The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is the fourth game in the Legend of Zelda series, and the first to take place outside Hyrule, with Zelda nowhere in sight. It was later re-released on Game Boy Color as The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX with full-color graphics, a new optional dungeon, and a few other things kinda shoehorned in.

Debug Utilities
The original Game Boy games had two debug options. If bytes or  were set to non-zero values, debugging options would be enabled. The DX versions also enable debugging options when is set to a non-zero value.

Setting to a non-zero value will have the following effect:


 * / When the game is booting, a precomposed savegame will be written to slot 1 and overwrite any previous saved game. See the Notes page for details.
 * / Free-Movement Mode.
 * / Pausing the engine.
 * / Warping to any map.
 * / Enable text debugger.
 * / Enable directly starting the Wind Fish Awakening.

seems to disable redrawing of the subscreen and other screen elements, and additionally enables skipping to the end scene.. Set to a non-zero value will have the following effect:
 * / Partially black-out the subscreen.
 * Disable redrawing of the weapons. You will not be able to see your selected weapons anymore nor any others on the sub-screen. Japanese only.
 * Disable redrawing of rupees and hearts. They will only be redrawn once you collect a rupee or get hit by an enemy respectively. Japanese only.
 * / Disable drawing arrows to exits for dungeons.
 * / Enable scene skipping functions in the ending sequence.

In the versions, an additional flag,  was introduced. Setting to a non-zero value will have the following effect:


 * Pressing Select on the sub-screen will toggle Free-Movement Mode on and off.
 * Pressing Select on the sub-screen will reset the photo gallery to only contain the first photograph.
 * Pressing Start on the world map will activate the final scene waking the Wind Fish and playing the credits.
 * Viewing the photo gallery will automatically set all pictures to captured.

Precomposed Savegame
The precomposed savegame starts you out with all weapons and items, maximum health, and 509 rupees in the town square of Mabe Village. You also have every item in every dungeon. It's interesting that the dungeon inside the Egg actually has these flags set, although they are reset by a routine specifically for this dungeon. This may hint at the fact that the developers had planned the dungeons differently at the beginning of development.

Pausing the Engine and / Free-Movement Mode


/ Set to any non-zero value (GameShark code ).

/ This is done by pressing any direction key and then holding Select. This will pause the engine (possibly intended for clearer screenshots). Pressing just Select again will now switch between regular playing mode and Free-Movement-Mode.

Pressing Select while on the sub-screen will toggle Free-Movement Mode on and off. The two methods above cannot be mixed, i.e. activating Free-Movement on the sub-screen, then outside of the sub-screen will actually result in pausing the engine, but deactivating free-movement mode again.

Known effects:
 * Can walk over anything, including walls, pits, quick sand, and water.
 * Ignores doors, but not staircases. Free-Movement Mode will exit when using staircases!
 * Increased movement speed.
 * Owl dialog won't pop.
 * Can still open chests, but can't interact with keyholes.
 * No shadow while jumping.
 * Will not trigger random dialog for jars etc.
 * The Map screen will allow you to move the cursor anywhere, even areas you haven't yet visited.

Warping
Open the regular in-game map. Press B + Select to warp to the center of the currently selected map. Remember to activate Free-Movement Mode if you're stuck in a wall. You will also notice that pressing B alone will not exit the map screen anymore.

Text Debugger
The Marin object will actually replace itself with a text debugger object when the player's name begins with exactly one space. You can enter the text debugger on any map Marin is on. However, since you usually cannot change your name during playing, this will effectively mean you will have it activated as soon as you start the game.

The text debugger will draw digits to the middle of the screen and possibly replace some other tiles on the screen. Left and Right increase/decrease the ones (note that this will wrap and not increase the tens), while Up and Down increase/decrease the tens. Once you're done assigning this dialogue number, press A to display text 00XX (and possibly set flags for dialogues, see below), press B twice to display text 01XX, and Select to display text 02XX. XX is of course the digit you just entered on the screen.

Flags
The francophone French and Canadian versions will actually set to different values, depending on the text id. 005E and 00E7 will set to, while 00AB will set it to.

Wind Fish Awakening
/ Marin will actually start the awakening scene when the player's name begins with exactly two spaces. You can go to the scene on any map Marin is on. However, since you usually cannot change your name during playing, this will effectively mean you will have it activated as soon as you start the game.


 * Pressing Start on the world map screen will activate this scene.
 * / If is set to a non-zero value, you will have full control over this scene, see below.

Ending Scene Skipping
Scenes in the ending can be skipped forwards and the whole sequence can be reset. Left and Right skip one scene forward, while Up and Down reset the ending scene to the beginning.

Photo Gallery
While viewing the photo gallery, all pictures will be marked as taken. In certain language versions this can be remedied by pressing Select on the sub-screen to mark all photos but the first as not taken. Therefore, a savegame can be created that does not contain all pictures as taken even when is set and the gallery has been visited once. This makes it all the more likely that the three flags were originally dip-switches on the PCB of the test cartridge.

Disabled Redraw


This demonstrates how redrawing on the subscreen is disabled by in the game. The amount of stuff that's not redrawn is worse in the original games, compared to DX.

