Which Zelda hack for the nes would you deem the best?

For me Shadow of Night the Outlands.

Let me anti-recommend Legend of Link. It's technically pretty amazing (besides the slowdown) and otherwise a boring and uninspired Links Awakening overworld thing.

well, its snes, but LTTP Randomized can be fun. or frustrating. Basically the only change is the chests all give you an item at complete random

Awakening of Onyx. Outlands is close.

Legend of Link is incredible and Zelda Outlands is also incredible.

And there is a regular NES Zelda randomizer also, that I think you played at the marathon? That is a lot of fun too.

i would recommend playing Outlands

Outlands is great. There's also a new hack out called Ganon's Curse that looks pretty neat, but I haven't had the chance to play through it yet.

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3...

Outlands and Legend of Link are both worthy of checking out.

Outlands is great for the challenge and map variety.

Legend of Link is really neat for the technical achievement. Very easy if you're an experienced player, though.


Both games suffer from slowdown on real hardware, though.
(Outlands due to "overloaded" screens of enemies, Legend of Link due to the sprite-abuse that was needed to make the incredible-for-the-NES graphics actually function)

Outlands and Legend of Link are both fabulous! Honestly, I had more fun with Outlands than with the original Zelda II   Now, I would suggest you purchase Outlands from Flashback Entertainment since the owner (Ryan) really makes great stuff, is easy to speak with, and doesn't charge much. I got a CIB gold cartridge for something like $50 shipped. However, I don't know what exactly happened, but unfortunately the site is down...




ps "repro" is arguably a bit nicer of a term than "hack"  

Repro and hack are not synonymous. In fact I'd say hacks are held in higher esteem.

also came to recommend the Zelda Randomizer tool. It is probably my favorite thing.

Yup. 
 

I was not aware. What exactly are the distinctions?

 

Hack is the name for a game that's code / graphics / music is altered from the original game (thus not being original homebrew game that is coded from the scratch, but a hacked version of something already released). Repro = Reproduction, re-producing something, for example putting a game or hacked game into a physical cartridge, creating the label graphics and packaging for the game. Reproduction is the physical way of producing games, hacking is altering some original game to make it "a different game"... Hope this helped.  

 

Ah, I was thinking "repro" means reprogrammed  
I don't own any "reproduction" carts, but I still feel like "hack" is rather a poor testament to great games like Zelda Outlands. We need to find a better term...

 

They are sadly called hacks. I don't appreciate the term Homebrew my self either, when sometimes we are talking huge, complex and awesome GAMES people are still making for NES for example. Still, they are Homebrews, not "indie games" when they are made for retro platforms... Go and figure.  

 

A reproduction is an aftermarket physical copy of an existing game. It looks like (or is supposed to look like) the original, real thing. A dishonest bootleg, if you will.

A hack is a game with the code modified to change an existing game (the "reprogram" that you thought repro was short for). They might or might not be published on cartridges. Some are good, whole new games that use existing characters and engines (Zelda Outlands, Mario Adventure), some are jokes or experiments (Sonic Bros), and still others are somewhere in between (Strange Mario Bros, Mario Forever). It might feel unfair to call these all by the same name, but I don't think the term is pejorative by any means. Same with homebrew (completely new, wholly original games) (Battle Kid, The Mad Wizard) and demos (not games at all, but programs that try to make the hardware do new and interesting things with graphics and sound) (CMC80s, Aspekt): some are better, more impressive, aspire to greater heights than others. But being in the same category doesn't bring them down and they don't need to be called something else.

what people here call "hack", we in the PC world call "mod", short for modification.

Hey ne$_pimp!

I feel that everyone's best hack will be unique to their gaming angle, but aside from Outlands and Awakening of Onyx, which are brilliant, there's some very recent releases, one of which I found to be crushingly brutal from beginning to end, but I think that was by its maker's design called Link's Shadow found over at romhacking.net. Another recent release was Link's Revenge which I came across on Youtube wich was nice too, just had a small glitch at the very end of the first quest so I couldn't jump onto the second.

Link's Shadow is definitely one of my very new favorites, it just came out in April. It beat me up real badly too, and I loved its crazy-hard gameplay. Link's Revenge is much more toned down, so just take your pick from those two. Outlands is in between, as well as Awakening of Onyx.

I'll add that there are other fine hacks made which would qualify to be added to this short list, but I wanted to add some of the most recent ones I've enjoyed playing.