Zelda Universe – 25 Years In 25 Days: 1997

As you may know our great friends over at Zelda Universe have been doing a special countdown for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword offering a highly thought out article going through the many years in Zelda history and giving details on all the Zelda related events that went on during that year. This is a great idea from Zelda Universe giving fans something to read, think about and discuss each day to get our minds off of that long awaited release date!

Today they released year 1997 which for many of us had nothing special about unless you were one of the few able to play the BS Zelda games, but little did we know that Nintendo was working on the game that would change our lives forever. That’s right The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was due for a 1998 release and we were just one year away. So what exactly happened in 1997 to make it so great for Zelda? Make the jump to find out!

So what did happen in 1997? Well, if you were fortunate enough to live in Japan and had a Super Famicon with a Satellaview, you could be part of the slim minority on planet Earth to have played the BS Zelda games. First off, the ‘BS’ in the name stands for “Broadcast Satellite,” not what BS typically stands for. (The offensive term in question obviously being “Beijing Studios” since calling the games “Beijing Studios Zelda” is ignorant as they were made in Japan.) BS Zelda were re-releases/spin-offs of previous Zelda games, downloaded through the Satellaview system to be played on the Super Famicom.

BS Zelda gamers were some of the first to experience an online multiplayer component on a console. While only one person at a time could play the downloaded ROM, players’ point scores were ranked against each other, with prizes handed out to the best of the best. On the downside, the window of opportunity was very short to download the game at all. In addition, each download could only be played at predetermined periods of “Zelda time”, typically lasting one hour. Perhaps this was done so no one could rig the online scoreboards or to simply prevent the player from enjoying the games at their own convenience. In any case, I’m sure this limited download/playing time was agonizing for eager children not in control of their own schedules and family electronics.

Personally I never heard any rumors of upcoming Zelda games until the advertisement for Ocarina of Time, but as soon as I picked up the controller I was hooked and kept digging for more info on it and URA along with MM. Since that was all a year away I was still spending my days exploring the world of Hyrule and going on silly adventures with Mario on the SNES. What about you? How did 1997 go for you? Curious on how it went for the world of Hyrule? Than go check out Zelda Universe’s full article on the year by clicking the link or the banner above and don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments below. Also be sure to check out the new updates in our Skyward Sword Walkthrough and the Zelda Wiki everyone has been working on!

Source: Zelda Universe

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