかったのか？

Original text and images are copyright by 任天堂株式会社

List of related articles:

1. A look at the “puzzle solved” sound in the original The Legend of Zelda
2. I started up a Famicom Disk System that was slumbering in the depths of the storehouse
3. Why was The Adventure of Link so unusual?
4. Comparing the Hyrule of the Past and the Present
5. The Legend of Zelda’s 30th birthday

 

I started up a Famicom Disk System that was slumbering in the depths of the storehouse

This is a translation of an article on Nintendo of Japan’s website; part 2 of a 6-part series on The Legend Of Zelda in celebration of the series’ 30th anniversary. Translation mine, all other contents, text, images are copyright by 任天堂株式会社. See below for a link to the original article.

For part 2 of our six-week The Legend of Zelda nostalgia project, I’d like to try and start up the hardware and software that were used to run The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link at the time of their release.

At the time the titles were released (1986 to 1987), I wasn’t born yet, and so I’ve never laid hands on an actual Famicom Disk System.

First of all, I went to look for the Famicoms and a Disk Systems that are slumbering in the company storehouse.

There they were, more than I expected. I took one of the Famicoms and Disk Systems each. Then I opened the Famicom box.

Oh, so that’s what the original Famicom was like. It was smaller than I expected.

Also, look at the third picture. What on earth is that Y-shaped connector…?

This was the contents of the Disk System box. This one was larger than I expected.

If we combine this with the Famicom we get…

I like the way those two look like when being put together. The final step was hooking them up to the TV. After struggling a bit without success, I asked some of my more experienced coworkers in the office. It seems like I needed to use a CRT TV…

You hardly see those around anymore lately. I went back into the storehouse, looking for a CRT TV.  Eventually I found one.

With help from my coworkers and after fiddling with the Famicom and the Disk System and the TV for about 30 minutes, I successfully connected the devices. At last… power ON!

While I didn’t feel any nostalgia myself, turning the power on made coworkers and bosses gather round the TV. At last I inserted a disk!

A chorus of „Oooh!”s could be heard, and the office seemed to become all warm and fuzzy. Satisfied with the reaction, I packed up again and started to carry everything back to the storehouse, when something caught my eye.

This is a machine that was used to write on the disks, called a “Disk Writer”. Back then, it was possible to overwrite a disk with other software titles. These devices used to be placed in game shops.

---

edited by: 企画部　ひろＰ

Original article: 倉庫の奥に眠ってた「ファミリーコンピュータ ディスクシステム」を起動してみた

Original text and images are copyright by 任天堂株式会社

List of related articles:

1. A look at the “puzzle solved” sound in the original The Legend of Zelda
2. I started up a Famicom Disk System that was slumbering in the depths of the storehouse
3. Why was The Adventure of Link so unusual?
4. Comparing the Hyrule of the Past and the Present
5. The Legend of Zelda’s 30th birthday

A look at the “puzzle solved” sound in the original The Legend of Zelda

This is a translation of an article on Nintendo of Japan’s website; part 1 of a 6-part series on The Legend Of Zelda in celebration of the series’ 30th anniversary. Translation mine, all other contents, text, images are copyright by 任天堂株式会社. See below for a link to the original article.

Hello everybody, this is HiroP. I’m in charge of advertisement for The Legend Of Zelda.

Last week, the Nintendo Classic Family Computer has been announced. It will feature a compilation of 30 classic titles, including The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link.

Since it’s also Zelda’s 30th anniversary, we are going to release six weekly articles between today and the release of the Nintendo Classic Family Computer. They’re going to be full of nostaliga for these two classic games. You’re welcome to spend the time until the release with us.

This week’s article is about the original The Legend of Zelda.

I’m sure many people have fond memories of solving puzzles in The Legend of Zelda, and the “puzzle solved” sound that plays at those times.

Click to play audio

Most of you probably know the “puzzle solved” sound in the original The Legend of Zelda game from 30 years ago. Now, here is our question.

@ZeldaOfficialJP (Official Zelda Twitter account)
Surprise quiz!
Q: If you play through the original The Legend of Zelda game from beginning to end, how often will you hear the “puzzle solved” sound?
2016-10-4 09:12
14% 55 times
33% 75 times
36% 95 times
17% 115 times
final result: 16,836 replies
1,874 1,874 retweets – 1,066 likes

(snapshot of the tweet at the time of writing, 2016-11-23)

Send your answers to the official The Legend of Zelda Twitter account. Please understand that there will be no prizes for correct answers. We will announce the result of our research on October 6th (Thu).

---

* 2016-10-06 Update

Despite the short time limit, 16,836 people have submitted their answer. Thank you all for replying. Now we will announce the correct answer.

Since not even the developers knew the answer, I had to actually play through the game to check. Have a look at this short video that I’ve compiled.

Checking everywhere without any hints using the bomb and candle wasn’t easy, but somehow I made it to the end…

And the correct answer is: 75 times! (result by HiroP)

Congratulations to everyone who got it right. I can feel how much love you have for Zelda.

To those who didn’t get it right, I can feel your ambition to learn more about Zelda.

By the way, I also checked the “puzzle solved” sounds in The Adventure of Link.

Well, I was surprised myself to learn that in The Adventure of Link the familiar “puzzle solved” doesn’t make an appearance! (result by HiroP)

That game feels totally different from Legend of Zelda in the first place. Why in the world is it so different from the other games in the series…?

See you all next time!

---

edited by: 企画部　ひろＰ (HiroP)

original article: 初代『ゼルダの伝説』の謎解き音の回数を調べてみた

Original text and images are copyright by 任天堂株式会社

List of related articles:

1. A look at the “puzzle solved” sound in the original The Legend of Zelda
2. I started up a Famicom Disk System that was slumbering in the depths of the storehouse
3. Why was The Adventure of Link so unusual?
4. Comparing the Hyrule of the Past and the Present
5. The Legend of Zelda’s 30th birthday