My History with the Zelda Series

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The “My History With…” series are my thoughts back when I was a kid to young adult, about when I got games of a series, my initial thoughts about them, and other thoughts about the games. I stick to games I have or had, not one I played for the first time when i discovered emulation or modern system remakes. 

I’ve loved the Zelda games ever since playing the 1st one as a kid! I’ve only played most of the older titles up to the 2 N64 titles, and having recently finished GB Link’s Awakening DX via emulation and needing to finish GBA Minish Cap. I still have my copies of Zelda 1 and 2 for the NES, Ocarina of Time for N64, and Link to the past for SNES! I could never quite get into N64’s Majora’s Mask sadly. I figured for the series 35th birthday this year in 2021, I’d write out my thoughts on those 4 titles I still have, and some thoughts on Link’s Awakening and Majora’s Mask as well! One my next goals is to finally play the Game Boy Oracle series since those are the last of the older games I haven’t sat down with. In the future I may finally give Majora’s Mask another try and try Wind Waker via the Dolphin emulator if my pc can handle it! At the end of this post will be a few snapshot of pages from the Nintendo Power comic trade, and the Hyrule Historia to share.

 

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Hack Showcase: Mega Man 3 Revamped Hack (NES)

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Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Released by TheSkipper1995, this hack is a combination of work from KujaKiller’s Mega Man 3 Improvement Hack, along with other improvements and editions from DangerDoodle, DurfarC, and MartsINY. This hack builds upon the changes from the Improvement hack with some new enemy ai, level designs, graphics and more. The changes from the Improvement Hack are still intact like the new opening, the top spin being useful, weapon selecting with the select button, etc. Others includes:

  • Liberal changes to level design to make more interesting and engaging use of enemies, hazards, and stage gimmicks; most notably longer Dr. Wily stages with over 40 screens of additional, challenging content!
  • Improved utility to Hard Knuckle which can be aimed much faster, Needle Cannon which has a much faster auto-fire rate, and Gemini Laser which doubles its speed after ricocheting once!
  • Significant added graphical detail to many stages and cutscenes including Top Man, Hard Man, Snake Man, Gemini Man, and Spark Man!
  • Additional fixes to several stray bugs that went unnoticed in Mega Man 3 Improvement!
  • A restructured story line that keeps Break Man’s secret hidden until the final act!
  • Changes to boss hitboxes and a.i. to be both less frustrating and more challenging!

Version 1.1 Update:

  • Updated bug fixes from Kuja Killer’s latest Improvement patch version 2.2.2
  • Very minor tweaks to level design and damage value balancing based on feedback.

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Hack Showcase: Ninja Gaiden 1 Restoration & Ninja Gaiden 3 Restored Hacks Reviews

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Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Released by CF, this set of hacks aim to bring the US NG1 closer to its Japanese counterpart and removing a bug that has plagued gamers for years. (Note because there isn’t that much to say aside from the hack changes for NG1 and Ng3, I’m doubling up on these reviews.) From the RHDN page for this list of changes:

Changes for the restoration patch:

  • The player is sent to level 6-3 rather than 6-1 upon dying against the final boss trio.
  • Item placements are reverted to their Japanese originals, as evident in stages such as 4-1 where they reach the very top of the screen again.
  • Ken’s name is changed to Joe like in the Japanese version and 3D series. Ninja Dragon is also changed to Dragon Ninja.
  • Typos and grammatical errors are fixed such as Irene’s “your safe” line.
  • Lines containing “damn” and “hell” from the unfinished script (which ultimately made their way into Ninja Gaiden Trilogy for the SNES) are restored.

Additional changes for the free movement patch:

  • The player’s backwards jumping momentum is the same as their forward jumping momentum.
  • The player suffers no horizontal knockback.
  • The timer is permanently frozen.
  • A few new item placements are provided. For example, stage 3 was the only level in the original game not to contain the Jump & Slash technique, so it is added to 3-2.

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Hack Showcase: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Redux (N64)

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Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Released by Maroc and his team, this hack adds a lot to ocarina of time with quality of life improvements and more. A number of graphics were removed and others restored, the speed of text scrolls a lot faster now along with other gameplay elements. An extra hack called master Quest is included (no idea if it’s like the official Master Quest with the gamecube port) for an additional challenge. This hack can be patched normally or using the Patcher64 program where you can change the hack to your liking, along with changing some colors of link’s clothes and Navi, and change the sounds from objects! Want to make Navi squawk like a chicken instead of saying “Hey listen!”, you can! Note: this review was done with a customized OoT Redux hack patch using the Patcher64 tool.

