CGA-2026-08 🗡️🛡️❤️🔺 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Introduction
The Legend of Zelda series celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, and A Link to the Past will have its 35th later this year.
So cast your mind back and let me set the mood. Picture this: the year is 1992 and you're a middle school kid who has saved up enough chore and birthday money to finally get your first new game for the SNES (the one you worked so many chores to save up for when your parents finally allowed you to have a console like the other kids you were so envious of.) You've beaten the Super Mario World game your SNES came with and you're definitely ready for something else.
You're sitting in the back seat of the car as your mother drives you home from the store, holding the box for A Link to the Past in your little hands. You open it up and find a cartridge (of course!). You carefully set that aside.
Next up, there's a detailed manual, because of course nearly all games back then came with some kind of little manual of some kind, or at the very least an instruction pamphlet. You read it cover to cover, because you're that kind of kid.
In the box you also find a little hint pamphlet sealed shut with a bit of adhesive. Tempting, but you want to challenge yourself to get as far as you can before peeking. (You give in a few days later.)
Finally, the ride back from the mall is done and you race downstairs to the den, pop the cartridge into the top of your SNES, and turn everything on. You're greeted with a Triforce in 3D that spins and assembles itself (3D on a console? Witchcraft!), while a short harp arpeggio plays:
Doodloodlooodloodloodloodloodloodl do do do do do Do!
Then the title screen, a sword drop, and a pictaresque castle, moat, and mountains behind them while a fanfare plays:
Bumpa deeee! duhduhdudludlut deeee! duhduhdudludlut deeee! Dee DEE DELAAAAH!!
A moment later, the intro prologue begins giving the back story as tense chords play. Then, the now-famous fairy fountain theme plays as you name your game save ("Link", of course!) and so the game begins. The mood is set as you step outside your house into a storm with a layer of splashing rain, flickering lightning (Wow! Amazing graphics!), crashing thunder and a reprise of the tense music. You binge through the first dungeon or two that day.
It's nearly summer, but school isn't done yet. So each day as soon as you get home from middle school, you can't wait to race down to the shade and the cool relief of the basement den to conquer the next dungeon, get the cool new piece of equipment and see what new areas of the game it opens. (Homework? Homework can wait!) That's the rhythm: one day, one dungeon, just an hour or two a day, until you get to the end.
That's how I first played it and why this game is so special to me. :-)
For First Time Players
Don't be afraid to check the manual and hint book that I linked above. Yes, they spoil things a bit, especially the hint book. But the game shipped with them and they were part of the original experience. And if you pace yourself to one dungeon a day, you should easily get through the game by mid-month. It's not a terribly long game, all told.
Here are a few general, minimal-spoiler hints of my own...
- Throw pots at enemies whenever you can; they are way stronger than the sword early on.
- Positioning is important for sword play! The sword swings in an arc in front and to one side, and you want to try to position yourself so that the arc hits the enemy but they can't hit you easily. For fighting soldiers, consider your handedness and theirs.
- Try the magic powder on unkillable enemies.
- Try jumping into large urns where possible.
- Not all bombable walls require bombs. The ones with a complete arch-shaped crack around them can be opened without spending anything.
- Check behind waterfalls.
- Try throwing things into ponds.
- Pay close attention to discrepancies between the two main maps.
- Potions start to beat fairies in the later game, since you'll have more health than a single fairy can restore.
- The suggested dungeon order in the mid-late game is optional. You can do a few of them in arbitrary order, and this can be advantageous. (One of the hardest puzzles in the game is trivialized if you have the item from the "next" dungeon.)
I think you're in for a treat, and I look forward to hearing your experience with the game, as seen fresh through 2026 eyes.
For Experienced Players
There's a popular randomizer for the game, complete with a Reddit community.. I've never tried it before, but as I've played the vanilla game many times, CGA seems like a fun excuse to finally try the randomizer.
I'll be using this seed if you'd like to join me on it. It uses the "Beginner" preset which seems a good place to start with the randomizer, but with the "Hints" turned on (which I understand means that the telepathic tiles in the dungeons are changed to tell you where some things are). I'm eager to see what insanity the chaos produces.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Versions:
- Super NES (1991/1992): The original!
- Game Boy Advance (2002): A rerelease as part of the The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Four Swords. I've never played this version, but there's a list of differences here.
Platforms: Super NES, Game Boy Advance, Wii, Wii U, New 3DS, Switch, Super NES Classic Edition
Genre(s): Action-adventure, RPG, Puzzle
Stores: Free under the Nintendo Classics library if you have a Nintendo Switch Online or Nintendo Switch 2 Online subscription.
Game Setup
The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the game. As such, it's recommended that you:
- Share which version of the game you're playing
- Share what hardware you're playing it on
- Share if there are any tools/mods that you recommend
- Share anything you think is important for people to know before they start the game
- Ask questions if you need help
Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the game and its time period:
- Do you have any memories or associations with this game itself?
- What about its system or era?
- What aspects of retro gaming were common at the time?
- What other games from the same time period are you familiar with?
- What are you expecting from this game in particular?
Finally, this topic is the beginning discussion for people starting to play it:
- Post updates sharing your thoughts as you play.
- Ask for help if you get stuck.
- Offer help to others.
It is recommended that you reply to your own posts if you are making consecutive updates so that they are in the same thread.
Important
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Any links to the game should be legal distributions of the game only. Please do NOT link to any unauthorized copies.
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Put any spoilers in a dropdown block. Copy/paste the block below if needed.
<details>
<summary>Spoilers</summary>
Spoiler text goes here.
