Prerelease:The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Game Boy)

This page details pre-release information and/or media for The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Game Boy).

To do: Development info Check if the EGM and Player One previews differ from the known versions. Screenshots at the bottom of this page 1 Whole new screenshot!

Link's Awakening

Development Timeline

1991

• November 21 - Zelda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Triforce is released in Japan.
• November 26 - A file in Arimoto's directory with graphics for a Game Boy version of A Link to the Past is last modified.

1992

• August 9 - A file in Arimoto's directory with graphics for Moldorm, Facade, and Genie is last modified, suggesting the game may have been reimagined as a standalone Zelda title around this point.

1993

• January 7-10 - An early build of the game is featured as a playable demo at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
• June 6 - Zelda no Densetsu: Yume o Miru Shima is released in Japan.
• August 5 - Link's Awakening is released in the US.
• November 18 - Link's Awakening is released in Europe.

January 1993

From the January 1993 issue of Nintendo Power.

Pre-release	Final

The minimap has a similar layout to the one from A Link to the Past, indicating that these shots are from when the game was being developed as a Game Boy version of ALttP. Internal material leaked in 2020 included most of this overworld's layout.

Development Leak	Pre-release	Proto	Final

A shot of the Eastern Palace on the ALttP-style overworld, later repurposed as the entrance to the Face Shrine and Southern Face Shrine.

Pre-release	Final

Moldorm's boss room has a different layout with no northern exit, suggesting that dungeon clear items appeared much like in ALttP.

March 1993

These photos were published in the French magazine Bannzai, in a section reporting on CES '93.

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Development Leak	Pre-release	Final

This is the screen directly east of the Tower of Hera on the ALttP-style overworld, with three small 16×16-wide gaps on the bridge. A similar area is present in Tal Tal Mountain Range in the final.

The HUD font is more square and "high-tech", while the hearts have lighting applied to them. Notably, Link's stats and equipment are identical to the final's precomposed savegame, also seen in some of the below shots.

Pre-release	Final

Appears to be the northeast portion of the graveyard east of the Sanctuary on the ALttP-style overworld, which was not among the leaked assets, except for the graves and a plant tile, which do appear in one of the July 2020 leak's spritesheets.

Development Leak	Pre-release Scan

A screen from the Lost Woods portion of the ALttP-style map.

Pre-release	Final

It looks like the Owl lands in a different position and doesn't fly away, allowing Link to be closer. Interestingly, this area doesn't seem to be on the ALttP-style overworld, suggesting that the map was in the process of being changed at this point.

Bosses

Pre-release	Final

Angler Fish's boss room is a bit different: the rocks are stacked lower than in the final, the bricks on the left side go a little farther down at this point, the right side has no bricks at all, and there's no skull at the bottom.

Pre-release	Final

Hot Head's boss room is different: one door is on the east wall instead of the top, and the ground tiles that would be near that door are not yet present. The floor tiles also have a slightly different design, as does the Magic Rod (especially at the top). The walls are the same ones used in most other dungeons, indicating that the final Turtle Rock's unique tileset wasn't implemented yet.

April 1993

To do: Add screenshots from this month's issue of Nintendo Power.

Close to the final, except the egg on the title screen and Link in the opening cutscene have different designs.

May 1993

To do: Add the rest of the screenshots from this month's issue of Nintendo Power.

From the May 1993 issue of Nintendo Power.

Later Early Map

Pre-release	Final

Much closer to the final version, but still not quite there.

• Rivers are not on the map.
• The northwest corner of Mabe Village is represented on the map as a tree, instead of a small house surrounded by fields. There is an additional house to the east of the village.
• Toronbo Shores received more sand dunes in the final game. Sale's House 'o Bananas is not on the map at this point.
• The mountains are darker and protrude southward. In the final game, they all stay at the top of the map in a neat little row.
• Mr. Write's house is missing.
• The dead tree graphic hasn't been drawn yet and uses the same tree icons as the Mysterious Forest as what is presumably a placeholder.
• The north part of Ukuku Prairie is entirely flat in the early map. Some elevation was added for the final game.
• The lake in Ukuku Prairie near the Key Cavern had a tile removed from the top-left. A second lake to its southwest was completely removed.
• Kanalet Castle was redrawn.
• Animal Village is drawn on the map as one large house instead of several small ones. The pond south of it shrunk for the final game.
• The River Rapids are larger.
• Both Face Shrines are the same size and appear to both be on elevated ground.
• A house was removed from the cape in Martha's Bay and added to the southern coast. It's possible this was the original location of the Ghost's house.
• Martha's Bay is larger and its mouth was redrawn for the final game. There interestingly appears to be another structure of unknown purpose on the screen east of Catfish's Maw.

