Topic: Nintendo Leak: The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past on Game Boy

[JonLeung]

There have been a bunch of leaks from Nintendo recently, mostly discarded bits and pieces, glimpses of things that could have been.

I don't know for certain if this is all true, but Link's Awakening on the Game Boy began as a conversion of A Link To The Past (originally on the Super NES, as we all know).

Supposedly this is the map of it...

(I have yet to find a full-sized version of it, but there's enough detail that someone could probably recreate it easily...)

Compare it to the Super NES original...


It's funny because it's a literal inversion of what I did for the first April Fools' joke here on VGMaps.com back in 2005...

[Marscaleb]

I suspect that it was never intended to be a port of Link to the Past.
I bet early in development they just tried to copy over the map from it to help them test things.  Test the basic systems, test the artwork...

Trying to copy the map from LttP would be a good way to figure out what tiles you need, and how you need to adjust the art style to fit the restrictions of the console.  It gives a good concrete goal: can I copy this design into this tighter space?

Plus running around trying to play a map like that is great way to really push the game design into some realistic scenarios.  You can get a good feel for how different uses of space works and doesn't, how various enemy designs work and do not.  There is a great value in copying over a map like that; it's a lot easier to really run a game through its paces using a map that looks/plays like a complete one, rather than a bland empty field.

Porting over a game that is still selling on store shelves though?  I don't see an advantage to that.  I would sooner believe that early in development they were planning on this being a direct sequel to LttP than a direct port.

[dark_lord_zagato@yahoo.co]

Nintendo Power 44 had some screenshots of this prototype. The mini map is on the left and there's a good shot of the entrance to Eastern Palace too.

[Marscaleb]

Hmm, maybe I was wrong then?
But that being said, that article already talks about unique elements to Link's Awakening.
Perhaps if it was "originally a remake of LttP" it was only for a very short time, like some of the devs wondered "hey could remake it on the Game Boy?" and so they tried, and when they saw how feasible it was they quickly decided to make something original.
The two games are different enough that I just can't imagine that it spent much time trying to be a remake before they turned it into something new.

[TerraEsperZ]

Personally, the text and the pictures seem to indicate a new game "in the style of" A Link to the Past.
I think those pictures are most likely mockups to showcase their engine and give an idea of what to expect.
That minimap certainly looks rough and unfinished.

[dark_lord_zagato@yahoo.co]

The Cutting Room Floor seems to have a full sized version of this map now. It's original Game Boy colors though, which is to say, lots of GREEN.

https://tcrf.net/Development:The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Link's_Awakening_(Game_Boy)/Maps

[JonLeung]

Okay, that's easy enough to change.

Here's the greyscale version:


This really feels like an inverse of the first April Fools' joke on VGMaps.com, "Link's Awakening Advance", which had Link's Awakening's Koholint remade with A Link To The Past graphics.  Holy crap, that was 19 years ago???

[TerraEsperZ]

Wait, are those Mario statues in the Great Swamp!?

[dark_lord_zagato@yahoo.co]

I noticed that too after Jon posted the greyscale. They really stick out like a sore thumb.

[JonLeung]

Comparing with A Link To The Past is interesting.  They got the overall layout right.  The interesting thing is that they squashed Death Mountain to about half its size.  That would leave room in the northeast for Zora's Domain (which is where it is implied to be in the Super NES original, after all).  The gap just southwest of it (just northeast of Hyrule Castle), is where the graveyard would be, and its omission bothers me...

Now that I read the page again, it says that the map has actually "been cleaned up some", and that the graveyard was indeed there, as seen in pre-release screenshots, but not in the files.