Currently unnamed Link's Awakening hack

[Jeville]

I'm impressed. I'd like to see you do the rest of the levels, rather than having it solely be a text hack. Your writing does make me smile, for what it's worth.

The occasional graphical glitches aside (my LA hack isn't free of those), a criticism for Tail Cave: The room where you have to push a block against another block. If the block is pushed the wrong way, you're trapped because both doors are shut. Either keep the bottom door opened, or put an extra block on top of the pushable block to prevent it from being pushed the wrong way. I'd go with having the bottom door left opened.

If being able to steal from the shop is much of a concern, well, it still is possible to steal. You may not think so, but that's probably because you were testing it swordless. It is impossible to steal from the shop swordless, because the developers didn't want it possible to enter Mysterious Woods swordless with a bomb. Anyway, what works is placing the shopkeeper at the top-right corner. It won't get in the way of picking up an item near that corner.

Edit: Thief video (unlisted).


I explored this much of Koholint before I was done, because I was dumb. If you don't want this similar fate to occur with your players, you can at least:

Spoiler

Place some pools of water to prevent it.

[close]

[LocksmithArmy]

I understand that feeling. Although it sounds like you'd be a good candidate for testing/critiquing even a (very) partial Zelda 4 hack, since you're apparently very interested in them (not to mention a past avatar of yours being the Wind Fish, unless that was someone else...). As said, this trial goes only up until beating the first dungeon, and even the parts in this trial might experience significant changes, so I personally don't think the player would really be ruining the finished hack for him/herself, but eh well, suit yourself.

Indeed I was the windfish for awhile lol ana m a HUGE zelda fan (one day I will quit hacking pokemon and start hacking zelda games) Links Awakening was my first zelda game so it has a special place in my heart (hence the wind fish avatar)

Its not that playing only the first level would ruin it... its that... playing only the first part will make me want to play more... I will be sad that I connot continue my quest... and I dont like being sad... so I dont play unfinished games

[Tetrahedrus]

Your writing does make me smile, for what it's worth.

Thanks, but trust me, not as much as it makes me smile that you had nice things (as well as a nice dose of helpful criticism) to say about this. I thought Hard Awakening was a blast (except for two certain dungeon rooms, those weren't such a blast...*shudder*), so it does mean a lot to me that such a hack's creator would take the time to play through mine and give me feedback.

a criticism for Tail Cave: The room where you have to push a block against another block. If the block is pushed the wrong way, you're trapped because both doors are shut.

Ack, that is a pretty big thing to never notice. Right well consider it taken care of then. In the meantime players will just have to use Start+Select+A+B.

If being able to steal from the shop is much of a concern, well, it still is possible to steal. . .Anyway, what works is placing the shopkeeper at the top-right corner. It won't get in the way of picking up an item near that corner.

Ah, so it is. You're right, I only tested it swordless. I actually didn't know it was impossible at that time! Thanks for letting me know about that. And I thought I knew this game...oh well, it'll be dealt with. Even though I've made progress since this release, I will go back and release a version 0.3 of this trial to deal with these problems you've brought to my attention, since I don't think I'll have any significant news regarding this hack for quite some time.

I explored this much of Koholint before I was done, because I was dumb. If you don't want this similar fate to occur with your players, you can at least:

Spoiler

Place some pools of water to prevent it.

[close]

In the progress I've made since, I did restrict a sizable chunk of areas before Tail Cave. I might restrict a little more, but at the point I am now, I don't think it'll be a huge problem.

Indeed I was the windfish for awhile lol ana m a HUGE zelda fan (one day I will quit hacking pokemon and start hacking zelda games)

I've never played Pokémon games, so I can't truly appreciate your hacks of them, but it will be really nice to have more Zelda hacks on the scene! Especially Link's Awakening, but I cannot be so certain that you'd be interested in hacking that one...

Links Awakening was my first zelda game so it has a special place in my heart (hence the wind fish avatar)

...then again if you hold it in such high regard, then maybe there's hope for an LA hack from you 

I now see your reasoning about not wanting to play incomplete games, and I understand. I hate that feeling too...

[Tetrahedrus]

It's been a little while, time for an update. I have been working on this thing, though at a slow pace. I have completed the second dungeon and am working on the third, as well as other things.

