I was actually thinking about playing the original Zelda again so I'd be happy to help test.

As for which map, I think I like the first one the best as well.

So it's an actual hack and not a LUA script like that thing for Metroid?

It was surprisingly straightforward. There's more than enough free ROM space as well as save-RAM. I'm working on some other modifications that sound as if they would be simpler, but are turning out to be much more difficult (for example, making the subscreen open and close faster sounded so simple, but it's glitches galore).

Yup. There are two Metroid mods that provided a map. Parasyte hacked in a map that somewhat resembled Super Metroid's corner map. It was a 3x3 grid that simply showed whether there were any adjacent screens. Wasn't mind blowing, but it would presumably run on real hardware. MDBtroid had the LUA map that was more akin to Super Metroid's map in the pause screen.

Jigglysaint, I added my own map data using free save-RAM. I'm guessing that there's a bit field for every map (overworld, levels 1-6, levels 7-9), but that it would be used to track visited screens in levels and revealed secrets in the overworld. That's just a guess, though.

Worth mentioning: there are a number of random bits in the overworld data that, if they are changed, adversely affect the game (for example, there are two screens where changing the screen palettes affects which palettes are used in caves). I wonder what issues might crop up if you redo the whole map system. Also, there are plenty of simple hacks that could expand what options you have for screens. For example, it would be very easy to re-point the lists for which screens have armos-staircases, whistle stairs, etc., to give you virtually free reign. One thing I could never figure out is how the raft screens are managed. If I were more adept at ASM-hacking when I made Zelda Tech, I would have provided the user an option to "enhance" the game to provide more of these liberties.


Tito Santana, I'll PM you a link to the IPS. If you know anyone else who might be interested, you can share the link (just don't post it publicly). If anyone else wants to test, whether it's a full play-through or something less, please PM me. (Please  )

Actually, those maps that change the cave palletes ARE the caves.

That boarder palette isn't actually used in the game if I recall.  In fact I think the only ones used are the green, brown, and grey palettes.

Not exactly.  For one thing, I meant an overhaul of the system that determines which trees are burnable, where they are location, what tile they turn into and what to use to make them change.  I found that the game looks for the presence of a specific tile ID, places a specific sprite depending on what ID it is, and that sprite then looks for the triggering weapon to activate the change.

I figure that optimally, you could create additional fields that control these things.  Let's say that you wanted to make this work for both overworld and dungeons, both quests.  You would need 256 bytes for the overworld(128 screens per quest), 256 bytes for quest one dungeons, and another for quest 2 dungeons.  Basically, 3 pages, and that is per effect field.  One field for selecting which weapon or item triggers the secret(as an index), one field for yx location of sprite(and location of tile to replace after you come back), and one field for the tile type to replace.  I only did this for the overworld, but I think it could be possible to use space in other parts of the rom for these data fields.  The end result would be a better secrets engine that would allow for things such as lock blocks or obstacles that could be passed using arrows.  Perhaps a specific sprite that when triggered, opens a shutter or makes stairs appear.

Hey, that hack you're working on looks really cool, never-obsolete. An overhaul like that would renew interest in Zelda for me. Is there anywhere else to get information on the project?