mir1: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~dwest/zelda/ - CheesyDave
mir2: http://spatang.com/dl.php?a=zelda&b=mods - Xtraverse ~tnx
This is my first mod. Lots of points and enough ammo hopefully. My score going through the game as fast as I could was around 500K. I enjoyed making this mod, and I'm looking forward to the next. Comments and criticism are welcome. Just to warn you, my school server (rohan) was acting up when I uploaded this. If I need to put it somewhere else for you guys to download, plz reply. ;) hope you enjoy it! ~
ps. i know about the doors. :(
Zelda II Mod
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CheesyDave
- Posts: 19
- Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2003 4:07 pm
- Location: San Diego
- Contact:
Zelda II Mod
Last edited by CheesyDave on Thu Jan 22, 2004 9:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
Wow, brilliant piece of mod! I haven't ever played Zelda(s) - and won't - but this mod is very cool. This shows very well what can be done with Keen 1-3 engine (and some patching). When I started it felt like starting and playing some totally different game! Neato.
Can't wait to see your next mod.
Oh, and I have only completed the two first levels, I hadn't more time, but I'll play it totally when I have some more time. :)
Can't wait to see your next mod.
Oh, and I have only completed the two first levels, I hadn't more time, but I'll play it totally when I have some more time. :)
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Stickmanofdoom
- Posts: 37
- Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2003 11:42 pm
WOW! this mod looks so much like it was ported right off the NES. I like how you put little ammo in the levels, you can't go Rambo-style into these levels. The dungens look really good, with the attention to detail like the bricks in the background that are red from the glow of the lava. I really like the skeletons too. Like KeenRush said, it doesn't look like keen at all, probably because of the lack of borders and black outlines on things, and it looks great! What a suprise, I get a snow-day today and now a great mod that just comes out of nowhere, it just keeps getting better! Thank-you!!!
re: sprites and clipping
Yeah, I remember when Dave first showed me his clipping trick--I immediately ripped it off for my Keen2 mod... lol ;-) Dave's a creative guy.
The sprite thing comes from the old NES. The NES's hardware was pretty limited compared to even the Keen:Vorticon engine. Sprites could only use 4 colors at a time! Often, sprites were constructed using a color that wasn't black for the border just so that one of the 4 colors didn't have to BE black. Look at Super Mario Bros. 3, for example: Mario's mustache is actually a dark shade of BLUE in some levels, just so that he'll stick out against the black backgrounds of the fortresses--and it changes to be a black outline when he's underwater.
For a more accessible view of low-color sprites, the online comic 8-Bit Theatre uses sprites from the old Final Fantasy--you can still see how the sprites were put together with only 4 colors.
--Xky
The sprite thing comes from the old NES. The NES's hardware was pretty limited compared to even the Keen:Vorticon engine. Sprites could only use 4 colors at a time! Often, sprites were constructed using a color that wasn't black for the border just so that one of the 4 colors didn't have to BE black. Look at Super Mario Bros. 3, for example: Mario's mustache is actually a dark shade of BLUE in some levels, just so that he'll stick out against the black backgrounds of the fortresses--and it changes to be a black outline when he's underwater.
For a more accessible view of low-color sprites, the online comic 8-Bit Theatre uses sprites from the old Final Fantasy--you can still see how the sprites were put together with only 4 colors.
--Xky
I must say I really enjoyed this mod. I still have to beat the last two levels I haven't been able to get out of yet but I must say it's one of the best Keen mods I have played.
I really liked the idea that the collectable items aren't two feet from the exit, and I also liked the invisible walls a lot. The monster ideas are great, the colours are *very* NES (which is a bit frustrating sometimes :) and the levels are challenging as well.
One frustrating thing I've found was that while in the Keen games I would always be able to see where I was going to encounter when I jumped down from somewhere, in the Zelda mod there were lots of times when I fell off the bottom of the screen or fell into a spider because there was no way of getting to know if there was something below.