Unused Text
Some text used in previous versions is in the ROM:

Shovel Chest
You've got a Shovel! Now you can feel the joy of digging!
 * Mono:
 * DX:

This message appears when you get the Shovel out of a chest. As you normally purchase it from the shop, it is never used in-game.

There's a room that's coded to give you the Shovel in a chest, but the actual chest is gone. There also exists chest data for the Bow, but there is no associated dialogue. See "Removed Chests" for details.

Removed Areas
Waterfall at the Shrine South of the Shrine Entrance to the Animal Village
 * Mono:
 * DX:

None of these areas exist on the map. The most likely spot for the first one (at the northeast end of the Face Shrine area) is labeled "Rapids Ride"; the Southern Face Shrine is just labeled as "Face Shrine", and the Animal Village sign just says "&rarr; Welcome to the Animal Village!".

Mountain Bridge
 * Mono:
 * DX:

This text appears right after the various dungeon auto-popups (like "Level 8-- Turtle Rock"). Interestingly, if you hack a warp to use an invalid submap, you'll be warped to the mountain cave by Eagle's Tower and this text will appear.

Unused Shop Items
The Ocarina, a Guardian Acorn, and the Secret Medicine can be sold to you by the shopkeeper by use of a Gameshark or other cheating device. Buying the Ocarina and the Secret Medicine gives you those respective items, but buying the Guardian Acorn has no effect. None of these items have shopkeeper text or prices coded for them, so you can buy them for free.

GameShark codes for those items:
 * Ocarina:
 * Guardian Acorn:
 * Secret Medicine:

Passwords
Interestingly, the passwords used in the name entry screen and their results differ between versions of the game.


 * "ぜるだ" (Japan) - Plays a remixed version of the title screen theme.
 * "とたけけ" (Japan) - Plays a version of Totaka's Song.
 * "ZELDA" (USA/Canada/France/Germany) - Plays the title screen remix. (The English version has no secondary password, as the program code used to check for one has been completely removed.)
 * "MOYSE" (Germany) - Plays a piece of music unique to this version. (Named after the German translator; altered in the DX version to play Totaka's Song instead.)
 * "LOLO" (Canada/France) - Plays a piece of music unique to this version. (Oddly, the DX version completely removes the "ZELDA" password and moves the title screen remix to "LOLO".)

Hidden/Unused Songs
Link's Awakening has a handful of unused songs, mostly of the "short jingle" variety. Use the following Game Genie codes to play any song at the file select screen (replace ?? with the song ID):


 * (US REV A and B), (US REV B),  (Canada, French),  (German),  (Japan REV A)  (Japan Rev B).
 * (US, Europe), (US, Europe REV A),  (French REV A and B),  (German),  (Japan),  (Japan Rev A)  (Japan Rev A and B).

Totaka's Song


A short signature tune of composer Kazumi Totaka, hidden in nearly every game he has worked as composer for. This song can be heard by entering "&#x3068;&#x305F;&#x3051;&#x3051;" (Totakeke, Totaka's nickname) as your name in the Japanese original and DX versions or by entering "MOYSE" (the name of the German translator) in the German DX version. This particular track is not accessible in any North American release (though a rendition of Totaka's Song can be heard by waiting in Richard's Villa for 2 minutes and 30 seconds). See the above "Passwords" section for more info.

Moyse's Song


This song is played only in the original German version, by entering "MOYSE" as your name.

"LOLO" Song


This song is played only in the original French and Canadian versions, by entering "LOLO" as your name.

Totaka's Ocarina
ID

Another variant of Totaka's signature song, seemingly for Ocarina use.

Alternate Item Jingle


A rougher variant of the item jingle. Possibly a leftover early version.

Unused Jingle


A short jingle. Possibly intended for receiving an item, although it could have been used for just about anything.

Old Man


This man looks like any old cloaked man from previous Zelda games. It's not known what he was originally meant to be, but his sprites are very similar to those of the Shrouded Stalfos. He later appeared in Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons.

Skull Bat


An unused flying enemy. Possibly an early version of Vire's split form or Big Keese.

Dog Food


This seems to be an early version of the Dog Food item sprite.

Goriya's Back


The Goriya itself is not unused, but this particular sprite of it is. Normally, the Goriya turns to face you as you walk around the room, and this sprite is used when you walk around behind him. However, due to the way the room is set up, it's not actually possible to get behind him without cheating, as he's standing right up against a wall.



Also of interest is that if the Goriya's room is entered via glitches before the magnifying glass is obtained, from any area that does not use the standard cave tileset, a strange creature will be present there, treated as an enemy. It looks like the Goriya, but it doesn't seem to do anything except move around slowly. Its movements are the same as Mask-Mimics and you can kill him by hitting it in its back. It's possible Goriyas were at one point intended to be enemies, as they were in earlier Zelda games.

Turning Piranha


A sprite of the Piranha swimming either up or down. Unfortunately, there aren't any associated jumping sprites in the ROM.

