BS Zelda no Densetsu Kodai no Sekiban
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| BS Zelda no Densetsu Kodai no Sekiban | |
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| Developer(s) | Nintendo |
| Publisher(s) | St. GIGA |
| Release date(s) | 1997, 1998 (rebroadcast) |
| Genre(s) | Action Adventure |
| Mode(s) | time-restricted single player with multiplayer scoreboards |
| Rating(s) | Not rated |
| Platform(s) | Satellaview |
| Media | pseudo-streaming download via satellite network, saved to either the Satellaview base unit's flash-RAM or to a BS-X flash-cart |
BS Zelda no Densetsu Kodai no Sekiban (BSゼルダの伝説 古代の石盤 Bīesu Zeruda no Densetsu Kodai no Sekiban?, lit. "The Legend of Zelda: The Ancient Stone Tablets") is a video game developed by Nintendo for the Satellaview, a Japanese-only attachment for the Super Famicom. The game was broadcast in 1997 and again in 1998.
BS stands for Broadcast Satellaview; the Satellaview unit is commonly referred to as the BS-X. Using this addon, gamers could download the game from the BS-5 channel of St. GIGA's satellite radio network and save it onto either the BS-X base unit's flash-RAM (included) or a BS-X Special Broadcast Cassette (an additional purchase or prize).
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[edit] Storyline
In the context of the game, the player "come[s] from another world" and is referred to as the Hero or Heroine of Light (the original Japanese for this title is genderless). This was the fourth time a female character had been a playable protagonist in a Zelda game.
At the end of the game, the hero solemnly places the Master Sword in its pedestal to rest once more, and then vanishes. They have gone back into their own world whence they came. They saved all of Hyrule, and the others did not even know their name (characters in the game never refer to the player by their name despite entering it at the BS-X BIOS screen). Sahasrahla walks off. Zelda walks away, turns to take one last look back, and then she too departs (whether this ending scene was voice acted is unknown).
It probably took place consequently to Link’s Awakening due to the fact that Link is missing.
[edit] Gameplay
The game and its gameplay was mostly identical to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (hereafter abbreviated ALttP), which it is modified from. It is similar to a "second quest" or "Master Quest".
Many gameplay mechanics were tidied up. The most notable change was to the Pegasus Boots; the player could now change directions when running with the Boots, and could also move between rooms and screens without automatically stopping as in ALttP. The dungeon items were also changed. Instead of three pendants and seven crystals the player now collected the titular Ancient Stone Tablets, of which there were eight.
Bombable walls, which in ALttP were noticeably cracked, are in this game completely invisible. Only prodding with a sword will lead to their discovery by making a hollow ringing sound. Each and every bombed-out area rewarded the player with Rupees, or pots containing bomb and arrow refills, and so on. Sometimes the wall concealed an "Upgrade Thief"; the thieves who in ALttP knocked into the player and stole the items they dropped now appeared in a helper role; he would upgrade their maximum of one ammo type (either bombs or arrows, each thief only upgrades one type, and once only), but for a cost. The price increased as the player progressed through the game. When discovered in caves found on the overworld, these thieves gave out large quantities of Rupees.
[edit] Presentation
The game was divided into four weekly episodes. These episodes were played live, and a video game advice show simultaneously ran on the satellite network, possibly containing advertisements that promoted the games currently being played.
 Overworld week 1 |
 Overworld week 2 |
 Overworld week 3 |
 Overworld week 4 |
In each week the player could only access certain portions of the overworld. Areas shrouded in clouds were unreachable. Two dungeons were accessible per week, however the episode ended only when time expired, not when the player had completed all the objectives for that week. In the meantime, the player could complete sidequests and hunt for Rupees, bottles, and Pieces of Heart.
Once they acquired certain key dungeon items, new areas of the overworld become available. For example, once a player has the Magic Hammer, he or she can knock previously unpassable pegs into the ground, allowing access to the area it blocked. At one point in the game large and heavy rocks lie in the hero's path; when he or she acquires various types of Gloves he or she can lift some or all of these rocks and throw them out of the way.