Main Features:

  • Text speed now goes 2 times as fast as the original, matching Majora’s Mask and Ocarina of Time 3D.
  • Text revamp, restored and revised based on subsequent releases of Ocarina of Time.
  • Fixed graves behavior like in subsequent versions.
  • Properly center the “Navi” text in the C-Up button.
  • Collecting Gold Skulltulla Tokens no longer freezes the player but allows it to continue moving. This is similar to what happens in Majora’s Mask spider houses.
  • D-PAD can be used to quickly access ocarina and iron/hover boots.
  • Rupee color of the rupee count indicator now changes in color to reflect the wallet upgrade possessed.
  • Stone of Agony now works even without rumble. An icon will appear over the rupee count when in proximity of a hidden grotto.
  • Farore’s Wind does not get dispelled through time travel and can be used independently by child and adult Link.
  • The bunny hood now works like in Majora’s Mask boosting movement speed when worn.
  • Bombchu Bowling prizes now appear in fixed order instead of random (Rotation being: piece of heart, purple rupee, bomb bag capacity upgrade, bombs).
  • Fishing made easier by guaranteeing biting, but keeps the fish size RNG from the original game. Continue reading →

Mega Man Derusting: Mega Man 4 (NES)

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So I have a long history with the Mega Man games growing up. I came up with the Mega Man Derusting series to do such a task. The goal is to play and finish the Mega Man classic series along with most of the X series and some other Mega Man titles. I still have some of my Mega Man and X carts and discs and hadn’t really played them in years but I wanted to share my adventures on stream of relearning my way through the classic titles, and in some cases finish the later games to completion! 

THE REVIEW: This was the last of the Mega Man classic games I had as a kid. I think I had gotten 1, 3, and 4 for Christmas various years and got 2 much later when I got into game collecting. I loved this one as much as the others, and the new mega buster was great! I was disappointed that the passwords didn’t save energy tanks either, and the game was rough to get through compared to the others. I never finished this one when I was younger cause I would get snagged up in Wily’s Castle with little weapon and energy left. Mega Man 4 is also the start of the second NES trilogy where you fight your way through a villain’s castle, before fighting Dr Wily (again), which adds to the difficulty, and new gameplay elements and older ones changed are in 4-6 too. In this adventure Dr. Cossack made 8 Robot masters to take over the world, to the surprise of Mega Man and he has to fight them and this new Doctor. Is it a trap?

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Retreorevisited: SMB 1-3 & Super Mario World (NES & SNES)

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Retrorevisited is a stream series where I revisit a game or a game series I haven’t played in over 10 or 20+ years. I’ll go through to try see what I remember until a game over or I run out of continues. In some cases muscle memory may slowly return, in others probably not. This is a chance for me to revisit games of my youth that I still have or had at one point, playing them with and without nostalgia goggles, and do with mini-reviews of them too. If I decide to play any fully later and do a full review, parts of the mini-review would be incorporated into it. Depending on the playstyle or system, games reviewed will either be mini-reviews or one about all games in this session.

Who doesn’t know the Super Mario games if you’ve played any Nintendo system throughout the years? SMB1 was probably the first NES game anyone played when the game was first released. First time i played i was horrible since I wasn’t used to a gamepad, having mainly used keyboards and joysticks on Atari systems and the C64. SMB1 was a great showcase to what the system had to offer in 1985, as did the later releases of SMB2 in 1988 and SMB3 in 1990. SMB2 was so different than the previous game, it wasn’t until later we learned it was a repackaged Famicom Disk System game called Doki Doki Panic. SMB3 we saw for the first time in the movie The Wizard and it was another big hit and added so much to the series.

First time I played SMB before I had a NES I was amazed at the gameplay and graphics, and i was horrible at it learning how to use a gamepad rather than a joystick. When i got my NES i still enjoyed SMB quite a bit. SMB2 first time i played was at friends homes, and I enjoyed the difference between that and the first game, never really owned it i think until getting Mario All-Stars. Like most people i got my first glimpse of SMB3 watching The Wizard and the advertisements in Nintendo Power. this game was perfect and i loved exploring all the worlds, warping to see what was up ahead, and the new outfits for Mario!

Remember your first time playing Super Mario World, seeing Mario and the gang in 16bit colors? Then trying to learn how to use a snes controller with 4 buttons and the 2 shoulder pads on the side? I didn’t play SMW till later when I got my snes, but I think first time might have been the cart when I first got my SNES, or when it was repackaged with Super Mario All-Stars.

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Hack Showcase: Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past Redux ver 10.1 (Updated 9/21/2022) (SNES)

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Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Zelda Link to the Past Redux is another lovely hack released by Shadowone333 and his team. This one is a combination of his team’s work and that of the Link to the Past DX hack by Con and qwertymodo. This one added improvements to the graphics, quality of life features, and restored some censored content from the original release. The FMV opening was also restored!!

A Link to the Past Redux provides two main patches (either of which can be applied without the need of the other):

  • New inventory GFX starting from version 7.0, which gives individual slots to every item, including one per each bottle and the shovel is handled as a separate and permanent item. Ocarina and Golden Bee names have been fixed manually for this too.
  • New Retranslation patch, a companion to main Redux. This patch provides a completely new and unique retranslation of the game’s script provided by the Translation Quest team that is primarily faithful to the Japanese text. (NOTE: This is an independent patch and should NOT be patched over the main Redux patch, but all optional patches should be compatible with it.)

