Hi /vr/. I'm playing TLoZ now and I can't help but

My wife's son enjoys it

>>4147998
Also consider this example:
>MEET THE OLD MAN AT THE GRAVE
>go to the graveyard
>there's a shitton of graves
>one grave can be moved the aforementioned old man
>AFAIK there are no more tips given that would say which grave that is

Did people just discover the old man by trial and error? If not, they probably got the info from some guides... does that mean *they* had to do it by trial and error?

you asked the kid with nintendo power what to do

>>4147998
Took about a day to bomb or burn every block. That's how I did it as a kid.

>>4148009
The max sword upgrade was optional, so it didn't stop people from beating the game. I did discover it though with the message you quoted.

There was just a different way of thinking about games back then. Not sure how else to explain it, but kids seemed much more creative towards games back then since conventions were not yet established.

>>4148036
Same anon

Thought about it more: We didn't understand games since it was fairly new, so we tried everything that popped into head. "Maybe I can dry the lake by burning it" or "will this bomb slide rocks to stop the waterfall that is blocking me?". Games truly were magical back then.

I remember finding the blue ring, then immediately pausing the game to run two streets over to tell a friend because I was too young to use the phone. Good times.

>>4147998
Pretty much trial and error back then you might get one game a year so you pretty much messed around with it a lot. You might get lucky and find something in Nintendo Power but that's only if you had a copy.

>>4148036
That sounds a little painful given the scarcity of bombs and the fact you can use the candle once per screen.

I guess TLoZ was such a novelty people spent days doing stuff like that.

I finished reading the official original instruction manual again right now and it seems that:
i) drawing your own dungeon maps is helpful, as it'd save some of that Whistle dungeon bullshit (you either have to feed Dodongas with bombs, or find a secret unmarked passageway... too bad there are no hints how to find these)
ii) if you read the manual's description of the Whistle item and find the Old Man with the "fairy" clue you might find one of the hidden dungeons
iii) dungeons 7, 8 and 9 are really hard to find without the hints given in the manual's addendum (which, I guess, was added later, not during the original release of the game)

It's not that hard to figure out if you thoroughly explore the dungeons enough to find all the old man hints. Also most people read the instruction manual, which is a lot more helpful than later game manuals.

The hardest thing to figure out is feeding the Hungry Goriya but I feel like you encounter this late enough in the game that you should have already discovered the meat through natural exploration.

>>4148009

Trial and error, but it's not like that took hours to do. Like, 5 minutes at most. I think the one grave that doesn't produce a ghini is a pretty big hint.

>it's a "babby can't wrap his brain around ambiguous retro games" episode

>>4148047
I can't say I'm not creative, though. I found an entrance to one of the final dungeons by burning a random tree.

I kinda envy running to your friend and telling him. This is a great thing about this game and I guessed it was something like that. All these tales of "you know that if you burn that tree here, ..." you could share.

Playing The Binding of Isaac kinda spoiled the Dodonga for me.

>>4148064
So you touched every grave and then ran if none of the graves was the grave you were looking for? That's still a lot, but it's doable.

>>4148070
I never said I didn't like this game. I'm just curious what was the real way this one was meant to be played.

It's not as daunting as it sounds. Us oldfags didn't have the internet where darn near every movie, show, or game is but a click away to distract us. There's parts of Tom Sawyer where Twain gives mundane items like marbles and dead cats supernatural child-captivating abilities. Zelda was like the GTA 5 of its day, we were hooked.

File: LOZ.jpg (382KB, 2104x788px) Image search: [Google]

382KB, 2104x788px

People seem to either not remember, or not understand that a map (pic related) was included with the game. In fact, I think there were maps for a bunch of games when you bought them, but couldn't tell you exactly which ones. The little manuals that came with the games also gave you hints as to where to go, what to use/when.

There were no gamefaqs (although strategy guides did start to come out for SNES), and gamegenie could only get you so far. Video games used to be about trial and error, dedication, and patience.

We made our own maps, tried literally everything we could think of, and just goofed around and played it. It took us time but we were young and had time to spare. That was half the fun, just playing it and trying crap til something worked.

We had no internet. We did have instruction books, nintendo power, and friends, though.

