Legend of Zelda C64 Title Screen
Emerging from the 80s, two of Nintendo’s biggest franchises on its game systems were Super Mario Bros. and Zelda. While neither officially migrated the classic titles from their Nintendo console homes, that has changed in recent years. In 2012, the OG platformer finally made its way onto the Commodore 64 courtesy of developer ZeroPaige. It was a gloriously impressive, direct port of the original source code to the venerable 8-bit home micro. It was so well done, and so popular, that it sadly caught the ire of Nintendo lawyers, who forced it to be removed from official distribution channels. But, like many such projects, it lives on.
Recently, another dream NES port has appeared on the C64. The Legend of Zelda has received a version for the Commodore 8-bit platform from developer Goldfinger, and it is just as impressive to behold as SMB was. Goldfinger began discussing the possibilities of a C64 port of the game back in July on the Lemon64 forums. Finally, at the end of October, a feature-complete version of the game appeared on CSDb.
Legend of Zelda C64 Screenshot
For those who have been hiding under a movable rock, The Legend of Zelda is an action-adventure game originally released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan in 1986 and later brought to the US for the NES in 1987. You play as Link (not Zelda, as many assumed when the game first released). Your goal is to collect the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom and rescue Princess Zelda from the clutches of the evil Ganon.
Gameplay takes place both on the surface and deep in sprawling dungeons. Along the way, you will battle a number of creatures and baddies with your sword and shield. You will collect and purchase a wide variety of items during the game, including stronger swords, boomerangs, magic rings, keys, and maps. To defeat Ganon and free Hyrule, you’ll need to find the best, strongest items.
The first thing you will notice upon loading Zelda on the C64 is that it is nearly identical to the NES original. The waterfall flows the same way on the title screen. The fade to the story and list of items during the attract mode is the same. Aside from the expected color palette shift between the NES and C64, everything looks as it should.
Legend of Zelda C64 Screenshot
The other immediately apparent aspect is the music. The Legend of Zelda soundtrack is as iconic as any of Nintendo’s properties. The NES version is burned into the minds of Gen-X gamers everywhere. While some may prefer the sounds of the NES’s Ricoh 2A03 over the C64’s SID, it’s hard to fault the work that was done bringing the game’s music to this version. Personally, I actually prefer the SID version, but your mileage may vary.
Gameplay, again, is spot-on. Sprite movement is smooth, and creatures pace and react as expected. Hit detection seems to be identical to the original, for better or worse. And the sprite animation is all there. At a glance, you would be hard-pressed to tell if you were playing the C64 version or the NES original.
While this achievement is impressive, a couple of downsides mar the experience ever so slightly. During heavy on-screen action, the game can slow down. It isn’t game-breaking, but it’s noticeable. The developer claims the game will use the C128’s more powerful CPU in C64 mode for better gameplay. I can’t test that claim right now, so I will have to take his word for it.
The other omission is support for multi-button sticks. Currently, the Start and Select buttons on the NES controller are mapped to F5 and F7, while the second action button is triggered by the space bar. Again, it’s not insurmountable, and most emulators let you reassign actions to other buttons on modern controllers. But native support for multi-button controllers available for the C64 would be a welcome addition.
Overall, this is an extremely impressive port of a classic NES title. Grab it quickly before Nintendo’s lawyers bury it for good!
CSDb Link – https://csdb.dk/release/?id=265398
Lemon64 forum post – https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=89695
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