​

The trilogy of Zelda titles on the CDi have been a topic of interest and curiosity for many Zelda fans, mostly due to their bad reputation on the franchise from one of the worst decisions Nintendo has ever made in their career in terms of business decision, with the partnership with Phillips and their CDi console leading to the creation of one of their biggest competitors, Sony and their PlayStation console.

The first 2 side-scrolling CD-i titles, Link: Faces of Evil, Zelda: Wand of Gamelon, got full fan remasters just a couple of years ago back in 2020, with the remasters fixing a lot of the issues that many people throughout the years complaint about the original games, alongside a lot of other great quality of life features that make the games a worthwhile experience. However, that still left the original, and the odd one of the bunch, Zelda's Adventure out of the picture, since that title had a whole different play-style compared to the other 2, with this one being a top-down styled game, in the same vein as the classic 2D Zelda experience, albeit, with a lot of flaws and cons, which the the CDi releases are well known for.

Homebrew developer, John Lay, has worked on a complete recreation of Zelda's Adventure for quite some time, but this isn't a remaster like the other 2 titles, instead, Lay opted to recreate the game from the groundup on the Game Boy.

Background​

In the 1990s Nintendo made a deal with Philips to develop 3 Zelda titles. The first 2 were side scrolling platformers, similar to Zelda II, and the third was a traditional top-down action adventure game.


Zelda’s Adventure looked interesting and I thought it would be fun to play on a portable system. I chose the Game Boy because of the existing Zelda games on the system.


The game sticks to the aesthetics of Link’s Awakening, but also incorporates some features from Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons.


This is a complete port of the CDi original and was developed in GB Studio, with a few modifications. Thanks to Beatscribe for composing the music. I hope you enjoy playing the game as much as enjoyed making it.

In order to create the game, John Lay worked with GB Studio, and created the gameplay and aesthetics to be similar to those found in Link's Awakening, with some additional inspiration from the Oracle titles as well. With this, Lay has successfully recreated Zelda's Adventure 1:1 into the Game Boy, keeping the overall layout, structure and story found in the original, with the charming graphical and gameplay style of Link's Awakening.

Your Quest​

It is the Age of Darkness.

The evil Ganon has captured the young hero Link. Only Princess Zelda can rescue him. Her journey will be difficult, filled with many challenges and mysteries. Armed only with the advice of the wise court astronomer Gaspra, and the guidance of Shurmak, Zelda must set out on her journey deep into the uncharted southeastern region of Hyrule, known as Tolemac.

Before she begins, Gaspra warns her that the only way to save Link is to collect the seven Celestial Signs that Ganon has stolen, and that she must overcome one final obstacle: Ganon himself. Once she succeeds, she gains the knowledge and strength to rescue Link and brings the magical land of Hyrule into the Age of Lightness.

​

 

[SkittleDash]

Demake? Looks like a upgrade to me.

 

[godreborn]

I changed my reaction to a wow after seeing the trailer. I downloaded it, may donate to the dev as well, but it may have to wait until next month or at least until I sell my pokemon switch as I bought the zelda one.

 

[CoolMe]

This is really impressive. even the ost sounds authentic. You might as well call it the "definitive" way to play the game..

 

[Ryab]

​

The trilogy of Zelda titles on the CDi have been a topic of interest and curiosity for many Zelda fans, mostly due to their bad reputation on the franchise from one of the worst decisions Nintendo has ever made in their career in terms of business decision, with the partnership with Phillips and their CDi console leading to the creation of one of their biggest competitors, Sony and their PlayStation console.

The first 2 side-scrolling CD-i titles, Link: Faces of Evil, Zelda: Wand of Gamelon, got full fan remasters just a couple of years ago back in 2020, with the remasters fixing a lot of the issues that many people throughout the years complaint about the original games, alongside a lot of other great quality of life features that make the games a worthwhile experience. However, that still left the original, and the odd one of the bunch, Zelda's Adventure out of the picture, since that title had a whole different play-style compared to the other 2, with this one being a top-down styled game, in the same vein as the classic 2D Zelda experience, albeit, with a lot of flaws and cons, which the the CDi releases are well known for.

Homebrew developer, John Lay, has worked on a complete recreation of Zelda's Adventure for quite some time, but this isn't a remaster like the other 2 titles, instead, Lay opted to recreate the game from the groundup on the Game Boy.



In order to create the game, John Lay worked with GB Studio, and created the gameplay and aesthetics to be similar to those found in Link's Awakening, with some additional inspiration from the Oracle titles as well. With this, Lay has successfully recreated Zelda's Adventure 1:1 into the Game Boy, keeping the overall layout, structure and story found in the original, with the charming graphical and gameplay style of Link's Awakening.

​

Ah yes, Zelda's Adventure. The game that even the developers hated.

 

[sarkwalvein]

To be honest, the "demake" looks like an actually playable, even enjoyable game, unlike the original.

 

[eriol33]

More like a remake, and looked 1000x better

 

[EpikJimmer]

Demake? Looks like a upgrade to me.

101% agree. The cdi game looks like dogshit.

 

[Emperor_Norton]

Ah yes, Zelda's Adventure. The game that even the developers hated.

Not all of them hated it, it was more of a hate for the CD-i itself being such a difficult and restricting system to work for. An interview of Jason Bakutis (the guy who made all the claymation models and dollhouse sets that much of the graphics were made from) reveals a lot of the passion they had at the time. A lot of the game had to be cut to meet both the deadline for the license and for the hardware restrictions. They were even trying to get Echo & the Bunnymen (a rather notable 80's rock band) to do the music for it.

What we got was pretty bad, yeah, but it wasn't for lack of ambition.

You can find the interview here: https://web.archive.org/web/2023031...com/interview/zeldas-adventure-jason-bakutis/

 

[x65943]

Nice, definitely gonna throw this on the flashcart tonight

 

[Cris1997XX]

So how about developing a true fucking "demake" that runs on real hardware instead of a PC game done with modern programs? This, Bloodborne PS1, I'm kinda sick of seeing this sorta bait every time the "demake" of whatever videogame is announced

 

[sarkwalvein]

So how about developing a true fucking "demake" that runs on real hardware instead of a PC game done with modern programs? This, Bloodborne PS1, I'm kinda sick of seeing this sorta bait every time the "demake" of whatever videogame is announced

What do you mean? This runs on real hardware.

 

[Lumstar]

So how about developing a true fucking "demake" that runs on real hardware instead of a PC game done with modern programs? This, Bloodborne PS1, I'm kinda sick of seeing this sorta bait every time the "demake" of whatever videogame is announced

This is a Game Boy game, not a PC game.

 

[6adget]

So how about developing a true fucking "demake" that runs on real hardware instead of a PC game done with modern programs? This, Bloodborne PS1, I'm kinda sick of seeing this sorta bait every time the "demake" of whatever videogame is announced

Watch the video. it's designed to run on real Gameboy hardware.

 

[Frankbel]

Awesome!!

 

[fmhugo]

"Good" Zelda

 

[Ericzander]

So how about developing a true fucking "demake" that runs on real hardware instead of a PC game done with modern programs? This, Bloodborne PS1, I'm kinda sick of seeing this sorta bait every time the "demake" of whatever videogame is announced

I'm just gonna jump on the bandwagon with everyone else and tell you to actually read the article and/or watch the video before commenting. Or at the very least look at the thumbnail of the video.

 

[Doran754]

I imagine It can be converted to .cia and work on 3ds aswell, so yeah plenty of options for real hardware.

 

[raxadian]

Hotel Mario should get a Gameboy version.

 

[KingVamp]

This is better. Thought they meant it will look and play actually like the game.