>>4148094
This map is nice. It's a shame there are no more "?" signs on it - I see there are no indications that could help you find the coin stash under the tree which is the fifth from right on the second screen near one of these pools with water. I would wander and try a lot of things if it covered more.

I read the manual, by the way.

>>4148115
That's 10/10, especially the "friends" part. I can imagine kids from the neighbourhood gathering together and drawing wacky maps with some self-found secrets.

>>4148063
> I guess TLoZ was such a novelty people spent days doing stuff like that.

That's exactly right. Many games like that were completely new concepts to a lot of people, which caused it to be really engaging. About the creativity comment, I mean it more to mean that kids didn't know what to expect at all so they tried everything. Almost all games now use tried and true formulas, but they didn't exist back then.

To echo a bit of what else is said in this thread... times were very different then. Unless you came fron a rich family, there was only one new game to own on a holiday, with an occasional rental. No Internet (world wide web wasn't invented until years later), no cell phone games, nothing. So if you wanted to play a game, you had to play one of the 1-10 games you might own. That's it.

Kids played each game to an immensely deeper depth compared to today.

>>4148132
I know what you mean. I took the times and the lack of Internet into account.

I used to own a GBA, but I had no money for the cartridges, so I played what I had. Gaming on that new console was such a novelty for me that I beat everything I had like 6 times (I also had a bootleg cartridge with some NES games, so I played lots of NES too) and loved every second.

Similar case with Famiclones in my country and the "yellow bootleg carts" except I had more of these.
There wasn't a kid around who wouldn't play Circus Charlie, though (given they could access a Famiclone, but that wasn't so hard IIRC)

>>4147998
>how did people guess the location of these crazy hidden things in this game?

When I realized you could bomb shit and burn trees, I just went around bombing and incinerating everything. Managed to get 100% completion on both quests this way. A couple of things in the second quest were pretty tricky, but not so obscure that there was no possible way of discovering them on my own.

>>4148115
Pt 2

I remember making my own painfully detailed maps for The Barrows and TheMines of Moria in The Lord of the Rings for snes. Wish i still had them so i could upload a pic haha.

But yeah, long story short, we just played the games and used what little resources were given us; we were absolutely enchanted with it and wouldve had it no other way.

sidenote: you think zelda is esoteric? Try Ys Vanished Omens nes rom. The riddle to find Lair/Reah was mind boggling. Or the pillar you have to hammer to stop the music in the corridor but get ZERO info regarding.

>>4148182
The biggest problem with that is that you can use the (blue) candle once per screen. After that you have to exit the screen and try again.
Given that was your only game back then, you had a lot of free time and it was captivating, I can see why you could do so.
Must have been nice.

>>4148198
I actually like hard riddles, if their difficulty isn't bullshit.
I like Professor Layton games, NDS mystery games, point-and-click/adventure games and the creepy riddles from Silent Hill.

>>4148220
I don't know it was for other kids, but I noticed that there will only ever be 1 door (hidden or normal) per screen. So after finding the door, I moved to the next screen.

Talking about mapping, I remember my uncle had given me Platoon for a birthday. Tryin to find my way to the bridge was a pain so I pulled out the graphpaper and started to map out the level. Was so simple once I figured it out.

File: Tiny-Toon-Adventures-How-I-Spent-My-Vacation-Not-on-DVD-LaserDisc-12290.jpg (82KB, 800x800px) Image search: [Google]

82KB, 800x800px

>>4147998
SUMMER
clap clap
SUMMER
clap clap
SUMMER
SUMMER

>>4148778
This is what Im saying right here. Information wasnt a couple clicks away like it is today. If we wanted to figure it out we had to -figure it out-. We became cartographers and our own repositories of information through countless hours and attempts.

It only increased our immersion and satisfaction; it only made it funner.

I went through the japanese version and most of the clues in it were pretty helpful, but finding the last two dungeons was still obtuse. It's common knowledge though that Zelda 1 was made with the intention that people would find only some secrets on their own and spread them through word of mouth, though it's likely that they only had japan in mind when they came up with the idea.

>>4147998
If you think tloz is bad, imagine deadly towers!

>>4147998
How doesn't that help? He's telling you the eastmost peninsula has a secret. You know what a peninsula is right?

