The lost Zelda games and other related stuff

[NeoZeedeater]

Being one of the most popular franchises in gaming history, The Legend of Zelda series needs no introduction. Almost every game in the series is well known to gamers. This thread is about the few Zelda releases that are obscure to most gamers and some other stuff that might appeal to Zelda fans.

In Japan the Super Famicom had a peripheral released by Bandai called the Satellaview(BS-X). This device allowed the user to download games and other content. Nintendo supported it with a number of games including Zelda titles.

One was a remake of the original NES game. The graphics and sound were upgraded, the dungeons altered and instead of Link the main character was the Satellaview mascot. A female character could be chosen as well. The game had a time limit but there are patches now to play the game without the time limit, in English, and with Link.
http://www.ganonstower.com/Bs_zld00.gif
http://www.ganonstower.com/Bs_zld04.gif

BS Legend of Zelda: Kodai no Sekiban(the translated version is called Ancient Stone Tablets) was based on A Link to the Past's engine and locations and was divided into four separate downloads. I only tried this briefly on emulation since it still has some graphics issues and doesn't run correctly.
http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/sekibanpics/sekibangirl3.gif
http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/sekibanpics/sekibanboy3.gif

A Link to the Past was also released on Satellaview, mostly unchanged from the regular cartridge version.

More info and pics of the BS-X games can be found here- http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/bszelda.shtml

Three atrocious looking Zelda games were made for the CD-i multimedia machine. I haven't played any of them although I remember seeing the first one in an infomercial.

Link: The Faces of Evil(1993)
This one was a side-scroller where you play as Link.
http://www.puissance-zelda.com/Screenshots/FOE3.jpg

Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon(1993)
This one was a side-scroller where you play as Zelda.
http://www.sara.to/sigure/game/g17/p07.jpg

Zelda's Adventure(1995)
This one was an overhead action/adventure game where you play as Zelda.
http://www.parnasas.com/PopArena/Articles/potato/1newgraphics/cdi5.jpg
http://www.parnasas.com/PopArena/Articles/potato/1newgraphics/cdi3.jpg

More info on the CD-i games - http://www.parnasas.com/PopArena/Articles/cdi.html

Another game I feel is worth mentioning is Nintendo's Marvelous for the Super Famicom. This 1996 adventure game was the first game directed by Eiji Aonuma who is now in charge of the Zelda series. Marvelous was more puzzle oriented and has less action than the Zelda games. You controlled three different characters; sometimes you needed to use one character, sometimes all three. The recent Four Swords games revisited that type of gameplay. There were also BS-X versions of Marvelous like the one shown here.
http://www.nintendoland.com/graphics/screens/marvelous_2.gif

http://www.vgmuseum.com/pics/marvelous.html

Being immensely popular, the Zelda series has had its fair share of imitators and similar games from Compile's Golvellius to SNK's Crystalis to Nextech's Crusader of Centy. However, I don't consider these rip offs or clones per se, just games in the same genre.

There are a few games that mimic Zelda enough to head into rip off territory although they are of high enough quality that I would certainly recommend them to Zelda fans. The first two were released before Zelda 3 on SNES and in many ways they improved upon the Zelda 1 formula.

Golden Axe Warrior(Sega, SMS, 1991)
http://www.vgfreak.com/images/screens/gawarrior.gif

Neutopia(NEC/Hudson, TG16, 1989 Japan/1990)
http://dorando.emuverse.com/images/neutopia.u_02.png

Neutopia II(NEC/Hudson, TG16, 1991 Japan/1992)
http://www.pcengine.com.br/cards/neutopia2/NEUTO21.GIF

Another game that looks like a Zelda rip off(at least the dungeons) is Sunsoft's 1986 Famicom Disk game Adian no Tsue. I haven't been able to find it to try it out though.
http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/fds/01/2.htm

What are your thoughts on all these? Discuss anything related to the topic.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Golvellius is one of my personal favorites

as for the, three CD-I titles, they are comical and totally "80s" so to speak, but when Link has more makeup on then Prince...something is wrong in Hyrule...to me, this was the TRUE Face of Evil

Awesome NeoZee, the NES remake "BS Zelda" is pretty solid

[Cryomancer]

I've been trying to figure out what that Marvelous game was for awhile now, I think it was in nintendo power once and i'd since forgotten the title. Thanks!

