The Legend of Zelda: Outlands is probably the best, and most famous Legend of Zelda 1 hack. I can recommend it to anyone who liked the original version. It even features two quests... one even harder than the other. This movie completes both quests.
The patch can be downloaded here. You will need to patch "Legend of Zelda, The (U) (PRG0).nes".
A few people who watched it mentioned they would like to see a run which doesn't use any glitches. One of the reasons for this is that the run may be a little difficult to keep up with what's skipped, and what's happening without knowing the game. Of course, I would suggest to everyone to play the game themselves, as it is also a lot of fun... but that takes quite some time. I myself don't think a full run is a very good idea, since without glitches, the route will be very linear, and there are spots where you need to beat the same boss three times in a row and such. The main good thing about a glitchless run is that if shows of the entire game, which might give more appreciation and understanding for this movie. A walkthrough can do the job just as well, so I made both a walkthrough of the first, and second quest. Walkthrough first quest Walkthrough second quest Do note that it are merely walkthroughs, which don't aim for speed and don't use any glitches. Useless items, and also maps and compasses are collected. It should however give a good image of what a full run would look like, and give a better understanding about this run.
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Uses a game restart sequence
  • Abuses programming errors in the game
  • Manipulates luck
  • No predefined saves
  • Completes both quests
  • Genre: Action
  • Genre: Adventure

Glitch

I discovered a glitch which allowed Link to go half a tile inside a solid block from the bottom and the top, while working on the regular Zelda run. Since then, the glitch has been expanded, and it's now possible too to do it sideways, which allows fast left/right movement too. A short history on how is was discovered step by step can be found here. I could write a long paragraph on how it is exactly performed, but I suggest just looking at the input, and you know it right away, since it's not hard to perform or understand. The glitching is a lot more useful in this game than in the regular game. So far, no items can be skipped at either the first or the second quest of the regular game. At this hack, it's possible to skip several items, and there are more spots, both in the overworld and underworld, where the glitch is very useful. I'd like to thank Sleepz, Hanzou and Catastrophe for the time they spent on the glitch.

First Quest

Entering my name took 25 frames longer than having "A" as a name. A small prize to pay for the message that appears at the end of the TAS ;). The game starts off all the way at the left of the overworld. Glitching to the left takes Link to the right of the overworld. The spot I get to can't normally be reached without a raft. I'm ending up in a big dark part at the right of the room. It is made out of entrances, which warp me to the middle of this room (these entrances can't be reached without glitching). Link goes down one screen, uses the glitch a few times to get through the rockformations, and the glitches again to the left, leading to being at the left of the overworld. I needed to go one room down, since the wall at the left side is one block thick here, which is needed if you want to walk through the wall. I go up again, and now you see I'm at the other side of the river (from where Link started). This place can't normally be reached without having the power bracelet and ladder. This is where 150 rupees are found, which are needed later in the run. Getting money in this game is generally pretty hard, since there is no gambling, and only one spot where you get 150 rupees at once. The maximum you can get at other places is 50 rupees. After getting the 150 rupees, I reset with up+A.
Onto level 1. The glitching was useful several times here. Notice how Link has to walk into the screen a little to do the glitch. The wooden sword it located in level 1, and it obviously can't be skipped, so I collect it here. I stay a little longer at level 1 to collect an extra key. Then a reset to exit the level.
The next thing that is needed it are the silver arrows. They are needed to kill 'Ganon' after all and can be found in level 5. Somewhere along the way bombs are collected. I glitch past the bridge. Normally a ladder would be required here. No power bracelet is needed to push the gravestone for entering level 5, luckily :). Inside the level, the glitch is used a few times to avoid killing all enemies in the room. After a while, I reach a room with 8 enemies, which look slightly different here, but are the same as bunnies in the first quest. All need to be hit 10 times, so 80 hits need to be dealt in this room! All of that for just another key. The dark rooms in this game are truly dark. You don't even see the walls at the side, so it's a little hard to see where exactly you are. The scrolling also looks weird, since the screen is just black, and you don't see it moving. After these dark rooms, there is a room with darknuts and bunnies. The main aim is to kill the bunnies as fast as possible, since they take the longest. I had some problems with making it in time to collect that bomb (which disappears after a while). In the end, I was just in time for it by a close margin. To kill the boss in the next room, the flute is normally needed, but luckily the solid blocks are arranged in a way that it can be bypassed. The corridor in the next room just appears after a while (which I can't remember happening in the regular game). The glitch is used to get right where the staircase appears. Finally, the silver arrows :) When I exit the level, you get to see what a triforce looks like in this game (it's a fairy). For this dungeon, it was located right next to the start.
Right after the dungeon, I glitch myself to an area which can only be reached with the raft normally. The bow is bought here (luckily Link has just enough money). Now with the silver arrows and bow, and sword, Link is ready to face Ganon.
After resetting, I do the same thing again as at the start of the run, and the spot where I get to happens to be right next to level 9. ' At level 9, if you walk up, you will get to the seal, where all triforces (or fairies) are needed. To the right is a dead end. To the left normally too, but the blocks are diagonal, so Link can glitch through them. This successfully gets Link in a place that can only be reached with all triforce parts, and thus they are skipped. The thing I pick up next is the key which can be used many times... although I just pick it up because it's in the way, I don't open any locked doors with it. Next up is a room with 8 enemies that eat your shield. It was pretty hard to manipulate all 8 of them to move in the way I wanted. Then there is a long way with bombing, taking damage and glitching. There even is a room with 8 blue wizzrobes, thankfully I didn't need to kill them. I don't know if it's possible to reach the staircase I use to get to Ganon without glitching or not... either way, I used it. Right before Ganon there is a wizzrobe room. Ganon is pretty straightforward. First quest isn't completed after Ganon... two more rooms untill the end. One of them shows some nice use of the silver arrows. Then the first quest is completed.