>>4148778
Do you know Yume Nikki? I essentially did the same when playing it.
>>4149028
I like this.
>>4149583
Which peninsula? Some of the fansites still don't know what that meant, even though Zelda is 30+ years old.

>>4149556
I'm not sure how I beat that game as a kid. I remember making some ridiculously huge and convoluted maps of the later dungeons because I didn't realize that they looped at some points.

File: World%20Map%20-%20Mephea[1].png (275KB, 4622x1773px) Image search: [Google]

275KB, 4622x1773px

>>4149801
A peninsula is a piece of land that juts out into the ocean.

The east water always has the sound of crashing waves play when you're near it, to emphasize it's ocean side.

Here's how the world map looks when someone doesn't know about the secret.

>>4147998
>how did people guess the location of these crazy hidden things in this game?
The game encouraged sociability amongst players outside the game. You were supposed to share secrets and talk with your friends in the playground.

>>4148009
back then people used guides and also talked to friends

some went at it by pure attrition

>>4149829
This is easily the best secrets map I've seen so far, thanks.
I discovered Dungeon 8 by burning a random tree. You don't need the *red* candle for that, a blue one will suffice.

So the secret of the peninsula is that old man who gives you a heart container after you have the raft? It's not a big secret then. After I got the raft I instantly remembered passing that dock-looking thingy.

>>4150054
>>4150180
I said this before, but I'll say it again - great idea. Must have been great playing it with friends back then.

>>4150314
No, above that. There's actually a screen above the tree game there, not empty water. But the only way to find it is to walk along a secret opening in the wall.

>>4150401
It isn't marked on that map here... I'll have to check it myself then.

I stumbled upon something interesting:

http://legendsoflocalization.com/the-legend-of-zelda/first-quest/

>EASTMOST PENNINSULA (sic!) IS THE SECRET.
>Anyway, with such a strange-sounding line in English, you might think it was just a goofy translation by a non-native speaker… Nope! The Japanese text actually says: “You can’t use arrows if you run out of money.”
>tfw you haven't been shooting arrows at all because you thought you had only one arrow and if you used it you'd have to buy another one for 60 rupees
>it seems there's no secret in the eastmost peninsula after all

>An old lady in the southwest area of the map says in English, “Go north, west, south, west to the forest of maze.” The non-native phrasing gives you the impression that following these directions will take you to a “forest of maze”.
Exactly this, but I quickly realized what was going on when the map kept looping in one place

>BOY, THIS IS REALLY EXPENSIVE!
>in a cheapest shop in Hyrule
Well, it might have been a humorific attempt.

>This other old man in Level 6 says in the NES version, “There are secrets where fairies don’t live.”
>The Japanese version is more like, “There’s a secret in the pond without a fairy.” or “There’s a secret in the pond where a fairy doesn’t live.”
Well, shit.

I regret playing the US version now... then again I wouldn't be able to see all these glorious mistranslations if it wasn't for the US version <3

tloz was a poorly made game that tried the crpg angle with an action game and failed miserably. You cannot play this game without a guide because it's that fucking annoying. There were no kind of cues that can tell you where to go. It was a game bogged down more by limitations and the laziness of Nintendo rather than some intentional design. This is the same game that was competing against the marvel of a rpg community at the time. There was no excuse for what they did.

File: ZeldaOverworldMapQ1.png (213KB, 4352x1408px) Image search: [Google]

213KB, 4352x1408px

>>4150401
>>4150484
Here's a more robust map. There's a hidden wall behind the peninsula.

>>4150981
You were right all the way, then.
Then again I'd expect it'd be something more important than just 100 rupees.

>>4150754
Well, it didn't fail. It sold in a great number of copies and estabilished some conventions.
The USA version is botched, though. I wonder how anyone could screw the localization so bad back then. This game doesn't even have a lot of text...

I remember the map in Nintendo Power back then, You know before the whole world had the internet.

The only part of Zelda that's cryptic is the way to get the Power Bracelet and the location of Level 9. And the latter is conspicuous enough that you could figure it out off the premise that there's a hidden location in every other square in the overworld or so. The only thing that throws you off is that there's no other rock in the game you can just walk into, but at the same time the tip "SPECTACLE ROCK IS ENTRANCE TO DEATH," can only refer to this one place.... Now, the Power Bracelet. That's bullshit.