[edit] Live Voice
All cutscenes were fully voice acted, live, much like a radio play. The players constantly heard the "narrator" (playing the part of the voice of Sahasrahla, a character from ALttP) give various tips and hints during play. During the final minutes his statements become more demanding and forceful as time was running out.
The non-mandatory sidequests were also fully voice-acted[citation needed]; however since the player could come across that event at any point rather than at a forced time, and there was no viable way for the console to convey proximity information to the voice acting center, it is assumed that the voice actor for that character kept saying their script over and over for the entirety of the designated time (they can each be saved from about 18:43 until 18:56), whether any player was actually on the same screen (and thus in "earshot") or not.
The Zelda no Video documentary shows several minutes of Live Voice-enhanced gameplay in action, both of the opening cutscenes and of a sidequest, with the voice actor for Princess Zelda calling for help desperately (and very realistically) for the entirety of the clip.
[edit] Character selection
Satellaview players configured a profile and gender using its game-selection interface. This information then carried across to the games, where they are represented by the unnamed Satellaview mascots. In the case of this game, the female character was the ALttP Link model with hair replacing the traditional green hat, while the male character was Link with a baseball cap.
[edit] Real-time clock
The game was played in real-time. Each episode was one whole hour, and so the gameplay was intense and compressed, with cutscenes in between. However, the game in its entirety took one hour, that means the cutscenes counted as part of the gameplay time.
There were several optional sidequests available, each with its own mostly text-only cutscene (they were not activated at any set time so could not feasibly feature live voice)[citation needed], the completion of which netted a score bonus and some Rupees, but getting this reward meant deviating and delays while reading through all the thanks responses, thus shortening the available game time even further. The player could also choose to bomb walls and explore caves and find countless chests full of Rupees (and, in turn, get points for opening them). While doing these sidequests netted more points for players hoping to win prizes, every minute of delay subtracted points from the value of that week's Tablets, and if the player got lost or waylaid in the dungeon or overworld and ran out of time it is assumed that they got nothing at all (judging by the specific wording of the "bad ending" scene in week 4).
Unlike other games where any clock feature stops when the player open a menu or pause it, in this game the clock kept on ticking no matter what. The enemies and everything else in the world as a whole do pause when the item menu opens, but the clock does not. So the player could not leave it paused and go off to the bathroom or get a snack or something like that, he or she had to keep playing or he or she would lose precious time.
The clock affected gameplay enormously. At particular times on the clock various things might happen: health-restoring fairies appear, a Bombos or Ether magic attack destroys enemies onscreen, the player gets unlimited bombs or arrows or magic or can shoot magic rings from their sword, etc. An enormous variety of things could happen each week, and the events and the times they occur vary between weeks.
At a different time each week, fog descended on the overworld. A few minutes afterward a thunderstorm would break loose, restricting exploration by defusing any bombs and increasing the difficulty by replacing any normal overworld (i.e. not in a dungeon) enemies with Zoras, fierce lizard-like creatures that home in on the player and could not be stunned with the Boomerang like their ALttP forefathers. After a few minutes the rain and thunder cleared leaving. The fog remained, although it too disappeared shortly after.
[edit] Rental shops
ALttP veterans may notice many changes to the overworld, most notably the additions of many rental shops. At these a player can purchase a sword upgrade (unless he or she already has the L-4 sword) or a Shovel (unless he or she already has it), for 100 Rupees each. However these items are rented, as the title indicates, for only ten minutes, so the player must make the most of them in order to make his or her purchase worthwhile.
It was most advisable to buy the Shovel, because with it the player could dig for a hidden Piece of Heart; there were an even number of these in each week, and the dug-up ones could not be retrieved in later weeks, so if the player intended to have the maximum hearts when he or she faced Ganon he or she needed to buy a shovel and get digging. The first time a shovel was rented each week, the shop owner marked the location of the digging spot on the map. Each week this could be one of four different locations, and the locations that are randomly chosen between change from week to week.