My girlfriend has been playing a game recently called "Maid In Bunny" (at least, that's what the filenames all say) where you play a bunnygirl maid through several dungeons and puzzles, general zelda-style genre gameplay. It's also, oddly, a hentai game, after you beat bosses the guy following you has sex with them or something, it's odd. The gameplay itself looks pretty good, I helped try and solve a few push puzzles and they were actually pretty challenging, so it's not just a quick zelda ripoff with some tits thrown in. I have no idea how you'd optain it legally but there are ripped versions floating around, it is for PC, and you CAN use a gamepad with it.

[cr0n0]

Anyone know where I can get a copy of the NES Zelda remake?? It looks freaking sweet. :o

[kainemaxwell]

Another great article!!

[imanerd0011]

Thanks for the info. I didn't know about the Zelda games that were available on Satellite.
I LOVE Crystalis!!! It is one of my favorite games ever, and I consider it to be a far better game than the original LOZ (although LOZ is one of my favorites as well).
I am thinking about getting a Genesis, because I really want to play Crusader of Centy and Beyond Oasis. I have heard that both of them are very similar to Zelda games, and they are both very fun as well.

[Cirrus]

Thanks for posting this article, it was interesting. So, are there translated versions of these BS Zelda games and/or Marvelous online floating around?

[MegaDrive20XX]

Thanks for posting this article, it was interesting. So, are there translated versions of these BS Zelda games and/or Marvelous online floating around?

I believe so, I've played BS Zelda once before on Emu

[Lady Jaye]

The BS Zelda was fan-translated and dumped on the Web. I remember downloading it before. The best would be to do a Google search for "Zelda BS ROM".

[it290]

Other good Zelda-likes include Dark Arms for the NGPC, and Beyond Oasis and Crusader of Centy for the Genesis.

[NeoZeedeater]

You can find the BS Zelda patched games here - http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/bszelda.shtml

Ancient Stone Tablet runs screwy but the remake of the original seems to have no problems.

There is no translation for Marvelous unfortunately. Work was started on one but I think the project was cancelled.

[Richter]

how bad is Zelda's Adventure?

[Lady Jaye]

In the patched dump of BS Zelda, is the time limit removed/unlimited? It's not very clear on the website linked above.

[NeoZeedeater]

Yeah, the one labeled Player's Choice has the time limit removed.

[Aussie2B]

Wow, I've always felt like the only person in existence that knew of Marvelous. I'm surprised to see anybody talking about it. o_O

It's a REALLY amazing game. Very appropriately titled. ;) That fact that it came out in 1996 is really clear. The graphics are gorgeous, the music is stunning, and it's just so polished and well-designed. While it's true that it has its similarities to Zelda (in particular Zelda: A Link to the Past), like how the hammer is almost EXACTLY like the Zelda 3 hammer, I still consider it a very different, unique experience. In fact, the only game that is truly like Marvelous IS Marvelous. It's almost like if you took a point-and-click adventure and put it in a Zelda 3 style action interface. However, actual fighting is almost nonexistent (when you do fight, it's in a "puzzle" kinda way), and the puzzles are very different from your generic "push a block, light the torches, etc." Zelda puzzle. They're so creative and integrated with the plot and progression of the game. And when you factor in the teamwork of all three boys, each with his own special abilities, it's just brilliantly innovative. I'm not exaggerating when I say they're the best puzzles I've EVER experienced in any game. And man, the game has a great sense of humor. :) There are so many wacky things to do like playing janken (rock/paper/scissors) with monkeys and playing matchmaker with a bunch of lovesick penguins, hehe.

