Zelda: The Hyrule Fantasy BETA?

Excellent! look forward to hearing your results

 

good news djandy, fingers crossed

 

couldn't you have gotten an FDS, and hooked it up to AV Famicom?

 

AV Famicoms are expensive if you don't live in Asia. More expensive than a regular Famicom atleast.

 

If you are in Japan, perhaps you could contact Chris Covell, who dumped the prototype that Lost Levels had.

 

I saw the exact same cart for a Simon's Quest FDS game, same stuff, circled with a black pen too. So I guess it could be a real sample, but as for the contents, well, we're all waiting for you to show us : )

 

Just gone 5pm Japan time and still no sign of my Famicom delivery... Looks like I'll be waiting till tomorrow at this rate. For those who are in the know regarding Famicom Disk System dev stuff, you might be pleased to hear that a supposedly blank disk is on sale right now on Yahoo! Auctions JP. The link is as follows, and the description states that user doesn't have a system to test it on and advises any potential purchaser that it could in all likelihood be blank. The interesting thing (at least for me) is that it also has one of the numbers circled on it like my disk. Shame it's so damn expensive, otherwise I'd have snapped it up and tried it out as well! (The user does include the little-used "negotiate" button in his auction though, which means anyone who fancied their chances at reducing the price is in with a chance).

http://page10.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/m83485151

 

Tempting. Although the risk of getting an empty cart for 320eur makes it... less tempting. Rip-off if the disk is empty, very bad deal if it's a shitty game, good deal if it's an interesting game, very good deal if it's a sought-after game.

By the way I haven't read the whole thread, but are these white disks readable on a standard Famicom or other type of commercial (easy to find) hardware?

 

Hi Tyree_Cooper. Yeah, I considered the same problem at first, but figured I'd give it a go on regular retail hardware to begin with. Come to think of it, don't think I've ever even seen Famicom-generation dev hardware. Even if I encounter issues, I've got so many "normal" FDS games littered around that it'll be nice jut to try a few of them out after such a long time. Been trawling the shops around here as well lately and already grabbed some of the so-called classics... Still been unable to get a decent, boxed version of Akumajyou Dracula II though...

 

The results are in!

Short verdict: It's Zelda!

I'm currently taking some pictures and will post them here shortly, but from the looks of things it appears to be a fully playable version of the first Zelda, mostly in Japanese but with random bits of English in it too. As I'm not very well versed in the original game, I'll be relying on others to verify this version and spot and differences (if any) between the released version and the other pre-release version that went live a few days ago.

 

Okay, as promised here are some initial pictures to backup what I said in the previous message (hope I've used the image tags properly this time...). Unlike the original pictures I placed in this thread, these have been taken on a oldish mobile phone. I hope they'll do for now, but I'll be taking better quality ones later on. Here's what I've got so far:

1. Just a simple image to show the unit I purchased with the white Famicom Disk inserted.


2. Similar to the above, but taken from a greater distance to show the unit working with the TV.


3. A typical copyright info page with what appears to be standard text.


4. The screen that really brightened up my evening!


5. Message displayed after being prompted (in Japanese) to switch to side B of the disk. It says simply "please wait".


6. It appears that the disk has previously been used by two users, "Kanjin" and "Hamachi". The option below the three name-entry areas reads "Name Registration" and I'm not sure what the last option, "KILL MODE", does yet.


7. The screen I started on after selecting "Kanjin" from the screen above.


8. Lastly (for now), an image of what I saw when I paused the game. Not sure if anything's out of the ordinary here, but I'm sure if there is, someone can let me know.


I'm going to try and keep documenting as much as I can, but will not be doing so on a day-to-day basis and, although this was one of the priorities on my to-do list while in Japan, anyone who's lived in the country will know that new year is when celebrations start to heat up.

 

FYI: KILL MODE erases the selected player, means it deletes all progress made on this "slot"

Edit: Hamachi has the Master Sword

 

Seems like a very brutal way of saying "Erase", especially seeing as this is a Nintendo game!

In any case, thanks for letting me know, G0dLike.

Edit: Just noticed your new comment about the Hamachi having the Master Sword. Is that not possible with only three hearts then?

 

I don't think it is in the commercial ROM - don't delete those two users!

I used this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYMwuMsNZqs&feature=related
and couldn't find a single difference with the screens you provided.

 

Yeah, I've just been going through a couple of Youtube videos myself, and this disk seems to be a carbon copy of the final version. Disappointing, yes, but I'm happy for a bit of closure at least!

Without meaning to sound overly pessimistic, if people can dump the contents of FDS titles, I suppose it's possible to add data to a disk as well, right? I was wondering how likely it is that someone has simply put the release version onto a white disk.

 

Well that master sword with three hearts is still interesting though...

Also, no, neither of the two players are from the original team lol (http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/legend-of-zelda/credits).

 

Out of curiosity spurred by what you said about the Master Sword, I just booted the game up again and tried out "Hamachi"'s save file. Here's what I found:

1. Despite the appearance of the sword with the character sprite on the selection screen, when I started, I had no sword.


2. After roaming around for a little while, I headed into a cave in the top-left corner of a screen, with a large lake and stream heading south, and a knife(sword)-throwing monster. There was an old man inside and a sword. He told me that if I can use it, it's mine to take. Strange thing is, no matter what I tried, I couldn't pick it up. Is this normal at this stage of the game? Is there a series of quests I need to complete before hand perhaps?


Edit: Guess I should've just headed into the cave on the screen I started on and picked up the normal sword first instead of exploring...

 

The sword on the game select screen denotes that save to be in the Second Quest. To get that White Sword, you have to have 6 heart containers (there's also the Magical Sword which requires 12 hearts, the Master Sword didn't exist until LttP).

From those pictures, it does appear to be the retail game (especially due to the items list and story scroll). I would assume that the title screen has the normal music?

Also, for general information, the "NINTENDO FAMILY COMPUTER" copyright screen with the fat, "arcade-standard" font is part of the FDS itself, rather than the game.

 

I guess a fast way to tell if your game is retail or not would be to dump the game using a FDS cable.

 

Try to get a game over. and compare with these http://tcrf.net/Proto:The_Legend_of_Zelda#Music

Also check the whole page to see if your copy contains some difference between the final versiona and the dumped proto.