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September, 1999
9/26 UpdateGame Boy Zelda Trilogy It has been revealed how the three new Zelda games for Game Boy Color will affect each other. People were speculating that the games might connect through a lock-on cartridge in order to transfer your saves over to the next game, but instead, saves will be transferred by using 2 game boys with link cables. 9/22 UpdateZelda Gaiden and Ura-Zelda NewsZelda Gaiden has been reported to have been 20% complete as of the Spaceworld show, while the main engine of the game is about 80% complete. The game will take about as long to beat as Zelda: Ocarina of Time, while the story will progress about twice as fast as it did in Ocarina of Time. Unlike some rumors have said, it will not support the Game Boy Camera to make custom masks. Ura-Zelda on the other hand might still support the Game Boy Camera to make masks. Miyamoto also said about Ura-Zelda, "Whether we release it or not, we are still working on the game." Could Ura-Zelda be cancelled? Let's hope not. 9/13 UpdateZelda Rumored for Dolphin In a report on Nintendonext.com they rumored that a DVD with all of the current Zelda games that have been made on it is in the works for Dolphin. This has NOT been confirmed by Nintendo, but it would not be surprising. I highly doubt that any extra features (touched up graphics, better sound, etc) will be put into the games, but you never know. I will post more information on this as it becomes available. 9/10 UpdateMiyomoto Interviewed About ZeldaTalkin' Zelda with Mr. MiyamotoSpace World 99 was the first chance for the public, and most game media, to see and to play Zelda Gaiden, the sequel to Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It also saw the debut of The Legend of Zelda: Mysterious Fruit for the Game Boy Color. Nintendo Power Source was lucky enough to get some time to talk to Mr. Miyamoto about these new Zelda projects.
Q: After hearing rumors of Ura Zelda for Nintendo 64 Disk Drive, Zelda Gaiden for the Nintendo 64 cartridge format was a pleasant surprise. Can you tell me how these two games came to be developed? A: We are working on two follow-ups to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. "Ura Zelda" uses the same system as Ocarina of Time but uses the 64DD to add game data. The story in "Ura Zelda" will be similar to Ocarina of Time but with new maps and scenarios. Zelda Gaiden, on the other hand, is a completely different game, although it too uses essentially the same game system as Ocarina of Time. Everyone has enjoyed the Zelda series but there's typically at least a 3 year wait between sequels! People who are in Junior High School when they play one Zelda game would be in High School by time the next game comes out, and those in High School will graduate before the next game came out! So, we wanted to make a new game in the series sooner. "Ura Zelda" will use the existing Ocarina of Time cartridge but with different dungeons, and new locations for the treasures. Since the 64DD media is cheaper than a new cartridge, this is an inexpensive way to make a sequel. We may also consider using network technology for "Ura Zelda." Right now, most of the staff is concentrating on Zelda Gaiden. Q: How involved are you with the different Zelda games? A: As time goes on, my direct involvement has become less. On the first Zelda, my involvement in directing the game was, say, 100%. With Ocarina of Time, my involvement was about 60%. For Zelda Gaiden, it will be about 20% and for Zelda: Mysterious Fruit for Game Boy, only about 10%. Until Ocarina, I was the Producer and Director of the game-not of everything but some parts. For Zelda Gaiden I will be in a Producer role. In that capacity, I'll decide the overall direction of the game, but I won't write the actual specifications myself. If Zelda Gaiden turns out to be fun to play, from now on we'll see new entries into the Zelda series with shorter time intervals in between. And, I'll probably have less direct involvement in the games. I've been saying all along that I have a lot of confidence in my teams, and I think they will make some good games. Q: What kinds of things do you do as a Producer? A: I just tell the staff members what kind of game it should be. The staff then figures out the details of the scenarios. So far, we've had thee big meetings to reviews the game's scenarios. As Producer I approve and disapprove of ideas in these meetings. Mainly I say things like, "If you try to go in this direction, you will never finish the game!" I help set the development priorities, and make staff recommendations. Q: So, what are some of the overall directions you have given to your game developments teams on Zelda Gaiden? What are some of the things that you want the players to experience in this game? A: I had several ideas that I wanted to incorporate into Ocarina of Time but that didn't make it. I've already given those to the staff. In Zelda Gaiden, players will meet some characters that they previously encountered in Ocarina of Time. There were many characters in Ocarina of Time who were in the background-- those characters will be more involved in the story of Zelda Gaiden. You'll talk to them more, and in the end