[TAS] NES The Legend of Zelda by Lord Tom in

This is a tool-assisted speedrun. For more information, see tasvideos.org/3232M
TAS originally published on 2016-10-09
The Legend of Zelda (ゼルダの伝説) is an adventure game that needs no introduction to most NES players. It is a large game that normally takes days to beat, but at TASVideos, we often reduce games to the minimum time necessary in order to complete them. It's a secret to everybody.
This is the seventh iteration of this TAS, 20.6 seconds faster than the previous run ( tasvideos.org/1685M ). The improvements are largely due to better luck manipulation and some major route changes that lead to Link staying away from gambling. For more details, read the submission comments or the author's subtitles on the encodes.
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The encodes feature commentary by the author as soft subtitles.
This run was console verified using micro500's TASLink replay device ( • TASBot plays Legend of... ) (with 1 frame per latch poll).
This movie has a full Atlas Map encode ( • Legend of Zelda (Any% ... ), which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.

[@ProtoMario]

Usually one of the more annoying parts of runs is a lengthy title screen but here it's less than 2 seconds.

[@TonyPerez816]

Holy Shit... I don't even know where to begin- Like all 80s kids, I played the shit out of this game. I eventually beat it after MONTHS of spending hours per day on it, and I was really never a "Video Game Person". But this one really drew me in. It was so fun, frustrating, and entertaining at the same time. It was also so exciting to find a new screen, beat a level, get a new weapon, or find a "trick", a hidden cave, burned bush, or an old man that gave you 100 "Coins" or whatever they were called. But MY GOD! Only now do I realize how very little I knew about the game. Watching this video absolutely stunned me. I can't believe how much extraneous work I spent literally hundreds of hours on. Like finding every single extra heart, engaging every single "bad guy" in hopes of more heart power, coins, or bombs, finding every cave, etc. I had no idea that the back and forth between two screens thing worked so many times. I know of like a couple of them, but they are literally everywhere! I am still stunned 20 minute after watching this... Dude only had 3 hearts and the basic sword and only bothered with the bare minimum of extra weapons/items that can be collected, and just made very short work of every single level. Shit, he beat the hardest levels easier than I beat the first one. haha!! I do have to admit though... every time he went underground down one ladder and up the other one, my soul died a little bit every time you let a bat hit you! Then I realize that its part of the strategy. lol... wow! I am still really shocked by what I have seen here! Anyway, Thanks for posting this! Truly a cool accomplishment to watch, and great memories of my days as a kid! cheers!

[@dr.fauci_tortured_n_killed5034]

Same here , worked so hard to beat this game in 87 or 88 and was the neighborhood pro lol this is bonkers

[@brianbarnes9635]

Yeah freaking amazing and pisses me off at the same time!

[@grantcivyt]

Not sure if you caught that this was tool-assisted (TAS), so it's a computer that's executing all those tricks. Not only did it perform tricks you and I couldn't reliably repeat, it probably did things we didn't even notice. Not to take away from the awesomeness of it. This game brings me so much happiness! 🥰

[@relic374]

@@grantcivyt I mean technically its a human playing, just with the assistance of replay, slowdown, etc and like frame inputs

[@grantcivyt]

@@relic374 Ah I see. Do you know of a good vid that shows how this works?

[@alexandarjelenic2880]

You know link is in a hurry when he doesn’t have time to pick up heart containers.

[@tatertot57]

The subtitles really added a lot to the run, and I really appreciated the time that went into them. Thanks for the run!

[@mr.pavone9719]

I was about to turn this off about 6 minutes in then I read your comment and stuck around to learn something. Go figure a TAS of Zelda video has its own Easter egg.

[@albundy9584]

All I see if this is 23 minutes on time they put in. I don’t get what y’all are talking about.... they glitched a lot.

[@stapleboy7462]

im glad i saw your comment, wouldn't have seen em otherwise appreciate it ^^

[@chickensandwich9977]

DUDE. I DIDN'T KNOW THERE WAS COMMENTARY

[@Rieper47]

My favourite part was when Link used Omnislash on the Patra

[@gayfurry5287]

MatPat: *_IS LINK CLOUD CONFERMEDDDDDDDDDDDDDD_*

[@dicemaster6518]

21:32

[@rvrmdude]

@@dicemaster6518 thanks, I had no idea what that dude was talking about.