Second Quest

For those who didn't like getting to places that you aren't supposed to... the second quest has a lot less of this. The levels in the second quest aren't numbered from 1 to 9, instead, they spell out OUTLANDSC (so U is the second dungeon, and C the ninth). C stands for "challenge". First off Link goes to level U to get some meat. The meat is obtained without any weapons, which wouldn't normally be possible. You would at least need either boomerang, bombs or candle. I think the intention of the creator was to visit level O first where you can get the boomerang. I also use the glitch to get a key. After getting the meat, there is a up+A reset with a save to start over again.
Now that we have meat, Link goes to level O. After getting some keys, the boomerang is obtained. There is even a room where you have to kill all 'bats' with the boomerang, which is pretty neat. It was actually pretty hard to get the room like that. Then meat is used, and Link can obtain the ladder. Enough of this level... back to level U!
With the ladder, Link can reach new places in level U, like the place where Zelda had hidden the flute. The glitch is used to get here faster. After getting the flute, RESET.
Note that since I saved, I switching weapons before the save wouldn't have made a difference. This is only possible the you 'continue' not when you 'save'. Glitching is used again to get somewhere at the right in the overworld, and even though the glitching passes areas that could normally not be reached... the part where I get in the end can be reached without glitching. Here the flute is used to get money. Note that it takes long for the creature to spawn (the one that gives me money), this cannot be avoided. After getting the money, I reset.
Now I walk to level T to finally get my sword. There are also bombs ready to pick up :). It is important to note that everything I did till now was in the right order of what the creator intended, so indeed the sword is in the third level. Flute was needed to get enter this level. After getting the sword, I exit the level to buy the bow again.
Since the silver arrows are in the last level this time, we are ready to head there. Level C is located near the spot where you get when you do the glitch at the start again, so that's convenient. This time the flute is needed to enter it. The seal is bypassed again, by doing the glitch in the second room. Link makes, and glitches, his way to the room where the infinite key is located (this would normally take quite a bit longer without the glitch). After it is obtained, Link moves on to a wizzrobe room. It was pretty hard, since I could only use two bombs. In the end, the entire second quest will be completed with only 4 bombs. After the wizzrobe room, Zelda wants to kill me, and after that, Link can pick up the silver arrow. Then RESET. Fully equiped, Link heads for Ganon, and kills him... game complete? Far from it. The hardest part is yet to come. Before reaching the end of the game, one of the hardest bosses of the game needs to be beats no less than three times! The last one was particularly hard, since there were bullets coming from the corners of the room too, which could cause lag. Most of it was avoided. It was also hard to know where you were, since everything was black in that room (there were quite some blocks blocking your way). In the end, Link saves the day once again.

NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots of this movie and placed them here. Here goes!

Truncated: The hack is not accepted at this site. In my opinion it shouldn't be either since it is not well made. About a third of the votes for this submission was no, which comparatively is a large amount, and I agree that it's not very entertaining. For these reasons I am rejecting this submission.

mmbossman: This submission has been given another chance at publication. If you feel it should be published, instead of returning to the grue, please post WHY in the thread. Similarly, if you do NOT think this movie should be published, post WHY.

mmbossman: The prime issue I see with this submission is the feeling that because it's a hack, all the glitching is really just a product of the hack, and not the original game engine. This is not the case, as several of the same glitches can be seen in the 2nd quest movie. This is probably why Truncated described this hack as "sloppy" originally; There was not a published demonstration of these glitches to confirm that they were possible in the original game. Just like any other glitched movie here, the glitching only becomes more impressive after the viewer has played the game, and although I have never played this hack, I still found the movie mildly amusing. After looking through Baxter's detailed explanation of the hack, and considering the positive tone of the people responding after this was revived, I believe that it should become part of our collection. I would also recommend that the description for the movie contain a link to the post linked above, to further inform the viewer about how much is really going on.

ShinyDoofy: Processed, about to publish.


Banned User
Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
jman2050 wrote:
I'm trying to figure out when 'skipping as much of the game as possible to complete it in the fastest time' was suddenly a no-no in tool-assisted speed runs.
Because some of us still remember and cling to the idea of tool-assisted superplay movies, which aim to show godlike play and not just to "get the lowest counter on the Nesvideos forum thread index". Yeah, whatever. You can have your super-fast movies... I want ones I can enjoy watching.
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Player (102)
Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 189
Location: Austin
jman2050 wrote:
I'm trying to figure out when 'skipping as much of the game as possible to complete it in the fastest time' was suddenly a no-no in tool-assisted speed runs.
I actually enjoy the earlier runs of Sonic 3 & Knuckles more then the one that's currently up, because we got to see the entire game actually being played. Now, a good deal of the game is watching Sonic disappear while the screen warps around. Wheeee. If it's the fastest way to get through the game, that's great and all, but glitches often have a way of killing the entertainment value of these movies. I haven't seen this movie yet, but the comments make it sound as if thats the case here. And either way, it'd be neat to see a fast playthrough of this insanely hard hack, and glitched runs aren't exactly true playthroughs.
http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.
Joined: 6/4/2004
Posts: 284
"Did I enjoy this run?" No. While I found the skipping to be interesting enough, I would have preferred to see the game played out is it was meant to be.
Skilled player (1410)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Wow, I certainly didn't expect it to be received this way. When I made it, and watched it, I only saw the glitches as part of the run. Many people appear to see it as the main thing in the run. I think the glitching doesn't skip the aspects that would normally make someone like a zelda run. I'm especially surprised, since the glitched ALttP run has such a well reception (30 yes votes, 2 no). Opposed to this run, that run does skip all aspects of normal playing. I made a walkthrough movie today of the first quest. Where the route of this TAS came so perfectly together, a run without using the glitch would be very linear. Every item you obtain means basically you only have one option to go next that is good. While many probably wouldn't even notice this, as they haven't played the game, I think the lack of a cool, perhaps unordinary or inventive route is killing an aspect of a TAS. A TAS is meant to show something that can't be done normally, which certainly includes picking a route that would never be picked by a normal player or speedrunner. Every dungeon has an equal amount of keys available as it has key doors, and nearly all of them are needed, so there is little planning involved here too. I'm not saying it's a bad thing for the game, or gameplay... but it's a bad thing for a TAS. I'm certain that a run without using the glitch will be less entertaining... and I'm ever more certain a run without using the glitch will never be made (let alone the second quest).
Player (102)
Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 189
Location: Austin
