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Nintendo Features

Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker

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Lost Zelda Games

11-Dec-2009 We bet you've never played these games before...

28 Comments

Did you know that Nintendo was one of the pioneers of the concept of downloadable gaming. Don't believe us? Bear with us while we give you a brief history lesson involving two little known Japanese Zelda games...

The Satellaview

Towards the end of the SNES's life, Nintendo released a new hardware attachment in Japan called the Satellaview. Retailing for little more than the price of a new game, the Satellaview (or BS-X as it became more commonly known) was a satellite-based modem that allowed owners to download game content to a memory pack that came with the deluxe version of the add-on or could be bought separately.

To access the download satellite, players had to have a subscription to the St GIGA satellite radio station. Game downloads were only available for a three-hour period each day, and these download periods were supplemented with quizzes, the latest news about videogames and a fair amount of adverts for other products.

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The range of content downloadable for the BS-X was fairly extensive and covered everything from exclusive titles that to this day remain unseen outside of the system, remakes of older NES titles with updated graphics (such as a Mario version of Excitebike and an updated version of Famicom Wars, which eventually evolved into Advance Wars on the GBA) and even reworked versions of SNES games like F-Zero, Fire Emblem and Sim City. These titles changed on a regular basis and were accessed through a unique game built into the BS-X that saw the player wandering around a town full of houses that each represented a different title. To play a game, you simply had to find the right house and then enter it for the title to load, providing you had already downloaded it. Some of the titles could be played offline, while others could only be experienced during the download period for various reasons.

Despite the PlayStation coming out in the same year and Nintendo releasing the N64 just over a year later, the BS-X saw new titles released for it up until early 1999. But why is any of this relevant to the Zelda franchise? Probably because two of the very first titles for the system were Zelda games - ones we're betting you've never even heard of. Excited? Then let us show you what you missed out on...

Legend Of Zelda BS

Legend Of Zelda BS
As the very first game released for the
BS-X, it's no surprise that Nintendo went with something that it knew was going to be popular; namely, a new Zelda game. Although the game appeared nigh-on identical to the original NES version of Legend Of Zelda (albeit with updated graphics), there were key differences, such as a reduction in the overworld map size from an 8x16 oblong to a 8x8 square, a significant increase in the maximum number of rupees that the player could carry and, of course, a complete change in the layout of the dungeons.

Split into four episodes released over consecutive weeks, the game was played in real-time against a clock and, as such, couldn't be saved to the cartridge for offline play. While this sounds unreasonable for a game as vast as Zelda, Nintendo had its reasons. Not only could each episode be easily completed within the three-hour time limit, but also the game featured live voice acting. Yes, live.

At certain times during each episode, the action would freeze and the player would be able to listen to a narrator give hints on how to advance through that week's game. When the narration ended, the game would continue. What's more, other time-related events would also occur, such as the player being granted infinite amounts of bombs or arrows for a short period, or fairies appearing to help them recover life,

There were actually two versions of BS Zelda released on the BS-X, each featuring different maps and dungeons. The first appeared throughout August 1995 and the second hit across January 1996. Unlike the dungeons in Legend Of Zelda on the NES (where the dungeon designs formed various familiar objects), these games had dungeons that spelt out different words - specifically, St GIGA and Nintendo respectively. It was a minor touch, but one that entertained the fans nonetheless.

Legend Of Zelda BS

Legend Of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets
With the first BS Zelda proving a big success, Nintendo decided to update another hugely popular title, Link To The Past. The result was Kodai No Sekiban (Ancient Stone Tablets), a 'remixed' version of the original with a familiar overworld but new dungeons.

Interestingly, it doesn't feature Link as the hero. Instead, the player chooses from either a generic male or female character.

As with the first BS Zelda, the game was released in four weekly episodes and played live. An in-game clock kept track of the game's one-hour time limit and only certain parts of the map were accessible, depending on which episode you were playing.

There were several other key changes too. For instance, the Pegasus Boots now allowed you to change direction while running, weather effects tied to the game clock stopped the player from planting bombs outdoors, rental shops allowed the player to upgrade their sword or use a shovel for a brief duration and new characters, such as Impa (from Ocarina Of Time), made an appearance. There were also side-quests, although doing so meant the player had less time to complete the main quest.

Unlike in the first BS Zelda, each episode featured voice acting from start to finish. Not only was the narrator present for much of the game, but other parts of the game also used acting that the player could only hear when they moved onto the right screen (and thus were within hearing distance of whoever was talking). For this reason, the game was only released twice (in April 1997 and again in 1998). Sadly, the chances of it appearing again are... well, pretty much zero.