[@kevinarmes9804]

Hahaha Yessss. Although with a wooden sword I guess he needed to make up that time.

[@Keshin4539]

"Hey Billy, what was your favorite part of the playthrough?" "Mine was the part where Link used Omnislash for a rrreeeaaaaaaalllyyyyy long time!" Lol this was a fun watch. Worth the time =-)

[@maxweII_demon]

9:33 LINK WAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!?!

[@laggianput]

Walls are just a suggestion

[@willgrellosbelts8695]

As always thank you for including commentary (cc), love to hear why you did certain things

[@vegetin01]

First Zelda 1 TAS I’ve ever seen. Geez the screen scrolls were so smooth.

[@daleh1585]

Wow. Excellent TAS! I love the absolutely excessive luck manipulation to spawn fairies all over the place. :)

[@2486badness]

Almost not possible

[@robbiewhite2351]

It’s amazing that this is only 5 mins and change faster than Lacks WR run

[@dr.fauci_tortured_n_killed5034]

That's insane isnt it!!

[@NaturalTvventy]

Who can resist a new Legend of Zelda tas??

[@brendan9734]

If I see a Lord Tom TAS, I click it no matter what the game is. He's frickin' amazing at these games.

[@DblOSmith]

Link you can't just walk above the screen on the map, GET DOWN FROM THERE.

[@SeppelSquirrel]

haha screen scroll go brrrrr

[@gayfurry5287]

**link enters room** **goes backwards** **appears in another room** People: (°o°)

[@ryaneglinton8970]

That Patra fight right before Gabon was legendary

[@SpyroTheEternalNight]

thank you SO MUCH for the extra commentary!

[@nikaluss5946]

TAS never ceases to amaze me

[@chriswinkler284]

Never seen it done THIS way. Thanks for the upload =)

[@DebrisHauler]

rage mode Link at 21:30.

[@DouglasZwick]

Yeah, it was really satisfying to see, near the end of a long run that was very light on combat, this singular moment demonstrating how deadly a TAS-controlled character can be.

[@Adino1]

Link smash.

[@matthewstone2545]

Damn, feel bad for that Patra tho xD

[@adirblazkowics7717]

"I never saw an NES Zelda TAS. I wonder how this will go." *Link proceeds to teleport from east to west via witchcraft.* I've seen everything now.

[@billykline]

Screen scrolling isn't that hard for humans to do, top runners consistently do it and anyone can learn it in an hour

[@cookingwithheadmelon9810]

Billy Kline I cant seem to do it on the right side of the screen to go west. It works on left side to go east. And block clipping works, but not ladder clipping. I am playing on nintendo classic.. any idea if it’s something with this console in particular or do I just suck?

[@cookingwithheadmelon9810]

Billy Kline I just realized ur comment was 3 months ago 🙄

[@Supermario0727]

Have you seen the second game?

[@Barbe]

Triforcecraft*

[@jonlandry3751]

I'm only 4 and a half minutes into this video and I'm already in complete awe of the skill.....!! This entire run was insanity!! Amazing...

[@dnjj1845]

The fighting is sloppy. No true skill, just taking advantage of the software and memory of the maps.

[@xxEzraBxxx]

@@dnjj1845Tbf it does take a very good understanding of a game to TAS it. It’s not talentless by any means

[@Staarkalinou]

10:30 the fight against the dungeon boss (4-headed Gleeok) with only 1 heart, also very impressive..

[@tan_nerd07]

i mean it isnt that immpressive since its a TAS run

[@xxEzraBxxx]

Tibberoni TAS is still an impressive work bc the rng manipulation, rerecords, etc.

[@fullofbullets58]

At 21:30 ganon is watching link on the surveillance going "oh fuck I'm screwed"

[@questionblock8949]

Beautiful to watch

[@npabblinpabblx4676]

Классный музон, впервые 5 минут уже сон приходит, надо будет скачать. Включать и слушая засыпать...