Well, you may want to consider the fact that due to its difficulty, very few have played Outlands all the way through, and just seeing it beaten at all could be pretty entertaining. Adding fancy tricks on top of it may not be necessary, and may only serve to confuse the viewers, who aren't completely familiar with this hack. Skipping over parts of the game isn't quite as thrilling when we don't even know what's been skipped over. As for the nice reception the bugged LttP run got, I may be remembering wrong, but I'm pretty sure it was one of the earlier runs that was glitched to that degree, so novelty was in its favor. I personally didn't like it, but there was already a regular run of the game to keep me satisfied, so I stayed out of the voting process. Just my opinions. =)
http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.
Active player (328)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
For the record, I totally love glitched runs, ESPECIALLY the sub-10 minute Zelda 2, 3, and 4 runs currently published on this site. The difference here is that this is a hack, not a real game, so glitching through it did not come off as entertaining as the others did, and just gave me more of a desire to see the rest of the hack in action. Again, just my opinion.
Joined: 1/23/2006
Posts: 352
Location: Germany
I think seeing a game glitched into oblivion can get boring to people who don't know the game. This run was very repetitive, in part due to the game's handling of rooms that led to repetitive levels, the first Zelda game in itself isn't that interesting to watch as a movie, it's just that most people played it and know how much it breaks the game. With this noone played the hack, noone knows how much you're skipping and noone has any real connections to the events on the screen. The LttP glitch is really short and surprising, this is much longer and even goes through two quests while the surprise is lessened as noone knows what the game is like normally. Also NES Zelda is somewhat less interesting to watch than SNES Zelda.
Skilled player (1410)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
The impression I'm getting is that most of you disliked it because you didn't know what was skipped exactly. And to know, you want to see a run without the glitch. I would suggest playing the hack... but I can see that only a small amount of people will actually do that. Like I said before, I made a walkthrough of the first quest, so for those who exactly want to know what was skipped: a walkthrough This walkthrough: - only completes the first quest - doesn't use the glitch - doesn't use the up+A restart sequence - tries to complete everything in the order I think the game creator intended a first time player to play - is not optimized at all - collects all weapons except the book (and doesn't buy potion) - collects all maps and compasses, except level 7 map, and level 9 compass Of course, a slightly faster route can be chosen, and up+A would also save a bit. You should still be able to see how linear such a TAS will be, and after watching this entire movie, please consider again if you truly think this non-glitch run is a better idea for a TAS than this run.
Active player (437)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Yeah I liked it. I thought it was fairly entertaining to see a few zeldas, that old priest and new enemies as your opponents. Not sure what to say about the glitch but it obviously made the run faster so absolutely no harm done. Therefore a future run should perhaps aim to get those fairies/no glitch run or whatever. I think this submission offers enough variety and new mini elements compared to the original zelda game to warrant a yes vote and hopefully for the run to get published.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Joined: 6/4/2004
Posts: 284
...well. So, I'm currently watching the run and starting to reconsider my "no" vote. For one thing, the full game is slow. It does tend to drag a bit, and just doesn't seem to have the same flow as the original Zelda did. Then again, that may be due to the deliberately unoptimized play here... Hmm. If my vote weren't already spent, I would vote "yes", with the condition that this movie would also be included, so that fans could see what they were and weren't missing. Baxter, thank you for your hard work.
Skilled player (1410)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Viewer wrote:
...well. So, I'm currently watching the run and starting to reconsider my "no" vote. For one thing, the full game is slow. It does tend to drag a bit, and just doesn't seem to have the same flow as the original Zelda did. Then again, that may be due to the deliberately unoptimized play here... Hmm. If my vote weren't already spent, I would vote "yes", with the condition that this movie would also be included, so that fans could see what they were and weren't missing. Baxter, thank you for your hard work.
Glad to hear that. I was wondering if there was interest in such a walkthrough movie for the second quest (since I enjoyed making the first quest walkthrough movie).
Skilled player (1410)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Second quest non glitch walkthrough Again, no glitch. The run collects all items, except blue suit (don't even know if it's present in the second quest), and doesn't buy potions. It collects all maps and compasses, except the level 9 map and compass. In contrary to the first quest walkthrough the up+A reset is used.
Joined: 4/25/2004
