Scans of Triforce of the Gods World Guidebook Strategy Guide

 

I just high-res scanned and uploaded another retro guide for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, find the 1200-2400dpi RAW and lightly cleaned files at this link. I also added the art to the flickr gallery.

The Legend of Zelda Triforce of the Gods World Guidebook
ゼルダの伝説, 神々のトライフォース, ワールドガイドブック
ISBN4-8033-3874-4

C2055 and P1200E
Published by Taishubo Co.

Also called "Continental Shobo"

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Scans of The Hyrule Fantasy: The Legend of Zelda Dawn Publications Strategy Guide

I just high-res scanned and uploaded another retro guide for the original Legend of Zelda game, find the 1200-2400dpi RAW and lightly cleaned files at this link.

ISBN 4-7508-0521-1 and 9784750805214

Thank you to Mases of ZeldaDungeon.net. He has been making sure these guides are preserved by collecting them all, scanning them, and then also sending them to me for high-resolution archival scans.

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Scans of The Hyrule Fantasy: The Legend of Zelda Victory Strategy Guide

I just high-res scanned and uploaded another retro guide for the original Legend of Zelda game, find the 1200-2400dpi RAW and lightly cleaned files at this link.
 

This guide has some of my favorite enemy art done for the series.


ゼルダの伝説 必勝攻略ガイド

ISBN 4-405-06068-1 | C2055

Shinsei Publishing . Nova Publishing

Artist: Shuichi Aikawa . 相川修一


Thank you to Mases of ZeldaDungeon.net. He has been making sure these guides are preserved by collecting them all, scanning them, and then also sending them to me for high-resolution archival scans.


Other Keywords: Zelda, LoZ, tLoZ, ppi, RAWS, scan, scans, high res, high rez, high resolution, Link, Ganon, Hyrule, Nintendo, NES, Famicom, Family Computer, book, videogame, Game Guide, Guide, NES, 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

New 1200dpi scans of The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening German Strategy Guide

Just finished 1200dpi scanning one of the most incredible guides ever made for Zelda. There's so much mind-blowing art in it, including Terada's, that was never anywhere else that I can't even pick for this post & had to do features on Twitter all week. Find it here: https://archive.org/details/zelda_guide_la_de

Der Offizielle Nintendo Spieleberater. Published 1994. Nintendo of Europe. Work House Co.

If anyone wants to sell me a better copy of this guide, I'd be happy to re-scan this. Contact me at melorasworld@gmail.com


Pages 109-110 are missing from some of the versions of the guide, mine included, so TheSmaxx on Twitter was kind enough to get me 1200dpi scans of those pages. That is why the color is slightly different. Thank you to Daniela and FenrisFang: without both of you, over 20 years ago now, who knows how long we would have gone without knowing about this incredible book and the utterly amazing art it contains.

If anyone wants a full image of the map, it's in the gallery. Thank you for liking it! The guide is actually missing the art from the middle section, since it's a fold out, so I re-drew & repaired it as best I could: https://www.flickr.com/photos/historyofhyrule/51085263811/in/album-72157629221332745/

ofhyrule/51085263811/in/album-72157629221332745/


Other Keywords: The Legend of Zelda, Link's Awakening, ゼルダの伝説, 夢をみる島, Strategy Guide, Zelda, tLoZ, LoZ, LA Link's Awakening, The Legend of Zelda, SNES, 600ppi, 1200ppi, RAW, RAWS, scan, scans, high res, high rez, high resolution, Link, Nintendo, book, videogame, Nintendo Power, Strategy Guide, Game Guide, Player's Guide, Katsuya Terada, Zeruda no Densetsu: Yume o Miru Shima, Windfish, Koholint Island, Marin, Link, Tarin, Gamboy,

1200dpi scans of the Link's Awakening Player's Guide

I just made & uploaded new 1200dpi scans of one of the best Zelda publications of all time: Nintendo Player's Guide for Link's Awakening. All the art is incredible & the writing is great too, just like the LttP one. Find it here: https://archive.org/details/zelda_guide_la_npg


My top 4 Western strategy guides, in order, are:

1. The US Link to the Past Player's Guide
2. The German Link's Awakening Player's Guide (I'm re-scanning this next)
3. The US Link's Awakening Player's Guide
4. The German Link to the Past Player's Guide

The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening Nintendo Player's Guide. Publisher & ISBN Info: Nintendo of America. Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co. 1993

Apologies that the cover is so beat-up and that there is some writing on the RAWS, this is my literal childhood copy and I wrote down some milestones (like when I beat the game.) The pages themselves are all in pretty good shape though.

File Information:

• Being Uploaded: One zip has 1200dpi RAW tif files
• One zip has 1200dpi RAW jpg files
• One zip has lightly edited 1200dpi jpg files
• The largest pdf is the exact same 600dpi files and was saved as uncompressed
• There is a zip and a pdf with compressed 300dpi files: if you need to save on space or bandwidth
• The other files were made by archive.org's software and will have compression

I only archive works that have been out-of-print for decades. I will not post anything that is in print or that gets reprinted.

Other Keywords: The Legend of Zelda, Link's Awakening, ゼルダの伝説, 夢をみる島, Strategy Guide Zelda, tLoZ, LoZ, LA Link's Awakening, The Legend of Zelda, SNES, 600ppi, 1200ppi, RAW, RAWS, scan, scans, high res, high rez, high resolution, Link, Nintendo, book, videogame, Nintendo Power, Strategy Guide, Game Guide, Player's Guide, Katsuya Terada, Zeruda no Densetsu: Yume o Miru Shima, Windfish, Koholint Island, Marin, Link, Tarin, Gamboy,

2400dpi Scans of Ikeda Bookstore Hyrule Fantasy Guide and Map

 

Mases of Zelda Dungeon sent this to me and I am so thankful to him because it has one of the best map I have ever seen and Olga, who does amazing work, is going to repair it.