[@JeremyNoblitt]

It's nice to know level 8 can be treated like it's level 1.

[@huevonesunltd]

I really like the commentary and explanation, please do more of that.

[@Swampson7043]

thats not what this channel does...

[@zes7215]

wrg

[@Lusolveinians]

Watching this has me rethinking life...

[@puddingosu3326]

Wow awesome tas

[@big_red01027]

Beautiful.

[@L4NkYb]

My jaw dropped when he picked up the heart containers 😲

[@LITTLE1994]

Made a hard game look easy from a superhuman level. Insane...

[@DrewPicklesTheDark]

4:38 I love how the word "Horde" was capitalized.

[@yelir64]

Wow, Zelda is a true hero

[@Staarkalinou]

Finally to complete Level 6, Level 9 and beat the game with only 4 heart (for those who wonder, the 4th heart was take inadvertently at the end of Level 6 17:32)

[@WeAreSoup]

So that's the true power of the triforce of courage. It was all just a misunderstanding

[@chriswinkler284]

Maybe it's wordplay, but there is no Triforce of Courage. There's a Triforce of Wisdom (eight make one) and a Triforce of Power, which Gannon has.

[@BrockLee3]

Link should have taken a dump on those ashes at the end. I wonder if they would have noticed a dried up turd mixed into Ganon's ashes in the 2nd game. And, what would have happened if they poured Link's blood onto Ganon's ashes with Link's turd already mixed in. Or, would his turd have also brought Ganon back in a crappy form?

[@Onelove2000]

That was amazing

[@aarondooley6543]

That takes me back. I've had this game since it came out. They totally flipped the script. They minimized the entire funness of the game. Making it fun again. I've never seen this game this way.

[@XenoInternet]

Wow Ganon sure love posing !

[@goldwolf0606]

best fights of the entire video 😂 fucking amazing 😂1:48 3:00 3:50 3:59 whoa… 4:41 5:00 7:39 8:47 9:57 10:30 so fucking amazing here watch it again 😂 10:30 11:55 16:34 16:54 17:00 19:28 21:01 21:30 so fucking amazing here watch it again 😂 21:30 21:52 😂 epic final battle here watch it again 😂 21:52

[@riverradaok2347]

good moves link

[@alarmeinfo8130]

Incroyable !!!

[@chriswinkler284]

9:34 Link, what are you doing up there :P

[@krayziez]

Does this TAS also manipulate enemy movement as well? Seems like link gets hit in exactly the right spots to propel him in the right direction every time. also enemies tend to go exactly where link bombs so he can bomb all at once.

[@JoePeck316]

This isn't TAS, this is just Lack actually trying

[@BENNY_MAC]

8:50 he said "screw that heart dont need it" lol

[@thesterndragoon9159]

Fantastic TAS run! the only thing I don't get is how you manipulated the dark nut in Level 3 (first one you went in) into dropping a bomb. He was the first enemy you killed in the run, so there was no bomb drop tier set--was that just good run luck that he dropped a bomb?

[@edrisidelacruzdisla6169]

Según tengo entendido cuando el contador es de 0 a 0 y el 0 es el número que va después del 9, y así al ser el primer enemigo puede dar ese resultado.

[@Hohepunkt]

on that fly boss thing before ganon I imagine it just thinking "well damn how the hell is he just killing us with so much accuracy I am fucked"

[@keylappy]

God I love the chiptune

[@kiamau3358]

Half a heart - now that’s just showing off.

[@markrich7693]

Gliches can be kind of hard for me to figure out than others probably

[@D3DLYA1M]

Not gonna lie my heart was in may throat half the time. Wow

[@daiquanallen8100]

22:18 princess Zelda

[@badjazz271]

Is link moving a little faster than normal? Maybe it's just me but it appears he is walking a little faster.

[@acklord7145]

And here i am just hsppy to beat the firwt dungeon....

[@loswingman]

[@Satans_Financial_Advisor]

This TAS guy is really good. He has the most world records by farrrrr.

[@levelhumor2nd790]

Link has green eyebrows?!? How did I miss that for years?

