Original Zelda Design Drafts

Nintendo has uncovered the very first designs for the first Legend of Zelda game. Drawn in 1985, these include the original specifications, rough sketches of characters and items, the dungeon select screen, the first land map and the first dungeon maps.

As revealed in the lastest Iwata Asks discussion, the original plans date from February 1985 and include ideas for the structure but also the items and enemies.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said:

“The original specifications were drawn up in 1985, and here we are today still making Zelda games based upon these specifications. If you look closely, you can tell how a marker was used to make small dots. These are rocks, and these are trees. And you can see Miyamoto-san’s personality. At first he’s making individual dots, but as he gets tired of it, toward the top, he just fills in a bunch of space!”

He also admitted that the design team had enough ideas from the original sketches to use for the next ten years.

Finally there are the dungeon maps. When creating the original map, a mistake led to the creation of a second adventure.

Nagako explains: “I created the data exactly in line with it, but then Tezuka-san made a mistake and only used half of the data. I said, “Tezuka-san, there’s only half here. Where did the other half go?” and he was like, “What?! Oops, I messed up…” But Miyamoto-san said it was fine just like that.

“So, using the half of the memory that was left over, we decided to create the Second Quest.”

Take a look at the original designs:

[ONM]

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