I know there's no patch for the game, but it's really worth it to tough it out in Japanese, in my opinion. When I first got the game a couple years ago, there was only one guide on GameFAQs about it, and while it's a very good guide, it's incomplete. I had to figure out the last couple chapters on my own. However, now I see another person wrote a guide in 2004, and it's complete and looks very well written. Now there's no reason why anybody can't play and complete the game. :)

Oh, and the packaging is really cool too. I absolutely love the box art, and the manual is cool because they used sort of rough paper to make it like an old treasure map. :)

[Jive3D]

Aside from my fandom of all Zelda games (even the CD-i games, I acknowledge that they are complete crap, but I had fun with them when they were released)...

But, I really loved the Neutopia games. The two games were SOLID. The gameplay was there, the story was great, and not much a ripoff, the graphics were there and on top of that you could play it anywhere ont he Turbo Express. I had many plane trips as a kid playing those two.

SPOILER*****

To this day, it really pisses me off that Neutopia III was never released. I never even read any information about it other than the teaser at the end of Neutopia II - where after the credits roll, the evil Gannon-like guy (was it Dirth?) reaches from the pile of rubble a-la Shredder in TMNT 2 (the movie). Then the words "Neutopia III - 199X" flashed on the screen. Only to make me wait indefinately. :angry:

[Snapple]

I don't think the CD-I games are "lost" so much as people just don't want to find them.

If you're talking Zelda clones, you HAVE to include Gunple: Gunman's Proof. It's a Super Famicom game that has indeed been fan-translated.

But take a look at the screenshot and tell me it's not a blatant ripoff of Link to the Past.

http://agtp.romhack.net/images/ganpuru/0D.png

http://agtp.romhack.net/images/ganpuru/0B.png

It's really not a bad game, but it's not great either. It'll be more fun if you don't expect it to live up to Zelda.

[Jasoco]

I would want to find the CD-i games just to have. Also, to play on the CD-i player I found at work. But mainly just to have so I can say, "Look what Nintendo let them do to Zelda once.."

[Jorpho]

IGN covered the BS and CD-i games at http://ign64.ign.com/articles/100/100005p1.html , but all the links are subscriber-only (except for #11). The videos might still exist in the site somewhere.

Speaking of the BS games, has anyone tried running Ancient Stone Tablets with Super Sleuth? Apparently, it has explicit support for the BS-X BIOS ROM, and so the game just might work a little better.

[MegaDrive20XX]

oh this reminds me of the N64 Zelda title that was canned for N64DD

"Zelda URA" which later became "Zelda Master Quest" for GameCube

But if you backtrack, you'll notice brand new areas to explore, like a swamp area was going to be added, yet notice this idea was added to Majora's Mask?

I wonder what percentage this game was fiinished at before Nintendo ceased the N64DD

[Damon Plus]

I think Willow is pretty good. Is not a rip-off like Golden Axe Warrior but it´s similar

[joshnickerson]

Wow, I've always felt like the only person in existence that knew of Marvelous. I'm surprised to see anybody talking about it. o_O

As soon as I heard "Marvelous", I instantly remembered that Nintendo Power had it featured in their Epic Center many years ago. I don't remember much, except they were going nuts over it and hoping for a US release.

[Aussie2B]

I think they pretty much knew there was zero chance of a US release, but the coverage was still really nice. They made some funny mistakes, though, like saying the name of the main boy was "Dino" when it's actually "Dion". :P That article was basically the sole reason that convinced me to buy the game. They really covered the best of the best Japan-exclusive RPGs back then. Their articles convinced me to import a lot of games (Star Ocean, Wonder Project J 1 & 2, Dragon Quest 6, Fire Emblem, Marvelous, Tales of Phantasia, etc.), and not a single one has disappointed me.