Posts: 498
Baxter wrote:
except blue suit (don't even know if it's present in the second quest)
Outlands manual's hints section wrote:
"Red is in blue or gold, while blue is in indigo or black."
So, yeah, check level O again. :p Every dungeon in both quests has a map, but I don't think level C has a compass though...
Skilled player (1410)
Joined: 5/31/2004
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4matsy wrote:
So, yeah, check level O again. :p Every dungeon in both quests has a map, but I don't think level C has a compass though...
Well... I didn't say there was no blue suit, I just didn't come across it, and hence I didn't know if it was in the second quest. I did think it was in the second quest somewhere. I know where the map is in level 9... but I didn't felt like taking the detour. The map is very inaccurate anyway, since all the important rooms are not shown on the map. I don't know where the compass is or if there is one in level C... but there is one in the first and second quest of level 9 at the regular game, so it's surely possible.
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
Ooh. Walkthroughs for both quests. Much appreciated. I'll be watching at some point today.
Joined: 7/28/2005
Posts: 83
Location: Montreal, Canada
I really enjoyed this run, but then I played the hack when it was first published and remember the general difficulty and linearity. I don't think I made it very far past the second quest. Speaking of, does anyone know what name you enter to go straight to the second quest? (the equivalent of ZELDA in the first game)
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univbee wrote:
I really enjoyed this run, but then I played the hack when it was first published and remember the general difficulty and linearity. I don't think I made it very far past the second quest. Speaking of, does anyone know what name you enter to go straight to the second quest? (the equivalent of ZELDA in the first game)
That would be NAYRU (I used it in the second quest walkthrough).
Editor, Player (69)
Joined: 6/22/2005
Posts: 1050
I found this movie very entertaining. While I don't like the fact that such a major glitch exists in the engine of one of my favorite games, it was put to great use in this movie. Yes vote.
Current Projects: TAS: Wizards & Warriors III.
Player (86)
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Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Another submission of a Hack, *sigh*.
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Vatchern wrote:
Another submission of a Hack, *sigh*.
Wow, you sure noticed this fast :) I think the goal of the site is to provide entertaining tool assisted speedruns (with clear goals). If a TAS of a hack is able to do this, then what's the problem?
Banned User
Joined: 12/23/2004
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There are a few people who really hate hacks, generally with silly reasons or plain wrong reasons ("The 'demo' in the title means it isn't finished yet!", etc... you know who you are). Although I wouldn't mind knowing why Vatchern seems to think that way, too...
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Player (86)
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Well, generally the reason why is because I like to watch TAS movies of games I can play on a consol. I can watch them and relate to games I played as a child. This is mostly why too I dislike Gens because I never owned one, or have I wanted to. meaning I am very unfamilar with all gens games. I can't relate to myself actually playing the game. This goes the same for Hacks. I've never seen this game before, and someone beats it fast. for me, It is hard to be entertained this way. I might be impressed if it is TAS'd very well, but the goal of the site is entertainment. I am probably alone with my opinion on this one. and no, I am not trying to remove all hacks from the site, and I have nothing against the authors who have or will make a TAS for a hack.
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I think Xkeeper's point was more about how you dismiss hacks altogether, and not just ignore them or count them as plain another games you've never played. In other words, if the game is unfamiliar to you, you usually ignore it. If the game is a hack, you're openly negative about it.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
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Joined: 5/31/2004
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moozooh wrote:
In other words, if the game is unfamiliar to you, you usually ignore it. If the game is a hack, you're openly negative about it.
Have to agree with moozooh here. I've never heard you say: "Another Gens submission, *sigh*.".
Player (86)
Joined: 3/8/2005
Posts: 973
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Baxter wrote:
moozooh wrote:
In other words, if the game is unfamiliar to you, you usually ignore it. If the game is a hack, you're openly negative about it.
Have to agree with moozooh here. I've never heard you say: "Another Gens submission, *sigh*.".
I never say such a thing about a gens submission naturally because gens runs are always accepted here as normal TAS's. HACKS were usually not accepted here, and most arent. lets keep it this way.