Legend of Zelda hack makes Link the damsel in distress

Inspired by the father who modded Donkey Kong so his daughter could play the Princess, another person had the idea of modifying another classic Nintendo game. Kenna W has always loved The Legend of Zelda series, and she always wanted to play the game as Princess Zelda instead of the male protagonist, Link. She wished that she had someone who could do for her what that man did for his daughter. She then realized, “I’m an adult now. If he could work it out, I could too.”

She worked tirelessly for 3 days to transform the classic Legend of Zelda. She had help from her boyfriend, a professional video game programmer, who told her that there was a ROM editor that could help simplify the process. They discovered tools around the internet that helped them modify the game, and what they realized was that you don’t necessarily need to be a programmer to modify these games (so if you want to modify Final Fantasy, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, start digging).

By using Tile Layer Pro, she and her boyfriend were able to find Zelda’s sprites and edit them. Her boyfriend also found a code file that let Kenna change the colors of Zelda’s clothing. After modifying the ROM to have Zelda replace Link in-game, Kenna also modified the opening text to change Link’s story into Zelda’s. She also debated making Link a “prince” or a “knight”, but in the end she decided to leave him as just good ol’ Link.

The mod took Kenna and her boyfriend a lot of work to accomplish, and she credits her success to all of the various, already-available modding tools, as well as this Legend of Zelda:ROM Map, and the Computer Archeology. Kenna made the patch available to the public via her Google Drive (available through the link below). You have to find the unedited Legend of Zelda NES ROM yourself however. With Donkey Kong and Legend of Zelda hacked, I wonder which game is coming next.

[via Kenna Stuff]