Wednesday, March 22, 2023

I might be scarce for a while

  Wednesday, March 22, 2023      1 comment   Edit

Alright, I'm getting ready to travel for a major surgery and really have no idea what recovery will be like for me. I might be able to type and do some stuff pretty soon afterwards. Or... not. It really varies from person to person. So I hope it all goes well and I see everyone in 2-3ish weeks! But I don't know. I've also only posted about this a little but my mom has stage IV cancer (terminal cancer) and she is also going to be traveling for a last ditch treatment. I'm pretty worried about both of us because I have an autoimmune disorder called Addison's disease, which means my immune system already doesn't work well, and also means I'm on immunosuppressants or my body starts to shut down, and my mom is obviously at high risk because of her cancer treatments and immune system as well. So... wish us luck? I'm pretty fucking nervous for both of us. I'd wait on getting surgery until after hers but the mask mandates in hospitals is going to end, and I already use to get sick for weeks every time I had to go to a hospital, and I can't wear an N95 the whole time I'm recovering: so hearing about the end to the mandates means that this is basically my last shot to even have a shot. I'm also expecting there's a decent probability I might not see my mom again after this weekend since she has to fly long distance to a specialist center, and can't even be vaccinated because she has a history of severe adverse reactions to vaccines. (She actually tried even though she knew this, it did not go well.) So, anyway, I'm kind of a mess. 

Monday, March 20, 2023

Nintendo Power Illustration Credits

  Monday, March 20, 2023      No comments   Edit



Nintendo Power art (top) by Hiroshi Aizawa with art from a guide he did a small manga for (below)


I'm trying to figure out who all of the artist's are. As in: matched with their actual art. This is just going to be a reference sheet for me while I work on this project.


Nintendo Power Volume 1: July-August 1988

Nintendo Power Volume 2: September-October 1988
Nintendo Power Volume 3: November-December
Nintendo Power Volume 4: January-February
  • https://archive.org/details/Nintendo_Power_Issue001-Issue127/Nintendo%20Power%20Issue%20004%20January-February%201989/page/n5/mode/2up
    • Shuji Imai
    • Orange Nakamura
    • Goblin Takagi
    • Takao Watanabe
    • Hiro-Con Nagami
    • Egu Egu Eguchi
    • Tomoyuki Fukutome
    • Kazunori lihara (Kazunori Aihara?) (Pokemon artist. Would be funny if he did the AoL map)
    • Hiroshi Aizawa (Huh... what if he did the AoL Link and Item art and the LttP Item art. (the line weight and style is the same even if his shading and noses changed...) Look up Bump N Jump on page 80, looks like his style
    • Yoshimiru Hoshi and Hideaki Itoh have uncredited work in this issue
      • Who did the castle and sword art?
      • The dungeon level art
      • Who did the enemy art
      • Who did the link art on page 14
Nintendo Power Volume 5: March-April
Nintendo Power Volume 6: May-June
Nintendo Power Volume 7: July-August
Nintendo Power Volume 8: September-October
  • https://archive.org/details/Nintendo_Power_Issue001-Issue127/Nintendo%20Power%20Issue%20008%20September-October%201989/
  • US Illustration Staff:
    • Kaz Aizawa
    • Nob-Rin Takagi
    • Hiro-Con Nagami
  • Japanese Illustration Staff:
    • Hideaki Ito (Hideaki Itoh)
    • Tatsuya Terada (Katsuya Terada) -Dragon Warrior
    • Shuji Imai -Dragon Warrior
    • Orange Nakamura
    • Makikazu Ohmori
    • Hiroshi Aizawa -Might have done some of the Fester's Quest enemies, pg 39. Maybe the Bases Loaded II art, pg 85.
    • Kazunori Aihara
    • Tomoyuki Fukutome
  • Poster Art: Hige-Hige Ohmori
      • Who did the dragon warrior map
      • who did the dragon warrior border
      • who did the Willow map art, pg 61, was it Aihara? It actually has some similar tones and I could see how it could bridge the gap between the AoL map and the LA map
      • Link art, page 94. Western comic style.
Nintendo Power Volume 9: November-December
  • https://archive.org/details/Nintendo_Power_Issue001-Issue127/Nintendo%20Power%20Issue%20009%20November-December%201989/page/n3/mode/2up
    • Shuji Imai
    • Orange Nakamura
    • Makikazu Ohmori
    • Magician Sasaki
    • Kazunori Aihara
    • Tomoyuki Fukutome 福留朋之 bio COVER ART COVER ART 2
  • Poster Art: Tatsuji Kajita
      • Whomever did the willow art, pg 9, I feel like they did the AoL castle and sword art, and something else I can't place my finger on. Maybe they actually did to the LttP map but just actually spent time on it. Wow the map on page 13... is this really old Kazunori Aihara art? That would be a big evolution if so. Maybe I have this wrong. I need to look into the other people for sure. Like it's kind of stiff, I could see it more as Makikazu Ohmori art and who is Tomoyuki Fukutome... 
      • Super Off Road art, the sketchy overhead art on pg 25 looks relevant. Could be whomever did the sketchy art in the Ultima guide
      • Iron Sword Item Art looks relevant, pg 27
      • Who did the Shadowgate art pg 58
      • who did all the detailed art on pages 84-85
      • Who did the map and ramp art on page 66-67, could also be whomever did LttP level maps
Nintendo Power Volume 10: January-February
  • https://archive.org/details/Nintendo_Power_Issue001-Issue127/Nintendo%20Power%20Issue%20010%20January-February%201990/page/n3/mode/2up
  • US Illustration Staff:
    • Jim Frisino
    • Nob-Rin Takagi
    • Hiro-Con Nagami
  • Japanese Illustration Staff:
    • Shuji Imai
    • Orange Nakamura
    • Makikazu Ohmori (I still think he must have done the Willow art but idk.) Did he do the Astyanax art on page 63? Guessing he did the wild mech art on page 64
    • Magician Sasaki
    • Kazunori Aihara (I still think he must have done the Willow art but idk.) Could have done the Mario art on page 57
  • Poster Art: Yuji Kaida
  • Photography: Izumi Takada
  • Claymation: Maji Sasaki
      • who did the twin cobra art, they probably did the willow art and the AoL map

More coming soon

--------------------------------
Willow Videogame:
Info
Visual Design Masako Honma (Manashi) Yuki Kyotani (Yuki) Nagineko
Monster Design Naoya Tomita (Tom-Pon) Hironori Matsumura (Fish Man) Tall Nob (as Tall Nob)

Japanese booklet may have credits, look around.

-------------------------------

Sunday, March 19, 2023

High Res Barcode Battler Card Art and Hyrule Fantasy Envelope Art

  Sunday, March 19, 2023   ,   No comments   Edit




The Zelda collector Linksliltri4ce has been so amazing to me over the years! She just sent me all of the Barcode Battler cards, and 2 little envelopes with un-scanned images, so that we can all have incredible high res scans of some really unique and rare art! Find the Barcode Battler cards in the Link to the Past Album and the envelopes here and here. I can not thank her enough for everything she does for me and this community. Check out her site and the plushies she makes!


We are still missing an envelope with Link playing the flute. If you have it, could you send me a scan? If you want to sell or trade it, please contact Linksliltri4ce

Hyrule Fantasy Bandai Board Game Art!

  Sunday, March 19, 2023   , ,   No comments   Edit


This is a really beautiful little board game that was produced by Bandai in 1986.
While I have this, and plan to make bigger scans at a later date, I wanted to upload the art for people to enjoy and also so myself, and everyone else, can keep track of what we have and what is missing. You can find the scans in the Zelda 1 Art Album.

Amazing cleaning and editing done by: Alberto Vitali https://boardgamegeek.com/user/sbaracleto 

I did a 2nd pass on the map and cover to remove some more text.

Scanned by an anonymous donor and sent to Derrick and Bludd at https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/769070/hyrule-fantasy-total-conversion-project

If you would like to learn more, or play this game, you can find it here: https://historyofhyrule.blogspot.com/2021/09/hyrule-fantasy-board-game-fully.html

If you would like to play other pysical Zelda games, check out this link:
https://historyofhyrule.blogspot.com/2021/10/zelda-game-night-all-non-console-games.html




And here is an absolutely beautiful Hyrule Fantasy (Zelda 1) map from the same Bandai board game that I just posted. This set has incredible art. I'll make higher res scans at a later date but this was mainly cleaned by Alberto Vitali & then I did some too: flickr.com

 

Rare Art Repair: Ikeda Bookstore Hyrule Fantasy Map

  Sunday, March 19, 2023   , ,   No comments   Edit




This is a strategy guide map for the original Legend of Zelda. Olga @That_black_lynx has repaired it by patching numerous pieces together and she and I have cleaned it up. If you would like the full sized images, from 300-1200 dpi, please visit the download page for the scans on: archive.org/details/zelda_guide_loz_ikeda


Each zip has 7 versions of the map. The original cleaned image, ones with items removed, lines removed, text removed, cropped and uncropped.


池田書店 チャレンジマップ ゼルダの伝説

Ikeda Bookstore The Hyrule Fantasy The Legend of Zelda

ISBN 4-262-15501-3/C8276

April 22, 1986


Other Keywords: The Legend of Zelda, Strategy Guide, Zelda 1, Hyrule Fantasy, ゼルダの伝説, Zelda, LoZ, tLoZ, ppi, RAWS, scan, scans, high res, high rez, high resolution, Link, Impa, Ganon, Princess Zelda, Hyrule, Nintendo, NES, Famicom, Family Computer, book, videogame, Game Guide, Guide, NES, FC, Map, ファミマガ, ファミリーコンピュータ, ファミリーコンピュータ マガジン, Gaming, Nintendo, Retro, Art, Illustrations

Rare Art Repair: Adventure of Link, Link and Zelda fighting Gleeok Poster

  Sunday, March 19, 2023   , ,   No comments   Edit



An incredible restoration on this now-rare Zelda art from the 80's. Nearly extinct from the internet.


@JTaylorPro had to combine a poster & folder for the image. It's probably the best its looked since the poster was printed. The art may be from DiC prior to production of the 1989 Super Mario Bros. Show that featured the Legend of Zelda cartoon.


Big thanks to @IkhanaKingdom who sent me scans of a poster that has more image on the sides &
@MrTalida and @RupaKoopaTroopa who got the folder online/to me. All 3 of them, along with Jefferson, made this possible.


Here's a high-res version of just the folder from MrTalida: archive.org



Thanks to Super Zelda Bro for posting this officially licensed art that matches these designs from a Nintendo poster set:





High Res Scans: 1200-2400dpi Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide

  Sunday, March 19, 2023   ,   No comments   Edit


 
Read the book here. I scanned this at 1200dpi and the pages with art were scanned at 2400dpi.


The Legend of Zelda (z1) Strategy Guide
  • May 28th,1986
  • ISBN 63912-70
  • Planning & Editing: Studio Hard
    • Hideaki Oide
    • Shuichi Matsumoto
    • Takeshi Yoshikawa
  • Super Game Player
    • Hiroaki Nagata
    • Koichi Watanabe
  • Cover and Text Illustration
    • MARUDA®
    • Makoto Hidaka
  • Cover and Text Design: Hideaki Kinjo
  • To Issue: Yoshikazu Masuda
  • Issuer: Yoshikazu Ichitsuda
  • Publisher: Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha
  • Head officeL 1-7-9 Ginza, Chou-ku, Tokyo 104
  • Printing and Binding: Dainippon Printing


Other Keywords: The Legend of Zelda, Strategy Guide, Zelda 1, Hyrule Fantasy, ゼルダの伝説, Zelda, LoZ, tLoZ, ppi, RAWS, scan, scans, high res, high rez, high resolution, Link, Impa, Ganon, Princess Zelda, Hyrule, Nintendo, NES, Famicom, Family Computer, book, videogame, Game Guide, Guide, NES, FC, Map, ファミマガ, ファミリーコンピュータ, ファミリーコンピュータ マガジン, Gaming, Nintendo, Retro, Art, Illustrations

2 Years of me being back!

  Sunday, March 19, 2023   ,   No comments   Edit



It's officially been 2 years now since I have been back to working on Zelda content! If you were around in the community in the early 2000's, or even 2011ish, you may have caught my other big bursts of work, but disability and website issues built up and took me away from it all. Thank you to everyone that checked in over the years though, one day it finally clicked that I really do want to be back here working on all this with everyone else. It's been really fun being back. I can not believe how wonderful the gaming and preservation community and enthusiasts are. We have found so many cool things together, we have gotten so many more works translated, we have discovered so much lost material. All of you are so amazing and I hope even some of this has brought people even a drop of the joy it has brought me. 



I'm going to try to post more on other social media, not just twitter, and I want to try to start fixing up my actual site at some point, but for now I am just going to keep scanning to try to make sure these things aren't lost forever. We need a library for old Zelda works, there's too much left to be discovered from them, and I can't wait to see what working towards that future holds.

~Melora

Rare Art Scan: Pyramid of Power (also: WANTED!)

  Sunday, March 19, 2023   ,   No comments   Edit


This may not look like much but this is a piece of (very likely) official Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past art that only seems to be found in the 1992, number 3, issue of Famimaga (Family Computer Magazine) Thanks to @Kobun20 for id'ing the issue for me and to the collector brycecorp where I originally saw the photo.

 
I scanned it at 2400dpi


I believe it is part of the set of official art from the game manual: Such as Link being awoken from his sleep by Princess Zelda's telepathic plea, them fleeing through the sewers, Link on the cliff looking at the Tower of Hera, etc. Each issue of this magazine contains part of a walkthrough for the game. Each section starts with one of those pieces of official art. This is the only one that hasn't been seen before. So I do think it came from the same studio that did that official art and that was just never used until they needed an extra piece for this magazine spread. Cutting room floor causality, if you will. This has happened a few times, for example there was enemy art for Link to the Past that we never saw before until the Art and Artifacts artbook (the blue Daria.) The Ocarina of Time manual also has an image of Link not seen in any other publication. (In the very beginning, his face is overlaid on Ganon's boot.)


Anyway, if you see this image anywhere else, please write me right away! melorasworld@gmail.com

Official Zelda Artists: A Work in Progress

  Sunday, March 19, 2023   No comments   Edit

I'm trying to ID all of the official Zelda artists but I'm still working on this. Most of this is working speculation. If you have anything you can contribute, to help sort out who is who, please let me know on any of my socials or email: linktr.ee/historyofhyrule

---------------------------------------------------------------

Yoshiaki Koizumi : 小泉 歓晃
Honestly, right now, I don't know if Koizumi did these all himself or what but I know he was kind of put in charge of the manual.
  


Yoichi Kotabe : 小田部 羊一 : Youichi Kotabe, Yaichi Kotabe, Yohichi Kotabe
I'm betting he did a lot of other stuff too but, honestly,  the way they talk about the art in interviews... it's a little confusing to know who did what. The watercolors are absolutely his though
 


Yasuhiro Sakai : 酒井 康裕

Tomoaki Kuroume : 黒梅 知明

Hideki Fujii : 藤井 英樹

---------------------------------------------------------------


Matsunori Iwamoto : 岩本松徳

I'm confident saying these are his. The Manga is absolutely his:
   


Kenji Murata : 村田健司 , けんじ むらた
  1. Ultima Exodus Guide: Maps? (3 artists. Technical Maps | Cute Characters, Items, Map | More Serious Characters | Pastel Chalks) Technical Maps? or Pastels (can't be pastels, he is not in LA US Guide. Might be thicker looking illustrations in LA guide or those may also be by Matsunori Iwamoto)
  2. Zelda Handbook (LttP) 2 Overworld Maps? (it's either them or Yuji Honma)
  3. US Nintendo Guide (LttP)
  4. German Nintendo Guide (LttP) -There are world maps! or are those by Toshisada Nobuhara? These do look a little different though
  5. US Nintendo Guide (LA)
  6. Not in the German LA Guide
  7. Nintendo Player's Guide - NES Game Atlas (it has technical maps, horrible airbrush of link, that AoL Map, items)
  8. Nintendo Player's Guide- Game Boy 
Possibility: LA US Guide (Only 4 Artists) . Ultima Guide (only 3 artists)
 



Yuji Honma : 本間雑二


Makikazu Ohmori : まきかず おもり
Macki Ohmori
Confirmed: Nintendo Power
 



Katsuya Terada :


Hiroshi Aizawa : 愛沢ひろし
Hiroshi Auzawa

I think he may have done the item art for A Link to the Past
 


Shuji Imai :今井修司 
Syuji Imai
Howard and Nester Artist
Ah, could he have done the items too? Imai does darker corners. The palette is similar but also not as spot-on as the other guy's. Honestly I can't figure out what Imai would have done in the 2 LttP Player's Guides if not this either. The line work on that one concept piece of Link reaching for the sword... maybe he drew it and someone else colored it? https://archive.org/details/zelda_guide_lttp_nintendo_power_us/zelda_guide_lttp_nintendo_power_us/page/n110/mode/1up


Toshisada Nobuhara :
Tosashi Nobehara
Are the maps in the player's guides actually the same as this guide's maps? I need to check on that

Confirmed Art: 
 


Satoshi Yuzuriha :



Kazunori Aihara : 相原和典
  1. German Nintendo Guide (LA) New Simple Items? Simpler Maps? Really Cool Giant Map?
  2. Pokemon Book Artist Watercolor, so he probably did the big LA map
  3. Game Boy Player's Guide
Oddly I think he may have done some maps in the early Nintendo powers... but he would have been a MUCH less developed artist if I'm right. Because they are pretty rough in comparison.

Pretty confident on this one:
  


Kazuhiro Amachi :
Could be the simple maps, maybe the items as well? Kinda the same colors and styles. Maybe they did the items as well. They're in a very clean, graphic, style as well.
See if the LA items are credited in the LA guide. I do not believe they were. I think only Kotabe is mentioned as an illustrator in that.


Ken-show :
I can not figure out why this guy is in here unless he did the official items for Metroid II: Return of Samus. Which are in the Super Game Boy guide. Because then he could have done the new Zelda items in the German LttP guide: they only appear in that one guide. Like the 4 swords and 2 shields. The coloring on the tunics also look the same, though this tunic art is seen elsewhere with flatter colors. These bows and boomerangs have also been redone.

Check the golden bee. I believe that also appeared in a Nintendo Power, see if he is credited.

Probably not the simple items and maps from German LA because nothing like that is in the Metroid art in the Super Game Boy guide. But it's weird because the items for the German LA guide ARE in the Super Game Boy guide... argh..

---------------------------------------------------------------


Not A Zelda artist but to help narrow it down:

Tetuo Hiroi :
Tetsuo Hiroi?
Doesn't really match the Ultima guide, but idk it says Tetsuo Hiroi, maybe he really upped his game! This is absolutely great art:



---------------------------------------------------------------

Check these artists:

Yoshiki Oshima, Akio Nakamura, Makikazu Omori

Jackie Yoshida

Benimaru Itoh | Benimaru "Ashura" Itoh



Yu Minazuki - check the Japanese spelling- Yuu Mishouzaki, who did the stranger LoZ and AoL Zelda comics. So did they do comics for Wanpakku, which would mean they worked for Tokuma Shoten like some other Wanpakku comic artists, which makes me wonder if they were at Work House too? idk, style looks pretty different

--------------------------------------------

  • Makikazu Ohmori
  • KEN-SHOW
Has Metroid: Return of Samus Items
Zelda: 3 item artists from Zelda: has a detailed items from LA. Has a simple items from LttP for LA. Has newly added item from LA German guide: Mirror Shield, Bracelet x2, feather, for LA

  • Hideaki Ito
  • Kenji Murata
  • Kazunori Aihara
  • Makikazu Ohmori
  • Toshisada Nobuhara
  • Kazuhiro Amachi


Sunday, March 5, 2023

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