you'll feel a deeper connection to the story of Ocarina of Time. Another thing we want to work on is time in the game. In so many games, you have, for example, eight dungeons. Finish four of them, and you're halfway through. You can guess how far you have to go. But that's not the true nature of interactive entertainment-it shouldn't be like reading a book and knowing you're halfway through it. That's not just something we're working on for Zelda Gaiden, we need to improve this for all of our games. The beauty of interactive media is it is different from other types of media, so we need to concentrate on those differences. Finally, we really want Zelda players to come away from this game feeling that they've played something totally unexpected. Q: In Zelda Gaiden, the moon is slowly falling towards the planet, and the player has a limited amount of time to save the world before it is destroyed. So how does the time limit in the game work? A: What can I tell you….hmmm. There are certain time limits in the game, but, you can play it again and again. If you don't do something in one game, you can try to do it in the next game. The amount of different things you actually do in the game will depend on the player's ability. This isn't a totally unique concept, but we do want to try something new with game time in Zelda Gaiden. To do that we are working on improving the "density" of the world. For example, say you have three days of game time. We are trying to see how many different events we can fit into those three days. That is why we need the Expansion Pak for this game-to keep track of all the events that are happening simultaneously in the world. Q: So the world actually exists and different things happen in real-time, even if you're not there to see them. OK, how about the masks? How many different ones do you think will be in the game? It looks like there is space for a lot of them on the Subscreen! A: There are three main masks-these are the only ones that make you actually change, or morph, into something different. Several other masks will have "human" like faces, and will be necessary to trigger certain events. You can use these masks to disguise yourself as different people. As for the actual final number of masks in the game, that will depend on time. I'm aiming for just under 30 different masks, but that depends on how long things take to develop. Q: You mentioned that the story in Zelda Gaiden will be closely connected to Ocarina of Time. How about the Running Man-will you finally be able to beat him? A: Maybe you didn't see him in the Space World version, but there is a Running Man who is four times taller than the one in Ocarina of Time! We are experimenting with this character to see if we can make him interesting and fun. Did you see the dogs? In Ocarina of Time, they would follow you. In Zelda Gaiden, their reaction will vary. When you morph into a Goron, they will bark at you and run away. As a Zora, they will approach you. Don't try to become a Deku Scrub if there are dogs around, though! They will try to bite you! Q: What about the other fairy that is shown with Navi in the introductory cinema scenes? A: I don't know, I need to ask the staff about that! I have a feeling it's going to be an important character! Q: Things are busy on the Zelda front with the Zelda games for Game Boy Color that Capcom is developing. How did that deal come about? What is the plan for these three titles? A: Well, it's the same situation as when our team develops a Zelda game-the quality has to be high. Mr. Okamoto (head of development at Capcom) is a young and energetic game developer who says he came into the industry because of games like the original Donkey Kong and Zelda. He came to me and was very serious about developing a Zelda game. He has great teams of developers and he promised to use his best people on this project. A company called Flagship has 20 or so people who are working on the scenarios. Some people have asked me if this means Nintendo will be allowing other companies to develop games using our characters. But this is a very special case. I felt good about Mr. Okamoto and his team. We're not going to be letting everyone work on our characters. We'll be checking the quality of these three titles. Q: What is the connection between the three titles? A: This project originally started to convert the original NES Zelda to Game Boy Color. So one of the titles will be a perfect conversion of NES Zelda. However, in working on this game, we have come up with a lot of new ideas, so there will be some new features. Basically I can tell you that there is a connection between the three tales. You can start with any one of them, but if you play them in a different order than someone else, the two player's games will be different…. Taken from www.nintendo.com 9/9 UpdateNintendo Announces Memory in DolphinNEW NINTENDO SYSTEM TO USE ULTRA FAST 1T-SRAM EMBEDDED MEMORY FROM MOSYSTechnology-First Delivers New Standard For Graphics Performance London, England (Sept. 7, 1999) - Nintendo and MoSys today announced that MoSys' patented 1T-SRAM technology will be used in the next Nintendo home game console to embed large, very high performance memories directly onto the system's graphics