New ezine - ZX Spectrum gamer

[thrush]

The original LOZ just pushes my "this isn't as good as everyone says".

I get bored by the 3rd dungeon and just walk around aimlessly until I turn it off.

It helped to be eight years old at the time. There was just nothing else on consoles quite like it.

  I'll go further than that and say "there was nothing else on any platform quite like it".  But I think you are both right: it's one of those games that you kinda had to be in just exactly the right age/historical moment to get why it was such a big deal.  (Sort of like FF7 in that respect.)  I recall there was one summer that I evenly divided between playing NES and wandering around the woods in my hometown and for me whenever I see/play tLoZ nowadays I feel like I'm back in those woods; similarly, the few times I've been back to my old town even though almost everything else has changed those woods still feel like Hyrule to me.  It helped that I grew up in New Mexico where we have lots of dry tan dust and small, round bushes.  ^_-

  Gameplay may not be all that hot these days, but I still do appreciate the icon-like art style: it's not so much showing you a picture of one particular tree as it is suggesting that there is some tree in this place, inviting you to imagine it for yourself.

Yeah, that's the weird thing when I play games like Starglider. They look so basic, but somewhere in my head I am seeing a cool sci-fi world.

  For me, some Atari games have that quality to them, too, but the next best example I can think of is the 8-bit Dragon Quest titles.  Whenever I play those I don't see the boxy grey mountains or identically tiled castles.  Something in my mind fills in valleys & rivers, the feel of the wind, the sounds of the grass crunching under the travellers' feet, all sorts of small organic details that aren't there in the picture.  Few newer games have ever done that for me.

  Maybe I'm a little crazy for getting that carried away by it, but reading the reviews in the ezine for games like Trashman or Olli & Lissa I can see myself having the same sort of experience.  Although, maybe a bit less poetic in the case of Trashman.  ^m^

[Arkhan]

The original LOZ just pushes my "this isn't as good as everyone says".

I get bored by the 3rd dungeon and just walk around aimlessly until I turn it off.

It helped to be eight years old at the time. There was just nothing else on consoles quite like it.

  I'll go further than that and say "there was nothing else on any platform quite like it".  But I think you are both right: it's one of those games that you kinda had to be in just exactly the right age/historical moment to get why it was such a big deal.  (Sort of like FF7 in that respect.)  I recall there was one summer that I evenly divided between playing NES and wandering around the woods in my hometown and for me whenever I see/play tLoZ nowadays I feel like I'm back in those woods; similarly, the few times I've been back to my old town even though almost everything else has changed those woods still feel like Hyrule to me.  It helped that I grew up in New Mexico where we have lots of dry tan dust and small, round bushes.  ^_-

  Gameplay may not be all that hot these days, but I still do appreciate the icon-like art style: it's not so much showing you a picture of one particular tree as it is suggesting that there is some tree in this place, inviting you to imagine it for yourself.

I played it when I was like 2.5 years old through today.  I used to play it alot and never really liked it.  I definitely liked Zelda II when I was 4, thats for sure.  and Link to the Past.

Maybe it's because we always had computers in the house with RPGs, and maybe because by the time I was playing it, (1990-->) , there were other games to play.

But hey, I like Hydlide, so don't listen to me, lol

[Mathius]

I LOVE Zelda II! I was so excited when it came out. Ah memories...

[Arkhan]

The first Zelda really just needed a town or something to make it feel more like how Zelda was presented in the instruction book even.. Instead it was random dudes in caves.  I was playing Times of Lore instead..  From what I've been told, people with Commodore 64s, etc. around here weren't impressed with Zelda when it came out, because there were better options out already for the computers. :-/

I can see it being amazing if you didn't already play stuff like the Apshai games, Questron or Ultima.

The first Ultima was more adventurous to me.  There were first person dungeons, towns with some communication!, alot of space to explore, and... space itself to explore!

Zelda 1 isn't bad, but it isn't good, to me at least.  They really did better with the second game.  Wayyyyy better.  It didn't feel like you were just wandering around looking for holes to walk into.

[Mathius]

To give credit to the US version of Zelda they really improved certain sound effects like the monster "roaring" samples, and when you unlock a door. It's weird because Zelda on the Famicom Disk System was supposed to sound superior due to its FM synth. Go figure.

[thrush]

From what I've been told, people with Commodore 64s, etc. around here weren't impressed with Zelda when it came out, because there were better options out already for the computers. :-/

  I can see it being amazing if you didn't already play stuff like the Apshai games, Questron or Ultima.

  I would also put the first Zelda in a "good but not great category".  Yet, I feel compelled to point out that Times of Lore came out a year later (at least in the USA) and I would argue that Ultima is a really different kind of game.  I have never played Apshai, but if it is this game (www.mobygames.com/game/dunjonquest-temple-of-apshai) then that seems like a significantly different type of game, too.

  Admittedly I did not play many C=64 games (we only had a ViC-20), but I played a fair amount of MS-DOS and Mac titles only a few years later, and I still feel like most of the computers-vs-consoles comparisons from that era are pretty apples-to-oranges.  Was Ultima better than Zelda?  Arguably.  But I think they were trying to accomplish different things.  I'm not sure if I'd feel comfortable comparing Zelda 2 to Zelda 1 for exactly the same reason.  Still, I do think Zelda 3 >> Zelda 1.

  To me, the bigger question is, which is better: Zelda 2, Castlevania 2, or Faxandu??  ^_^

[Arkhan]

Faxanadu is the best. Duh.



Anyway, I mentioned Times of Lore since I was born in 1988.  By the time I was playing these games, I had more choices than just Zelda 1, and I'd take Times of Lore of Zelda 1 no questions asked.

The first Ultima is more of an action RPG than the rest of them ever were.  Ultima 1 and 2 are both very action RPG.  Granted, you still "take turns", you are on a timer, so standing there won't get you far.  You control a single hero and go to towns, talk to people, and then go out and stab things.  The dungeons make it different since they are first person.


when you get right down to it though:

Ys did what Zelda tried.