A question: is the lava purposefully not hurting Link?
DobaySoft
I really liked the idea that the collectable items aren't two feet from the exit, and I also liked the invisible walls a lot. The monster ideas are great, the colours are *very* NES (which is a bit frustrating sometimes :) and the levels are challenging as well.
One frustrating thing I've found was that while in the Keen games I would always be able to see where I was going to encounter when I jumped down from somewhere, in the Zelda mod there were lots of times when I fell off the bottom of the screen or fell into a spider because there was no way of getting to know if there was something below.
A question: is the lava purposefully not hurting Link?
DobaySoft
Yeah, from the old game I'm sure that kinda stuff killed.
The problem with having collectable items midway in the level is that it is actually possible to exit the level without getting them. (Through laziness or just not spotting them.) Your level design however seems to insure that only extreme laziness or a desire to avoid the items will result in faliure.
The problem with having collectable items midway in the level is that it is actually possible to exit the level without getting them. (Through laziness or just not spotting them.) Your level design however seems to insure that only extreme laziness or a desire to avoid the items will result in faliure.
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CheesyDave
- Posts: 19
- Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2003 4:07 pm
- Location: San Diego
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Lava isn't hurting you? ... shouldn't that be a good thing?
as for the lava, yes there are some spots where the lava doesn't hurt you. this was placed because even i, after having played through the level countless times, died in those placed repeatedly trying to get to the end of the level to test something. i figured if i was having trouble passing that area after playing through the level that many times, it probably wasn't worth keeping the player hung up there either.
for the "ship parts" ... nnn... the only one that i could really think that you might miss completely is in the last level. it isn't entirely obvious, but when you near the exit, it's right there, an you prolly think... o.o darn, how do i get there?!? ... <.<;; tha's all i'm going to say for now, 'cause as far as i can tell, dobay's the only one to get near the end.
as for the previewing the falls, i tried very hard for you to be able to make it to at least one ledge down or up for that matter w/o being threatened by death. for example, in the first (and... only?) forest level, in order to see where i was about to fall i may have to make 2 or 3 jumps back and around in order to ensure that the fall wouldn't kill me. so while, i regret forcing you to check, it looks really cool when you run through that level, getting all the items in 30 seconds with all the hazards.
i do remember there being a couple places in the game where if you trust the locations of points to be safe, you would die. while it may be frustrating, i would hope you don't fall for it twice (fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, shame on me kinda thing).
i'm glad that you've enjoyed the mod. as for the last couple levels, i found that if you just went around the enemies, you'd be fine. if you were looking to kill everything in every level however, you may find yourself running out of ammo in those last two levels fairly quickly. so, ... wouldn't recommend that. ... what else...
oh yea! as the mod's been out a while... and i haven't gotten any complaints about the MASSIVE FLAW in the design of my mod... i'ma go ahead and ask mr. durdin about it.
if you'll notice, in a few of the levels with doors in them, you are able to bypass the door by jumping at it repeatedly (w/o the key). yea, i was a lil frustrated at this. xky an i couldn't figure what was causing this other than maybe the larger sprite size. while my next mod uses a smaller sprite, the one after is going to use one of the same size as link in this mod.
this only happens when running through a door from left to right. ... i don't remember there being many doors in my mod which you would pass from right to left, but i do remember testing this. ... (i remember at least one, actually).
i'm at work right now, i'll edit this message with more specific info on my break (can't play keen in the open lab unfortunatly). :( so ... yea.
oh, just wanted to add... that in order to get around this, in most of my levels with doors, the doors are one brick above the rest of the ground. this seemed to make it much harder (not impossible) to get through the door w/o the key. any info on this problem would be greatly appreciated~
:: edit ::
just wanted to point out... xky made me put in a lil happy winking face wherever the lava wouldn't hurt you. X3 it's so cute! ... *cough*... yea, so look for that when you're curious if the lava will hurt you or not.
