User:Badlydrawnjeff/The Legend of Zelda: The Triforce Saga

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The Legend of Zelda: The Triforce Saga is the title of an alleged Nintendo Entertainment System sequel to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, believed by some to be a hoax. It received recent notoriety when a The Legend of Zelda fan claimed to have found a development cartridge and attempted to list it on eBay in October 2005. It was later proven to be a hoax.[1]

Contents

[edit] History

The title screen of the alleged prototype. This image first appeared on the eBay auction for the item.
The title screen of the alleged prototype. This image first appeared on the eBay auction for the item.

It is believed that the game, if it truly existed in its unfinished state, was abandoned and many of the new features created for The Triforce Saga and not abandoned were instead ported into the SNES title The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and the Game Boy title The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Among the rumored additions were an experience point system, never adopted, and a light/dark world which was adapted to A Link to the Past.

As this was only a rumored title, planned for release in 1990, it was largely forgotten until October 2005, when a development cartridge appeared on the auction website eBay. Almost immediately, websites talking about the cart sale began to spring up to discuss whether the cart was a hoax. The person who found the cart (allegedly at a flea market) later posted a screenshot of the game being loaded on his personal NES. The finder was later able to find a buyer for his cart, and allegedly sold it to a Canadian gaming enthusiast for just under $US 3000. A few days after the auction closed (and was subsequently taken offline by eBay for violations of its listing policy), an article on gaming blog Joystiq appeared with a report that the game was real.

According to Joystiq's initial report on the article, "A seller on eBay is purported to have found at a flea market (for $20) a very early copy of The Legend of Zelda III for the original NES. Dubbed The Legend of Zelda III: The Triforce Saga on a rather crude label, this beta (version 0.6.24) seems kind of shady."

Days later, Joystiq followed up with another article, which specified the winner of the auction, "Richard (the owner), decided to get ahold of a NES console and test the cartridge. He managed to successfully boot the game and play around with it for a bit. The game is very buggy, which is to be expected from a game that is only around 50-60% complete."

Image:Zeldwhaa.PNG
The ROM of the Rated-O Zelda III prototype hoax, opened up in a gfx editing tool.

The website Rated O ran a contest in March 2007, where a zipped file containing the alleged prototype ROM was posted. The file was password protected, and if you could guess the password, you could decrypt the ROM inside. ROM hackers quickly figured out the password ('thegoldenland') and discovered the ROM was simply a hack of the original Legend of Zelda, called Legend of Zelda DX, with randomly added and altered bytes rendering it unplayable.

[edit] Silicon Knights involvement

Thereafter, Joystiq reported, "Word is, the buyer ("Knight 7") plans to dump the ROM on CD and start selling." This user, Knight 7, was allegedly reporting himself as an employee of Silicon Knights. This, along with screenshots, apparently was enough to satisfy the average fan. But somehow, Silicon Knights saw the report, and had this in response:

"We saw your recent posting at [1], wherein you imply that Silicon Knights has purchased Zelda III, apparently under the name “Knight 7.” I can affirmatively state that our company, Silicon Knights, has made no such purchase, and we would appreciate your correction of the information on your website to reflect that fact. With respect to the person using the name “Knight 7,” we are currently investigating whether anyone using that web name is employed by Silicon Knights. Regardless, however, I can confirm right now that no such person was ever authorized by me or anyone else with authority at Silicon Knights to make such a purchase, in the company name or otherwise."

[edit] Hoax?

Because of the problems concerning many of the facts of the case, there is speculation that the cart is actually a hoax.

  • The story of the winning buyer being an employee of Silicon Knights is apparently untrue.
  • Most of the information regarding the auction and The Legend of Zelda III beta were featured on Joystiq, while IGN, 1UP.com and other major game sites ignored the subject entirely.
  • There is speculation that the game is a hoax or a hack of an otherwise available ROM emulation port. This is due to the rarity of such development cartridges and the similarities between the title screens for The Legend of Zelda: The Triforce Saga and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Pundits say that an incomplete game on a US NES cartridge, rather than a Japanese Famicom cartridge, is evidence enough this game is a hoax.
  • With the advent of ROM hacking and fan game projects, and the advancement of video technology, it is not difficult to fake something like this with little time or money. For instance, a fan faked beta screenshots of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the IGN and GameFAQs message boards. He utilized a video out cable from his PC and sent simple images to his TV monitor and then took still images on a digital camera to trick people into thinking they were legit. He even had a GameCube up and running to add to the authenticity of the shot.
  • NOA Mike, a longstanding employee of Nintendo, revealed that there was talk of a The Legend of Zelda III for NES after the popularity of Super Mario Bros 3. Nintendo of America, Inc, however, never received any materials on this in any form, nor was it a game they ever tested.

However, there is evidence The Legend of Zelda III existed in some form (perhaps as a conceptualization).

  • Peer Schneider, former editor of IGN's Nintendo 64 section, wrote a series of articles on The Legend of Zelda series entitled "Hyrule Times". In volume ten, he outlined the brief history of The Legend of Zelda III ideas for the NES, but says they were all ported over to the SNES in the form of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. He did not mention the game existed in any form. Considering his knowledge, it is speculated that he would have known more about the new cart, but much of his information mirrors the belief of those who have played the prototype.
  • The Zelda no Video Documentary (Enterbrain/Shogakukan 2003) has creator commentary on Triforce of the Gods/A Link to the Past, which states that there was a The Legend of Zelda III in development for NES, but it was subsequently abandoned for a new project on the upcoming console, again matching speculation.

Ultimately, there is no decisive proof one way or the other, but there is much circumstantial evidence against the validity of this claim. Electronic Gaming Monthly did provide a fake screen of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker remade with realistic graphics bonus for pre-ordering The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess as an April Fools Day hoax, and, last year, fans made up fake title shots for the new The Legend of Zelda series game, including Reigns of Sorrow and Gates of the Realm.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Hylia (2005-10-21). Zelda III for the NES - Fact or Fiction?. Retrieved on November 25, 2006.

[edit] External links

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