</details>
FAQ
What is CGA?
Colossal Game Adventure (CGA) is Tildes' retro video game club.
Each month we will play a different retro game/games, discuss our thoughts, and bask in the glorious digital experiences of yesteryear!
Colossal Game Adventure is a reference to Colossal Cave Adventure. It's one of the most influential games of all time, one of the first text-based interactive games, and one of the first games to be shared online.
What do we want to do with this group? Play influential games; interact with each other through text; and share the love for retro games online!
It also abbreviates to CGA (because we love chunky pixel art), and its name communicates the Colossal amount of fun and excitement that we have with retro video Games in our shared Adventure of playing them together.
Do I have to sign up?
No. Participation is open to all.
There is a Notification List that will get pinged each time a new topic goes up. If you would like to join that list, please PM u/kfwyre.
Are there restrictions on what/how to play?
Each month will have a focus game or games that will guide our discussions. Beyond that, there are no restrictions. The philosophy of CGA is to play in a way that works for you!
This means:
- Choose whichever version of the game you want.
- You can use cheats, save states, mods, etc.
- You can watch a streamer or longplay instead of playing it.
If you have already played a game and want a different experience:
- Try a randomizer or challenge run.
- Play a different version of it.
- Play a related game (sequel, spiritual successor, something inspired by it, etc.)
There is no wrong way to participate in CGA, and every different way someone participates will make for more interesting discussions.
What is the schedule?
Each month the Insert Cartidge topic will be posted on the 1st, while the Remove Cartridge topic will be posted on the 28th.
Nomination and voting topics will happen in March and September (every 6 months).
Schedules are also posted then.
All CGA topics are available using the colossal game adventure tag.
What do Insert and Remove Cartridge mean?
Inserting and removing cartridges are our retro metaphor for starting and stopping a given game or games.
The Insert Cartridge topic happens at the beginning of the month and is primarily about getting the game up and running.
The Remove Cartridge topic happens toward the end of the month and is primarily about people reflecting on the game now that they've played it.
There are no hard restrictions on what has to go in either topic, and each can be used to discuss the game, post updates, ask questions, etc.
CGA Announcement: We have officially inserted the cartridge for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Use this topic to get set up for the month, help other people get set up for the month, and start playing!
If you would like to be added or removed from the Notification List, please PM u/kfwyre.
Notification List
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A Link to the Past is one of the many retro games that has received a decompilation port. While there isn't a dedicated randomizer for this port yet, it does let you play the game natively on a variety of platforms, including:
This is especially handy if your hardware can't handle a cycle-accurate SNES emulator, or if you don't have access to original SNES/GBA consoles or FPGA devices. The port also comes with several quality-of-life improvements, such as:
If you're feeling adventurous, there's also a cross-game randomizer that blends A Link to the Past and Super Metroid, shuffling items from both games into new locations. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
The recomp is available on Flathub, and I'm happy to report that it works on the Steam Deck!
You have to bring your own ROM, of course, and if you want to change any of the default settings you have to edit the .ini file (which is easy enough to do in desktop mode).
Do you know if there are any good shaders for this? Also, where do I sign up for 21:9 support?
If you want the game to look exactly like it did in 1992 and can use the OpenGL render method, consider giving the CRT Royale shaders a shot. They reproduce CRT effects well on modern flat panels, especially with the composite variants. If the game stutters or you prefer a slightly cleaner look, try the S-Video variants.
Here's my recommended shader setup:
256 x [integer value] x 1.143X224 x [integer value](e.g. 1756x1344 for 1440p)This config aims for a time-period accurate and shimmerless display with the intended 8:7 aspect ratio for NES/SNES titles, based on the hardware's dot clock rate. It won't work in Borderless Fullscreen or Fullscreen modes with RadzPrower's launcher.
Also worth pointing out that the game was designed to render at a 256x224 resolution. At wider-than-4:3 aspects, you'll see black tiles at area boundaries as you approach edges.
Thanks for pointing the recomp options. I'd forgot about those as an option, though I'll admit I was mostly trying to focus on fully legal options, per CGA hosting guidelines.
When I'm on my desktop with a good 4k gaming monitor and a strong GPU, I swear by the crt-royale-ntsc-256px-composite shader preset in RetroArch for NES and SNES emulation. Though I'll just note that the CRT Royale documentation recommends a 4k display so that it has the resolution for the shadow mask effect. It also is surprisingly GPU heavy. I've never tried the recomp option, so I don't know if it also supports the ntsc-256px-gauss-scanline shader preset that RetroArch has, but that's the one that I use on Steam Deck on a 1080p display. It still gives most of the NTSC artifacting effects while being much lighter on the GPU and being okay on a lower res display.
I cant decide which character to be, this is amazing. I have beat this game like 10 times before, this will make it interesting!
By the way, is there any chance you could share you zelda3.ini file? Specially I am having issues figuring out extend_y due to vague instructions... also the config has no stretch parameter.
Thank you!
The stretch parameter you're looking for is IgnoreAspectRatio.
If you leave 0 in it, it'll stick whatever aspect ratio you chose, which will always give you square pixels no matter how large is your window/screen.
Set it at 1, and the screen will automatically stretch to fill in the black bars, which is what we needed for my trick to work.
If you add extend_y to the ExtendedAspectRatio parameter, the game will natively render with 240 vertical lines instead of the normal 224.
Here's my zelda.ini config file for reference.
I've previously mentioned that A Link to the Past is my favorite video game that I've played a lot over the years. It wasn't my first video game as I had an NES before but it was one that hooked me with exploring the world and I returned to it regularly.