for the "ship parts" ... nnn... the only one that i could really think that you might miss completely is in the last level. it isn't entirely obvious, but when you near the exit, it's right there, an you prolly think... o.o darn, how do i get there?!? ... <.<;; tha's all i'm going to say for now, 'cause as far as i can tell, dobay's the only one to get near the end.
as for the previewing the falls, i tried very hard for you to be able to make it to at least one ledge down or up for that matter w/o being threatened by death. for example, in the first (and... only?) forest level, in order to see where i was about to fall i may have to make 2 or 3 jumps back and around in order to ensure that the fall wouldn't kill me. so while, i regret forcing you to check, it looks really cool when you run through that level, getting all the items in 30 seconds with all the hazards.
i do remember there being a couple places in the game where if you trust the locations of points to be safe, you would die. while it may be frustrating, i would hope you don't fall for it twice (fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, shame on me kinda thing).
i'm glad that you've enjoyed the mod. as for the last couple levels, i found that if you just went around the enemies, you'd be fine. if you were looking to kill everything in every level however, you may find yourself running out of ammo in those last two levels fairly quickly. so, ... wouldn't recommend that. ... what else...
oh yea! as the mod's been out a while... and i haven't gotten any complaints about the MASSIVE FLAW in the design of my mod... i'ma go ahead and ask mr. durdin about it.
if you'll notice, in a few of the levels with doors in them, you are able to bypass the door by jumping at it repeatedly (w/o the key). yea, i was a lil frustrated at this. xky an i couldn't figure what was causing this other than maybe the larger sprite size. while my next mod uses a smaller sprite, the one after is going to use one of the same size as link in this mod.
this only happens when running through a door from left to right. ... i don't remember there being many doors in my mod which you would pass from right to left, but i do remember testing this. ... (i remember at least one, actually).
i'm at work right now, i'll edit this message with more specific info on my break (can't play keen in the open lab unfortunatly). :( so ... yea.
oh, just wanted to add... that in order to get around this, in most of my levels with doors, the doors are one brick above the rest of the ground. this seemed to make it much harder (not impossible) to get through the door w/o the key. any info on this problem would be greatly appreciated~
:: edit ::
just wanted to point out... xky made me put in a lil happy winking face wherever the lava wouldn't hurt you. X3 it's so cute! ... *cough*... yea, so look for that when you're curious if the lava will hurt you or not.
I finnished your mod! It took hours of fevrent playing, but I did it. (I died lots, missed a coupla points noting big.) Nice ending, I like the inventive use of background, especially how your 'secret place' tiles where masked not foreground.
I did notice the faces once or twice, but never clicked. (It's not so much the lava being harmless so much as the lava killing you that concerns me.)
The door problem is caused by the Keen engine having troubble with the location of your sprite. (In my mod at the end the ship flicks about the screen a bit because of a simalar problem.) The same effect causes Keen to flick down violently when he attempts to escape the levels top. This occurs more with big sprites, but small ones can also suffer.
There is not much you can do about it, save using default sprite sizes. In my mod I used doors to make 'suction tubes' but I couldn't get the effect to work out reliably enough. However if you make a tile a door and 'nothing' from above, you can fall through the door from the top and be propelled several squares to the right. (Through walls, enemies, etc)
I did notice the faces once or twice, but never clicked. (It's not so much the lava being harmless so much as the lava killing you that concerns me.)
The door problem is caused by the Keen engine having troubble with the location of your sprite. (In my mod at the end the ship flicks about the screen a bit because of a simalar problem.) The same effect causes Keen to flick down violently when he attempts to escape the levels top. This occurs more with big sprites, but small ones can also suffer.
There is not much you can do about it, save using default sprite sizes. In my mod I used doors to make 'suction tubes' but I couldn't get the effect to work out reliably enough. However if you make a tile a door and 'nothing' from above, you can fall through the door from the top and be propelled several squares to the right. (Through walls, enemies, etc)