Here are some screenshots of dungeons 2 and 3:

     

No telling when this will be finished. Or if.

[Jeville]

Good to hear! Here's a new glitch discovered in the game that you might not want players to take advantage of in your hack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-BpF6gf3vA

[Tetrahedrus]

That's interesting, thanks Jeville. I don't believe this will be an issue in my hack, but it's good to know!

As for recent progress of my project, I am just about done with the third dungeon, but I haven't gotten around to working on it the past few days.

[Lin]

I'm glad to see people are taking advantage of LALE and actually making hacks (*cough* why you'd choose LA over the Oracles is beyond me though...) When I get the chance, I'll be sure to check it out.

Also, LALE should include some sort of documentation on how to visit its forum/irc channel if you ever need help with stuff.

[Jeville]

(*cough* why you'd choose LA over the Oracles is beyond me though...)

In my case, there's an issue of occasionally coming across a yellow screen that kind of puts me off it. A perk for doing LA is for its simplicity.

[Tetrahedrus]

Well hello Lin. It would be very nice hearing your thoughts on my hack's tiny trial.

*cough* why you'd choose LA over the Oracles is beyond me though...)

Why did I choose LA over Oracles? Hmm, let me think about that. I will ponder and ponder until I can give you the very best explanation my reasoning has to offer.

A perk for doing LA is for its simplicity.

This is true, not to mention I have a long history with and fond memories of LA whereas I haven't played much of either Oracle game, although I'd like to play through them sometime.

Now, as for general updates, I have completed the third dungeon and have playtested my hack up until getting the third instrument. Progress lulled for a bit there, but I've had a boost in motivation as of late so hopefully I can get to work on the fourth level in no time.

I've been thinking about when I'm nearly done (assuming nothing saps my interest), I might want some beta testers. I actually had a couple in line, but they haven't been responding to my messages lately. I can't say I'm certain they'll be around and still interested when that time comes to test it. If they're not available at that time, I guess I can do one of those "Help Wanted" ads, but I thought I'd just mention this here for now to see if one of the few people actively following this thread would want to help me test it in case I don't have anyone else.

[Jeville]

I'm willing whenever you are nearly done.

[snarfblam]

The hack definitely sounds interesting so far. I'm going to check it out tomorrow. If you're short on testers when the time comes, I might be interested.

(*cough* why you'd choose LA over the Oracles is beyond me though...)

I personally like LA much more than the Oracle games. (In fact, LA is my favorite Zelda game period.) I've always wanted to hack LA myself but never got around to it.

[Lin]

Well, from a ROM-hacking standpoint, the Oracles are much more free and editable. They're way more organized in regards to tilesets and all forms of data, and the "interactions" and other pointer tables allow any script or assembly procedure to happen safely without any actual original assembly edits. LA hardcodes a lot of map-specific events that you're stuck with unless you know Gameboy assembly (PS If you do get into that stuff I'd recommend my assembler. Despite GUI and some disassembler issues, it's unfortunately the only assembler to support dynamic addressing).

But enough that. I'd be happy to beta test and I'm pretty sure Fatories too would if he's not too busy. We know specific things to look for just because of how much we've worked with the games. I could try and get in contact with Jigglysaint too if you'd like.

[Tetrahedrus]

Thanks guys! I just hope at least one of you will still be interested by that time.

LA hardcodes a lot of map-specific events that you're stuck with unless you know Gameboy assembly

Argh, oh how I found this out the hard way. You certainly are right about LA hacking being inferior in that regard Lin. I don't know ASM, and it is likely to always stay that way. It's a shame, because I could do much more interesting things. I guess if I really, absolutely needed some ASM hacking which my hack couldn't possibly do without or else I'd just abandon the damn thing, I suppose I could ask someone for help. But I don't really feel that's necessary.

I think everything will be OK anyway, I will just have to work around with what I am given. Mainly I just have trouble with the Overworld. For example, remember that walrus that Marin sang to? She sang to him, he fell in the water, and he would stay away from then on. Well I thought maybe I could put that walrus on another OW screen and it would just work...

So I got Marin to sing to him, he fell into the water I had placed just for him, the rabbit came and took her, and I thought it worked. Until I exited the screen and returned to see that the stupid fatass was back. It pretty much dawned on me I couldn't actually make that whole thing work just by using LALE, but it's just a minor setback; while I was hoping to have the walrus on a different OW screen, I don't think it's that big a deal.

