Not happy with dubbin the original BS Zelda events (the 'BS' stands for 'Broadcast Satellaview', so stop sniggering at the back), the same group of dedicated fans has at long last released the complete English dub for BS The Legend of Zelda: The Ancient Stone Tablets, the four-part Soundlink Broadcast which originally took place between March 30th and April 20th in the distant year of 1997.
That's right, while we were all obsessing over polygons in the west, lucky Japanese Satellaview owners had the chance to take their boy or girl avatar inside the familiar yet unique land of Hyrule, taking on a special quest in the land of A Link to The Past to recover eight Ancient Stone Tablets.
During this real-time quest, voice-overs from characters would help the player figure what to do and where to go next. There were also random temporary bonuses that would give the player infinite arrows for ten minutes and even weather events that would hinder the player's ability to use items. Fog meant no arrows could be used and rain meant the bombs would become useless outside. Of course, all the dungeons were brand new, adding a lot of value to experienced players of the original game.
Until now, this experience was exclusive to those lucky Japanese gamers who happened to have all the required setup to enjoy the original broadcast, but thanks to this group of fans (and in conjunction to the MSU1 enhancement chip developed by byuu) you are now able to replay this adventure at your leisure and discover what we all missed out on nearly two decades ago.
You can find all the necessary files here. Let us know what you think.
Comments 20
Awesome. This one was even better than the BS Zelda 1 remake IMO, and had better events. Defintely felt like a proto-Majora's Mask. In fact, it was this game that got me to appreciate Majora's Mask's frantic pace over the slower Ocarina of Time's. A different mindset is needed, but it was a breath of fresh air.
I hope other the other soundlink games get this treatment. I bet the Mario 2 one wiuld be a hoot in English with some of the stuff that happens.
Sorry for my ignorance, but how were they able to save the voices from the original broadcasts? I would think the game file was saved on some kind of cartridge it downloaded to, but I always assumed the sound segments were a different broadcast that was not saved. I guess I need to read up on how Satellaview worked.
@JohnBlackstar
You're right. The original broadcast voices couldn't be saved with the game. Luckily, some people had their VCRs running.
All this stuff in Nintendo's archive and they dont bring em back themselves...
Holy crap, yes! I loved playing Stone Tablets a couple years ago. Now I can enjoy it how it was originally intended. (almost) Looks like I'll be using higan.
@smaman - That makes sense. So I assume the team just used recordings like the one you linked to figure out what to dub. Thanks for the response!
@JohnBlackstar
No prob! There's so much mis-information about the BS system out there, so I'm happy to oblige.
Actually, before the MSU chip was developed, the early hacks of this game just put all that translated text on a news-ticker-like-thing at the bottom of the screen. It was workable, but difficult to follow. Many times I'd wonder why the heck my bombs stopped working.
Man, if only I'd gotten the casting call. I'd love to contribute my voice to something like this!
So much BS....
Nice. Might try this out at some point.
Awesome! I'll have to check it out!
For the longest time, I had a BS Zelda rom, and assumed the 'BS' part stood for something else, indicating it was some fan-made hacked rom.
Once I learned about what the game actually was and gave it a try, I was really impressed at how the core gameplay was so drastically different from LttP. I was never actually able to beat it, but this might be what pushes me to give it another try.
Oh, I had no idea there were two Satellaview Zelda games! I thought there was just the remake of the first one. I'll have to check this out as I have an SD2SNES which supports MSU1...
They should release it for both 3DS and WiiU virtual console services for fans like me that don't want to use pirated option to play this game!!
Removing the spoken part of course, is so anoying!!
Great add to the videogame history. Thanks Goncalo!
@elreins I have done nothing but spread the word of dedication from a lot of people, they are the true heroes.
Awesome!
I always wanted Nintendo to do this and put it on the virtual console, but I'll take this.
@cheleuitte Honestly search for it on a java site and stream it, then you're not even keeping the pirated copy. It doesn't make it better but it does make you a lot more likely to buy the game should it ever come out here.
I wonder if there are any boards chips that would support this other than an Everdrive of some sort? I've already got this for the SNES but would love to rewrite the EPROM to have this version.
@cheleuitte The way I see it, it's a game that one known person outside of Nintendo can legally play it (last time I checked St. Gign was the only one who has all 4 parts in his possession and he may not even own them all anymore). Nintendo isn't making money on it. This is one game were I'd say emulation or pirating is a viable option.
Very cool! I just ordered an SNES cart of this on Etsy with all the translations in place...cost a bit of cash ($45), but it'll be cool to play it on the old SNES!
I really do wish Nintendo just released these on the VC or perhaps as a bonus on any mini SNES that maybe incoming. Wouldn't it be cool to have the big hits, along with some added gems never released in the west, on these mini consoles?
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