Tool-assisted movies (13)

The second quest of Zelda is what you get by having completed the game once. It is more difficult than the first quest.

In his movie, Sleepz enters ZELDA as the player's name to start the 2nd quest without having to complete the game first.

Legend of Zelda (ゼルダの伝説) is an adventure game that easily takes you days to beat. Its world is so huge and full of obscure secrets that without great deal of planning you won't make it in less than many hours.

This movie was planned together by many masterminds at the TASVideos forum - primarily Michael_Fried, Ramzi and Sleepz.
We were aiming for a sub-30 minutes movie, then for a sub-29 minutes movie. I decided to publish anything that goes under 28 minutes. And here we are, under 27 minutes - 4:33 faster than the previous version!

The Up+A trick (save and restart) was used in this movie several times. It was judged to be acceptable because it's mentioned in the instruction booklet of the game, and is a part of normal playing.

This video is certainly quite a surprise to anyone who has used hours and hours exploring the Hyrule world. :)

Legend of Zelda (ゼルダの伝説) is an adventure game that easily takes you days to beat. Its world is so huge and full of obscure secrets that without great deal of planning you won't make it in less than many hours.

The previous Zelda movie which was designed together by many masterminds at the TASVideos forums and played by Sleepz has now been beaten by Phil by 86 seconds because of tactical changes mostly.

The Up+A trick (save and restart) was used in this movie several times. It was judged to be acceptable because it's mentioned in the instruction booklet of the game, and is a part of normal playing.

This video is certainly quite a surprise to anyone who has used hours and hours exploring the Hyrule world. :)

This is a historic movie, submitted and obsoleted before the creation of the database-based (and wiki-based) site engine, before July 2004.

It was inserted to the database in a history revival project by Bisqwit in autumn 2006.

Comments from the author (three separate messages, two before the completion of the video):

I started working on my new Zelda speed run video (video length is 2:52 so far and attached in case you want to see what I did so far). Make sure you pay attention to the extreme coolness of how fast I enter my name :) I'm going to start out the same way Josh L. did (get sword, get overworld heart container, beat level 2), but I'm also going to make some major strategy changes, for example, level 8 is going to be the third level I go to. I'm also not going to get the magic shield. I'm also going to kill enemies faster than he did. By the way, if you're wondering why I didn't get any keys in level 2, it's because I don't need them. I'm going to have a net gain of 1 key in level 1, then I'll go to level 8 where I'll get 1 more key, and then there are 2 locked doors to go through before getting the magic key.

My Zelda video is turning out pretty good so far. I finished the third level today (level 8 in my speed run). After you see how fast I kill the darknuts (enemies that look like knights) in level 8, it will become obvious that the comment that battles could have been optimized better won't be necessary anymore once my video is on your page :) I also killed the level 8 boss very fast. Also, now that I have the magic key, the other levels should go more quickly. I attached the FMV of what I did so far. Even if you don't have time to watch the whole thing, I recommend you at least see me kill the darknuts.

Quote from the author: "A game that originally took everyone days to beat, finished in 36 minutes".
Features lots of secrets.
This video has been very well prepared on bigger scale, but it seems like smaller scale events like battles could have been optimized better. Nevertheless, this video might be quite a surprise to anyone who has used hours and hours exploring the Hyrule world. :)

Selected comments from the author (three messages, two before the movie's completion):

I found your web page containing NES speed runs, and they seemed like a fun little diversion.
I have tried my hand at making a Zelda speed run. =3
I managed a completion of the first quest at 00:37:45, but tragically, when I played it back, Link stops moving after getting the whistle for some reason. T_T

> How long did it take to make that? Do you have a map of that game
> or are you just a walking map of that game yourself? :)
Probably around 6 or 7 hours. I wasn't paying much attention to the time. ^_^; It was surprisingly not that difficult. I've played Zelda many times and I remember a lot of things about it, but I still did need some help. There's a "speed faq" on the game at http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/nes/file/legend_of_zelda_speed.txt and I used it as a guide, though I did deviate from it in some places (mainly, it tells you to go out of your way to get items that help you take less damage, which isn't necessary since I wasn't getting hit).

So much for waiting. ^^; I went and made a movie last night that's over a minute and a half shorter and actually works this time. It's at http://omake.studio-zoe.com/ZELDA.fmv A game that originally took everyone days to beat, finished in 36 minutes. =3 If you find it worthy of recording into avi format, let me know, though I'm wondering if a movie this large will make it hard to synch the video and audio. ^_^; In any case, enjoy!

Legend of Zelda (ゼルダの伝説) is an adventure game that needs no introduction to most NES players.