Since the Shovel could now dig up Rupees almost anywhere in the overworld - it couldn't in ALttP - it became a very lucrative way to fill up any spare time before the gameplay hour ended.
[edit] Mole
The Mole is a strange character unique to this game. At a certain time he will burrow out somewhere (the location is different from week to week). If the player talks to him he or she will get 10,000 points, but then he burrows down once more. If the player can again locate his diggings, he or she will find he has discovered a Rupee treasure trove. He will have opened a cave containing six treasure chests, and the quantity of Rupees found inside increases for each successive week.
[edit] Scoring and prizes
| Item/Event | Reward |
| Treasure Chest | 500 points |
| Small Key | 1,000 points |
| Piece of Heart | 1,000 points |
| Dungeon Item | 1,000 points |
| Heart Container | 5,000 points |
| Special Item | 5,000 points |
| Rescuing someone | 10,000 points |
| Talking to the Mole | 10,000 points |
| Tablet | 40,000 points* |
Each event on their journey, both major and minor, will net the player points. Every event in the chart to the right has a score value associated with it. The scores add up, so a chest will give points to the player, even if it contains a points-bearing item in turn. However, 500 points are deducted from the player's score for every minute that passes (including the six minutes before play starts).
Strangely enough, there are no points given for collecting Rupees, slaying enemies, or defeating bosses. The items the player acquires after defeating bosses do give points.
There is no feasible score limit; while the game allows for 8 digits worth of scoring, there is no way a player can ever reach this even if they do absolutely everything and collect the tablets as soon as possible. This is because the amount of score-giving items in the game world are strictly finite; there is thus no way to discover what the game would do if the score was surpassed.
While scoring had absolutely no effect on gameplay whatsoever, there were other post-game benefits. At the end of each hour of play the gamer was given a score readout. By submitting these game high scores (probably a coded password sent by mail, but perhaps sent directly via the satellite link) his or her score would be recorded. If the player scored high enough, he or she might receive a free gift, such as a phonecard or flash-cart.
[edit] Replaying the game
Because the Live Voice content was absolutely central to gameplay (and was not stored on the base unit or flash-RAM cartridge in any way whatsoever) and also due to the fact that the timer was based on a real-time clock set by the satellite itself, this game could not be played whenever the player chose like some of the other BS-X games, but only during the set hours. The game would not run outside these broadcast times. The game was rebroadcast in the following year, but other than that the game was rendered completely unplayable (until the advent of emulation). It is possible to play the entire game in four separate parts (sans the cutscenes and voice acting) using the latest version of SNES9x. A certain patch must be applied to each part in order for the game(s) to be playable. Nintendo has yet to include Kodai no Sekiban in any collection of Zelda re-releases, nor has it become completely available in emulated form.
[edit] Original broadcast dates
| From... | To... | Chapter Title |
| 30 Mar 1997 | 05 Apr 1997 | BS Zelda no Densetsu Kodai no Sekiban Dai 1 Wa |
| 06 Apr 1997 | 12 Apr 1997 | BS Zelda no Densetsu Kodai no Sekiban Dai 2 Wa |
| 13 Apr 1997 | 19 Apr 1997 | BS Zelda no Densetsu Kodai no Sekiban Dai 3 Wa |
| 20 Apr 1997 | 26 Apr 1997 | BS Zelda no Densetsu Kodai no Sekiban Dai 4 Wa |
- Date taken from The Nintendo Database (Waybacked, page no longer exists).
[edit] External links and references
- The BS Zelda Homepage – the most complete resource for this game.
- StrategyWiki's BS Zelda: Kodai no Sekiban wiki guide - The scoring table above comes from its guide.
- Zelda no Video
- Short video clip of the opening cutscene (DivX format, 2.30 MB); the full clip can be seen in the Zelda no Video documentary.