The cartridge is long gone, I think I lost the manual and hint book mentioned in the post too, but I still have the map that came in the box as well.
I won't give any specific thoughts on the game to color newcomers' perceptions until the end of the month, looking forward to thoughts from others along the way.
Ran through it as soon as I saw the post, that was a good time. I've only played a couple of randomizers of the game before but have spent a lot of time watching others play them in races on Twitch. I think it would be fun to pick up some of the minor glitches I see them regularly use but don't generally have the patience.
My run of that randomizer seed, item location spoilers
Very generous start with master sword in the chest past uncle, then keeps feeding you things as soon as you get out into the world opening up a lot of other checks, leaving me with only the bow, hammer, and Cane of Somaria as remaining necessary items fairly quickly. Wasn't using a tracker and only going by memory for locations.
I avoided dungeon dives for longer than I should have, especially pendant Palace of Darkness (PoD). Then I ran into a wall by misplaying my keys in there leaving the hammer locked behind getting a bow, which ended up being a long linear chain to get Bombos from spiral cave to open up Misery Mire and get a bow there (with the other being locked behind the hammer in the Swamp Palace) before returning to PoD. That meant a double dip of Mire was necessary because the cane was behind the green pendant and I needed the hammer to get to Kholdstare. Pretty much last location for Bombos, a bow, the hammer, and cane, which was rough.
Either way, having the hammer in PoD meant either climbing through Hyrule Castle to beat Agahnim or running all the way around north from Thieves' Town to get there and swimming across the river to the east, and I never returned to the castle. That makes it an interesting seed because I rarely see mitts before hammer and hammer on the eastern side of the dark world requiring that trek.
Oh, and I also fell off the edge when facing Ganon while only needing one more arrow to finish him, that got a laugh out of me.
Cleared all dungeons aside from Castle Tower, 199/216 on checks, 3:39:10 for time.
Flavor of that seed
Very sweet up front, more of a salty aftertaste but some of that's my sweat.
Good call out on the included map. It's been 35 years (wow), so somehow I'd forgotten about that bit. (Perhaps because the game itself included a nice map in-game.)
I started the random seed from the randomizer last night and I've been having a fun time. I'm playing quite casually, and am probably somewhere between a third and a half done, given the items I've found so far. It's definitely been an odd experience with how it breaks the standard flow of the game that I'm so used to. It's odd with that "oh, I got that thing much earlier than I expected, which means over there is no accessible to me." Which is counterbalanced somewhat by the occasional "Grr...! why is it taking so long to find X so that I can go get to Y?" (Gimme my bow already!)
Yeah, a lot of the fun for me is the routing, with "where am I able to go with the items I have" regularly being very different from the base game which is (mostly) linear.
One thing I usually did in my vanilla replays though:
I tended to go to Thieves' Town (4th crystal) after Palace of Darkness (1st crystal) so I could get the mitts and then the tempered sword, making Arrghus (Swamp Palace) and especially Mothula (Skull Woods) significantly easier compared to using the master sword.On vanilla replays
That makes sense. I usually head to the Swamp Palace right after Palace of Darkness, just because the Hookshot has been one of my favorite items, ever since my original SNES playthrough. But after that, yeah, I'll often do Thieves' Town for the mitts and sword. I also prefer to do Misery Mire before the Ice Palace, just because the Cane of Somaria makes the later so much less annoying.
For Mothula, I almost always use something of a cheese strategy that I discovered as a kid. I load up my bottles on the free green potions from the fairy, then go to Mothula and try to corner it while using the Cane of Byrna. The cane obviously provides protection from the boss and the annoying spike traps while continually whacking the boss if it's properly cornered. Often the cane alone is enough to finish the boss. (I see Mothula as mainly a DPS race boss.)
My own thoughts on that seed and the randomizer in general.
Okay, I finally finished up that seed this evening. That was an interesting experience, being my first every run with any randomizer, let alone one for ALttP. I don't typically watch others do playthroughs of games, so I was not prepared for the silliness of the changed up dialogue, but did kind of enjoy it. I also thought it interesting in how it mostly skipped all the normally obligatory dialogue like you'd normally get at the end of dungeon or to get an important item, and instead just gave you the crystal or whatever item. I could see how that would be convenient for someone who does randomized runs frequently. Likewise, it was kind of nice how they sped up the Waterfall of Wishing and the Pond of Happiness.
As to the seed that I posted, I agree that it felt quite generous at the start, and I ended up defeating the majority of the bosses with the Golden Sword which was pretty interesting. It was fun to see how quickly some of them went down with that sword. For example, it was pretty funny with hammering the Helmasaur King's mask taking the usual time and then him going down in two swings of the sword. Getting the late-game swords, good armor, and the mirror shield relatively early were nice aspects.
On the other hand, I spent a huge amount of time back tracking around looking for the Bow, Hammer, and Cane of Somaria. That was super frustrating. Like getting to the end of the Eastern Palace before realizing that I needed to find the bow somewhere before I could get to the boss chamber, because the doors to the final chambers wouldn't open until I killed the Red Eyegores. And I've gotten used to doing Misery Mire before Ice Palace so that I can use the Cane of Somaria on the switch at the bottom. So yeah, a lot of backtracking around looking for them. At least I found the three in quick succession once I finally did get them. But the frustrating part for me was that everywhere I tried for getting one of those three, it seemed like I just got either rupees or bombs - and mostly bombs! (Admittedly, seeing the buildup at the Master Sword pedestal, only to get a red rupee was pretty funny - though mostly because I'd already got past the Hammer/Bow/Cane bottleneck by that point.)