[@marcuswhitlow548]

My inner eight-year-old still believes this is some sort of witchcraft...

[@seanmuller8774]

Can someone please explain to me the reason for listing the number of rerecords? Thanks!

[@Brycepop]

From the TAS site: The rerecord count is a tradition from the earliest days of Tool-assisted movies. While it is not a critical piece of information, users will cry foul if they don’t have access to it. It gives a rough idea as to the amount of work put into a movie.

[@seanmuller8774]

Brycepop Thanks for answering! I never understood that part of the labels on videos but now I do.

[@stevendudley5687]

Tool assisted, does that include the Game Genie? Helped me a lot with Mario Bros 1 thriugh 3.

[@xxEzraBxxx]

No, it’s just slow-down, savestates, and other things such as looking into the games memory to create a perfect run. No cheat codes

[@honestabe411]

Are there no TAS without Up+A?

[@crazyjaybe]

Is there a reason why you enter the dungeons through the Armos shortcut? Asking for a friend... His name is Level-6.........................................

[@AgeofReason]

I don't know what the hell just happened but I watched it all on 2x speed. Have those walk through things tricks always existed? I can't recall ever stumbling onto them in my youth, and I'm 41 now.

[@synthwavesmatter8466]

TAS means tool assisted, its an emulator which does things like alter framerates to allow these tricks. Many games have exploits but this is tas. The real speedruns they use hardware counsels

[@briankarcher8338]

@@synthwavesmatter8466 Yeah but screen scrolling has always "existed". It used to be considered TAS-only but speed runners got consistent at it like 7 or 8 years ago probably. You don't see speedruns without it anymore. Same for block clips. In stage four people do the block clip even with a screen being dark. You can do the screen scroll and block clip yourself with a hard wired console and some practice. Needs to be an OG hard-wired because the input needs to be running at 60 FPS - the trick requires that and as far as I know PC gamepads don't provide that level of precision.

[@rzzz5946]

I've done both screen scroll and block clip back in the day by accident, so it's always been possible.

[@LeoStaley]

how did you avoid damage against the level 8 boss? you kept walking through his heads

[@NicolasMontchery]

4:41 jackpot!

[@BluePhoenix559]

This tas took less time to beat the game than I did just beating the first two levels

[@catfrombowsersfury1654]

Zelda: link save me Link: il be there in 23 minutes Zelda: WTF

[@KrystoferKlove]

Was there a reason for 4:41? It looks like a few frames were wasted. Was it just to be silly, or was it RNG manipulation for later or something?

[@LordTom77]

The goal on that screen was to kill 4+ enemies to manipulate item drops in Level 1. When I found that killing 5 enemies dropped 5 fairies with good drops in Level 1 I kept it in for entertainment.

[@KrystoferKlove]

Thanks for the reply. I had assumed that all item drops were independent of each other.

[@LordTom77]

No, for each drop that isn't a bonus, there's a 0-9 counter that increments - the combination of the enemy type and the counter value determines the item that drops. So killing the octoroks for the fairy horde sets up not only blue rupees from the skeletons in Level 1, but also the blue rupee from the Red Leever outside Level 5. While making the run, I tried to look about 1 level ahead to make sure I'd be able to make use of rupee/bomb opportunities.

[@AgeofReason]

@@LordTom77 yeah man I don't get it.

[@goldwolf0606]

@@AgeofReason there’s a pattern to the items dropped by enemies. The dude is optimizing items received by killing what seems like random enemies. It’s actually video game genius. Dude doesn’t waste a step a rupee a bomb a sword thrust or a second in this run… it was amazing 😂

[@mucuslime]

That scuttlebug raising at 2:01...

[@EssenceofLuna]

Bombs OP

[@daiquanallen8100]

21:49 final boss ganondorf

[@xRed5433x]

9:33 - Wait, that's illegal.

[@hpholland]

Level 6 was hardest outside of Death Mountain

[@daiquanallen8100]

18:30 final level

[@FurbyGaming125]

22:31 Seesir

[@TheEaglesfan160]

This man is worthy to lift Thor's hammer lol

[@bubbykins4864]

Are you saying that the one assisted by the tools in their speedrun is strong and has small hands or that they're good at making giants get Thor to crossdress?

