I do hope to one day follow up on more ZeldaClassic hacking. Meanwhile, John Berry/Ulf Magnet is beginning with some of my research and putting together his own Python utilities to work with the game’s data files.

Related posts:

• The Data of Zelda
• The Format of Zelda

I am still fascinated by the ZeldaClassic project, particularly when it comes to the possibility of creating an interoperable game engine to play the ZC data files.

Fortunately, the project has released some source code that writes out an unencoded quest file (extension .qsu). This divulges quite a few useful details. For greater context, there is the ZQuest editor that is packaged with the ZeldaClassic game which allows you to create qsu files and tweak existing ones. Further, PureZC has a Wiki that clarifies a lot of the technical details of the game’s data structures.

Anyway, I have started writing clear documentation for the qsu file format. Also, I have a sample C program that parses many of the data structures in such files.

I recently discovered Zelda Classic, a fascinating project to clone the classic Legend of Zelda game. This is what the original game looks like running in an emulator:

Why does anyone care? Look, it’s just a really cool game, okay?

These programmers created their own game engine and then cloned the original Zelda graphics for use in the game. But the real value-add is being able to create new quests, distribute them for others to play, and download other quests to play in the engine.

Read the rest of this entry »