The Japanese logo for the first Zelda game, The Hyrule Fantasy

Today is the 40th anniversary of Zelda 1!

Of all the Zelda titles, this is the one we know the MOST about; they've discussed it in interviews for years. Let's go down memory lane with some fun quotes

#Zelda
#TheLegendOfZeldaQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #TezukaQuote, #NakagoQuote, #KondoQuote

PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 72. Creator of Zelda & Mario. Producer & Director of Super Mario Bros.. - Takashi Tezuka, age 64. Co-creator of Zelda. Assistant Director of Super Mario Bros.. QUOTE: Miyamoto: At the end of making a game, we have a debug process, and we left 10 bytes of memory for that [for Super Mario Bros.] Once we confirmed there were no bugs, we wondered what we could do to maximize what little we had left. Fun things, like, "Well, we can put in five more coins, so where should they go?” Tezuka: We couldn't just freely decide where to put pipes on each screen, and each course is made of multiple screens. Distinguishing between pipes you can enter and pipes you can’t uses memory, so we made if so that pipes placed in specific locations can always be entered. So we crafted the courses well, so players couldn't tell we had these restrictions.

Miyamoto & Tezuka on using leftover memory for Super Mario Bros., 2025.

Source: Nintendo Museum

#SuperMarioBrosQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #TezukaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/29a41fe961fd...

PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 72. Producer and Director of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. - Toshihiko Nakago, age 68. Lead Programmer of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. - Takashi Tezuka, age 64. Assistant Director of Super Mario Bros., Director of The Legend of Zelda. QUOTE: Miyamoto: Though Nakago-san is a programmer, I invited him to planning meetings [for Super Mario Bros.] with us. Aside from the music, it was the three of us for the most part. We did anything and everything we could. Nakago: When working on the programming, I even brought in Miyamoto-san and the others to devise how to structure the game data. We've always been involved in all sorts of things. Miyamoto: … It was my job to present game ideas that can be conveyed to programmers, and even before Super Marlo Bros., Nakago-san would get mad at me. It felt like he was my editor or something, saying, “If you continue doing this, it’s never gonna get done!” [Laughs]

Nakago & Miyamoto on collaborating as director and programmer in the 80s, 2025.

Source: Nintendo Museum

#SuperMarioBrosQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #NakagoQuote, #TezukaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/29a41fe961fd...

PEOPLE: - Masanobu Sato. Art Director of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. - Takashi Tezuka, age 62. Director of the first four Zelda games, Producer of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. QUOTE: Sato: That reminds me, I wrote down some of the things that Tezuka-san said during development [of Super Mario Bros. Wonder] on sticky notes and kept them on my desk. I brought them with me today. Tezuka: Really? [Laughs] Notes: - ”Use the concept of multiplication to expand ideas and create.” - ”Don’t try to do it all alone.” - ”Different people find different things fun.” - ”Don’t simply replace things. Change the entire approach—new inspirations!”

Sato on writing down some of what Tezuka said during development of Mario Wonder, 2023.

Source: Ask the Developer

#SuperMarioBrosWonderQuote
#SatoQuote, #TezukaQuote

www.notion.so/321b536b1fee...

PEOPLE: - Toshihiko Nakago, age 52. The Legend of Zelda (1986) Programmer. - Takashi Tezuka, age 49. Co-Director of The Legend of Zelda (1986). - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 57. Producer & Co-Director of The Legend of Zelda (1986). QUOTE: "Nakago: And this is the first land map for Zelda. Back then we had some long paper, and Tezuka-san and Miyamoto-san would sit side by side and draw together. You drew the stuff on the left, Tezuka-san, and the right side is Miyamoto-san’s. If you look closely, you can tell how 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! Aonuma: Yeah, the left and right sides do look different. Tezuka: They really are different somehow."

A small image of a black and white pencil drawing of the Zelda 1 map. It is remarkably close to how the final map ended up. You can tell that it was drawn in slightly different styles on the right vs the left side of the map.

It's the 39th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda!

Nakago on the first draft of Zelda 1's map, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#Zelda
#TheLegendofZeldaQuote
#NakagoQuote, #TezukaQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.notion.so/fe5e8d856abc...

PEOPLE: - Takashi Tezuka, age 48. Assistant Director of Super Mario Bros., co-director of The Legend of Zelda. - Toshihiko Nakago, age 52. Programmer for Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Director & Producer of of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. QUOTE: "Iwata: Now the two of you have lunch with Miyamoto-san on a more or less daily basis. I sometimes join you, which means that we've spent a lot of time together. But this is the first time we've ever spoken in this kind of formal setting. … You know, I always got the sense that you were suspicious that there was some kind of ulterior motive behind these interviews. [laughs] Tezuka: Well, I always thought it would be better to stay out of them. [laughs] Iwata: [laughs] Well, I asked you to join me for this interview because I felt that it was impossible to discuss the history of Mario without reference to the triangle formed by Miyamoto-san, Tezuka-san and Nakago-san."