This is a strategy guide for the original Legend of Zelda. It has an amazing fold out map which I have included in its rough form.

Find it here: https://archive.org/details/zelda_guide_loz_ikeda

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: 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, The Legend of Zelda, Strategy Guide, Zelda 1, Hyrule Fantasy, ゼルダの伝説

1200dpi scans of Zelda: Perfect Fan Book

The scans are here: https://archive.org/details/zelda_guide_lttp_pfb/page/n1/mode/2up

This is an additional publication that came with the December 20, 1991 issue of Marukatsu Super Famicom (マル勝スーパーファミコン) volume 20. It was published by Kadokawashoten.

It's a guide for first part of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Triforce of the Gods) and the back of the book contains a small manga for each of the first 3 Zelda games. Hyrule Fantasy (Author: Tsukasa Nishino,) The Adventure of Link (Author: Ayumu Takanaga,) and A Link to the Past (Author: Show Honda.) The manga is read in the opposite direction than the front of the book.

They seem to have interview quotes with Miyamoto in it that do confirm a simple little timeline. Like obviously there was one but it's a small fun fact about it: https://twitter.com/makgameadv/status/1620227664715055107

This is also a cool little book because it has even more manga examples of Link with a fairy companion years before the introduction of Navi. The novels, gamebooks, and manga are interesting for reasons like this.

Keywords: The Legend of Zelda, Manga, Magazine, Strategy Guide, Zelda 1, Hyrule Fantasy, ゼルダの伝説, Adventure of Link, リンクの冒険, Link to the Past, 神々のトライフォース, Zelda, tLoZ, LoZ, aLttP, Lttp, A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda, SNES, 600ppi, 1200ppi, RAW, RAWS, scan, scans, high res, high rez, high resolution, Link, Ganon, Princess Zelda, Hyrule, Nintendo, book, videogame, Nintendo Power, Strategy Guide, Game Guide, Player's Guide,

 

2400dpi Scans of the German Link to the Past Guide

I just made 2400dpi scans of the German language The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Official Player's Guide. This is one of my favorite guides, be sure to check it out. It has different art than the US guide. 

Keywords: The Legend of Zelda, Link to the Past, Strategy Guide. Zelda, tLoZ, LoZ, aLttP, Lttp, A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda, SNES, 600ppi, 1200ppi, RAW, RAWS, scan, scans, high res, high rez, high resolution, Link, Ganon, Princess Zelda, Hyrule, Nintendo, book, videogame, Nintendo Power, Strategy Guide, Game Guide, Player's Guide,

Archival Scans: Hisshou Hintbon! An Amazing Find from 1986 of Lost Art, Better Art, and Lost History

Thanks to this guide, and the people who helped me search, we have not just missing pieces from wildly popular sets of art, we now know the names of the artists behind official and Zelda art that was distributed to magazines all over the world. Including, possibly, the pink-haired female Link!

First off: Find the 1200dpi scans on archive.org as well as 2400dpi scans of the art.

Apologies that this took a while to upload past when I promised it: each zip took a day and then it took us a while to figure out all the information in this guide.

I thought the Adventure of Link guide I posted a few short weeks ago was going to be the best thing I found in a long time since it has actual official enemy art that was completely unknown. I mean: It is literally its last known location/source it. No one outside of Japan ever saw it. In fact it only ever appeared once in an official famicom magazine that the guide was a collection of. Scans of that appeared just days before I was ready to upload my own. Very cool timing. Well it looks like we have several mind-blowing finds this year already:

This guide is the original Japanese version of the famous official US Tips and Tactics guide and completes some sets of VERY famous art by filling in missing art. Before now we never really knew exactly what the source for it was either, except for this name. Tips and Tactics calls it "Hissyou Hintbon." This Japanese version was published by Wanpakku comics, which is a publisher under Tokuma Shoten. May 25, 1986 (though sometimes I see February listed.) Tips and Tactics was officially published by Nintendo of America in 1987.

Credits from the back pages of the official Nintendo of America guide, Tips and Tactics 

If you are unfamiliar with Tips and Tactics, here is an example of how close the US version copies the Japanese one. (Below.) The notable differences are the updated screenshots of things like the enemies (the Japanese guide uses some earlier development screenshots that changed before release,) the outside jacket and its original art are different, once piece of missing art that was overlaid on the map model on the inside is missing, and then the manga explaining how to use the removable map is missing. Which, coincidentally, is the page where the art of female Link is. Obviously it would have been a lot of work to redo, or heavily edit, the manga for a Western audience that was, at the time, completely unfamiliar with that kind of layout: so it makes editorial sense that it was simply removed from the final US version.

I also like that it shows that NoA also obviously got all of the art from this guide because they moved Link around on the image of the map.

I don't know where to start, there's so much to say about this. This is a really exciting and interesting find to me for several reasons.

Maybe the easiest thing to explain should come first: This has the 2, known, missing pieces of art for the pink-haired female Link and fairy. The others in the set were made famous by KazzyKazy's viral post and I found that volume and scanned those pieces earlier this year so we could have 2400dpi archival versions online. In his thread he mentions finding a YouTube video of someone's childhood scrapbook and how it had another 2 pieces of art from the set in it. In all that time since posting no one else had been able to find it or figure it out. Time for a good hunt! I bought every Shonen Captain from that year (if I couldn't find someone who owned an issue to confirm) and even a couple of extra volumes that looked a little promising. There was nothing else about her. Me and a couple of other very amazing and helpful people were searching every picture in old auctions for other listings even just to try to find a magazine with the same numerical page font or Zelda features on the same pages. One of the people asked the YouTuber; they couldn't remember either. Someone even offered to go to some libraries in Japan and look through their collections, but they had to cut their trip short. Nothing but dead ends. I figured I was only going to find it by a random stroke of luck. And that is exactly what happened. Now we have the full, known set, of 8.

