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.

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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 other unique elements and characters. It also awards points for practically everything, and during the broadcast windows the highest scorers got special prizes.

Sekiban was broadcast three times in the Satellaview's lifespan, and ROMs for all four episodes were found and dumped. However, because the game heavily relies on PSRAM data containing vital code of the main game (which are always erased after the broadcast, thus cannot be easily preserved), they cannot be played properly on emulators. 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 re-releases the game). The project was completed in October 2016 when a streaming English version of the radio program that played alongside the live broadcasts was added as MSU-1 patches.

Several story elements would be used in Majora's Mask (child in another world, events being tied to specific times and days, a bad ending if time runs out on the final day), while the rental shop returned 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. Fills the last slot in the A-button portion of the inventory/status screen, suggesting that at one point in development you were supposed to use it yourself (as in ALTTP) or talk to Zelda so she could use it.

ALTTP Overworld Remnants

Episodes 1-3 have portions blocked off, done in order to keep players within the intended area for each week's broadcast. Typically, these blockades require items you can't obtain (and therefore shouldn't have) yet.

Getting past those boundaries (whether through a hacked save, renaming a later save file that has those items obtained, or by using cheats) reveals that the developers only generally altered what was necessary for each week's area, with the overworld outside the boundaries being in a glitchy state 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.
• Trying to use a water warp will crash the game.
• Entering a cave or other indoor location will cause strange glitches, though some entrances don't allow you to enter them at all.

Unused SPC Music

Aside from the "dungeon clear" track, the songs used in this game were streamed from the SoundLink linearly. Regardless, the rest of the ALTTP SPC music is in the code, with some hacks having them play in the same places as in that game.

Unused Sprites

The Satellaview Male and Female player characters have two unused sets of sprites in the ROM data:

• The characters praying, which Link did in ALTTP to open the Desert Palace. Given that opening the Desert Palace in that game requires the Book of Mudora, the equivalent sprites in this game are likely related to the Book as well.
• The characters in rabbit form.