BS Zelda no Densetsu: Inishie no Sekiban

BS Zelda no Densetsu: Inishie no Sekiban
Also known as: BS The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets Developer: Nintendo Publisher: St.GIGA Platform: Satellaview Released in JP: March 30, 1997 This game has unused areas. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused music.

This game is defunct. Do note the game no longer works at all without modifications. This is most likely due to the game's servers being shut down. As a result, further official developments with the game are unlikely to happen.

This page is showing its age. Please update this page to fit our current standards!

BS Zelda no Densetsu: Inishie no Sekiban (often incorrectly cited as "Kodai no Sekiban") is a four-part episodic quest in the Hyrule of A Link to the Past, set six years after that game (and concurrently with Link's Awakening): Zelda and Aginah find a child from another world, seemingly sent by the Goddesses, who is tasked with finding the Ancient Stone Tablets. The game features new dungeon layouts, some time-specific events and sidequests, a five-digit Rupee counter, and several other unique elements and characters. It also awards points for practically everything, and during the broadcast windows the highest scorers got special real-life prizes.

While Sekiban was only playable just three times in the Satellaview's lifespan for four hours per playthrough, ROMs for all four episodes were found and dumped...only to be completely unplayable. The BS Zelda Homepage spent quite a few years not only restoring the ROMs but translating them to English, with the stipulation that they will be removed if Nintendo files a request (or, presumably, internationally rereleases the game). The project was completed in October 2016 when the only element yet to be restored, a streaming English version of the radio program that played alongside the live broadcasts, was added as MSU-1 patches.

Sekiban is only briefly mentioned in Hyrule Historia, and is not considered part of the official series timeline featured in said book (a fan-made extension of the timeline, which includes this game and various other licensed media, is here). Most of the unique elements it presented have also since been generally ignored, although Majora's Mask would later use several (child in another world, events being tied to specific times and days, a bad ending if time runs out on the final day) and the rental shop element would return in A Link Between Worlds (which also happens to be an ALTTP followup).

Unused Items

Present in the ROM are two items that are completely unobtainable normally, an absence made obvious in that two slots on the inventory/status screen will remain empty even after collecting everything in the game.

• Magic Cape - Makes the player invisible and invincible at the cost of magic power, as in ALTTP. All of its related sprites are present, and its magic consumption is properly cut if the player has the "½" magic upgrade.
• Book of Mudora - Does nothing, though its menu sprite is present. As it fills the last slot in the A-button portion of the status screen, you were likely supposed to find the Book and either use it yourself (as in ALTTP) or talk to Zelda so she could use it.

ALTTP Overworld Remnants

If you go into Episode 1, 2, or 3 with a complete inventory (using a hacked save or Episode 4 save file), you can explore the overworld past the normal week boundaries. Problem is, the areas were only really changed from ALTTP as needed, resulting in a glitched overworld somewhere between ALTTP and Sekiban.

The sprites outside of the boundaries use the wrong tilesets, so they appear as glitched enemies. All Dark World warps are missing, while trying to use a water warp will crash the game and entering a cave or other indoor location will likewise cause strange glitches. Some entrances don't allow you to enter them at all.

Unused SPC Music

Although the ALTTP SPC music is in this game's code, only the "Dungeon Clear" track is actually used in-game. The other ALTTP songs were instead streamed from the Satellite Radio Soundlink linearly.

Unused Sprites

Both the Satellaview Male and Female player characters have two unused sets of sprites in the ROM data. One is equivalent to the scene in ALTTP where Link prays to open the Desert Palace, while the other has them being transformed into a rabbit.