chip, being developed by ArtX, Inc. Embedded 1T-SRAM represents the most advanced memory technology in the world, and will eliminate transmission times between memory and chip allowing a new industry standard for graphics performance. The multi-year licensing agreement announced at the ECTS show in London culminates nearly one year of technical collaboration between the two companies. The embedding of these very large Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) blocks to enable exceptional performance is an industry-first for graphics chips. Game players can expect more detailed graphics moving at higher frame rates. Use of the single transistor 1T-SRAM technology allows embedding of even more SRAM than is used to achieve performance on leading edge CPUs such as the PowerPC™ or Pentium® III. "Simply stated, the incredible performance of MoSys 1T-SRAM memory with the proprietary custom graphics chip designed by ArtX is the perfect match for IBM's custom, copper-based CPU," says Howard Lincoln, chairman, Nintendo of America Inc. "We will employ this technology to surpass the game experience offered by any competing console or personal computer." "We are convinced the use of such a large amount of this ultra high performance memory will put this graphics processor in a league of its own," says Dr. Fu-Chieh Hsu, chairman, CEO and president of MoSys. "Nintendo's use of our 1T-SRAM uniquely meets the blinding performance and easy manufacturability requirements of next-generation cost-conscious consumer products, and is an excellent flagship application for our technology." "Nintendo promises to set a new standard for graphics by using the unique capabilities of embedded 1T-SRAM technology to deliver graphics memory performance that is dramatically faster than competitive DRAM-based systems," said Bob Merritt, senior analyst at Semico Research Corp. "Consequently, MoSys' 1T-SRAM allows the performance, previously only possible in small cache memories, to be available in this consumer graphics system." ABOUT 1T-SRAM Available in densities up to 128Mbits, MoSys' patented 1T-SRAM technology uses a single transistor cell to achieve its exceptional density while maintaining the refresh-free interface and low latency random memory access cycle time associated with traditional six-transistor SRAM cells. Embedded 1T-SRAM allows designers to get beyond the density limits of 6T-SRAMs; it also reduces much of the circuit complexity and extra cost associated with using embedded DRAM. 1T-SRAM memories can be fabricated using either pure logic or embedded memory processes using as little as one ninth of the area of traditional six-transistor SRAM cores. In addition to the exceptional performance and density, this technology offers dramatic power consumption savings by using only a quarter of the power of traditional SRAM memories. 1T-SRAM technology is volume production proven in millions of MoSys' discrete memory devices. ABOUT MOSYS MoSys, Inc. is the leading semiconductor technology company specializing in innovative, high performance, random access memories including products based on its patented 1T-SRAM technology. Founded in 1991, the company develops and markets memory integrated circuits as well as licenses memory technology and cores to semiconductor and systems companies. The company's unique memory architecture has been proven in the volume production of over 30 million memory devices. The company is headquartered at 1020 Stewart Drive, Sunnyvale, California, 94086. More information on MoSys is available at http://www.mosys.com. ABOUT NINTENDO Nintendo Co., Ltd. of Kyoto, Japan, is the acknowledged worldwide leader in the creation of interactive entertainment. To date, Nintendo has sold more than one billion video games worldwide, and has created such industry icons as Mario and Donkey Kong and franchises like The Legend of Zelda and Pokémon. Nintendo manufactures and markets hardware and software for its popular home video game systems, including the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy-the world's best selling home video game system. As a wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America, Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in North America.
News story taken from www.nintendo.com.
9/2 Update Nintendo Announces New Game Boy Nintendo has announced that they have a new Game Boy Color System in development, currently called Game Boy Advance. This system will feature a 32-bit CPU, and will be able to connect to a cellular phone to exchange E-mail, and participate in multiplayer games. Game Boy Advance will be able to connect to Project Dolphin, although the details of how it will connect, and what purpose the connection will serve have not been disclosed. Game Boy Advance will be similar to Game Boy Color in that games for either Game Boy, or Game Boy Color will work on it, but games designed only for Game Boy Advance will not work on the other systems. Here are the preliminary specs for Game Boy Advance as released by Nintendo:
Although no Zelda games have been announced yet, rest assured that there will be several Zelda games for Game Boy Advance throughout the life of the system. |
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