One more thing I was having trouble with was the portal warps on the OW, which seemingly were editable in LALE, but I can't get them to work. Someone already mentioned it to Fatories elsewhere so he's aware, so hopefully those can get fully functional sometime. Again, I can do without if they can't be fixed.

Something this post can't do without though is a progress report on the hack, and let me tell you, I have completed three more! No, not three more dungeons, three more....rooms. The first three in Level 4. It's been a slow go certainly, although it's mostly due to school and not any decline in motivation.

[Tetrahedrus]

Geez it's been over a month and not a word from me. Well I've made more progress, but not much--I'm only about half done with the fourth level. I may not make any more significant progress until sometime in December, but I wanted to say at least something before then to let you all know I haven't dropped off the face of the earth and that I've in fact made some progress since my last post.

I still have fun working on it.

[Celice]

The most important part is that you're still having fun making it I'm super looking forward to your work, and I also got mad props for you, 'cause I don't think I could ever manage creating my own
Zelda game D: I wouldn't be able to balance good puzzles and good level design :<

[Tetrahedrus]

Thank you Celice for your kind, encouraging words.

I wouldn't be able to balance good puzzles and good level design :<

If my hack can even manage to come to release, well, I just hope players think my balance of those things is done well enough.

Around the 16th of December should be a beginning point of when I can put more time into this thing. Hopefully I can finish the fourth level before New Year's.

[schtolteheim]

You did a good job. I enjoyed the mixed up acquisition order of items and how it went against expectation. The swordless phase was an exciting handicap and could have possibly been extended even further.
At one moment I feared the action would be too annoying to go on, but in the end although this hack makes things noticably harder the challenge was about right; I died maybe 12 times. I would play the finished product.
Even the cynical dialogue wasn't bad. It will be interesting to see how you rob the key scenes of their sentimentality.

One idea I got after seeing that chunky boss monster was that it would be a nice surprise to exchange his look with something unexpected and bizarre(moreso than before).

[LocksmithArmy]

with every dungeon you finish i get more and more excited about this hack

and more motivated to make one of my own

[Tetrahedrus]

Did you guys miss me? No? Well I missed you. Thanks schtolteheim for your input. What was the most difficult part for you? Anything you thought was so easy I may as well have not done it?

Even the cynical dialogue wasn't bad. It will be interesting to see how you rob the key scenes of their sentimentality.

One idea I got after seeing that chunky boss monster was that it would be a nice surprise to exchange his look with something unexpected and bizarre(moreso than before).

I've gotten many good reviews of my dialogue so far. I hope the rest of my dialogue lives up to the expectations set by what you all have read so far. As for graphically changing the look of the boss, that is possible, but I am not skilled enough to do anything crazy. And by "moreso than before," if you mean to imply I made changes to the boss's palette, then I didn't actually do anything to alter his look in this beta. It's just that the sprite's colors got messed up, and I don't know how to fix this manually. Once the editor LALE is able to support altering sprite palettes, I can probably fix it, or just change it to something else.

with every dungeon you finish i get more and more excited about this hack

Well get more hype! But not all that much...it's probably an insignificant amount with which you needn't worry yourself. :/
The fourth dungeon is coming along at a so-so pace, but it's progress nonetheless!

and more motivated to make one of my own

I hope you reach maximum motivation eventually, because as with all hacks, there's no guarantee my hack will even see the light of day, in which case I'd hope you and/or anyone else can start making one, because we need more LA hacks. OoX hacks are just as good I guess, and there are admittedly more extensive tools for hacking them, but it doesn't feel quite the same, I feel. If I fail in bringing this hack to release because the evil forces of life have caused me to give up or abandon the project, you must avenge me, LSA. Avenge.....me......

For how long it's been lately between my posts, I am sorry that I haven't had sizable updates to share with you guys.

[schtolteheim]

One annoyance was a room with two of those wall-hugging wisps (where the beak is found). It seems like it is impossible to get through without getting hit once.
But the level of difficulty is alright, as the player of a hack should be expected to have mastered the basic game.

As for a graphical modification, I meant it would be funny if once you submerge into the boss waters you realise you are in a gigantic bathtub with an angry fat man.