Inventory Screen

Pre-release	Final

From top to bottom, starting with Link's A- and B-button items:

• The font is now the final style, although the hearts still have their early appearance.
• There are only ten hearts while all the Sirens' Instruments are present. This is impossible in the final version since the player is forced to get an additional Heart Container before getting every Instrument, which would result in having at least eleven hearts.
• Bombs and Bow uses are more than the maximum of those in the final version, which are 60.
• The Magic Rod, still using its odd early design, is present in the inventory with a Level-1 Shield and a Level-1 Power Bracelet. This is impossible in the final version without glitching or sequence breaking.
• The Magic Rod has a limited number of uses (possibly a primitive implementation of a magic meter?), while it does not in both the Hot Head picture above and the final.
• The Yoshi Doll is thinner.
• There is a strange striped oblong item next to the Yoshi Doll, which isn't present in the final but seems to vaguely resemble the Stone Slab Fragment.
• A Guardian Acorn is present. In the final, it and the Piece of Power are not shown in the inventory.
• Link can hold more than one bottle of Secret Medicine, similar to the ability to have multiple faeries in A Link to the Past, which could've been helpful with difficult dungeons or bosses.
• There is no room to display the Secret Seashells, which suggests that they have not yet been introduced.
• Only four keys are present. The area where the Face Key and Angler's Key would be is instead filled by an unusual key resembling a skull.
• Link has both a Golden Leaf and the Slime Key. In the final, the player must collect all five of the former to get the latter, which replaces the Leaf on the inventory screen.
• The Wind Marimba is absent. In its place is a pair of cymbals.
• The Full Moon Cello and Coral Triangle are shown as the sixth and first dungeons' Instruments, respectively. They swapped positions for the final.

Trendy Game

Pre-release	Final

Fairly close to the final version:

• The strange striped oblong object is in place of one of the rupees.
• The heart swapped places with the Yoshi Doll, making the latter much easier to win in the final.

Witch's Hut

Pre-release	Final

Very different from the final:

• The mouse, drawer, and bed aren't present at this point.
• The torch on the left was replaced by a crate.
• There are torches surrounding the left and right walls. In the final, they have been replaced by pots and the other decoration.
• The floor tiles around the Witch are arranged differently.
• The torch holder design pattern is different.

Mysterious Woods

While only a few sections of the woods are shown, some have been hardly modified for the final while others are vastly different:

Pre-release	Final

• The southern path was shifted left one tile and expanded to the left by two more tiles.
• The ground leaves on the western path are flipped, as can also be seen in the shots below.

Pre-release	Final

• The area south of the Tail Key has more paths, with sections leading west and east rather than only north and south.
• The second column of wall tiles is one tile thicker, and the seventh and eighth rows of wall tiles are much shorter in the final.
• The bottom-left corner of the area has a tree.

Pre-release	Final

• The chest containing the Tail Key was moved up two tiles along with the bushes surrounding it, likely to block players who hadn't collected the sword from passing or opening the chest.
• There is a Moblin in this area that isn't present in the final.
• This is from the precomposed savegame, as having that many hearts without the Tail Key is impossible.

Mabe Village

Pre-release	Final

Pre-release (reconstruction)	Final

• The Weather Vane has a different design: it looks more natural and lacks the tail rotor present in the final.
• A tree is cleared on the western side, allowing passage to the screen south of where the fisherman's minigame is in the final game.
• Marin is facing east, which she never does in the final on this screen.

Tail Cave

Pre-release	Final

• The room design is much different, with a backwards L-shaped hole layout in the middle.
• The Mini-Moldorm in the prototype was replaced with a Keese, and a Blade Trap has been added to the upper-left corner of the room.
• The hole, block, and torch near the Blade Trap don't exist at this point.
• A hole has been added on the right side.

Pre-release	Final

• There is an additional Spark.

Bottle Grotto

Pre-release	Final

• The entrance to the south is only one tile wide at this point. It appears to have been a locked door.
• The fence was replaced with two large immobile blocks.
• The tile the key appears on has a different pattern.
• The torch near the tile for the key and by the south entrance were removed in the final.

June 1993

To do: Add screenshots from this month's issue of Nintendo Power.

• The screenshots still seem to be from an early build despite the game having been released in Japan on June 6.
• Eagle's Tower is completely different and uses the tileset used for the Tower of Hera on the ALttP-based map.
• The screen where you get your sword is missing a cliff structure in the bottom-left, and the top ones are different.
• The miniboss rooms for Master Stalfos don't have blocks indicating the order you fight him in.

Unknown

All of the below screenshots date to sometime after the May 1993 ones, since they have the final heart design in the HUD.

Removed Dialogue

Marin never says this in the final, the line is not in the final script, and indeed the words "unfortunately" and "empty" don't appear in the final script at all. It is unclear what she is referring to.

This picture is present in the original game's manual.

North

Pre-release	Final

The screen northeast of Mr. Write's house has a different bush arrangement and is missing the tree on the top-left corner. This picture is present on the back cover of the Japanese mono version.

Magic Rod

In the final it's impossible to have the Magic Rod while fighting the Hinox in the Bottle Grotto without glitching or using cheat codes. However, this doesn't necessarily indicate a pre-release build since this situation can be achieved through using the precomposed savegame.

This picture is present on the back cover of the US mono version.

German Advert

Advert	Final

• An odd version of the title screen from German Power Play, Issue 11/1993. Part of the title screen, including most of the Wind Fish's Egg, appears to have mistakenly been erased and then redrawn (rather ineptly) by hand.

EGM Preview

A preview found in Issue #044.

Pre-release	Final

• Ocarina song icons are all different: Marin is almost the same, a fox is shown as song III, and a frog is in slot II.
• Magic Rod still has a limited number of shots instead of being infinite.
• Cello and Triangle instrument slots have been swapped.
• There is a Level 0 shield. It's possible to obtain this in the final by using the screen warp trick to collect the sword on another screen, at which point returning to the normal sword screen will allow you to collect the L-0 shield there instead.
• It appears to show six Potions.
• The xylophone instrument is instead two cymbals.
• The inventory has a Guardian Acorn, which is a temporary pickup in the final version.

Pre-release	Final

The Magic Rod was originally called the Magic Wand.

Development Leak	Pre-release

Pre-release	Final

Player One Preview

A preview from Issue #028, March 1993.

Videos

CES Demo

To do: Research this demo and try to find more information, footage, and screenshots. Might clip out just the footage for Link's Awakening from the videos. Could this build of the game have been at any other events besides CES?

A demo of the game was playable at the Winter 1993 Consumer Electronics Show. According to Sega Retro, the event was held in Las Vegas from January 7-10, 1993. The demo features an early build.

Footage starts at 4:26.

• The right side of Mabe Village has cliffs surrounding water on the left side instead of trees.
• The Trendy Game shop isn't in its usual spot (they might not have added it yet) instead the screen has a very simillar layout to the bottom-right of Kakariko Village on the A Link to the Past-style map.
• When the camera zooms out, the Game Kiosk on the left shows the Fishing Game screen which appears to be the same as the final other than the early tileset.
• The child NPC's dialogue is different.

The game was also featured on a show called Bad Influences:

Footage starts at 8:18.

• The minimap uses the earlier one seen in a prerelease screenshot.
• The room with the 4 Keese you kill to open the doors has a door to the south.
• The bombable wall tile is made up of 2 tiles with the part you bomb being in the middle of 2 wall tiles, like the doors. It's a single tile in the final version.
• Enemies use the same sound effect as Link when falling in a pit.
• Tail Cave's music is different.

CES Demo

This was edited using AI to remove any background noise and just have the game audio. Final 300px

Link's Awakening DX

To do: Total Games Guide to Gameboy Color Issue 02 The prototype "dmzel4 : 1998-07-07" is probably a demo and the version (or very close) seen in the above magazine. The August 1998 version would be between approximately the 10th and 14th.

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Concept Art

Some concept art designs were included on page 144 of Hyrule Historia.

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

Dungeon Key

This page is titled, "ユメのイベント　（＃６ダンジョンのカギを手に入れた！）," meaning "Dream Event (You got the #6 Dungeon Key!)."

Art	Final	Text	Translation
		かぜの神殿ちかくの 大アモスを倒すと奥の とびら開く。	Once the big Armos near the Wind Temple is defeated, the door at the back opens.
		柱の上にカギがある ← ガレキでもよい	There's a key on top of the pillar. ← Or found in the rubble
		ブーツダッシュで 体あたりすると、 カギがおちてくる。 カギ入手。	When you ram the pillar with a boot dash, ← Or use bombs the key falls down. Obtain the key.
		柱もこわせる。 こわれた所から、 クジラのレリーフが あらわれる。	You can break the pillar too. A carving depicting a whale appears from the broken area.
		カギを取ったら MS「？ カベに えが ほってある」	Once key is obtained, MS: "? There's a picture carved into the wall."
		描き込みの絵	Picture Drawn in Detail
		クジラとフクロウ のレリーフ	Owl and Whale Relief

Opening

Art	Final	Text	Translation
		このカットは最後に回す	This cut plays last
		・南の海 ・高波と黒雲 ・イナズマが走る 　（画面ネガポジ反転） 画面■■■PAN	・Southern sea ・High waves and dark clouds ・Lightning streaks (Screen inverts between negative and positive) Screen ■■■ pan
		波にもまれる 小船	A small boat tossed around by waves
		波にうたれる リンク [...]	Link battered by waves He holds on desperately
		[...] リンク 画面ネガポジ 反転	Link is startled Screen inverts between negative and positive

Boss

This page is titled, "ボス敵（案）," meaning "(Boss Enemy (Draft)."

Art	Final	Text	Translation
		でか石像	Big stone statue
		頭になげこめ	Throw onto head
		パンチが基本攻撃	Basic attack is a punch
		（弱点）	(Weak Point)
		（ハンマくいが いいかな 矢がきかないし）	(Maybe a stake for the hammer? Arrows have no effect.)
		しばくぞ おりゃ	I'll strike you down! Hrragh!
		問題 1人プレーを どうするかな？	Problem: What are we gonna do about 1P mode?
		横からみると こんなかんじになってます	Looks like this from the side.

Dodongo Snake

Art	Final	Text	Translation
		口の中に爆弾を 投げこむとダメージを あたえられる	Can be damaged by tossing a bomb into its mouth
		動きは (cross arrow) のみで、 ゆっくりです	Movement is (cross arrow) only and slow
		基本は旧作ドドンコといっしょです	Basically identical to the Dodongos in the previous game(s)
		1. のこのこやってきたところ [...]まえにたち、爆弾を おく。	1. Approach casually, stand in front of it, and place a bomb.
		2. うまくいったら移動を やめる	2. If all goes well, it stops moving.
		3. すこし間をあけて ふくらみます	3. Leave a bit of space, as it expands.
		くりかえし	Repeat.
		コーナーまがるのに 多少 妙にみえるかも しれません。	It might look a little weird turning corners.

Moldorm

This page is titled, "デグテール（改）," meaning "Moldorm (Revised)"

Art	Final	Text	Translation
		（・他の敵につかえたほうがいいよなぁ～。）	(If only we could've used this for another enemy...)
		ルピーがつながってる！！（しかも弱点じゃない のだ！）	A Rupee is connected!! (And it's not a weak point!)
		体色は緑色にします	Make the body green.
		さりげなく ルピーも つながっています	A Rupee just happens to be connected.
		（緑ルピー）	(Green Rupee)
		ここをきると ルピーが でます	Slash here and Rupees come out.
		ふつうに 弱点。	Usually a weak point.
		ゴゴゴゴゴゴ どこのガキじゃ	Rumble Rumble Where are you, kid?
		・ただし、ルピーをきると、 体色が緑→青、 一定時間速度が上がります。 しばらくすると体色が緑にかわり、もとの速度にもどります。	However, when you slash the Rupee, its body changes from green to blue, and it speeds up after a certain amount of time. After a while, it turns green again, and returns to its original speed.
		＠速度がUPした状態でさらに ルピー（体色にあわせた紫ルピー） をきると、 「青ルピー」がでます…が、今度は体色が赤色になってきてさらに 速度アップします。（さらにルピーをきると…↓）	(Blue Rupee matches the color of the body) If you keep slashing the Rupee while it's moving fast, Blue Rupees come out... But when the Rupee (on its body) turns red, it moves even faster. (If you keep slashing at the Rupee...)
		ギアチェンジ します	It changes gear.

Side-Scrolling Obstacles

Art	Final	Text	Translation
		大小2つあります	There are two, a big one and a small one.
		小	Small
		りんくがリフトにのっかると	Link gets on the lift
		おもみでリフトがさがる （おじゃま板）が上がる	It drops with his weight, and the rod lifts up.
		そんで■■■■	Now he can pass.
		りんく、リフトにのります	Link gets on the lift
		でも<おじゃま大>は ■■■■って上にあが りません	But the large obstacle fights to stay put.
		石像をかついで リフトに のると、上がります	Link gets on the lift carrying a stone statue, and it goes up.

Soldier

Art	Final	Text	Translation
		1. リンクをサーチしますが移動は ゆっくりです（リンクがいないかぎり）	1. Searches for Link, but moves slowly. (Much slower than Link.)
		やっぱしサーチ ぜんぽうがいいや！！	It'd be better if it didn't search!
		2. 一定の距離にリンクが はいると	2. When Link gets within one step of it...
		3. 回転ぎりをします	3. It performs a spin attack.
		すこし、予告の意味もこめて ふりかぶってから回転します。	It holds out its sword, as if to warn anything in its path, it turns in a circle.
		ブーン	Boom
		さっと身をひく	Dodge quickly
		ぐあっ！	Gwah!!
		やぁ	Hyaah!
		そんでもって きりつける	Then slash