It is a large game that normally takes days to beat, but at TASVideos, we often reduce games to the minimum necessary in order to complete them.

This is the fifth Legend of Zelda TAS at this site (not counting the second quest movie), and is ~85 seconds faster than the previous movie, due to a completely new route, better strategies and luck manipulation, glitches and some new techniques according to the authors. It took about 1½ years to complete.

The second quest of The Legend of Zelda is what you get by having completed the game once. It is more difficult than the first quest.

In this movie, the authors enter ZELDA as the player's name to start the 2nd quest without having to complete the game first.

This movie is 4 minutes and 13.6 seconds faster than the previous movie by Sleepz. The authors provide detailed explanations of the time savings in their submission text.

You can watch this run played back on a real NES console.

Of all the challenging ways to play Legend of Zelda that people have attempted on an NES console, one of the most famous is the "swordless" challenge. In this challenge, the player must beat all of the game, up until the final boss Ganon, without using a sword. It is not possible to damage Ganon without a sword, however, so many swordless runs reach Ganon's room and either die there or crash the game.

In order to actually complete the game, jprofit22 does pick up a sword and kills Ganon. However, the sword is only obtained before attempting the final level, and even then, the sword is not used until absolutely necessary. In the meantime, sit back and watch a run which relies heavily on luck manipulation and effective bomb usage to beat the game very quickly. For more details, see the run's comments.

Of all the challenging ways to play Legend of Zelda that people have attempted on a NES console, one of the most famous is the "swordless" challenge. In this challenge, the player must beat all of the game, up until the final boss Ganon, without using a sword. It is not possible to damage Ganon without a sword however, so many swordless runs reach Ganon's room to die there.

In order to actually complete the game, Baxter does pick up a sword and kills Ganon. However, the sword is only obtained shortly before attempting the final level, and even then, the sword is not used until absolutely necessary. In the meantime, sit back and watch a run which relies heavily on luck manipulation and effective bomb usage to beat the game very quickly. For more details, see the author's comments.

This is a 86-second improvement over the previous movie by jprofit22.

You can watch this run played back on a real NES console.

The Legend of Zelda (ゼルダの伝説) is an adventure game that needs no introduction to most NES players.

It is a large game that normally takes days to beat, but at TASVideos, we often reduce games to the minimum necessary in order to complete them.

This is the sixth The Legend of Zelda TAS at this site (not counting the alternate movies), and is ~86 seconds faster than the previous movie, largely due to better optimization and manipulation of item drops.

You can watch this run played back on a real NES console.

The Legend of Zelda (ゼルダの伝説) is an adventure game that needs no introduction to most NES players.

This time, Link is not just satisfied with collecting the Triforce and saving the princess; he feels like getting through Hyrule with a lot of shiny artifacts and weapons, even if he never uses them after getting them. In this run, the player collects the best version of every object and status upgrade, including all the heart containers, every inventory item, the best sword, and both bomb upgrades. Link even buys the Bait an extra time more than required, so that the bait remains in his inventory at the end of the game. For more details about what constitutes a 100% run, see the submission comments.

We also have other runs for The Legend of Zelda: an any% run through the first quest, a 'swordless' first-quest run, and an any% run through the second quest.

The Legend of Zelda (ゼルダの伝説) is an adventure game that needs no introduction to most NES players. It is a large game that normally takes days to beat, but at TASVideos, we often reduce games to the minimum time necessary in order to complete them. It's a secret to everybody.

This is the seventh iteration of this TAS, 20.6 seconds faster than the previous run. The improvements are largely due to better luck manipulation and some major route changes that lead to Link staying away from gambling. For more details, read the submission comments or the author's subtitles on the encodes.

The encodes feature commentary by the author as soft subtitles.

This run was console verified using micro500's TASLink replay device (with 1 frame per latch poll).

This movie has a full Atlas Map encode, which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.

Of all the challenging ways to play Legend of Zelda that people have attempted on a NES console, one of the most famous is the "swordless" challenge. In this challenge, the player must beat all of the game, up until the final boss Ganon, without using a sword. It is not possible to damage Ganon without a sword however, so many swordless runs reach Ganon's room to die there.

In order to actually complete the game, Lord_Tom does pick up a sword and kills Ganon. However, the sword is only obtained shortly before attempting the final level, and even then, the sword is not used until absolutely necessary. In the meantime, sit back and watch a run which relies heavily on luck manipulation and effective bomb usage to beat the game very quickly. For more details, see the author's comments.

This is a 34-second improvement over the previous movie by Baxter.

View this movie played back on a real NES right here.

The official encodes feature commentary by the author as soft subtitles.