..by inde programmer
Much like the Metroid II remake, a redux of the original Zelda is expected to be released in the near future. Titled The Legend of Zelda: The Shards of Light, it's been in development by a fellow by the name of 'BassAceGold' since about December 2007. Here was the first post on the subject from his blog:
"This project is pretty big and I won’t be releasing it until its done. What I hope to do is to remake the First LOZ game from the nes but with improved graphics, sound and controls (for some parts). Now everything is going smoothly and I’m going to continue on the game until I hit a road block of some sort. At that point I’ll just quit. This is really more of a test for my self to see how far I could really get."
Well, the project's path turned out better than expected, because as of now it's just about complete. Here is one of the latest screenshots:
As you may be able to tell, he's implemented a 3D sprite system to give the game a facelift. Not too shabby looking at all.
So, more or less there's just some touching/fixing up to do before a demo is ready:
"The first Demo will be released (to those who donate) once the overworld part is completed which could take any where from a month or 2 or 3.."
Again, I have to reiterate my fervent prayer that Nintendo is smart enough to work with the programmer on this and perhaps release it commercially somehow. Or is it better off left to the independent scene? Your thoughts?
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They'd take a cut of the profits, of course...
OmegaFury: "It stated nothing about making money."
"The first Demo will be released (to those who donate)..."
Donations ARE money so not only does he NOT own a copyright but he's making a profit off the game (At least with the demo). Even if the final product is free it'll cut into Nintendo's revenue by giving people a free alternative to the original, official product. This is all besides the fact that it's an illegal ROM being run on the DS. He may even have worked off of some of the original game's source code. I'm waiting to see whether he gets C&Ded by Nintendo.
Ash6777: "It should be much better"
Besides better graphics and smoother frame rates it will (Or would) be the same. To make the game "much better" would mean introducing radical changes to the gameplay. Doing so can break the whole game for people who've played the original. Making such changes optional would preserve the original's gameplay but then it'd be the same as the original, and only as good. That said, if better graphics equals better gameplay to any of you try it out if you can.
Lesley Pro_04: "...if Nintendo brought him in to help with the project."
That's VERY unlikely. Everything else aside, Nintendo's got PAID and professional developers that could work on a port/remake of The Legend of Zelda. If you're looking for a port with better graphics Nintendo is capable of much better graphics than what BassAceGold is capable of.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not ripping on BassAceGold nor on anyone else in anyway and I don't mean to offend anyone.
My opinion: I'm a purist but that doesn't mean there aren't ,or won't be, any cool games inspired or derived off of existing games. That said, I'm open to playing remakes of games developed by people in their spare time. I don't see much in this remake however so I won't be watching it except to see whether Nintendo's keeping an eye out and notices this project.
[The Supreme Extreme]:
If you mean that they can no longer retain any save data the batteries are probably dead in the cartridges (Yes, they have batteries). If you open the cartridge up and replace them you should be fine, though if it's the pins that's a different case...
It kinda reminds me of not too long ago about this one dude who was making a huge mod for Jedi Knights >.> He requested donations from people who wanted to play the game first, and then disappeared after he got the money. He hasn't even updated the site and canceled the forums for obvious reasons: there would be a lot of hate messages.