204/216 on checks, 8:35:53 on time. So you were way faster than I was; I'll have to try to do better next time. I did at least clear all of the dungeons, including the Castle Tower; not being able to get into the tree by the lumberjacks house was driving me nuts, even if I could see that I'd just be getting more bombs there. So in the interest of completion, I quickly ran Castle Tower after finishing Ganon's Tower.
In terms of time, I might also have to try a tracker. I was searching and checking locations based purely on my own memory, and I think I did my last ALttP playthrough about a year and a half ago so some details were fuzzy.
Well done! Sometimes the randomizer can be frustrating like that and if you aren't used to the specifics of items not being in their usual places it can be confusing. "Oh, I didn't realize I needed this item to continue past X point, where else can I go instead?"
About one of your usual strategies:
If you have the Cane of Somaria going into Ice Palace you can break it even more and bypass most of the dungeon early on and get to the vanilla big key chest from the wrong side. I've managed to pull it off with little practice myself, so I'd encourage giving it a try if you want next time.
Randomizer Round 2 because it really is the kind of game I don't mind endlessly returning to play. Still mostly normal but randomized swords and starting open rather than the standard escape makes for a less beginner-friendly time with this seed.
My run of that randomizer seed, item location spoilers
This one is wild, mitts + flute + mirror early on ended up leading to going into Desert Palace by the back door from the Mire portal, had bow on ledge and mushroom on Lanmolas which got me the pearl from the witch.
Low health, low offense, lots of deaths early on. Still only had the first sword trying to take on Mothula which was a mistake, had to bail and come back later with tempered. A few solid upgrades including hammer on graveyard ledge during a north overworld sweep made most of the mid-game pretty pleasant after that, clearing out a few dungeons without too much effort. The problem came from having two dungeons left with no way to get into either: needing Quake for Mire and the flippers for Swamp.
Time for a dive into the pendant dungeons! Thieves' Town first because it's also the green pendant, get flippers in basement, great. Beeline to Swamp afterward in case it has Quake, no luck... Okay, turn in green pendant and get... the shovel? Finish Eastern first, no dice, shovel turn in also nothing... I forgot about swimming checks and eastern dark world (pyramid ledge, catfish) so also did those and no luck, time for Ice Palace dive... and nada.
At this point I was genuinely not sure what I was missing so I brought up a blank tracker and ran through the mental checklist of what I had already done, narrowing down to hammer pegs and Bombos tablet... and it was at the tablet.
13 deaths, 186/216 collection, 3:41:23 time.
Flavor of that seed
Painfully spicy at the start but mellows out midway, though a confusing aftertaste that's hard to pin down.
A bit of randomizer lore: a lot of the location checks are named for the location or a feature, like the Graveyard Ledge because it's a cave on a ledge just north of the graveyard, or Checkerboard Cave because the blocks inside are laid out in a checkerboard pattern. One of them is just named Cave 45. Why? It's labeled location number 45 on an overworld map that someone made ages ago and it just stuck.
So I'm not planning on one seed a day (I'm not that good and don't have that much free time), but maybe one each weekend with increasing randomness. Next time: keysanity?
Randomizer Round 3! This time running a mode I've never played before, Keysanity.
Keysanity isn't *substantially* different from the standard randomizer
It tosses dungeon keys, maps, and compasses from chests into the general item pool, so there can be the big key for Ganon's Tower in Link's house or the one Swamp Palace key you normally get at the very start of the dungeon instead located in Turtle Tock.
As a result it's more likely to require entering dungeons multiple times because they might have a required item for a different dungeon early on that in turn has another key to need to get to the boss of the first one. You aren't going out of your way to new locations you weren't already visiting in a standard randomizer, though.
Your inventory now shows how many keys you have for different dungeons too, and the compass shows number of checked locations/total checks for that dungeon. The world map doesn't show whether a dungeon is a pendant or crystal without having that dungeon's map, though I think you can also tell by the music once you enter since they have different music for pendant (light world) and crystal (dark world) dungeons.
My run of that randomizer seed, item location spoilers
Very front-loaded with giving me the master sword before I got out of Kakariko, gloves and hammer in other sphere 0 checks immediately available, and pearl in the first check inside Eastern so I had dark world access pretty quickly. Mitts at the digging game and mirror in early PoD (leading to Eastern big key at cave 45 -> flute in Eastern big chest) really opened everything else up for non-dungeon checks outside of the hookshot cave.
One thing that took a while was the lamp (first room to the left in Turtle Rock) and I don't know dark rooms well enough to get around without it. That was the last major piece opening up most of the rest of the dungeons (rest of PoD was an early target with hookshot in the dark maze), though I still didn't have Ganon's Tower big key for full go mode just yet.
I saw early on that there was a big key on the lumberjack ledge, so that was looming in the back of my mind. And later found from a hint tile that the boots were in Ganon's Tower. Fortunately that wasn't a required key, but the Ganon's Tower big key was in a different boots-locked location that I checked first so this seed has a required double-dip of GT.
2 deaths, 193/216 collection, 3:55:49 time. Also 2 Ganon falls, one of which was self-inflicted by walking off the edge trying to line up a fire rod shot on the torch.
Flavor of that seed
Rich and savory from the start and had me coming back for seconds and thirds.
A bit of randomizer lore:
There are a few dungeons where you don't need every key to complete it and get all the items, even without using any glitches. For example once you have a bow and hammer you can bypass the first locked door at the start of Palace of Darkness by going to the right and following that path to eventually end up in the middle of the dungeon and can work backwards. Same for Misery Mire and Skull Woods if you're smart about routing your way through them.