Text Foot


A foot was included amongst the other text pictures (faces, trade items, etc.). It was never used in-game, but it was probably meant to either imply walking or distance on foot. Perhaps it used to be on some of the signs around Richard's Villa until they converted feet to minutes?

Text Magnifying Glass


While the rest of the trade sequence items have miniature pictures for textbox use, the Magnifying Lens never had its icon shown.

Lion Head Statue


This lion statue head is among the sprites of Kanalet Castle and the Southern Shrine. Perhaps it was meant to be a decoration, implying valiance?

Turning Frog


Another sprite that looks like it should be in-game, but isn't. The frogs alongside Mamu never turn their heads this direction.

Question Mark Block


Appears near the rest of the Trendy Game objects. It may have been used instead of the Yoshi Doll.

Basement Marker


An unused basement marker that would have been used on the dungeon map. None of the dungeons have actual basement floors, just side-scrolling sections.

Open Chest


An open chest graphic for the Subscreen map, probably dumped in favor of just showing the room without a chest.

Kirby Map Marker


This odd-looking Kirby icon appears with the map graphics in the Japanese version, but is never actually used. In later releases, this is replaced in the data with the owl map marker, although owls are still displayed on the map the same way in the Japanese version as they are in later releases.

Alternate Bikini Top


An alternate version of the mermaid's bikini top from the Japanese version. This is stored with the boat and fisherman, meaning it was supposed to be used when he first pulled it up out of the water, but the normal icon for it is used instead at that point.

Interestingly, this graphic still exists in the English and DX versions.

Seagulls


Probably meant to adorn the sky in the photograph on the beach with Marin.

Rooster


Looks like something for the Rooster scene, but this doesn't look much like Link, and doesn't fit in with any of the pieces.

Link


This might have been what Link looked like while getting frustrated with Tarin in the Rooster Statue photograph. It's likely to have been mirrored, as this half is the only one found.



A prototype for Link during some photograph events, perhaps? He does look kinda odd; it's probably for the best that they scrapped this one.

Group Shot


The only differences between this and the event in-game is Link's expression (in the final cut, his eyes are looking at Tarin) and that Tarin seems to have shrunk a few pixels.

Sparkle


This was found around the bomb photograph pieces. It was probably meant to be around either the shopkeeper's or Link's eyes, akin to the shines seen in anime when someone's keeping a sharp lookout on something.

Underwater Room


This room empties out into the Kanalet Castle moat along a narrow passage north that seems to hold nothing special. It's logical to assume this room was meant to be found by diving, but either they had troubles programming it in or replaced the treasure with a Heart Piece. The chest contains 200 rupees.

The enemies here are knights of the same variety as the ones found in Kanalet Castle, but their sprites are usually a scrambled mess. Bringing up the map or subscreen usually (although not always) causes the sprites to correct themselves, but doing so in this room reveals the enemies to be...Trendy Game operators? Since they behave as Kanalet knights in every aspect, it's likely that their sprites were once written in the same spot, and later moved, with the Trendy Game operator sprites taking their place.

Kanalet Castle


This short passageway may have been the original means to get into the castle. The north exit leads to the stairway under the bush (right on top of it, which is never used for hidden staircases – the exit is usually placed next to it), and the southern exit leads to the castle room with the gate-lowering switch, inside of a wall.

Interestingly, entering these rooms will usually make the room flash between "fully lit" and "dark" states. In the DX version, the palette upon entry is woefully broken, suggesting that the room was overlooked.

Eagle's Tower


Before destroying the support pillars and causing the fourth floor to collapse onto the third, the four rooms in the center of Eagle's Tower's third floor are entirely different, consisting primarily of an extremely large pit. Of these rooms, the upper two are inaccessible and never normally seen in-game. It appears the one on the left was meant to be used, but due to the way the crystal switches work the blocks controlled by them will always deny you entry. And even if they did, the pit is too open and can easily lead to getting trapped on the second floor. Interestingly, while the room is inaccessible, it was still updated after the first version.

To the right of that room is one that was definitely never intended to be used at all, consisting only of a "down" staircase leading up to the fourth floor, presumably for testing purposes. It's also the only way to get up there. (Leaving the 4F area in any direction will take you to blank "default" rooms.)

These rooms are also present in the DX version.

Removed Chests
The following rooms have chest data, but no actual chests.

Leftover Super Game Boy Functions
Super Game Boy command PAL_PI. When bit is set to, palettes are switched back to the software's when a palette or attribute setting is set, and since The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX only has one Super Game Boy palette throughout the entire game, the inclusion of this command may be a hint that additional palettes were planned. Interestingly enough, located at and  is empty space where two additional palettes could have been placed. Examples of games that force palette swapping when they change are Kirby's Dream Land 2, Donkey Kong (Game Boy), Donkey Kong Land and others. Loaded after MASK_EN with the bit set to.

Additionally, there is an unused ICON_EN command and the bit is set to  further suggesting that additional palettes were planned sometime during the upgrade. Still, it is unclear why controller settings would have been disabled said additional palettes were implemented. Game Boy Game Genie code will replace PAL_PRI  with ICON_EN in any version and revision.