Purpose

Anyone who has hacked Zelda knows that it’s very difficult to gain any additional tiles and screens. This hack blows those limitations out of the water by providing the following resources:

• Frees 60 overworld tiles
• Adds 40 new overworld block definitions
• Adds up to 96 overworld column combos
• Adds 4 additional overworld screens

• Frees 48 dungeon tiles (plus 3 shared with the overworld)
• Doubles the number of available dungeon blocks from 8 to 16
• Adds up to 96 dungeon column combos
• Adds 17 new dungeon room templates

What does that all mean? It means that your Zelda hacks can have more graphical variety.

Add new enemies, rivers, mazes, lakes, forests, rock outcroppings, dungeon graphics, etc.

Full source code is included to easily modify the available data and cherry pick the features you want. Freed tiles are clearly marked so they can be easily modified. Includes logic to decide which of the new tiles are solid and which are walkable. Several sample columns have been included which can be used in your hack or be replaced as needed.

Although the hack makes the column and block space available, it’s still up to you as the hacker to understand how the data is stored and how to create new columns and screens. It is recommended that you read the document Understanding Zelda 1 Screens, Columns, and Blocks (included in the download) before attempting to use this hack.

Test Patches

The test folder contains two test patches. The test patch add_test_columns.ips adds several test columns to the start screen which can be useful when developing new blocks, particularly the arbitrary 4-tile version.

The rem_test_columns.ips patch removes these test columns once done testing. You can apply the former patch, make your desired changes to the relevant blocks, and then apply the latter patch to restore the original columns.

Compatibility

It is recommended that you use Zelda Map Generator when working with this hack.

This hack is mostly compatible with ZeldaTech. It will look glitchy since it doesn’t know how to handle the additional blocks, columns, and screens, but it functions correctly when saving.

Technical Info

More technical info on how to use the patch is available in README.txt.

Suggestions and corrections can be sent to gzip.

• Database match: Legend of Zelda, The (USA)
• Database: No-Intro: Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20210216-231042)
• File SHA-1: DAB79C84934F9AA5DB4E7DAD390E5D0C12443FA2
• File CRC32: D7AE93DF
• ROM SHA-1: A12D74C73A0481599A5D832361D168F4737BBCF6
• ROM CRC32: 3FE272FB