Next time I'm going to really test my knowledge of the world map with entrance shuffle.
Randomizer Round 4! If you're experienced with the game but want to go another step up from moving items around, try Entrance Shuffle like this. A house that normally has nothing of interest might now contain the final dungeon! I had to take notes beyond item tracking this time to keep straight where certain places were located.
My run of that randomizer seed, item/entrance location spoilers
I started in Link's house, which was... unchanged? I'm not sure if that's normal or a very unusual coincidence. Sanctuary was in Kakariko so easy access to the rest of those, and it was a few doors over from Ganon's Tower. I eventually realized all the early checks the overworld was giving me were pointing me back toward GT, as I got to the point where I could complete the entire basement and not much else: fire rod, hammer, Cane of Somaria, hookshot, bow with silver arrows. Turns out the gloves were in the tile room and boots were down there as well, glad I didn't delay on that much further though I was running out of other options anyway. I nearly started climbing up after clearing the basement except I didn't have a sword or net yet to beat Agahnim,.
While I ended up not needing to beat Thieves Town, it was very fun finding it: Mire shed (entrance to the left of Misery Mire) was the entrance of Desert Palace. Taking the west exit of that dungeon lead to the dark world ledge where the bumper cave exits (normally containing a heart piece on the ledge); then I needed to mirror there because the overworld equivalent cave there is where you return from Death Mountain and has no other way of getting to it, that's where Thieves Town was.
The lamp was one of the last items I found, but I ended up doing a lot of dark rooms before then. Making my way through the back of Palace of Darkness and beating the turtles in the rooms before the boss without being able to see anything but my sword sparks and hammer was the most tense moment I've had playing the game in decades.
3 deaths, 189/216 collection, 4:17:09 time.
Flavor of that seed
A challenging blend of smoke that took a while to sort out, resulting in sweeter aspects popping up in unexpected places.
There's one more mode that takes it a step further and challenges how well you know the layout of the dungeons and how they're put together in the game's code: door randomizer. I don't know if I'll get to trying it, but it's intrigued me and was a mode I thought about trying to make myself before other people added it.
Door Randomizer sounds nutty. It reminds me a lot of the Fog Gate Randomizer mod for Dark Souls, which similarly shuffles the paths between areas. You can crank up the settings to turn the entire game into a giant, interconnected maze.
On the run I did, I ended up writing down over 100 connections in a text file, which I needed to then study to find my way to a destination.
It's kind of an exhausting run, but totally unique and memorable, too.
On your Randomizer Round 2
Thanks for posting that. I finished it just now as my second ever randomizer run. 195/216 on collection, 4:43:44 time. Still definitely behind your time, but much quicker (by about 4 hours) and closer than my last time. Admittedly, one thing that helped this time was using a tracker site on my phone for the first half or so, to jog my memory of where I could visit as I acquired each new item. That, and having done the first randomizer run recently, so the dungeon routing flows were much fresher in my mind.
That seed was kind of wild, what with having got the flute and so fast travel before nearly anything else, including the sword. (The timer screen at the end showed something like a minute and a half to the flute.) I did breath a sigh of relief after getting the first sword a couple of minutes after that; encountering those first soldiers while defenseless was not so fun. (Though the little punching animation was pretty funny, I didn't want to rely on it.) I remember also being amused at getting a bottle pretty early that had the golden bee in it. It was also crazy how I think I went a couple of light world dungeons before finally getting a shield. I'm used to having that right away, so there were a couple of times where I stood still and ate a ranged attack like a nincompoop since I was so used to having the shield. I did notice it seemed like a bunch of the heart pieces and heart containers were kind of backloaded. I felt like I was sitting at eight or nine hearts for a long while as I was generally finding equipment, rupees, bombs, and arrows instead. I was wondering if I'd end up facing Ganon with only the top bar of health, but then as I was going for crystals to unlock the tower, I started finding a bunch. In the end, I think I was three heart pieces short of max health. Weirdly, I had more trouble getting the timing right on Ganon's final (silver-arrows) phase. I kept being just a little too slow hitting him with the Master Sword before he teleported away again. Not sure why; maybe I was just a bit more tired this evening.
Anyway, part of me is kind of curious to try your round 3 with keysanity, though I probably won't get to that until next weekend at the earliest (when I'm finally home from vacation). The other part of me is thinking of pressing on with my Lufia 2 playthrough before I forget where I was in it. (I made one attempt at it many years ago and got pretty far but never finished, though I'd enjoyed it. I'd been hoping that last month would be a good excuse to try again and finally finish.)
I'm glad you ran through it too! I didn't expect anyone to do so, I just wanted to share in case others were curious and you can take a look at the spoiler log for locations without downloading anything.
One of the interesting aspects to randomizers for me is how little of a safety net you might end up with by the end if you only find the required items and keep heading for only what's necessary, so it can up the challenge in execution as well.
That Mad Batter still traumatizes me. I was convinced for weeks that his curse had cut my total manna in half and there was no way to undo the curse. Though I have long since learned it was the casting cost that was cut in half I still suspect him of no good.
I could see that! I remember my first time encountering him and being very confused too. I think I ended up doing some tests with carefully resetting the SNES console (so as to undo the curse without saving it) and testing the magic used by one of the medallions with and without the curse just to convince myself that it was actually a benefit. Even then, I think I was still a bit nervous that I might have overlooked something.
Fortunately, this isn't the kind of game to give you long term status impairments. (The worst is probably getting temporarily bunnified.)
I've played the game a handful of times, and love it to pieces. The music and graphics are so incredibly nostalgic for me.