Iwata on Nakago & Tezuka's relationship with Miyamoto , 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#TezukaQuote, #NakagoQuote, #MiyamotoQuote, #IwataQuote

www.notion.so/01d01475fc47...

PEOPLE: - Takashi Tezuka, age 56. A Link to the Past Game Director. QUOTE: "Tezuka: In the midst of a forest … the sword stood waiting for someone worthy of wielding it to arrive. Link draws the sword out as the light trickles through the leaves. ... Our main aim was to show the birth of a hero in a scene fitting of The Legend Of Zelda, and overlap this with a sense of achievement for the player that they have been recognized as a hero after having overcome many challenges. What we had decided on from the start was that Link would first become a hero in the Light World and defeat the first boss. From that point is when his battle to defeat the real enemy, Ganon, in the Dark World begins."

Linktober #15: Sword

Tezuka and the rise of the hero in A Link to the Past, 2017.
Source: Retro Gamer Magazine

#Zelda
#ALinktothePastQuote
#TezukaQuote
#Linktober

www.notion.so/80c7fe972be2...

PEOPLE: - Takashi Tezuka, age 49. Director of Link’s Awakening. QUOTE: "Tezuka: I remember that we made Link's Awakening in a real peculiar frame of mind. We began in the free spirit of an afterschool club, so the contents are quite unrestrained. If you look at it, you can tell. Characters similar to Mario and Luigi appear, and Yoshi dolls appear, too. It was for the Game Boy system, so we thought, ‘Oh, it'll be fine.’ [laughs] … We moved along at quite a good clip in a relatively freewheeling manner. Maybe that's why we had so much fun making it. It was like we were making a parody of The Legend of Zelda."

In honor of Link's Awakening's 31st anniversary today:

Tezuka on the team's frame of mind while developing Link's Awakening, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#Zelda
#LinksAwakeningQuote
#TezukaQuote

www.notion.so/ec1e46301023...

PEOPLE: - Takashi Tezuka, age 62. Director of the first four Zelda games. Producer of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. . - Koichi Hayashida, age 54. Game Designer on Super Mario Bros. Wonder. . QUOTE: "Tezuka: Remote work may have also had a major impact [on Super Mario Bros. Wonder]. Since meetings now took place online, we no longer had to limit the number of participants due to limited space in meeting rooms, so we made it a rule to open meetings to the entire development team so that anyone could join at any time. Hayashida: We let members join online meetings without turning on their cameras so that they could just listen in while multitasking. … Of course, there were difficulties developing a game in an unfamiliar, work-from-home environment, but we were able to take advantage of the situation and work on new approaches."

Tezuka & Hayashida on remote work's impact on meetings for Mario Wonder, 2023.

Via Ask the Developer.

#SuperMarioBrosWonderQuote
#TezukaQuote, #HayashidaQuote

www.notion.so/321b536b1fee...

PEOPLE: - Koji Kondo, age 62. Original Zelda composer. Sound for Super Mario Bros. (1985), Sound Director for Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023). - Takashi Tezuka, age 62. Co-creator of Zelda. Assistant Director of Super Mario Bros. (1985), Producer of Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023). QUOTE: "Kondo: There was mention of Tezuka-san ‘asking the impossible’ [during Super Mario Bros. Wonder development]. I felt like there might have been a disparity between the world of Mario that Tezuka-san and I envisioned and the world of Mario that the rest of the team had in mind. … For the development staff who grew up playing Mario games, they see the world depicted in those games as the world of Mario. And they try to carry that over to future games. But the world of Mario that Tezuka-san and I think of is actually much broader, and we're allowed to incorporate anything we think would be fun. So maybe that's why they thought we were ‘asking the impossible.’"

Kondo on how he and Tezuka see a broader definition of "Mario" than the younger developers.

Via Ask the Developer, 2023.

#Mario
#SuperMarioBrosWonderQuote
#KondoQuote, #TezukaQuote

hyruleinterviews.notion.site/Ask-the-Deve...

PEOPLE: - Koichi Hayashida. Game Designer on Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Shiro Mouri. Sub-Director of A Link Between Worlds, Director of Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Takashi Tezuka. Co-Creator of the Zelda series, Producer of Super Mario Bros. Wonder QUOTE: "Q: Did you have a clear direction of what you wanted to achieve? Hayashida: Tezuka-san gave us the task of creating a Mario game full of hidden surprises and wonders. Mouri: When I think back to the first time I played the original Super Mario Bros. game, I remember feeling that it was full of hidden surprises and wonders. Coins would come out when you hit the blocks, and your body would grow bigger with Super Mushrooms. Back then, everything was new and packed with unexpected delights. However, now … those things have somehow become ordinary. Hayashida: … What used to be wondrous back then is no longer wondrous today, neither for players nor for us developers."

Hayashida & Mouri on the direction they received from Tezuka for Mario Wonder.

Via Ask the Developer, 2023.

#Mario
#SuperMarioBrosWonderQuote
#HayashidaQuote, #MouriQuote, #TezukaQuote

hyruleinterviews.notion.site/Ask-the-Deve...