Prerelease:The Legend of Zelda

This page details prerelease information and/or media for The Legend of Zelda.

Story

It was my first video game-related job. At the time it was titled Death Mountain. I wrote a story that was inspired by conflicts of hegemony that happened in medieval Europe and created the legend of the Triforce. A system where you collect the scattered pieces of an item is nothing special nowadays, but back then it was pretty novel. I was quite proud of that.

— Scriptwriter Keiji Terui

(Source: http://oni.skr.jp/terui.html / https://twitter.com/Arc_Hound/status/1304159897815261186)

Famicom Disk System Promotional Video

An early version of The Legend of Zelda appeared in a 12 minute long promotional video for the Famicom Disk System.

Blocks

Pre-release	Final

Pre-release	Final

The dungeon blocks went through a couple of revisions.

Choose an Item

Pre-release	Final

In this image, the old man in the first cave gives Link the option between a sword and a boomerang. The old man's message is different as well. Instead of saying "It's dangerous to go alone. You may have this." he says "It's dangerous to go alone. Take whichever weapon you prefer."

The layout of the cave also differs - the old man and the flames are not aligned centrally within the room, and the flames are placed one block closer to him on each side.

Interestingly, this image also appears on page 41 of the NES version's manual, but with the Japanese text blacked out.

Dungeon Entrance

Pre-release	Final

• Some rocks and Tektites were removed.
• The key count seems to have been replaced by a blue heart, likely just a glitch.

Potion Lady

No shop in the final game matches this shop's cheap prices. In the final game, the prices are 40 for the blue potion and 68 for the red potion. This was likely changed due to two blue potions being cheaper than one red potion, thus making red potions rather pointless.

Shop

Pre-release	Final

• The prices in this shop are cheaper in this pre-release image and the inventory is a bit different as well.
• As with the old man's cave above, he layout of the cave differs - the shopkeeper, flames and items aren't aligned centrally, and the flames are placed one block closer to the shopkeeper on each side.
• Once again, the key count is a blue heart.

(Source: triforce-legend.com)

Subscreen

To do: What did this appear in?

Pre-release	Final

• The Triforce was originally called the "POWER TRIANGLE".
• The font is the classic, thick NES font. This was changed back for international versions.
• The stepladder is either glitched or using a placeholder graphic.
• Despite having the Lion Key in the inventory, the key counter is still a numerical value. The final version changes this to "A" once the key is obtained.
• The key and rupee counters are shifted down a bit, while the bomb counter is nowhere to be seen.
• The Magical Rod is red instead of blue (slightly hard to see in this scan).

Moon Dungeon

To do: What did this appear in?

Pre-release	Final

• The dungeon is identified by its actual name, "MOON", instead of by its level number.
• The dungeon is the same shape, but appears to have twice as many rooms as the final version. This seems to conflict with the interview and early dungeon map below, as Tezuka claims that each square on the map was one room.
• There are fewer blocks in the pre-release version's room.
• The key was moved to the center of the room in the final version.
• It appears that Link has no shield at all in this screenshot.

Iwata Asks

As an additional volume included with the The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks Iwata Asks interview, the staff unveil the history of prior handheld titles in the Zelda series.

Early CHR Layout

To do: There's much more goodies that I didn't list; happy hunting!

Below is an early development document by Shigeru Miyamoto, which shows where various sprites would be stored in the CHR data. This would later appear in the Hyrule Historia.

• The document seems to have been made before the game's sprite size was finalized, as several sprites occupy a single 8×8-pixel tile. The final game uses 8×16 sprites, which occupy two consecutive tiles regardless of the sprite's actual size.
• Several different designs for the clock item are seen on the right: a grandfather clock, an alarm clock, and the final stopwatch.
• On rows 6 and 7, there seems to be a cockroach-like enemy that never made it into the game.
• Rows 8 and 9 have sprites modeled after haniwa and doguu, two types of ancient Japanese clay figures.
• On rows A and B and columns A and B, there seems to be a Wizzrobe-like enemy, but with just one eye.
• At 2F, right above the meat, there is an unknown graphic that resembles half of a sandwich.
• 28 and 38 contain a tunic, which is nowhere to be seen in the final game.
• On rows C and D, there is an ox-like enemy that never made it into the game.

(Source: GlitterBerri.com)

Origin of the Second Quest

According to the Iwata Asks interview, the game was originally meant to have only one quest (some lines removed for clarity):

Nakago: And I've got something even more interesting today. This is the first dungeon map ever created for The Legend of Zelda.

Tezuka: Basically, we were going to make lots of dungeons using one square per room, and lay them out like a jigsaw puzzle.

Iwata: In order to fit in as many dungeons as possible given the limited memory, you were making them like you were doing a puzzle.

Nakago: Right. Tezuka-san said, "I did it!" and brought this to me. I created the data exactly in line with it, but then Tezuka-san made a mistake and only used half of the data.

I said, "Tezuka-san, there's only half here. Where did the other half go?" and he was like, "What?! Oops, I messed up..." But Miyamoto-san said it was fine just like that.

Nakago: So, using the half of the memory that was left over, we decided to create the Second Quest.

Iwata: Huh? Just wait a second. If Tezuka-san hadn't messed up, there'd have been no Second Quest?

Nakago: Yes, that's right.

Nakago: [...]And this is the original for the Second Quest.

Iwata: So this is the Second Quest resulting from Tezuka-san's mistake...

Iwata: Was it Miyamoto-san who suggested turning this into a second quest?

Nakago: Yeah, it was.

(Source: Iwata Asks: The Untold Story of the Second Quest)

Title Screen Music

In an interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly that published in EGM Issue #198, Koji Kondo explains that the original title theme was supposed to be a cover of "Bolero". However, he was informed at the last minute that the song was not yet in the public domain, so he had to create his own theme:

Electronic Gaming Monthly: This is an open-ended question, but do you have any stories or funny anecdotes that you remember from the early days, maybe the early Famicom days, about your music or the games?

Koji Kondo: Yes, as I recall, in the very first The Legend of Zelda, in the very opening title screen, we used to use the classical music of "Bolero," because that tempo was perfectly matched with the speed of the opening screen rolling. But I remember it was just before, when we really had to complete the final ROM for reproduction, they told me that unfortunately the copyright of that music hadn't expired yet, so I had to compose a completely new piece of music that [sic] night. I recall that I did it within one day. You know, "da-da-da-da" — that was done in just in one night.

Electronic Gaming Monthly: You came up with that and recorded it in just one day?

Koji Kondo: Yeah, but of course, we already had the ground level music [overworld theme] figured out, so what I did was just an arrangement to perfectly match with the opening scroll.

(Source: Interview with Koji Kondo (Electronic Gaming Monthly - December 2005))

More Screenshots

A close-up of magazine screenshots of the items in the game, as well as the graphic-mistaken ladder, which still says "ladder" under it. The Magical Rod is also still red, and the Triforce is still labeled as the "Power Triangle", although the text beneath this image refers to it by its final name. Also of note is the Food/Bait item is somewhat rectangular, whereas it is much more rounded in the final game.

This area appears to have more bushes and a narrow walkway to the right, and the HUD has no bomb counter.