History: The Legend Of Zelda

I have been working on translating The Legend of Zelda to Lojban. This page holds a copy of my notes while working on it.

General notes on the encoding. VRAM loading is done by one routine, which is given an address and does the following:

1. If the byte at the address has the high-bit set, we're done. Return.
2. Otherwise, read two bytes from that address, this is the address (big-endian) in VRAM that the data should be written to.
3. Read the next byte. If high bit (bit 7) is set, set the Inc32 bit of $2000. If bit 6 is set, perform RLE. (Explained below.) The remaining six bits are the length.
4. If performing RLE, read the next byte, write it length times, then go to 1.
5. Otherwise, read the next byte.
6. *There's something here with line-reseting and the higher bits. I'm not fully sure about it though.*
7. Write this byte.
8. Decrement length.
9. If length is not zero, go to 5.
10. Go to 1.

I do my romhacking with hexpose. It's pretty simple, but it does the job. I also used a disassembler at some point to figure out some of the above, but I ended up just gleaning it from various sources and how the data itself works.

Title screen is in the vicinity of 0x1AAEA

Due to the nature of the loading routine, I can translate such that things take up less space, but I can't make them take more. That is, unless I can find where the reference addresses are stored. Hopefully, this won't cause too many issues.

~/pp~ In-game text $405C-$45B1:
(Lengths include * ending marker)
E9=Exclaim
EC=Period
E4=Space?
(Regular letter & $C0)
$405C 43 Bytes
-
IT'S DANGEROUS TO GO
ALONE! TAKE THIS.
-
.O'I DO PO'O KLAMA
I KO CPACU TI
-

$4087 42 Bytes
-
MASTER USING IT AND
YOU CAN HAVE THIS.
-
DO KA'E PONSE TI GI'O
CERTU LOZU'O PILNO
-
$40B1 25 Bytes
-
TAKE ANY ROAD YOU WANT.
-
KO KLAMA FO LE SELDJICA
-

$40C9 42 Bytes
-
SECRET IS IN THE TREE
AT THE DEAD-END.
-
MIPRI NE'I LE TRICU
BEVI LE SE PLUTA
-

$40F3 34 Bytes
-
LET'S PLAY MONEY
MAKING GAME.
-
.E'U MI'O KELCI
LEZU'O JDINI CPACU
-

$4115 41 Bytes
-
PAY ME FOR THE DOOR
REPAIR CHARGE.
-

KO PLEJI FI MI
LONU CIKRE LE VORME
-

$413D 36 Bytes
-
SHOW THIS TO THE
OLD WOMAN.
-
KO JARCO TU'A TI
LE TOLCI'O NINMU
-

$4162 39 Bytes
-
MEET THE OLD MAN
AT THE GRAVE.
-
KO PENMI LE TOLCI'O NANMU
LE MORSI STUZI
-

$4189 30 Bytes
-
BUY MEDICINE BEFORE
YOU GO.
-
KO TE VECNU LO VE MIKCE
PU LONU KLAMA
-

$41A7 23 Bytes
-
PAY ME AND I'LL TALK.
-
KO PLIJE MI POI TAVLA
-
(I really don't like the above, but it's space-restricted.)

$41BE 34 Bytes
-
THIS AIN'T ENOUGH
TO TALK.
-
KO ZMADU PLIJE
-

$41E2
-
GO UP,UP,
THE MOUNTAIN AHEAD.
-

$4208
-
GO NORTH,WEST,SOUTH,
WEST TO THE FOREST
OF MAZE.
-

1. For some reason, the T in FOREST is anded with $40 instead of $80.

$423C
-
BOY, YOU'RE RICH!
-
.UE DO RICFU
-
$4151
-
BUY SOMETHIN' WILL YA!
-

$4268
-
BOY, THIS IS
REAL EXPENSIVE!
-

$428D
-
TAKE ANY ONE YOU WANT.
-

$42A4
-
IT'S A SECRET
TO EVERYBODY.
-

$42C8
-
GRUMBLE, GRUMBLE...
-

$42DD
-
EASTMOST PENNINSULA
IS THE SECRET.
-

$4305
-
DODONGO DISLIKES SMOKE.
-

$431D
-
DID YOU GET THE SWORD
FROM THE OLD MAN ON
TOP OF THE WATERFALL?
-

$435D
-
WALK INTO THE
WATERFALL.
-

$4380
-
SECRET POWER IS SAID
TO BE IN THE ARROW.
-

$43AC
-
DIGDOGGER HATES
CERTAIN KIND OF SOUND.
-

$43D6
-
I BET YOU'D LIKE
TO HAVE MORE BOMBS.
-

$4400
-
IF YOU GO IN THE
DIRECTION OF THE ARROW.
-

$442C
-
LEAVE YOUR LIFE
OR MONEY.
-

$444F
-
THERE ARE SECRETS WHERE
FAIRIES DON'T LIVE.
-

All of Treasures $91AB-$94BC
Main menu is around 9D58
"ZELDA" appears at 9EFB for some reason

A969:
-
THANKS LINK,YOU'RE
?THE HERO OF HYRULE*
-

AB17 has some more endgame stuff
Credits at AC6F
AD45:
ANOTHER QUEST WILL START(AB)FROM HERE PRESS THE START BUTTON
YOU ARE GREAT
YOU HVE AN AMAZING WISDOM AND POWER
END OF "THE LEGEND OF ZELDA"

More main menu at 1A15C
1A2CB has death menu stuff
1A329 looks to have the pause menu stuff

story notes
E6 = Corner
E4/E5 = top/bottom border

colors: green = 11, red = 10, white = 00, also white = 01?

AABBCCDD

BA
DC

++--+++--+++--+++--+++--++--+

|11 11|11 11|00 00|00 00|00 00|00 00|11 11|11 11|
|11 11|11 11|00 00|00 00|00 00|00 00|11 11|11 11|

++--+++--+++--+++--+++--++--+

|11 11|00 00|00 00|00 00|00 00|00 00|00 00|11 11|
|11 11|11 10|10 10|10 10|10 10|10 10|10 11|11 11|

++--+++--+++--+++--+++--++--+

|11 11|00 00|00 00|00 01|
|11 11|00 00|00 00|10 10|

++--+++--+++--+++--+++--++--+

Visible story screen runs from 1A454 to 1A827

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA
LE LISRI PE LA ZELDAS

MANY YEARS AGO PRINCE
DARKNESS GANNON STOLE
ONE OF THE TRIFORCE WITH
POWER PRINCESS ZELDA
HAD ONE OF THE TRIFORCE
WITH WISDOM SHE DIVIDED
IT INTO 8 UNITS TO HIDE
IT FROM GANNON BEFORE
SHE WAS CAPTURED

GO FIND THE 8 UNITS
LINK TO SAVE HER
-----------|
LE PALCI PO'U LA GANYN
PUKI ZERLE'A LE CIBMAKFA
PE LOKA TSALI I LE NOBLI
PO'U LA ZELDAS PONSE LE
CIBMAKFA PE LOKA PRIJE
I ZY FENDI FI BI SPISA
TEZU'E LENU MIPRI FI GY
KEI PU LENU ZY SELKAVBU

DOI LINK KO CPACU
LE BI SPISA
TEZU'E LONU NURGAU ZY

2109 " CMENE "
2112 " NI KANRO "
22A7 "CFARI TADJI"
22E7 "VIMCU TADJI"

REGISTER YOUR NAME
CUXNA LE DO CMENE
ELIMINATION MODE
VIMCU TADJI
-LIFE-
NI KANRO

USE B BUTTON
FOR THIS
KO PILNO BY

2984