As for the main changes for Redux:

  • Max consumables for Bombs and Arrows are now 60 for Bombs and 99 for Arrows
  • Change Link’s hair and hat to closely match his original artwork.
  • Change Agahnim colors to match the original red robe and blue skin artwork.
  • Changed Uncle’s sprite to match official artwork.
  • Change the Flute’s name to Ocarina (I don’t know in what world that instrument is a flute). This includes in-game text and Credits name changed too.
  • Change the Good Bee’s name to Golden Bee.
  • Change Faerie to Fairy. This includes in-game text too.
  • Change Pegasus Shoes to Pegasus Boots. This includes in-game text too.
  • Change all the references of the “Wise Men” to “Sages”.
  • Change the layout of the Ice Palace to that of the GBA port. No more going around the entire palace just to get to the next room. As of v2.0, the Ice Palace new layout has been fixed to have 3 movable blocks in the new section. There was one movable block unused in one other Dungeon layout found in Room 240. (Why was it there?)
  • King of Hyrule now has a red outfit instead of green to match the rest of the franchise’s Kings of Hyrule (Like Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule from WW).
  • Permanent Shovel, as well as being able to dig up items with it in the overworld.
  • Skip the Title Screen sequence by pressing Start, you no longer have to wait until the Triforce and title screen finish their animation.

There’s also a number of optional patches to add!

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Hack Showcase: Legend of Zelda Redux (NES) (Revised 4/14/2023)

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Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Zelda 1 Redux aims to fix and improve a lot of this amazing game with new graphics, font from the Famicom Disk System version, cleaner interface and other quality of life features. Released by Shadowone333 and his team, this hack improves a lot and more on Zelda 1 with different graphics, quality of life improvements, a new overworld map, increased rupee capacity up to 999, slight change in graphics for where to bomb or light a candle, and more! Optional patches include changing some of the graphics and changes back to their original, removing the annoying beeping when low on health and more! I need to give this a try on my own for both quests!

From the Changelog:

  • MMC1 and MMC5 versions. This was done so that users that want to go the reproduction cartridge route, can use the MMC1 version (and for compatibility sake). For emulation, any of the two versions can be interchanged.
  • Save manually with Up+A when in the Items Subscreen
  • Reworked heart HUD to match Zelda 2 Redux
  • Relocalization of the game’s script to better match the Japanese release, or have better hints altogether. Based on the Legends of Localization book/webpage (Except the two iconic “Take this” and “It’s a secret” lines)
  • Make the Blue tunic more vibrant
  • Increment the initial bomb max. amount to 10 instead of 8
  • Increment the bomb upgrades by 10 instead of the original 4. First upgrade should give you 20 bombs, second will be 30.
  • Faster text printing
  • Modify the Sword beam to only be active when at full health/heart, and stop shooting when the life gets to 3/4 of a heart
  • Modify certain item names to better match subsequent official names in the franchise (Rupee, Fairy, Heart Container, etc.)
  • Change the Red and Blue rings to Red and Blue tunics
  • Introduction text rewrite
  • Reimplementation of the warning screen from version PRG1 upon Game Over / Saving
  • Slight modifications to the title screen to give the “ZELDA” title a red color (modified fading palettes to match this change too)
  • Possibly also add a breakable tile hint for overworld tiles
  • Automap Plus, but modify it to have 1/4 heart decrements instead of 1/8 (this is needed in order to make space in sprite PPU for the next point (#3)
  • Visible hint for breakable walls in Dungeons (already implemented, just need sprite space for the left walls)
  • Remove the 1 Rupee flashing (couldn’t be made green due to palette limitations) Continue reading →

Retrorevisited: Contra/Super C (NES)

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Retrorevisited is a stream series where I revisit a game or a game series I haven’t played in over 10 or 20+ years. I’ll go through to try see what I remember until a game over or I run out of continues. In some cases muscle memory may slowly return, in others probably not. This is a chance for me to revisit games of my youth that I still have or had at one point, playing them with and without nostalgia goggles, and do with mini-reviews of them too. If I decide to play any fully later and do a full review, parts of the mini-review would be incorporated into it. Depending on the playstyle or system, games reviewed will either be mini-reviews or one about all games in this session.

So I decided to redo my first Retrorevisited on Contra and Super C since the original blog post was in a different format than the one I use currently, and the video wasn’t very good. I don’t have much experience with Contra, but I played the heck out of Super C when I rented it or played it with friends. Somehow i always liked Super C more than Contra itself. I loved the music, graphics and the non-stop action of both games, even if they were both quite hard, and that was even after the Konami Code discovery. For both games I ran it with and without the Konami Code. Contra without the code I got stuck up in stage 2, with the code I finished it!! Super C without i got up to stage 4, with it I got up to stage 6.

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Hack Showcase: Mega Man 2 Megamix (NES)

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Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

The Mega Man 2 Megamix hack is a suite of 4 different hacks put together along with other changes by DannyPlaysSomeGames. This is very well done and adds a lot to MM2 in terms of changing your usual stretegies when you would play, along with making some things easier and bringing a few features in line with the later NES titles. The hack features and other changes include:

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