@Boojum mentioned a randomizer for those who have played before. I'm curious, would there be any interest in doing a multi-person randomizer using Archipelago? I figure if we could get 4-5 people participating, it might offer a more collaborative experience. Let me know if there's interest. Just a note that it is a moderately technical setup, and you will sometimes get stuck waiting on another person. That's just part of the fun!
I could probably figure out how to join an Archipelago game if it's asynchronous, would be fun.
Excellent, that's three. Maybe wait for one more person before we lock it in? CC @MimicSquid.
This is the setup guide, which goes over the software required. It requires the Archipelago software itself, a game patch (available once we start), a compatible emulator, and "SNI", which is what lets the emulator talk to the Archipelago server.
It's a bit of a setup, but is pretty smooth once all is running. I'd be happy to help go over it for any newcomers.
It would be up to each participant if they wish to customize their random ruleset, or just go with the defaults.
Assuming we get it going, maybe we could have a dedicated subthread in here to discuss, marked as noise to avoid bumping or spamming this thread with too many updates.
Sounds good to me. Setup was pretty straightforward, and I think I'm ready to go.
Also ready on my end I think, can go with the defaults so I'm not holding up other folks with something weird.
How about we give it 24 more hours, then lock it in? Give anyone else a last chance to sign up. I do have an appointment tomorrow afternoon, so might be a little slow on the start, but hopefully I don't end up blocking anyone too early on.
It sounds like you both have the technical stuff worked out, so that's good. Let me know if you have any questions. I'll generate the world using default settings, with usernames for slot names. We can each download our rom patch, and play relatively async over the next week or so. I don't think it'll be too long of a game.
We'll want to verify everything is properly networked at the start, but after that it should be smooth sailing. Remember to keep the SNI window up in your respective emulators, as that's needed to maintain the connection. CC @MimicSquid
I've been tempted by Archipelago for a while; I'd be interested in giving it a shot.
Ping: @Durinthal, @MimicSquid, @Dendrian (who I signed up separately to join us)
Although I'm unable to really start for a few hours, I thought I'd share this early so you can get yourself connected and start testing things out. Though if you want to get started playing, that's totally okay too. Just know that myself and @Dendrian will be 3-4 hours behind, and may inadvertently block your progress.
This is our server URL. It tracks progress for each player, and lets you download the patch for your game:
https://archipelago.gg/room/RhO-CrGfQFy2YIHbRBA5Xg
You can connect to the port listed there (currently
54559) in your emulator/SNI client. The patch should automatically launch the client with the correct port, but you may need to enter it manually if you launch it yourself later.Also, note that the server automatically goes to sleep after a few hours. If that happens, just revisit the URL above to wake it up. Sometimes, the port will change as well. If that happens, you'll need to change the port in your SNI window.
Again, I'm happy to help if anyone gets stuck. I just can't really offer specific instructions without knowing your emulator/OS, as steps will vary. For all emulators though, try to avoid save states, and disable any settings that pause the emulator (eg. while in a menu or unfocused), as this can interrupt network communication.
Finally, you may wish to consider the PopTracker if you think you may accidentally miss some collectables. This is a standalone tool with a more graphical tracking UI than that offered on the website. You download the tool, and a resource pack for the game. Totally optional, though.
The plan is play asynchronously over the following week (though I wouldn't be surprised if we finish in just a few days). Let me know if you have any questions!
Wow, I feel like I've gotten a very lucky start, or the settings are being kind; The first items I kept were bow, shield, 300 rupees (to buy bombs in town), fire rod, 1/2 magic. Swords? Who needs them?
That's awesome!
I think you may need to double check that you're connected. I don't see any recorded entries from your game yet, which means the randomizer is working, but it's not communicating over the network to Archipelago. Try double checking that the emulator allows connections over SNI (sometimes called Lua Connector), and that the SNI window in the Archipelago app itself is connected and sees the rom.
It won't break anything to connect late. You'll just send a burst of items to other players as you get online.
edit: I'm seeing a connection for you now, but strangely no items have sent. I'm not sure why, but unfortunately my time has run out and I must away. I'll be back in a couple hours. You can check the on-page tracker(s), or use the PopTracker I mentioned earlier to see what the server sees. Sorry for the trouble!
Upon shutting everything down and trying again, it all seems to be working and the flood of items has gone out.
Yep, it looks like you and Durinthal are exchanging items freely now. I'll be on shortly to start paying it forward. I'm glad to see that everything is working.
edit: Dang, you guys were busy. I'm starting the game fully loaded.
I was about to start some harder dungeons with three hearts, so even that one heart container is going to help.
I've played for about 4 hours now. I'm going to put this in a spoiler box since we're still in the Insert Cartridge thread.
Progression Discussion
I've finished 2 of the 4 Overworld dungeons, and thanks to receiving the mirror and moon pearl, have started setting out in the Dark World. I've done most of the first dungeon there, but am moving around to see what's available to me.The current items I need most are flippers and pegasus boots, but I've actually got a lot going already. The hammer, both rods, the book, two bottles (but no net), and thankfully the flute for fast travel.
I'm finding that Dark World baddies are hitting hard, and I'm without a tunic upgrade, so I've been playing a bit more defensively. Thankfully I've got some projectile tools at my disposal.
My highlight so far was opening two chests in a row (right next to each other), both containing sword upgrades.
I'll likely play some more tonight, since I'm not currently blocked by anyone.
I am out of checks as far as I'm aware so I'll pick back up tomorrow evening EDT.
Current state of things
Thanks for that sword, it's still the only one I have right now. Full cleared all three Overworld dungeons (no climbing Hyrule Castle yet, need either Magic Cape or Master Sword), Palace of Darkness, and Thieves' Town. Still need second gloves to get to most everything left, but fire rod or mirror would open up a few spots.
As mentioned I did a lot of early Dark World exploring on three hearts without a sword and yeah they hit hard, fortunately I've gotten better at using a hammer with its short range. Died to Blind a few times, other bosses haven't been a problem.
Progression Discussion
I've finished the desert and eastern palaces, making my way through the darkness without a lamp and uneaten by a grue. The tablet in the eastern palace said that the lamp was in Dendrian's game by a bat-like man, so I may be waiting for that until they have found the magic powder. The major blocker is the mirror. Hopefully that turns up soon.Small Update
I got you a hammer and gloves. That should help unblock you.I cleared three Dark World dungeons tonight, and am starting to run out of ideas of where to go next. There's probably a few more secrets around, but multiple dungeons require flippers to advance.
So far, 37% of all checks have been completed. Pretty good progress for day 1. You guys are rocking it.
Progression Discussion
Thank you for the hammer, gloves, and hookshot, they've been very helpful. It looks like my flippers are in your Ganon's Tower, so I'm likely to stay blocked on that for a bit.Progression Discussion
I sent both you and @Durinthal a magic mirror, so you should be able to get around more comfortably now.I also unblocked @Dendrian with a flute, granting access to Death Mountain and a lot of chests.
Flippers remain my largest blocker, too. They'd open up multiple dungeons. I've been equipped with a level 4 sword though, which has more than made up for my lack of defense.
I've started using the PopTracker now, since I've run out of ideas of where to go. It reminded me of a couple caves I'd missed.
We've completed 54% of all checks so far.
It seems like we've been stuck around the 60% mark for most of today, so I had a look at the PopTracker. Right now, it looks like you've the most available checks to find, Mimic.
In case you wanted a reference but didn't want to install the PopTracker yourself, I took a screenshot of the overworld. Big spoiler warning though if you'd rather find the remaining checks yourself!
Item Mentions
I think one of them will include a big item like boots for me, a mirror for Dendrian, or flippers for either you or me. That should break things open again.Looks like I had 2 of them; mirror for Dendrian and flippers for you.
I've been doing checks as they've become available in the past few days but nothing important coming from them.
What's left for me
At this point I need mitts and fire rod to do a full clear, the one thing on my bumper ledge (requiring cape) is just a heart piece.
Since it feels like we're at a little bit of a standstill, I thought I'd help us clean up our missing items. We're each missing 1 or 2 little things. I've put these in spoiler tags so you can only look if you want to.
Dendrian
I just pointed him to a missed overworld chest, which was a heart piece for @MimicSquid.MimicSquid
Looks like you cleaned up a few overworld items today. There's 1 more at the witch hut, as a reward for turning in the mushroom. It also looks like part of Misery Mire can also be completed.Durinthal
Your only missing item so far has been in Skull Woods dungeon. A single pot in the room with the one-way gap (https://i.imgur.com/VMPPnsd.png). Likely it's nothing, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.Wes
As for me, I missed a room in the Ice Palace. However, I'm 95% sure it's unavailable to me now, and likely holds a key for its own door.Edits
Big Edit
Okay, my bad guys. I apparently had access to Ganon's Tower without realizing it. I thought I needed my final pendant from Turtle Rock for that, and it didn't show on the PopTracker. In any case, I'm exploring now. I've already sent Mimic his much-coveted flippers. Sorry about that!Edit 2
Mimic, you have no idea how much that 1/2 magic came in clutch. I was at the end of Ganon's Tower, and lamenting how I'd need to backtrack far to refill my magic. Lo and behold, my magic bar is suddenly refilled, and my mana costs cut in half. Huge!About that spot...
I forgot that pot wasn't guaranteed to be a key with these rules, normally leave that until I go to the back of Skull Woods. Turned out to just be the compass anyway so wasn't accidentally holding anyone up there.
What's Left
At this point, the only item I need to beat the game is Silver Arrows. Ganon is waiting for me. However, it's possible they're hidden in my Turtle Rock, in which case I'll need the quake medallion.By the way, accessing Ganon's Tower without first visiting Turtle Rock is really annoying! You don't unlock the warp point in the top-right corner, so you need to do a lot of travel just to get there every time.
Beating the game will release all remaining checks, so it's possible I'll be able to skip a dungeon. We'll see what turns up.
I had to release Dendrian's remaining checks. He had an emulator problem and had some progress rolled back. Rather than risk problems by re-sending items he'd previously picked up into the pool, he opted to bow out.
Current Status
It looks like @MimicSquid and I are both awaiting Silver Arrows now. You've received your Fire Rod, which should allow some more progression. I think we're very close to finishing.Go time!
Yeah that's everything for me, sent silvers to you and @MimicSquid and clearing the rest of my dungeons now.
Finito! I've released all of my items now, which happens automatically upon completion of the game.
I'll probably write up some thoughts for the Eject Cartridge thread, where we can be a little looser with spoilers. But it's been fun! A few more bottlenecks than I was expecting (one was kiinda my fault), but it definitely led to some novel gameplay.
I've no complaints of my seed. It was heavy on offense, light on defense. That said, big props to you for tackling some challenging dungeons early on with nothing but three hearts and a toothpick.
My time, as shown post-credits: 12:45:03.
Also done, had a fun time. 5:30:22, looks like just one heart piece shy of 100% (and 243/249 collecting).