Cleaned 2400dpi scans of these are in the gallery

Here's some interesting things about all this now: Originally I, and many others it seems, assumed that the female Link was a mistake, based on the game's title, made by some random artist or staff member working for a monthly comic publication with no real knowledge of the game. Well, I'm not so sure any more. I can't rule that out completely, obviously, but now I think the artists were working specifically for a guide and probably would have had at least a little oversight. Bear with me: So the other 6 pieces from the set are from a short walkthrough in the monthly manga magazine, Shonen Captain (May 18, 1986) and these 2 pieces are in a publication produced by Wanpakku, (May 25, 1986, sometimes listed as Feb) who also produced a monthly manga magazine as well as a lot of game guides. Wanpakku and Shonen Captain are different companies. They are, however, owned by the same company: Tokuma Shoten. To me this strongly implies that the female Link art came from an artist at the parent company. Keep in mind Nintendo heavily used Tokuma Shoten in the 80's as well. So the twitter account, VGDensetsu, who is forever awesome to me, tracked down one of the artists that worked on this guide. Not the female Link art, we still don't know who did that, (Update: actually, we may have just figured it out by comparing the art credits in both guides. More below) but I asked this other artist about the workflow and they confirmed that Tokuma Shoten had reached out to them to create art specifically for this publication. This leads me to believe my newer assumptions about the pink-haired Link may not be incorrect.

-----------

Anyway, on to the next amazing thing! That artist (and game designer & innovator) I spoke with is Yoshimiru Hoshi. He worked with Hideaki Ito on the VERY famous Link art where he's carrying all his gear. (Side note: According to VGDensetsu- Ito/Itoh was apparently was more of a anime historian/researcher than artist, professionally speaking, and frequently wrote for magazines. Sadly he's since passed away)  

This is the famous piece they did!

Full resolution scan in the gallery (9942x17697px)

Cel drawing and art by Yoshimiru, colored by Hideaki Itoh, scanned by the wonderful art collector @ArtofNP

Itoh often gets credited for it in the US because of the way Tips and Tactics phrases things (below.) Since the credits in both this guide and the Tips and Tactics guide also always confused me a little bit I went ahead and asked Yoshimiru about it and he confirmed that he did the drawing and linework and that he would often ask Itoh to be the cel colorist. (Painter/Colorist would mean he did not do the linework but filled in the color based on directions.) You can search around online and see that worked on a few projects with the same kind of joint credit. It appears that they were both in Work House together and this is where Yoshimiru would pass the cel line work over to Itoh. (Work House was a place an editorial company that would allow students to rent space. This is also where Yoshimiru was personally discovered by Iwata)

Publication credits from the front of Tips and Tactics.

This is what confused me too. From these descriptions I had thought that maybe Yoshimiru had just taken the photos of the cels and that Itoh did the rest. I'm so glad to now know for sure that Yoshimiru was the artist.

Image of the credits from this guide

Translation by VGDensetsu:

-Cel / セル画- Original drawing / 原画: ☆Yoshimiru / ☆よしみる (Metal Slader Glory)

Cel work(s) / セルワーク: Hideaki Ito / 伊藤秀明 (the same person that did the cover art for Aretha II. Source)

Illustrations / 力ット: Susumu Kobayashi / こばやし将, Nobuyoshi Takagi / 高木信義, Narumi Tanaka / 田中成美

Manga / まんが: Suzuo Yasuki / すずおやすき

-----------

So here's the other cool thing about this guide: It doesn't just have the missing female Link art, it has 3 more pieces in the set of 4 of Yoshimiru and Itoh art! 2 of the pieces of missing art and one more piece that was normally known from Nintendo Power (you can see it here and now we have a much better version,)  The art on the front and back cover has only ever been online before as small photos, mainly from auctions. Again, this was drawn by Yoshimiru and he handed it to Itoh to color in, so it would be most appropriately credited as Yoshimiru being the artist.

This has been in several US and European publications, often redrawn by a staff artist.

Full resolution 2400dpi scan in the gallery here

Link with a sword that matches both the white sword and magical sword a little bit. (thanks for noticing that, Conradd) The background is also beautiful, I'm not sure who did that (more on that below.) This has only been online as small auction-type photos.

Full resolution 2400dpi scan in the gallery here

I also REALLY want a better picture of that background.. as unlikely as it is I'll ever find it.

And then this which is, hands down, one of the cutest pieces of Link art ever. It's also never really been online before except as a small photo. I think... this actually might be my favorite out of all of the ones in the guide.

Full resolution 2400dpi scan in the gallery here

 

Okay, so, now I'm going to talk about something that I'll probably get yelled at for but who cares. Like it honestly doesn't matter that much, let's just have some fun here:

In the US we basically consider the Yoshimiru art official. NoA used almost all of the other art in this guide... except the manga spread: which means the art of female Link and the fairy got cut too. But obviously they were in the same guide, with all the same art; art we consider official. So screw it, I'm saying it's just as official as the Yoshimiru art and the watercolor art below. I'm not saying it's "done in Nintendo's dev studio" official, like the manual art of the enemies that are also found in this guide and were obviously shipped to publishers, but Nintendo and Tokuma Shoten used a lot of contract artists and if we're going to consider 3 sets of art in this official, art by other contractors, why are we not considering the 4th set official too? Is it simply because, as a Western audience, it's not a theme we were expecting to see?

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

Speaking of the other sets of art! This guide also has way higher quality art of the watercolor illustrations of the characters and equipment than Tips and Tactics had. We've also always kind of considered this official in the US too so knowing this artist's name is a big deal! Back in the 80's, especially in the US, we had a lot of art that was produced by companies other than Nintendo's in-house artists that we considered official. This is back when it was a lot more common for Nintendo's main studio, and especially Nintendo of America, to use other studios and contract artists to create the "official" art. So the line between what we consider official and semi-official, or not official at all, gets blurred quite a bit more than it does now that everything is done in-house and has far more stringent corporate oversight and trademark checks.

Thanks to VGDensetsu's translations we were able to narrow it down to being Susumu Kobayashi! こばやし将 I can't believe that, after all these years, we finally know which artist to credit. You can also find his work in Nintendo Power. You can find him on Twitter at @show_kob

Here is the best quality we had before, from Tips and Tactics

Here is the quality we have now thanks to this guide!

But this is where this gets even more exciting! It's also why I should have known AND why we should stop writing off the manga as not important to the history of the series. Susumu Kobayashi drew a whole volume of manga for Hyrule Fantasy (Zelda 1) and not only is it the story, it's a completely functional strategy guide: 

The Hyrule Fantasy: The Legend of Zelda manga by Kobayashi Susumu

Published by Wanpakku Comics July 15, 1986.

It still needs to be translated!

Find archival scans of the whole volume here

While on a personal level I wish he had kept Link looking like he did in this guide, the art is amazing, especially the dungeon entrances; and what's very notable is that the item's style in this match exactly to those in Tips and Tactics. I should have noticed this 20 years ago when I first got this manga. I'm honestly a little mad at myself about it, lol. Zelda is also done in a very similar style and the first time we see the fairy she's in basically the same pose.

She is so adorable!

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

This is crazy but I'm not even close to done yet.
SO! We think we figured out who did the official enemy art from the game's manual too. Through process of elimination there's only one more illustrator's name left in the Japanese version that's also in the US version: Narumi Tanaka / 田中成美

If you have any reason to believe this could be wrong, please, absolutely let me know. If you find work that matches this style under that name, for any series, please let me know. Credits them anywhere else? Etc, let me know. But for now, after all these years, this seems to be a really solid answer. I feel pretty safe saying that Narumi Tanaka is responsible for this iconic art:

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

Now, that brings us to the one remaining name, Nobuyoshi Takagi / 高木信義, and the few remaining pieces of art. 

All that is left that could even possibly be considered an illustration, I think, are the female Link and fairy as well as the landscape behind Link on the cover. 

I strongly believe that by calling this person an illustrator in the credits that it would be referring to the character drawings of pink-haired Link and the fairy. I actually have a BFA in illustration and entered college with the goal of working in traditional animation production: In the Japanese guide, by so distinctly referring to the cel work as a different discipline than illustration, I believe they would have also correctly attributed the landscape painting to a "background painter/artist" and not listed them as an "illustrator." It's just not really how it's ever credited (and, to note, it's not common that cel artists do the backgrounds either, completely different discipline as well)

Is Nobuyoshi Takagi her creator? The possibility is extremely high!

So... there we go! Internet sleuths, can you poke around and see if you can find an old-school artist named Nobuyoshi Takagi / 高木信義 and if they did character art or background art? I am 90% certain though that this will be the name of the creator of our once very elusive, and now very beloved. pink-haired female Link. (But I also want to know who may have done that beautiful landscape painting too. It's a long shot but maybe they have an image of it without all the overlays.

To note: There are a bunch of artists in Shonen Captain that have a similar Rumiko Takahashi style, I actually took picture of their names and art to ask around incase we got more clues. I'm going to go find those in the next few days to see if it can help here.

-----------

Okay, one last interesting thing that I can think of that directly relates to this guide. This is a fun post by Mr. Talida that highlights something else that's cool about this guide:

MrTalida: Early Legend of Zelda enemy sprites found in a magazine scanned by
@GamingAlexandri! Many differences here, some more notable than others. That original Head of Gleeok sprite--yikes! How late were these changed to still be in the preview build for a March '86 game mag?

So images for this guide must have happened right after they acquired assets for the March 1986  Famimaga (Issue 8) magazine  (Scanned by Gaming Alexandria) because some of the sprites in the guide are the old ones, and some are updated and look like the finals!

MrTalida: A few of these sprites appear in the "ZEL-B" prototype released by Lost Levels in 2010. Some, like Pols Voice, match the magazine build, while others, like Stalfos, are nearer to final. This suggests that the magazine's build is even earlier than ZEL-B.

https://tcrf.net/Proto:The_Legend_of_Zelda#Sprite_Differences…

Alright, my brain is fading, I honestly can't think any more, lol. I guess that's enough for today XD

Email me at melorasworld@gmail.com or DM me on Twitter @historyofhyrule if you can help with any of this info.

• Huge thanks go to:
• VGDensetsu for helping with so much difficult sleuthing, translating, and thoughts
• To Ikhana for seeing the book at auction and sending it to me; it only took a world record holder to find it after a decade+ of wanting it
• To Mak for helping me realize this was Tips and Tactics before I ever got it!
• And to everyone else along the way! There were a lot of you!

Quick F.A.Q & notes: 

1: Yes, that map is an actual physical model they photographed 

2: There was no way for a company to take screenshots so they literally had to set an actual camera up in front of a TV and take a photo of each screen. Then develop those. Then cut them out and patch them together. Since TV screens were curved the lighting on them can look a little weird to us now that we're so use to flat screenshots.

3. I would also love to try to figure out who did the 3D model of the map that was photographed, as well as wanted a better version of the hand painted map on the cover.

How the tabs are used on the map: I was wrong, they're not stickers (I thought I was missing a sticker sheet) they're just cut-outs that you paste on the map. Thanks @johntv for finding this image and clearing up what the translation meant

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Side notes and unfinished thoughts, morning of May 11, 2022: I need to write this down somewhere. These are just stream-of-consciousness style thoughts. 

Thanks to Mak I now realize Nintendo of America had a HUGE working relationship with Tokuma Shoten

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20140306054631/http://magweasel.com/2011/05/04/more-on-tokumas-mario-guide/
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20121011141125/http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2008/04/column_game_mag_weaseling_japa.php
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokuma_Shoten

Things I'd love to know- Did Nintendo (of Japan) directly speak with the Wanpakku artists? ...or was it maybe like a representative Nintendo had at Tokuma Shoten? (That 2nd option would be my first guess, but it's only an assumption and mine tend to be conservative guesses.) Wanpakku did a lot of game guides. Like a TON with Zelda in them (I've purchased a lot of these recently but I still need to scan them) and Wanpakku has 4 volumes of Zelda manga, by 3 different artists, that acted as game guides for the Zelda series

Their strategy guide manga:

• Susumu Kobayashi: Now confirmed an "official" artist by US/NoA standards only (Not like he was in-house staff at NoJ)  https://archive.org/details/zelda_manga_loz_susumu_kobayashi
• Daisuke Shigoto: (also did work for NP I think, what was it again, anyone know? My mind is blank) AoL 1: https://archive.org/details/zelda_manga_aol_1_wan
• Yuu Minazuki: AoL (She finished Shigoto's work) 2: https://archive.org/details/zelda_manga_aol_2_wan and https://archive.org/details/zelda_manga_aol_3_wan

And then Wanpakku also produced the Ran Maru manga which is the damn best. Like I keep saying this and no one reads it so no one understands how many firsts for the series it has in it. 

1. https://archive.org/details/zelda_manga_ranmaru_1_loz
2. https://archive.org/details/zelda_manga_ranmaru_2_aol_vol1
3. https://archive.org/details/zelda_manga_ranmaru_3_aol_vol2
4. https://archive.org/details/zelda_manga_ranmaru_4_aol_vol3

(There is a video on YouTube that goes through it that seems so well done, I didn't watch all of it, but they get the ending wrong so I don't know what else they got wrong. I did, however, pay for an English translation however and it's at those links)

And if Nintendo did work more closely with the Wanpakku branch... does that lend more weight to how much the series seems to borrow from Ran Maru's LoZ and AoL manga? (the pink hair one) Because it's CRAZY how much it borrows from that. I can not get over it. I'm not going to die on that hill or anything but I am going to keep investigating until something proves without a doubt that there's nothing there because it's really been sticking in my brain as much as it was sticking in my brain that finding this guide was going to be important.

Archival scans of Family Computer Magazine Special Edition: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Winning Guide

Here are the 1200dpi scans posted on archive.org

Family Computer Magazine Special Edition: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Winning Guideファミリーコンピュータ Magazine 緊急増刊 合本 リンクの冒険 必勝ガイド

I about died when I opened this, there's just so much art. There's several pieces of art I've never seen before on nearly every page, and there's 64 pages. And even better: some of it is new to the internet but obviously official. So now we actually have art for big bot, a king bubble, fireball version of bago-bago, a full image of Rah, and FINALLY a fokkeru and a rope. There's also a bunch of color variations. Then there's so many hand drawn maps that are simple but very cute and there is just SO MUCH art of Link that is very close to the manual art.

So this is a compilation of a feature spread across 3 Family Computer magazine issues that were just uploaded for the first time this month too. What's interesting is there's updated differences between those and this. Like the sprites get updated in the screenshots. You can find 600dpi scans those issues here, they were uploaded this month as well:

Edit: The original poster removed these, unfortunately. I have the issues and will be scanning them in the future.

• ファミマガ 1987 No.2 (2月6日号)
• ファミマガ 1987 No.3 (2月20日号)
• ファミマガ 1987 No.4 (3月6日号)

Other Keywords: Tokuma Shoten, The Legend of Zelda, Game Magazine, Strategy Guide, Adventure of Link, ゼルダの伝説, リンクの冒険, LoZ, tLoZ, AoL, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Zelda 2, 1200ppi, 600ppi, RAW, RAWS, scan, scans, high res, high rez, high resolution, Videogame, Famicom, Famimaga, NES, FC, 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, Map, Illustrations

 

Archival Scans of the Link to the Past Nintendo Player's Guide

Scans for this aren't new, but this is the best quality you'll find online. I scanned this at 1200dpi and you can find both the cleaned up images and pure raw scans on my archive.com page, here

It was published by Nintendo of America in conjunction with Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co. 1992

If you've never flipped through this, do so! It doubles as a story book & production art book- which was so rare

ZeldaLegends.net still has the original downloads released by Nintendo. The images are small but they have great color. Find those here

Other Keywords: The Legend of Zelda, Link to the Past, Strategy Guide, Nintendo Power, Zelda, tLoZ, LoZ, aLttP, Lttp, A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda, SNES, 600ppi, 1200ppi, RAW, RAWS, scan, scans, high res, high rez, high resolution, Link, Ganon, Princess Zelda, Hyrule, Nintendo, book, videogame, Nintendo Power, Strategy Guide, Game Guide, Player's Guide, Katsuya Terada,

High-Res Scans of The Hyrule Fantasy Manga by Kobayashi Susumu

NOTICE- THE SCANS AREN'T UP RIGHT NOW BECAUSE:
Idk why but Viz sent a takedown for this to IA. I'm 99% sure they don't hold the rights and it was just a mistake because they saw "Zelda Manga" and assume all Zelda manga is the zelda manga they produce, because it's a very common misconception that that's the case and that there isn't a ton of old stuff. I'll try to figure out to do:

The 600dpi scans are here. 

The Hyrule Fantasy: The Legend of Zelda manga by Kobayashi Susumu
Published by Wanpakku Comics

Edit: The author and artist is active on twitter: https://twitter.com/show_kob

I spoke to him about this a bit and he has posted photos of the original pieces he still has. He confirmed it is the first manga along with Ranmaru's.

Honestly I don't have a lot more info to add on this. It was originally in their monthly magazine and then collected into this volume, but there's not even an ISBN.

This most likely all happened in 1986-1987. This one could have been so amazing but Link's character design is just... an odd choice. Zelda is adorable though! Anyway, it's still totally worth checking out because this is not just a manga with some great enemy and world design illustrations, it's a functional strategy guide!

I quickly edited these just so I could get them posted for people. Eventually I will straighten all of the pages and do a better job with the levels and then add the original raws, with no cropping or adjustments, to a downloadable zip too.

My original scans and info were here: historyofhyrule.com/publications/manga_loz_wan

Some keywords: The Legend of Zelda, Zelda, LoZ, tLoZ, ゼルダの伝説, ゼルダ, The Hyrule Fantasy, 600dpi, 600ppi, RAW, RAWS, scan, scans, book, high res, high rez, resolution, manga, comic

Publication's List: Help me make it accurate for all of us!

I've been needing to update the info and works that are still missing from the publication's section of the site. Problem is: there's a lot to add. So I'm making albums on flickr to more quickly organize the information. I'm also doing this so it's easier for all of you to help me figure out this mass of information. These will contain everything I know about:

• Zelda Manga Flickr Album
• Zelda 4koma Manga Flickr Album
• Zelda Non-Japanese Comics: Coming Soon
• Zelda Books Flickr Album
• Zelda Sticker/Coloring/How-To-Draw Books: Coming Soon
• Zelda Strategy Guides Flickr Album
• Zelda Manuals and Booklets: Coming Soon
• Zelda US Magazines: Coming Soon
• Zelda Japan Magazines: Coming Soon
• Zelda Other International Magazines: Coming Soon

Good news is that Mases of Zelda dungeon is doing most of the work on the guides. He's making scans of his whole collection and is working on at least adding covers and info until he can get to everything that massive task entails. 

• Here's a link list of his currently added guides, by title
• Here's a visual list of his current added guides, by game

So what can I use help with? Any one of you can probably help with something here:

• The thing I need the most help with is, if you know Japanese, help me make sure I have the correct titles, author's and illustrator's names, publishers, etc, in both Japanese and English characters.
• Double check my info against what's written in the volumes (I'm dyslexic, I make a lot of type-based mistakes)
• Help me find links to the best scans and info online*
• Help me find auction links to things I'm missing. If it's guides or merch I can get them to my friends who collect that and will get us scans. If it's manga, Japanese books, or artbooks, I'll probably buy them.
  
• (More to come, I'm out of time today to keep writing)

*An FYI: I'm not going to publicly post links to free downloads of anything still in print, (just links to sales pages.) If you can't afford to purchase the volumes, etc, I totally understand, this isn't judgement on that. But, the way I use this platform, is for promoting purchasing any still available & only the scans for things that are not. Especially for manga; I really want a BotW series and good sales make that more likely.

I'm doing this, in large part, because my end goal is to try to have every piece of official and semi-official Zelda art online. But it's too hard to do if you don't check things off a list as you go and if you're dealing with bad scans only to get good scans after you've already done a ton of editing work. So this is the leg work to creating an awesome gallery. The added benefit is, obviously, we should have a great resource and merchandise catalog when we're done that also helps up properly credit the people behind the series we love.

Archival and Rare Guide Scans for Zelda 1, The Hyrule Fantasy (Updated!)

Edit: Here is a list of guides I know about with links to scans and information. It's a rush job right now but the list will be continuously updated as I have time to work on it. Do feel free to save me some time and email me if you know of others (and their scans) to add links too though! meloraworld@gmail.com

Mases of Zelda Dungeon has been scanning his guide collection, starting with the first game, so I really wanted to add a link to what he has already uploaded over on his great wiki. He's doing this not just for archival reasons but to extract the amazing and amazingly rare art that can be found in them: and I can't thank him enough. (I'm helping when I can.) His wiki displays it all beautifully if you want to check it out.

Here's his guide wiki (and here's a visual one) that has a master list

And here are the Hyrule Fantasy guides he has more complete scans of as of November 3, 2021

• Akita Shoten The Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide
• Dawn Publications The Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide
• Kadokawa Shoten The Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide
• Keibunsha The Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide (1994)
• Million Publications The Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide
• Soft Bank Beep The Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide
• 11/19: Futabasha The Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide (1986)
• 11/19: Futami The Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide (May 10th 1986)
• 11/19: Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha The Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide
• 11/19: Keibunsha The Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide (1987)
• 11/24: Shinsei Publishing The Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide

Since this is a huge mutual interest of both of us, I've helped with some scanning. Here's a link to the scans I've uploaded on archive.org:

• Million Publications The Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide
• Futami The Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide (1987)
• 11/19: Legend of Zelda manga guide by Masaru Kobayashi

The Dopest Link Art I Have Ever Personally Seen

 

So majestic. It's from a tips and tactics guide and I hope you can forgive me for that title but I could not help myself. There are endless things I could say about this newly discovered piece of Zelda art... wow, just wow... lol. PBAndAwesome found this in his grandmother's attic and posted it to twitter and then Chris Fergason realized he had it too and DM'd me images of the cover and pages, below, featuring the Zelda coverage. Thanks guys, you absolutely made my day. I'll get them added to the gallery and publications section in the near future.

In the meantime, another piece of... glorious... Zelda history, saved yet again!

Updated: Full translations for an adorable old Hyrule Fantasy book!

UPDATE: This is fully translated and I hope to edit it in the future. If you're great at page editing, would you like to take on this task for me instead though? I'm so backlogged I feel horrible that I haven't gotten to it yet. I have rough pages posted below but some changes to the text have been made and can be found below the images. I do want this to look super professional though so I'd rather wait to do it myself if editing isn't something you're really skilled at (though there are a lot of people out there that are better at it than me so, if that's you, please take this on!)

Full Translation thanks to @sergethesage.

He sent it in for this absolutely awesome little book for the first Legend of Zelda.

The text on the images is not the final text, by the way, the images are just what I sent back to him to make sure I had everything in the right place and that nothing was left out.

Front cover

(Brand name) Playable for children

(Series name) Family Computer (or Family Computer Disk System)

Picture Book

(Title of book) Hyrule fantasy:

The Legend of Zelda

Page 1-2

(Title) The story of ‘Legend of Zelda’

(upper right)

Long, long ago, in the country of Princess Zelda, on continent of Hyrule, two Triforces with mysterious powers brought prosperity to the land. 

(pictures)

Impa the Nursemaid

Princess Zelda

Triforce of Wisdom

Triforce of Power

(bottom right)

However, Ganon, the Prince of Darkness, coveted the Triforces for himself. He invaded and captured the Triforce of Power

(picture)

Ganon, the Prince of Darkness

(bottom pictures, from right to left)

Things that can be discovered in the Legend of Zelda:

Link's collection of weapons, treasures, and his enemies.

White Sword

Twice as good as the ordinary sword

Life Hearts

Represents Link's life. If they all become white, he dies.

Magical Sword

Four times better than ordinary sword

Magic Shield

Repels enemies’ attacks

(upper left)

The Triforce of Wisdom remained safe but Princess Zelda, afraid that Ganon might capture it too, divided it into 8 pieces and hid them in different underworld mazes.

(bottom left)

Zelda was captured by Ganon and is now his prisoner. 

Link heard this story from Princess Zelda's nursemaid, Impa, and vowed to defeat Ganon and save the princess. Gathering the Triforce of Wisdom would be vital in defeating the dark prince.

And so Link set forth to seek the hidden pieces of Triforce

(pictures)

Link

(bottom pictures)

Heart Container:

Increase number of Link’s heart by one

Rupee

Money. Blue rupee costs 5 yellow (? this seems unfinished)

Magic key

Door key, can be used many times.

Ladder

For crossing narrow rivers and chasms

Raft

Use it to cross the water's surface without trouble

 

Page 3-4

(Title) Link’s journey has begun

(upper right)

Link will meet many of Ganon's minions during his journey. Show them, Link!

 (pictures)

Moblin (mori-no goburin, forest goblin)

Octorok

(bottom right)

There are also enemies in the underworld. Different weapons are needed to defeat them

Digdogger

(bottom pictures)

Wooden Boomerang

Stuns an enemy when it hits them

Magical boomerang

Flies further than wooden boomerang

Bow and wooden arrow

Hits enemies at a great distance

Silver arrow

Link’s greatest weapon

Bomb

Makes amazing blasts and can break walls

(upper left)

Well done! One piece of the Triforce is found!

(middle left)

Just wait, Ganon, I will defeat you!

(bottom left)

Underworld enemies are tougher than oveworld ones

(pictures)

Gibdo

Pols voice

 

(bottom pictures)

Blue Candle

It can light rooms in the underworld labyrinths

Red Candle

Its flame can be used to light rooms and as a weapon many times

Letter

Show it to the Old Woman to buy the Water of Life

Compass

Marks the location of the Triforce in labyrinths

Magical clock

Stops an enemies' movement

Page 5-6

(Title) Fight, Link!

(right top & bottom)

(text)

How to control Link

But first let’s learn about weapons and powers of Link.

First let's learn about Link's weapons and abilities. Things that Link can use as a weapon, and his other equipment and treasures, are shown on the screen to the left. Fight and win to get them! Choose weapons with the B Button.

The Green Link

Link starts the game in a green tunic

The Blue Link

When Link obtains the blue ring he becomes twice as strong

The Red Link

Wow! With the red ring Link becomes 4 times stronger!

(icon) Used with A button weapon.

Sword

The initial sword Link obtains from an Old Man

White Sword

Twice as strong as the original sword but you need 5 hearts to wield it

Magical Sword

Four times as strong but you can't obtain it unless you have 12 heart containers

(picture of joypad)

Remember the B button. Use it to attack with the equipment you chose.

A Button: Use it to attack with a sword

Start Button: Change between the battle screen and the inventory screen

Select Button: Pause and unpause the game

D-Pad: Move Link. He goes in the direction you press

(bottom pictures)

Map: a map for that underworld labyrinth

Blue ring

Doubles Link’s strength

Red Ring

Increases Link's strength four times

Power bracelet

Makes Link strong enough to move rocks

Magical rod

Allows Link to use a mysterious spell

(left top & bottom)

(icon) Weapons used with the B Button

 

Boomerang

There is a wooden and a magical boomerang. Both temporarily stop an enemy's movement

 

Candles

There are red and blue candles. Their flames can be used for lighting rooms, burning down trees, and as a weapon

Bow and arrow

Can't be used until you have both. There are also wooden and silver arrows and some enemies can't be defeated with arrows alone

Bait

It can lure enemies allowing you to distract or attack them.

Water of life

There are blue and red potions that restore Link's hearts

 

Flute (Recorder)

It can be used for many mysterious things including calling a whirlwind!

Magical Rod

You need the Book of Magic (updated official name for the bible) to use its powerful beam

Bomb

Place it for an amazing blast that devastates enemies

(bottom pictures)

Book of Magic (originally called the bible)

Inside is written a spell for emitting flame

Bait

Lure enemies with it

Flute

Different mysterious things can happen!

Blue Water of Life

Restores all Link’s hearts

Red Water of Life

Can be used twice

Page 7

(Title) The People of Hyrule

Old men who live in the caves:

They give Link special items and different hints

Old Women

They sell potions and hints. A bit greedy

Merchants

Sells weapons and other treasures! Prices are different depending on the merchant. Buy at cheaper places

Fairies

They dwell in Hyrule's springs and will restore all of Link's hearts when he approaches

(bottom pictures)

Pieces of Triforce

Collect all 8 to defeat Ganon

Merchant

Sells treasures and weapons

Old Woman

Sells hints and the Water of Life

Old Man

Gives hints, swords, and more

Fairy

Restores all of Link's hearts

Page 8

(Title) Defeating the Enemies in the Overworld.

(upper)

There are all kinds of enemies in the Overworld. Don’t be careless!

 

(picture)

Ghini

(bottom)

There are zolas in the seas and lakes! Avoid their beams!

(picture)

Zola (or Zora)

Peahat

(bottom pictures)

Princess Zelda

Ruler of Hyrule that was captured by Ganon

Octorock

Lives in the overworld and spits rocks.

 

Tektite

Monster that really jumps around

Moblin

A forest dwelling imp that throws spears

Leever

Lives under the sand and emerges as you approach

Page 9-10

(Title) Defeat Ganon, the Prince of Darkness!

(upper left)

At last you found the entrance to an underground maze! A piece of Triforce is hidden somewhere inside. It's not easy to find hidden entrances

(picture right)

It’s not easy to find hidden entrance!

(picture left)

An underground labyrinth is a maze with many rooms.

(bottom right)

Underworld mazes are full of enemies. Choose your weapon and show them!

(picture)

Gleeok has a formidable beam!

(triangle part of page)

There's treasure here!

(round part in the middle of pages)

Get back the Triforce of Power!

(bottom pictures)

Peahat

A gently fluttering flower

Zora

a beam spitting half man, half fish

Armos

Stone warriors that come to life when touched

Ghini

Graveyard-dwelling monster

Lynels

defends death mountain from visitors

 

(upper central)

Get hints from the old man in the hidden room! 

(upper left)

Chop Manhandla down with the magical sword

Hurry to Ganon's lair on Death Mountain

(bottom left)

The Prince of Darkness, Ganon, has appeared! He's (I can't think how to phrase this right now. My mind is drawing a blank.) He is pressing Link with beams.

Fight on, Link!

(bottom pictures)

Boulders

Watch out as they fall from Death Mountain

Stalfos

A skeleton that will use swords to attack

Keese & Vire

Bat-like monsters, vire is the boss

Goriya

An underworld imp that attacks with boomerangs

Aquamentus

A unicorn-like dragon that attacks with beams

Page 11-12

(Title) Labyrinth of ‘Legend of Zelda’

(the only word on right page)

Start

(bottom pictures)

Wallmaster

A giant hand that emerges through the walls

Trap

Its spikes will cut you when you get close

Rope

a venomous snake that dwells in the underworld

Moldorm

a large earthworm that lives in the mazes

Stone statue

scattered throughout the rooms, some emit beams

(upper left)

Make your way through Ganon’s army to Princess Zelda!

Don’t get lost!

(bottom left)

(picture)

Goal

(bottom pictures)

Bubble

A tortured soul. Don't touch it or hit it with a sword.

Dodongo

Large rhino with tough hide.

Gel & Zol

Jelly-like monsters.

Armos

Knight in the maze. Unbeatable from the front.

Manhandla

Man-eater with four arms.

Page 13-14

(Title) Save Princess Zelda!

(Right overworld)

Link’s adventure began.

Avoid overworld and underworld enemies and save Princess Zelda!

(pictures)

Start

Let’s get the sword

(screenshot)

Zora in the sea and octorocks on dry land are awaiting!

(bottom pictures)

Like-like

Shields are delicious to this monster

Gleeok

A giant dragon that spits beams

Pols voice

Monster with big ears

Gibdo

Male mummy, extremely strong!

Wizzrobe

A magic user that attacks with spells

(left page)

(screenshot)

In the desert there are leevers and peahats… Use your sword!

(Link with Zelda)

At last! Princess Zelda has been saved!

Goal

(Link with Triforce)

Got the Triforce!

Move on!

(Link with Ganon)

Defeat Ganon

(bottom pictures)

Gohma

Big crab with a hard shell.

Lanmola

Giant centipede. Very fast!

Digdogger

Big urchin. Doesn’t like noise.

Patra

Flying swarm-like boss.

Prince of Darkness Ganon

The boss of all Link's enemies. He's a formidable foe.

Back cover

(Title) Family Computer Picture Book

(game)

(rules)

Move through the maze to get to the goal! Gather the letters to spell "Legend of Zelda" ("Ze-Ru-Da No De-N-Se-Tsu" I don't know if we should say letters and change them to English syllables, or say Kana and keep the Japanese symbols.)

(pictures)

Link

Start

Princess Zelda

Goal

(commercial advertisement)

Playable for children (brand name) Family Computer Picture Book (or Family Computer Disk System. series name)

This publication is appropriate for young children. The contents of all the books in this series reveal the details for different videogames and have child-appropriate puzzles, coloring activities, and mazes. Ask for other volumes in this series at your nearest bookstore.