An
d
stop
talk
ing
lik
e
this.

>>4148008
That is so random and I have just gotten disgusted with this entire meme. Have none of you ever grown up with step-parents? Have you nothing but contempt for blended families and any man who marries someone who has children?

It really does sicken me, it's so deeply depraved.

>>4147998
game magazines such as nintendo power

if you was poor while your mum was shopping you would read the magazine in the magazine isle and memorize any codes so you didnt need to buy it for the tips or cheats lol

>>4151273
It's a joke. About young people

>>4148008
Found the one with step-daddy issues

>>4150180
>>4150314
>own cart when I was 4-5
>combination of living with extended family and luddite mom means I try off and on for 5 years to beat
>never make it past dungeon 6
>jump forward to 1997, discover emulation
>teen anon decides to put this fucker in the finish pile after having beaten 2, LttP and OoT
>cool librarian helps me get the emulator working on my shitbox at home
>mom reminds me of burning bushes and bombing walls
>end up calling my wise old aunt for solutions to the forest puzzle and defeating ganon

It took me 12 years of off-and-on play and the help of three non-gamer women to beat TLoZ. It was an adventure.

>>4151015
> Then again I'd expect it'd be something more important than just 100 rupees.
Yeah, it's pretty junk in the first quest. It's where the blue ring is in the second quest though.

>>4147998
this game was literally the dark souls of its time

>>4151015
>I wonder how anyone could screw the localization so bad back then

Lower budgets, smaller teams, native Japanese speakers doing localization. Pretty simple, really.

Also, LoZ has a pretty spot-on translation, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. A few of the old man hints got switched around or changed outright, but they're mostly so cryptic they don't matter at all anyway.

All the errors in text in the intro are identical to the Japanese version (which was also in English), so there was no localization at all done there.

The only outright wrong dialogue translation is the shopkeeper who says, "BOY, THIS IS EXPENSIVE!" when really he should be talking about having the best deals in Hyrule.

>>4148009
>they
It is worth noting that when a strategy guide maker or help line support persons needs this info they ask the developer. If something was needed to progress then you bet the strategy guide or help line knew already. For secrets that are truthfully secrets and are not required, then only a few of those are not told to the guide/support but even mostly all of those extra secrets are divulged.

File: 1363872839292.jpg (599KB, 2400x862px) Image search: [Google]

599KB, 2400x862px

>>4148094
This. Other than that it was just a shitload of exploring and trial and error.

File: 1363872870142.jpg (490KB, 2400x861px) Image search: [Google]

490KB, 2400x861px

>>4152507
>>4148094
Other side of the map.

File: 1363872244290.jpg (605KB, 1024x795px) Image search: [Google]

605KB, 1024x795px

>>4148115

>>4152167
Great story. Why your aunt, though?

>>4152413
see
>>4150620
especially about the part about going *into* the forest of maze, not *out* of it, not mentioning losing rupees after you shoot arrows and the tip about something in the skull

>>4152515
Damn. Is that yours, anon?

>>4152552
Nah, just an image I saved a few years ago.

>>4152413
>Also, LoZ has a pretty spot-on translation

Yeah, this is completely wrong, as >>4152552
pointed out. The shoddy translations made an obtuse game design even more obtuse.

>>4152552
We lived with her during the early gameplay years and I have a distinct memory of us waking up early to find her just finishing the game. Alongside a bunch of other instances, he's the reason I got into gaming and computers.

>>4147998
>how did people guess the location of these crazy hidden things in this game?

You just experimented.

>>4151015
>I wonder how anyone could screw the localization so bad back then
A lot of NES era translations were done by non-native speakers, and it shows.

>>4152167
Damn that sucks cause level 7 and 8 are so much fun and 9 is legendary!

>>4151273
>Marrying used goods

>>4154253
To clarify, I never made it past dungeon 6 due to shitheel cousins (not the ones I lived with) erasing our saves and having to fight cousins (ones I lived with) for time on the NES.

Lots of time on the players hands. Chances are they didn't have a ton of games to play and sometimes they would rent games but that is about it. So you just stuck it out with a lot of the games you already had.