In the 1990s, Philips attempted to enter the video game market with a doomed, multimedia set-top box standard called the CD-i. Many makes and models of CD-i players were introduced but all failed and by 2023 most were forgotten. However, Philips acquired the rights to the CD-i players. develop three Zelda games for unpopular machines. They were terrible. Now, a fan has taken perhaps the worst of these games, a top-down RPG starring Zelda herself, and has unofficially ported it to the Game Boy.
You may be wondering how Philips was able to create. Zelda games and on a non-Nintendo platform. The answer to that, oddly enough, involves Sony. In 1989 Sony and Nintendo signed a deal to create a CD-based add-on for the SNES. However, Nintendo would later pull out of the deal and work with Philips instead. Sony was tough and decided to develop its own game console, the PlayStation, a small device you may have heard of. Meanwhile, Nintendo saw the poor response to Genesis’ Sega CD add-on and completely abandoned its planned SNES CD hardware. In return for terminating the deal, Nintendo is believed to have licensed some IP to Philips, allowing the company to make its own IP. Zelda games. They weren’t great and one of the three, Zelda’s Adventureviewed by many fans as the worst of the group and often cited as the worst. Zelda The game has been released so far.
Still, even if it’s a bad game with crappy controls and lousy live-action FMV cinematics, it’s still a Zelda game, so it should come as no surprise that it has fans. One of them spent several years developing a full CD-i flop port for Nintendo’s Game Boy. And now it’s outand it’s really cool!
The story behind the new Game Boy Zelda
Zelda’s Adventure Developed for Game Boy John Layself-identified as a programmer and graphic designer. According to Lay, who is a big fan of 2D Zelda games—from three CD-i Zelda games games, Zelda’s Adventure “It looked interesting.” And after I stumbled upon an early version modern development tool GB StudioLay decided to work on a demake during the covid-19 lockdown, as the idea of a portable version of the unloved game seemed like something he would want to play. So he began working on a proof-of-concept that was only the first dungeon and the first part of the upper world, which he estimated made up about 20 percent of the overall game.
“After I finished, I took a short break and during that time GB Studio released an update that I was dying to try,” Lay said. kotaku. “So… I continued the game where I left off and improved about 40 percent more of the overworld and dungeons.”
However, it ran into some GB Studio limitations, so it had to replace the engine with custom-built code to enable full minification.
“I then used this modified engine to develop a third prototype with the remaining 40 percent of the upper world and the final dungeons,” he said. “During this time, GB Studio released a third update with a number of improvements, so I sat down and planned how to combine all three prototypes into one game.”
Lay says this entire process has taken around 14 months from start to finish since he started working on the game in April 2020.
According to the Itch page Zelda’s AdventureDeveloped to resemble the 1992s aesthetically. Link’s Awakeningit also includes some features from the Game Boy Color duo Oracle of the Ages And Seasons. Lay calls his creation a complete port of the full game, and the music was composed by Beatscribe.
How to play Zelda’s Adventure for gameboy
If you want to play this clean port on a Game Boy emulator, you can download the ROM from Lay’s Itch page. However, you can also play in your browser or watch the full gameplay of the fan game without having to download anything. On Lay’s YouTube channel.
Honestly, Lay’s new fan game is probably the best way to experience it. Zelda’s Adventure, that strange and barely remembered piece of Nintendo ephemera. I mean, if you’re approaching Tears of the Kingdom decides to add some deep references to it, in which case we may all have to go back and re-evaluate the CD-i disaster. I highly doubt that will happen though.
As for Lay, he has no plans to spoil the other two. Zelda cd games, Link: Faces of Evil And Zelda: The Staff of Gamelon, on Nintendo’s portable or any other console. But he enjoyed working on the project and wanted to call out both its composer Beatscribe and the “incredible developers” behind GB Studio.
“Thanks to everyone who supported the project,” Lay said. “So far I’ve been very impressed with the positive feedback, it really makes it worthwhile. I hope you enjoy the game!”