And done! 248/249, 10:55:32 on the clock. That was fun, but I'll save other thoughts for the closing thread.
Getting Close...
It looks like I've been sent my booties. That'll allow me to complete dungeon 2 and free up 3–4 checks.I'm getting awfully close. I need one medallion to open up Turtle Rock, and then silver arrows to defeat Ganon.
I'm surprised by how far you've gotten without level 2 mitts. @Dendrian still doesn't have even level 1, which has been his major blocker. Hopefully those show up, along with Mimic's flippers.
edit: Okay, sent out a bow and a couple heart pieces. That's all I can do for now.
Okay now you've connected, I just got a bunch of stuff.
Fun times ahead:
Gloves and pearl? Thanks for the dark world access!
Also I technically just sequence broke to get past the first dark room in Eastern Palace before I got the lamp from you but it's back in logic now. Unfortunately didn't get your hammer from that but I did find everyone else's already.
And I'm in!
Got my hammer along with someone else's, also my flippers and book so I'm off to desert after clearing other light world checks I can think of.
Oh neat! I didn't know about this! (But I suppose there's potentially a lot of cool fan-made stuff with a beloved 35 year old game that's been completely reverse engineered.)
Normally I'd be up for giving it a try, but I'm traveling on vacation this month and playing just by my Steam Deck. So I'll have to give it a pass. Some other time, perhaps.
I had never heard of Archipelago, this looks amazing. I don't think I have time to be able to devote to it right now, but I am 100% saving this for later.
I'm in the same boat of not being able to do it right now but thinking it sounds like a lot of fun. I'd be up for trying it later with you if you like.
Insert the Saving Private Ryan getting old gif here.
But seriously, this is one of my favorite games of all time. It was the 2nd game I ever bought with my own money and I played it to death. It's been at least a decade since I touched it, I'll be curious how much I can remember. I'll be playing the original on an emulator.
That "curious how much I can remember" thing, I find is half the fun of revisiting it every now and again! At least for me, I find that I tend to get a bit fuzzy about exactly what is where for the more minor hidden goodies (name heart pieces and cash), but that I get a fun jolt of recognition at the location and vaguely recall that something important is here, even if I can't quite remember what exactly. And after a few moments, it usually comes back to me what I need to do to access it.
I'm playing it on my Switch 2 via the SNES Virtual Console! Started today, but not sure I'll actually finish because the Pokopia DLC drops tonight (actually might be live now?) and I'm about to live in that world again.
That said, I've made good progress today! I think I'm about to finish the first part of the game. Did briefly consult a guide once to figure out how to progress on one part, but other than that (and the hints you mentioned) I've been trying to figure it out myself. Compared to some games, the puzzles and dungeons aren't too hard or frustrating so far.
One thing I love about the Switch's VC system: rewind. Not save states (though it does have them as "suspend points"), we can rewind at any point. It's so good for not having to spend time manually backtracking if I realize I went the wrong way or accidentally jumped off a cliff. And to prevent losing too many hearts or arrows to stupid things. (My aim with arrows needs work...)
That feature is definitely why I've made so much progress in such a short time. Very useful feature, and I can highly recommend it if anyone else has a Switch and NSO. :D
My body is ready!
Edit:
I think this is going to start being my CGA minishelf
Finally found my childhood GBA copy and set it up on a soft modded switch (retroarch + mgba core). I too have missed a bunch of CGAs, but hopefully can block out some time for this. This was my second Zelda title, and the first one I beat (passing exposure to ocarina of time, which I didn't actually play through until it came to the gamecube)!
I gotta say, it holds up really well. Some games have a look that's period specific or telling about the hardware of the time, but this to me seems timeless. I've only played a few minutes into the castle, but I've got to say the heart drop animation is pure art. It's just delightful to see it float to the ground. I'll probably do a separate write up over the weekend about my previous experience with the game, life at the time, that sort of thing. For now though, let's start with the immediate hard question:
What did the other tildren name Link?
I've never been creative at naming things. I usually just stick with the in universe name for whatever character I'm playing as; Link is Link, Andy in Advanced Wars is Andy, and so on. I do envy those with more imagination, and so I'd love bask in the creativity of other tildos
Edit: a link to the GBA manual
The GBA release is interesting for some changes it had, I did as much of a swordless run as I could on that version.
Ask for your question, I unfortunately didn't do anything creative back in the day. Right now with the randomizer runs I'm using a Zagreus sprite from Hades so some variation of that (ザグ or "Zagu" and more recently ZAG).
I haven't played this game in twenty years! I've had to miss a lot of the CGAs so far but I'm hoping I can make time for this one. I'll be playing the vanilla version on emulated SNES.
Thanks for linking (ha) the game manual too. It's an essential part of these games!
Great, hope you can make the time! (And I know the feeling on having to miss many of the CGA's; I missed many of the first round of them.)
Regarding manuals, from one of the Tildes surveys a couple months back, I noticed that I was almost exactly a standard deviation older than the mean Tilderino's age. So I wanted to try to convey some of the flavor of what gaming as an 80's/90's kid was like. And the printed manuals were an important part of that, I think.
So of my all-time favorites for manuals were the old Maxis' sim games. Sim City, Sim Earth, Sim Ant... The Sim Earth and Sim Ant games were packed with a lot of background information and were surprisingly educational. The manual for the original Sid Meier's Civilization game also stands out in my mind.
A lot of the old Microprose games had incredible manuals (Civ, Darklands, Covert Action). I still have the book and tech tree poster for SMAC here in my office.
The latest version of Super ZSNES just came out and it features enhancements for this game. Might be worth looking into if anyone’s starting late.