Friday, May 28, 2010

Game Info

Controls:
• Movement - W A S D / arrow keys
• Look/Attack - Mouse (left mouse button)
• Crouch - Shift (use this to attack skeletons)
• Jump - Space bar
• Pause - P
• FPS(frames per second) - F

Making the game
This game was incredibly fun to make. I am a fan of the original NES game and love its innovations and clever game design. But as we all know, Zelda games are long and complex. When starting this project I had to choose very carefully what I had time to accomplish if this game was ever to see the light of day. As a result I decided to remake the beginning of the game up to the end of the first boss. This seemed simple enough, but I knew it would be a challenge. This is the result of my learning programming for the first time and a labor of love making this game in 3D.

Walkthrough
Stay on the path, you are safe there. Follow the path and enter the lone tile of woods. Pick up the money bag and exit (walk far enough from where to started to exit an area). Cross the desert to the little mountain. Inside, buy the meat. Walk toward the temple on the water and go to the mountains behind it to find another cave. Pick up the rupee. Fight a few enemies to gain at least 60 rupees. Go back to the desert shop and buy the Candle for 60. Head left from the shop as far as you can go to find the main Cave. (From the town you can see the cave). Now the cave should be illuminated and you can find the skeleton holding the key. (Hint: it is possible to find the key in the dark, saving you 60 rupees). Instead of heading to the Dungeon right away, walk all the way to the right to the edge of the water. On your right is a path to the secret Heart Piece. You really need this to survive the dungeon. Not only does it give you one more life square, it also halves damage you receive. Getting to the Heart piece you will need to cross some platforms. Try to diagonal jump (holding down forward and to the side) for bigger jumps. The last platform is a little farther away than the others so watch out. Once you have the Heart Piece, enter the dungeon.
The Dungeon:
Look up or down and press forward to use the elevators. Kill the first two Blobs then take the key. To fight the Stalfos (skeleton) walk at it and press shift to crouch. It is only vulnerable in the legs. While crouched you can still move slowly, but you need to be close enough to attack. Practice running and crouching and you can defeat the Stalfos without taking any damage. Continue through the locked door. Bubbles (flying skulls) have lots of hit points, but give you 20 rupees. Although annoying to kill, they are useful for getting lots of money. After this corridor, is a room with two Stalfos. Fight them one at a time. Don't go down the elevator yet. Go to the next room and fight one Blob and one Stalfos. If you touch the Fairy it's a one time heal, only use it if you have to. Go up the elevator close to the Fairy and get the Key. Go back to the room that had two Stalfos and go down the elevator. Cross the bridge (get the money bag) and kill the Blobs. To fight the Ironknuckle (knight) you can only hit it in the head. Jump at it and stab it in the head. Ummm... good luck. (See, I told you the Heart Piece is important). After you beat the Ironknuckle, get the Glove. With it you can break blocks. Go back to the Fairy and go up the elevator again. Now you can break the falling blocks and get the key. Go down the elevator to the very bottom. Break the blocks and defeat the two Stalfos. Unlock the door and fight the Ironknuckle. Now the next hallway leads to the final boss Horsehead. Don't fight him yet. At this point you should have almost 200 rupees. Go back to the room with all the Bubbles flying around and kill them until you have 200 rupees, or if you want extra help, get 250 rupees. Leave the Dungeon and go all the way back to the beginning area. Follow the path to the mountains past the mountain town. At the end of the path is the Wizard's shop. Buy the White sword for 200 rupees. If you have 50 rupees left or almost that amount, kill some more baddies and buy the Bottle from the desert shop for 50. The bottle heals you if your life drains to zero (one time use). Return to the Dungeon. Fight your way through the dungeon. It should be easier now. Use the Fairy just before the boss. Horsehead is the same as the Ironknuckles. Jump and attack him in the head. The bottle gets used automatically and if you take damage while its healing you, that damage will also heal making you temporarily invincible. Just don't let your life go all the way down to zero a second time or you'll die. Once Horsehead is no more, collect the key and place the gem in the statue. Congratulations, your done! The game doesn't force you to restart, so you can continue walking around. This is intended for people who did not get the Sword or other items and can now explore where to find them.

Changes from the original
The Caves: In the original these led to new areas or items that would be used later in the game. Since I wasn't planing on making those later areas I was left with three caves that no longer had a purpose. The idea to change them into shops from Zelda 1, I thought was a fun way to pay homage to the original game. Plus, they also served a purpose. Since I changed experience points into money, the game plays much more like the first game anyway.

Money: Leveling up was a huge departure from the norm in Zelda II. I still feel bad I didn't include it, but changing experience points into a currency just worked better for a short game. If I had the time to remake the whole game I'd definitely have a leveling up system.

Town: No towns. I know this must be disappointing to fans, but honestly, what do you do in the towns anyway? Making a large area with buildings populated by people that just walk around and have nothing to say, didn't seem like fun. So because I don't have infinite time and have to omit as much as I can, the towns never got made.

Magic: Again, no magic. The first two spells you get are shield and jump. Jump would be fun, and for a while I had it as a cheat code. But in some areas the player got stuck and it ultimately was a headache. Now there IS a shield magic, sort of. If you find the hidden heart piece it will level up your health and you will only take half damage.

Enemies: Bats? Moblins? Tinsuits? Well I had to pick and choose what enemies I had time to make (model, animate, program...) and some just had to go.

Locked Door in the Cave: Just a little extra puzzle I added, since the main item in the dungeon isn't the candle anymore. Hint: you can still get through the cave without the candle. (Only people who read this far down will know that 'o')


Graphics
"Whats up with that cave?! It slows my computer down so much". I know... I temporarily went insane while making it and modeled every bump on every wall. You'll need a pretty powerful computer to have it run smoothly.
"The dungeon also slows down my computer". That is a legitimate complaint. I tried making it smoother, sometimes it runs well, and times it doesn't. I am still updating the game.


Credits
This is a fan game made by Michael A Johnston. The original game, characters, sounds, and design are copyright to NINTENDO 1986/1987. This game was not made for profit and is purely for the enjoyment of fans.
Special thanks to Danny Johnston, for helping me with problem solving and support.

98 comments:

  1. The game is really great. ^^ Although I died several times in the Dungeon, it's really fun to play. :)

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  2. This is amazing!!! I would suggest more OoT like sword fighting mechanics for a possible update, though...

    But I love it. The perfect 3D transition for Z2.

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  3. Very impressive work!

    Any chance of adding an option to invert the y-axis? It's nearly impossible for me to play otherwise.

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  4. Great, aside from the lag in the dungeon got me killed by a mob of skeletons after buying the sword and getting the heart.

    Oh well.

    Runs smoothly most of the time.
    Really great though. It's probably the most I've played Zelda II at once... Ever.

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  5. Very impressive, what did you use to make it???

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  6. nice job. Makes me want to play Link's Awakening.

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  8. Camera moves waaay to fast, at least on my Mac it does. Got a bad headache now and couldn't even play the game because I didn't know where I was looking.

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  9. Awesome!!!! I would expect it took lots of work to get this far. I tried doing basically the same thing, and, well mine didn't turn out that well. I cant figure out how to enter the first town, but still for a lack of a more superior word it's awesome, enough said.

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  10. Damn... what a job... The game itself is great, we all know... but the transition to 3D you thought of is simply... amazing... great job, mate

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  11. The part where you have to jump across the islands is incredibly difficult and I always come back with one life when I go for the heart piece, but other than that and the slowing of my computer with the skeletons, this was awesome! :D

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  12. Weird, once I get to the dungeon, the Framerate drops from around 70 FPS to around 3 fps, and I can't even get down the elevator! Once I go all the way down, it just takes me back up to the entrance. Weird....

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  13. I found a glitch, When you collect the first key from the temple behind the mountain and exit without opening the door you'll be stuck because the key leaves your inventory when you exit the temple and it doesn't respawn.

    Great game though, I think Rygar should be your next venture

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  14. Man, great idea! I love what you've done with this! Love Zelda, and truly, You've don heluva job with it!

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  15. This is impressive, I didn't even know you could embed the Unity engine like that. That's something I've always wanted to do, interesting to know that it is possible.

    Fun game though, exploring things like this usually come with a strange combination of familiarity and unknown.

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  16. God, please add saving or an infinite lives mode, I finally got through the cave and fell to my death three times in the span of a couple minutes

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  17. Hey! Awesome game! I loved it and I gave you some credit on my blog. Check it out of you want and follow!
    http://a-gamers-life-so.blogspot.com/

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  18. Awesome job making it into 3d!

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  19. You are a god amongst men. I cannot tell you how much joy this added to my day. This is my first "squeeee!" of 2010. I sincerely hope Nintendo offers you a job.

    My specs: late 2006 iMac, getting 45 fps in the overworld areas, down to 4 when in the dungeon with multiple Stalfos. Couldn't react fast enough to escape. Blue slimes are also mean sonsabitches.

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  20. This was absolutely brilliant, I tried playing the original version and could never get into it anywhere near as much as this (way too much rpg stuff I think in the original)

    Great use of Unity especially for a new programmer. Something you could think about with improving performance in the dungeon is making the different floors actual different levels. Where the elevators act as doors.

    From someone who is going into the industry let me say, this is a fantastic piece of work and you should be extremely proud of what you have accomplished here.

    Cheers

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  21. there is a bug, when i was in the dungeon I got the keys and all and beat iron knuckle, and it will not let me get through the gate after i have killed him, and i did get the key that i needed to get through that gate but it wont let me through

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  22. This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen done with an old NES game. The fact that you did this with one of the worse Zelda games of all time makes it that much cooler for some reason as well as making Zelda 2 enjoyable :)

    I really wish the towns were complete though... I mean the game is phenominal and sooo close to complete... it's a shame it's not all there. I realize the towns were pointless and all but as a remake I think it's important for them to be there. It would be balls to see them some day.

    Great job, though, as this is still one of the coolest things around!

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  23. Don't play this on a lap, it's impossible. I am going to play this game on another computer. It looks too good.

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  24. As one of the weirdos who loves Zelda 2, this is excellent. I'd love to see you continue this and do more of the palaces. Seeing the hills and Darunia across the ocean from the Parapa Desert is a tease!

    Going South without a candle would be an experience too.

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    Replies
    1. Oh so much of a tease!! I always love dancing through the caves without a candle, just to add insult to injury to the monsters therein;)

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  25. Awesome!!!! Just beat it... any interest in extending it? I'm amazed at how awesome this is

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  26. how can I download it? it doesn't give me a link or something :C

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  27. Zelda II and I go way back - it's the game that got me into games and kept me there. Not being able to save that sleeping princess haunted me. I actually *just* beat it for the first time this year! So being able to see her and the first dungeon in all it's 3D glory is a very special treat. Thank you so much for this!

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  28. Looks cool but for some reason I can't move on my mac. Either with WASD or arrows, it's a no go. I can move the camera, jump and hit but directional keys don't work. Am I missing something?

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  29. Having the exact same problem on my Macbook pro playing this game. I can't make it out of the first room of the game because the WASD or arrow keys barely move me at all. Jumping shooting and looking are all normal, framerate is a constant 50 or so just I can't move

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  30. Do I have to download the unity web player to get the game to show up? Or am I missing something?

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  31. The mouse sensitivity needs to be fixed, as well as the hit detection on the skeleton's damn legs. I tried for three lives to hit it (crouching down and aiming for the legs), but it still registered as a hit on the shield. Only ONCE was I able to get a hit on his legs... before I died.

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  32. That's cool, although I can't figure out how to access the towns.

    Biggest issue: PLEASE INCLUDE AN INVERT Y AXIS OPTION! It's amazing when games forget to do this. Many, many players are used to pulling the mouse back to look up (like a joystick in a plane)... it's very jarring not to have that option.

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  33. Yeah thats great.

    Excelent work, congratulations for your job.

    you make anothers games?

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  34. Found a gamebreaking bug. Try this.

    Step 1: enter dungeon.
    Step 2: kill blue slimes, take key, kill stalfos.
    Step 3: EXIT DUNGEON.
    Step 4: return to dungeon. First locked door is still locked, but your key's left inventory and not respawned in the dungeon. No possibility of game progress after that.

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  35. I just ran into the same bug as moryath, after playing for an hour (grinding money for the white sword to boot), and then when I restarted it, the game hadn't saved my character :(

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  36. It's things like that make me love the internet! This is really awesome! Are you planning on making any more 2D games 3D?

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  37. This was AMAZING sir! After i nostalgia'd a few times, I actually played it and enjoyed myself for a while. You are awesome :D

    That art style is rediculously cool.

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  39. Yes, please incorporate an option to allow for an inversion of the Y-axis in the next patch. Looks great, even though it's completely unplayable to me as I've been playing with an inverted Y-axis since StarFox. It's just one of those play styles that can't change.

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  40. umm i got a huge problem...i cant get out of the original starting place where zelda is at... i need help plz!!

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  41. I can't even look around or anything, just walk and jump.

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  42. Hi pal! Nice work there!

    Just one peeve. I'm having a hard time jumping the platforms to get the Heart Piece. The jumps are too difficult, not with also bubbles complicating the matter too. Could u make it a little easier?

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    Replies
    1. Please don't! Lol not to sound like a masochist, but the difficulty of the bubble pits is one of the greatest points of Zelda 2! And this version should be so difficult, maybe a little more in tribute to the despicably difficult bubble pits of the original games fame!:-D

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  43. Runs smooth on my computer...the only thing left is it being good...and it's f*cking great!

    My full respect man!

    See ya, AAA

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  44. THIS IS AWESOME!!! I LOVE IT!!!
    only one suggestion though- can you PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE make it so you can change the controls? PLEEEEASSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
    you did an awesome job man! and i'm glad you put so much effort into this and had a good time.
    please email me at bleachzeldakid@gmail.com if you see this! :D

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  45. This is truly amazing and enjoyable... I thought this would be just a fun little diversion, but it was not only really fun but seeing all of the NES retro goodness in full 3D just puts a big grin on my face. I can only imagine what it would be like if the game was redone in its entirety. In fact, wouldn't it be amazing if this started a trend of 3D remakes of classic games, but using the same art philosophy, old graphics on new polygons ;) Truly amazing, not only as a tribute piece but as a game itself... the enemies actually made me say "wow" out loud (wol?), and the gameplay is still so bizarrely like the original, even though it's played as a FPS... ok I'll shut up now... just can't gush enough about this one, for real.

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  46. Now THIS is how you do 3D Zelda ^_^

    I have to admit, though, it got rather difficult to play it more like Zelda and less like a FPS when I didn't have full health. And I've never had such trouble in that bubble pit. That's what really got me the first time. Those platform positions were pretty bad on the NES, in 3D they are unforgiving. I had to learn how to do perfect jumps rather quickly.

    After figuring out I had to be close to the skeletons and jump at the armor guys, it was pretty easy to beat the dungeons. Had to use my potion just before fighting Horse Head, but he wasn't too difficult, about the same as the NES version.

    All in all, this is a very good remake. I'd like to see what you could do with making it a full game. I know that'd take a long time to make, but it'd also be rather rewarding in the end, not to mention a pretty good project to show off to people wanting to use you for a project of their own. You may not be selling this game, but it could potentially be selling you.

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    1. I said something similar to this, his version sells itself:-D I hated the evil bubble pit in the original as well, so infuriating! Stupid bubbles... lol:)

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  47. I love this game! I grew up on this game and have been waiting for nintendo to do more with it. To make it into an fps, possibly embellished with full towns and castles... What a dream! You rock!! Please continue the awesome work.

    Kethry <3

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  48. this is very good but it would be better in third person

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    1. It prolly would be pretty awesome in third person, but first person is the point of this version, though I would love to play a third person style also:)

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  49. Are you ever going to make a downloadable executable? I seem to have trouble with unity player or something. My mouse isnt letting me look around... =( It looks amazing though, thats why I would really like to play and an exe download would be really nice.

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  50. Not sure if it's just me, but the textures seem to be higher res than before a week or so ago. the game looks clearer. Am I mistaken?

    It's very cool in 3d. this is one of my favorite Action Rpgs.

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  51. How did you get this game on your blog?

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  52. Impressive, but I missed the shield...

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  53. I have Google Chrome on MacOS, keeps telling me to install the Unity player although I already installed it.

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  54. Awesome job man. Models look very good!

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  55. I've playthrough'd it, and love it.

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  56. I know you are not planning to do the rest of the original Zelda II, but it would still be a nice touch if, after beating HorseHead, since you can continue wandering around, you gave us a little easter egg upon returning where the slepping Zelda is. That would be the 2D cutscene from the ending of the original game, the part where Link gets to kiss Zelda offscreen of course. ;)

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    1. Or maybe adjust the scene to make it a sweet on-screen kiss;) PG of course, so as to keep it free lol;)

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  57. OH PLEASE, PLEASE I BEG YOU:
    make it possible to change the controls!
    And make it possible to stop the game without having to exit all the window, because the mouse is stuck!
    Pleeaaase!

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  58. Needs remappable controls badly. I'm Left-handed, I don't use WASD or any keys on that side of the keyboard for controls in any game, I use the arrow keys.

    The spacebar is too far away for jumping. Right Ctrl or zero on the number pad would work.

    You only made Left Shift crouch as well, Right Shift does nothing.

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  59. Just played a bit and it's pretty fun. My only compaint is I find the camera too jerky.

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  60. It's pretty fun to play.
    Just i hope that you can invert the Y-Axis, because it's very hard to play without that for me.
    And options for change the controls are a good idea too

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  61. Please please please pleeease remake the whole thing, as long as it takes, see if you can work with some game companies or something, almost as is but with the caves and everything else, and some leveling up too, I like the currency change, but I do love leveling up, and the towns, but keep the health and magic refiller shops free;) Pleease make it! I can't wait to play the full version!:-D

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    1. Oh and the ability to save of course, but without having to kill yourself off first, as in the original game:)

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    2. Maybe make the full version an indie style downloadable from the Xbox Live marketplace when it's done, maybe $5-$10 would be good for price, I guarantee it would sell like hotcakes and wildfire combined lol:)

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  62. Nice game, I made a post about your game, It's really beautifull the remake!

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  63. I just got an Oculus Rift developer kit, and I guarantee this game would be incredible for the Rift. The Oculus SDK is for Unity, so it might not be that difficult to achieve. Any plans of posting the source or doing a Rift version?

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  64. EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT !!!!!!!!!!

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  65. Dude.... You are awesome. This brought back so many memories.. I shared this site with 30 friends

    Tristan

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  66. It's telling me I need to install Unity player, but I have the latest version installed. Won't work in either Chrome or Safari on my Mac.

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  67. Dude, you made my weekend! I loved this game so much and spent so many hours as a kid playing it. This is why I love the internet!

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  69. Now that I got to the game, I keep falling through the floor.

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  70. Could you please please please offer a download instead? Unity Web Player is unreliable.

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  71. Just now discovered this -- what an awesome game! You obviously have a appreciation for the franchise.

    Some elements I particularly loved:

    1) Liked the throwback to the first Zelda game, such as the reworking of the caves, the inclusion of the magic sword, etc. Great ideas!

    2) Loved how your preserved faithfully the tactics required to beat certain enemies, such as crouching for Stalfos and jump-slashing for Knuckles.

    Some things that I felt were missed opportunities, and that would be easy to rework:

    1) Since Link is traditionally left-handed, would have been a nice little detail to have the sword animation coming from the left side of the screen.

    2) As speedrunners know, going out of Zelda's chamber from the left door is slightly faster than going to the right. However, doing this in your game puts you on the opposite end of the building, making it slower as you now have to go around it. It would have been a cool homage to have the left path take you directly to the road, rather than the right.

    All in all, fantastic effort! That desert platforming section is such a troll though! LOL

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  72. How do I play this? There doesn't seem to be a download anywhere.

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  76. what???? where do i play the game?

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  77. I am here for sword. I recently bought the Link master sword replica from Swords Kingdom. The sword is quite similar to the one in video game.

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  78. This is awesome. Thank you for making this

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