[@thesupergamer4190]

Normal game: explore Speedrun: GO JUST GO

[@spunkythedingo9859]

How does one benefit from entering through the secret passages to dungeons 5 and 6?

[@rzzz5946]

It skips the stomping down stairs animation.

[@spunkythedingo9859]

@@rzzz5946 oic, it's for speedrunners, got it

[@user-nv4bx3tz5u]

あなたはヒュルレの英雄です

[@kyleosler]

at 20:21 it looks like the TAS walked straight thru Patra, how does the glitch work? Looked cool.

[@Jerkwad152]

You mean 20:41? It takes the Patra's hitbox a second or two to become active. Speedrunners do that in real time pretty regularly.

[@kyleosler]

Ah, I've never seen that,on that petra. Good to know.

[@LordTom77]

It's true that the mini-Patra hitbox is not active until most of them are visible, but the effect doesn't last long enough to get all the way past, at the end you need to either sneak between the mini-Patras or hit them with the sword to get past while they're invulnerable

[@colorlessnoob2712]

ends with no rupees bombs or keys and half a heart left

[@fgiol7666]

Wall is Optional in this game

[@Nova_mmk]

9:30 the 4th dimension

[@waluigicultmember2539]

I had no idea that Zelda's dress changes based on your tunic

[@nscafe77]

The storekeepers all match too.

[@classified07]

Probably just the same color palettes.

[@goldwolf0606]

Holy fuck that was fast as hell 😂 amazing! I thought I was good at this game 😂 makes me look like an amateur 😂

[@YeahBuddy]

I’m confused. Been playing Zelda since the 80s. Your bombs appear to be dropped too far from the wall to break the walls and how do you walk through blocks?!?! Good on you if you know some hacks, but I’ve never seen them done before.

[@Ophidicus]

will stop for rupee's but not heart containers🤣🤣 like a boss

[@choo_choo1256]

I don't know if anyone has already found this, or even if it is useful, but if you push a block in a dungeon while being hit by an enemy, you can be on the same spot as the block.

[@theanimefanatic964]

I know, I’ve done this before but on the NES Challenges for the 3DS.

[@guysafari]

EPIC

[@Grzlstx]

wow

[@thgmoney]

I don't remember this game being so easy 🤔

[@secret5.]

Why did you enter level 6 like that?

[@secret5.]

Never mind i saw about the exit animation, nice optimization.

[@kevinarmes9804]

That recorder room tho... Man, I guess Lack could save time by not getting any hearts and not dying. But then he doesnt get magical sword... idk how much time it would actually save and sounds not very fun haha. Well, andI guess it wouldnt really save time. Because refill only occurs when you lose life. So you could just reset everytime you go below 3 hearts. And when you actually pick it up it only costs time if you go out of your way. So maybe only a couple spots where you could leave it. But again then no Mags (magical sword). So probably a wash anyway unless absolutely optimized run like TAS.

[@l3igl2eaper]

This game came out when I was born.

[@navichrisfy]

why?..

[@ironbowtie]

So are you the game or is it your brother or was your mom smuggling it out of Japan or something? I'm confused.

[@amazingfireboy1848]

@@ironbowtie no, he/she was born the same year the game was made.

[@ironbowtie]

@@amazingfireboy1848 Read Beau O's comment, then read my reply slowly. Maybe you'll get the joke. :)

[@amazingfireboy1848]

@@ironbowtie oh, it was a joke lol

[@spunkythedingo9859]

wow.... Reminds me of Vader killing younglings... no mercy....

[@shanoa4979]

ㅁㅊ 개쩌네...

[@adambrooks822]

12:00 kills dodongo with 1 Bomb 😂😂

[@Endy_2]

You can kill dodongos if your smoke hits them and stab them using only one bomb. Bomb doesn't go in its mouth like it also can be done.

[@tjwalker121]

He's not wrong \(- _ -)/

[@catfrombowsersfury1654]

Zelda: link come over Link: I can't im fighting ganon Zelda: my parents arnt home Link: