I also would like to chime in and share my interest in being in on a first print run. Excellent stuff here.

I've loved reading about this project on this thread, and would love a copy when you're ready to sell!

I wish to consider any and all Zelda songs that are viable on the NES. Some fully orchestrated ones are too much polyphony for the console's sound limitations, but some tricks can help with this. I will look at the score to that track and see what can be done. Thank you for the suggestion! Added to the consideration pool.

I am currently only planning on doing a physical release by myself with money I have fronted myself. I have already purchased the donors and EPROMS for this and would not need anything upfront from a campain unless the demand starts becoming overwhelming. My aim is about 50 carts to start, and if people are still asking that can fund whatever remaining I need to fulfill, or second runs. I have no experience or knowledge how to do a crowdfunding campain, but may look into it if it seems like it is needed. I hope to just be able to take care of people as they come and make carts when I need them if the first pressing runs out. 
 

Well, I want one. So, there!

UPDATE 10: PPU Rendering Toggle. 

Wanted to give the user the option to turn off rendering for the cleanest audio experience possible. The PPU makes an awful racket sometimes   

This sounds excellent, I'd definitely be interested in one!

As soon as this is a thing that I can buy, I will 100% buy it! And it sounds like two of my three favorite Zelda tracks on on here (Tal Tal Heights and the Dark World theme from LttP.) So as for a suggestion, the temple theme from Zelda II would be amazing!

There are a few guys around here like retrousb and INL who sells the boards that also do distribution deals I think--might be worth considering for a low effort general/second release. Also recommend checking out Harry fox or similar to try and aquire a mechanical license.

Looks like a cool project!

This sounds proper boffo. If this counts for anything, please mark me down as registered for the pre-order (whenever the pre-order is announced).

Have you already coded all 21 tracks that you have listed above? If you find yourself a bit pinched for space, don't forget about the possibility of releasing a sequel with more tracks!

I am definitely interested in this one.

Thank you! I have already added all of the tracks in the Currently Finished section of the top post. I have been trying to keep my space saving techniques sharp, by using the tools available in ppMCK like bank assigning tracks, and |:Brackets  (<- How do I prevent emoticons? this is annoying.) for saving redundant data. Also on parts of the NSF files that ultimately have padding that I could not fit more tracks into, I put trivial stuff in there like palattes, and nametables. I know it's not the most elegant solution, but splitting a nsf binary right before the padding starts (taking note of the address), and splitting it again right before the padding ends allows me to use .incbin on my code and just reassemble it at those address from the original nsf and then use that padded space for whatever I want. I am though, as you say, using plenty of memory with as many tracks as there are. But luckily UNROM has many banks to utilize. I may extend things out to the full 8 banks available if I run out of my originally projected 64kb (4 banks). 
 

Yeah, man, put me down for a copy when you're ready. Looking good.

This is great!

Totally interested as well! Keep up the awesomeness

Thank you all for the positivity. ^_^ Not much asm left for me to really make updates about, but I'm still a busy bee working on the MML and adding tracks. Currently liking the direction Astral Observatory is alowing me to take it. Unfinished, but it's coming together. 

Wow! Great project. I would love to join in on a couple cart purchases of this. I must also say you have most excellent taste in CRTs with the Hello Kitty and PVM you're rolling.

A possible solution for more complicated tracks could be to use an old C64 trick that people used to do where they made a Left and Right version of a song and then played both back at the same time using 2 C64s and 2 sets of speakers. It made for some outlandishly awesome SID tunes. I'm sure folks here would love to roll 2 NESs and 2 of your carts to accomplish something similar (I know I would).

Thank you! I am a bit of a PVM/BVM geek. I'm about to get my RGB NES up and running soon as a matter of fact. Can't wait for crisp scanline NES goodness.

And yes, I keep my trusty hello kitty crt as a sanity check. Keeping a consumer tube around is ideal for seeing what the average person might see on their screen.

While dual NES would be sick, keeping them in sync and such woud not be as easy as a SID2SID setup (Which I usually rock with a MSSIAH and Cynthcart rig. I have a dual 6581 breadbin and a dual 8580 c64C).

For complex stuff, I actually had MMC5 on my radar (maybe later down the line). I have a few Laser Invasion carts to mess about with and see if the two extra pulse channels will work for another release. Bad news is I think the user would have to mod their NES to hear the extra MMC5 channels on a US NES. 
 

I know it's been crickets from me for a few months. I took some time away from the code cause personal life just gets in the way. Also, just to recharge. But I've been back working for a while in the background now and I'm finalizing my track list, fixing a few bugs I found when torture testing the rom, and adding a few last minute things to put a nice bow on everything. Currently going to be working on what I'm going to do as far as labels, and continue gathering and de-soldering donors so I can create a large enough release to satisfy everyone who may want one. I have about 35 carts ready to receive burned roms, but ideally I want around 50 or more carts to start with.

Things that have changed:
I had to move to 128Kb EPROMS (27C010). Ran out of space on the 27C512 chips.
Changed mirroring to horizontal.
Added two more songs one can activate on the pause screen to roll credits. (Ballad of the Windfish, Link to the Past Credits, and Zelda's Lullaby)


Anyways. Should hopefully get that sorted and have some more news related to estimated release dates in the foreseeable future. I want to have them all made first before I can promise anything like that.

Anyone have suggestion one where to get afforable labels printed if I am not willing to do the work myself? 
 

customstickermakers.com

Product: Cut Out Stickers
Sticker Width: 2.185
Sticker Height: 3.85
Cut Options: Cut-out
Border Type: Bleed Color to Edge
Sticker Shape: Rectangle with Rounded Corners

You are a diamond, Thank you. This is perfect. 

 

I'm currently mulling over changing the artwork to remove the iconic but Trademarked "The Legend of Zelda" logo. Anyone have thoughts? Does it still look 'Zelda-like' enough? Do you know of any fan releases that have used this sort of logo with no issues? Basically trying to see if this is overkill or if the best move. 

Currently looking into mechanical licensing to be as legal as possible. It turns out licensing is very expensive for 30 tracks and will make it very difficult to break out of the red, but it is the only way I can think of to help ensure the project doesn't get pulled by the big N. Some changed art below. 


 

If I recall correctly, I thought someone had made a little adaptor that can plug into the expansion port on the bottom of the NES to enable expansion sound. This was a consumer friendly solution that got around the necessity to mod the system.

 

I think that was Muramasa.  Maybe it was RetroUSB or Infinite NES Lives.  

 

Looks like the one I’m talking about is called an ENIO exp board:


 

I think it looks great and gets the point across.  Very excited for a cart release.