(1.3 update: Added a failsafe in case the random level selection fails for some reason, although it seems to work as far as I've been able to test. Also fixed up the enemy screen to include "Wizards" and "Pabbits", and gave "Wizards" long-range fire instead of short range, to make them harder.)

--- Title Screen / inserting coins ---

Before starting the game, you must insert one or more coins (press start). The machine can accept up to 4 coins at once, after which it will return any more coins you try to insert.

(If you enable the "Free Play" dipswitch by pressing EX1, the arcade machine will not require any coins to play.)

If you wait on the title screen, a demo animation will play.

--- How to play ---

This game is composed of random dungeon passageway screens with simple challenges. On every 9th level, you must battle Gannon to rescue the Princess. Each time you play, the stages appear in a different order.

You only have 3 hearts; each time you are hit you'll lose 1 heart. and at 0 he will lose a life. You will also lose a life if the Timer reaches 0. The game is over when you are out of lives.

Any time you quit the game, it will start over; you must get a Game Over for the game to save your high score. If you shut off the arcade cabinet early it will not save a new high score.

For each 10,000 points, you will gain a 1-up. Rescuing Princess Zelda will also give you a 1-up and fill your hearts. You start with 3 lives, and can have up to 9. (Heart Containers weren't invented until Super Zelda Legend on the Nintendo Family Computer.)

--- Powerups ---

Sword: Swordman starts with a sword, but if he finds a better sword, he will turn blue and be able to fire Sword Beams until he takes a hit.

Bomb: Replaces the sword until the end of the level and turns Swordman red. Kaboom!

Clock: Adds more time to the timer.

Heart: Refills one of Swordman's life hearts. Certain special hearts can fill all three hearts.

Gold: A mysterious golden triangle that makes Swordman temporarily invincible, and he will defeat any enemy he touches.

--- Bonus modes ---

If you gain over 100,000 points, certain helpful items will stop reappearing in certain levels.

"Zelda Edition":

In the alternate timeline 1998, a "Zelda Edition" IPS romhack was released which swapped the roles of Swordman ("Prince Link", named after later games such as Super Zelda Legend on the Nintendo Family Computer) and Zelda ("Swordgirl"). You can apply "Zelda Edition" by pressing EX2.

Hero Mode A:

When you reach Level 64, the stages will begin to repeat in a new random order, but the enemies will turn blue and have twice as much HP. Gannon will not increase his HP, but he becomes immune to swordbeams, and his attacks will become twice as strong (and the statues in the corners of the room will always spawn 1 keke bat). You can enable the Hero Mode dipswitch at the start of the game by pressing EX3, but that's not recommended for a first time playthrough.

Hero Mode B:

If you reach Level 128, enemies will attack twice as hard, and Gannon will increase his HP. This is the hardest mode, and you can enable it by pressing the EX3 dipswitch twice. Good luck!

???:

It's rumored that something strange happens if you reach level 256, maybe a glitch, and they say the effect ends at level 512. Developer Miyahon did not claim to know about anything special happening at level 256. In any case, playing for that long is boring and not recommended.

Crash the arcade machine:

At level 1024, the game will reach a "kill screen" and become unplayable. Playing for that long is absolutely not recommended.

N/A

If you enable any of ZC's cheat modes, during the levels you can press EX1 to gain a 1-up, EX4 to instantly win the current level, hold EX2 to increase the level number, and hold EX3 to increase the score.

Level 1 cheat code:

Level 2 cheat code:

Level 3 cheat code:

Level 4 cheat code:


If you press EX4 on the title screen, you will enable the "Infinite Lives" dipswitch. This also enables pressing EX4 during the level to instantly win that level.

Edited stage music, Gannon music, intro story music (from the prototype game over), and additional fanfares and sound effects from The Legend of Zelda, and 1-up sound effect from Super Mario Bros
by Koji "Konchan" Kondo

"Gold" music from Feng Yin Dao (bootleg)
by unknown author at Shenzhen Nanjing Technology

Intro enemy/item page fanfare edited from Balloon Fight
by Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka

Coin and dipswitch sound effects edited from Public Domain CC0 sound effects on Freesound.org
by gthall, polanko, & deathscyp

Sound effects when enabling or disabling "Zelda Edition", from Windows 3
by unknown author at Microsoft

Zelda player sprites (in "Zelda Edition" mode) from the fangame Super Mario Bros. Crossover
by Exploding Rabbit

Beta Testing and help with ideas
by Dimi & Moosh

Quest creator
Mitsukara

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All elements of this quest that were made by me (but not those owned by Nintendo or those otherwise credited) are public domain (CC0 / no rights reserved).

(This also applies to my previosu quests "Link and Zelda: Panoply of Calatia", "6th Quest Contest Entry: Through the Inverse Looking Glass", and my "ocean sailing demo" in the PureZC 2017 expo, all of which I also consider to be public domain / CC0.)

In other words, I'm 100% okay with you using, reusing, copying, or editing any and all of my Zelda Classic fangame content, ideas, scripts, design elements, etc in any way for any of your own purposes.

As usual, the quest is not passworded, and the script files are included. Have fun!