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A very impressive hack from a technical perspective that I definitely recommend to all LoZ fans, not just the hardcore. The description tells you all you need to know about what this hack is, and makes for a very interesting Binding of Isaac-like trek through 255 floors. The enemies themselves function mostly identical to the base game, so strong knowledge of the game mechanics helps a lot in being able to complete what in my case, mostly came out to a little over an hour per run. As with all Rogue-lites, there is a good deal of luck involved, with items like sword upgrades and the rings making the run much easier if they are encountered early.

This is hands-down the best rom hack for the original NES Zelda. The dungeon is random every time, making for infinite replay value. Why does this not get talked about enough?

This takes the classic game and breathes new life into it by providing a Rougelike Experience with the classic dungeons of the Legend of Zelda, the different seeds provide endless possibilities for the play through, if you like the Legend of Zelda, this provides an on the go experience that always feels new because of how the dungeons are generated. Give this one a go if you long for a play of the classic, but don't want inherent predictability.

I can not recommend this ROM hack enough, if you are a fan of a similar title such as the Binding of Isaac, then this is a must play for you! I love how this hack brings a new approach to the game as a whole, but also adds new items and enemies as you go. Not just that, but the door randomization also makes it even better then before, its Zelda without any backtracking!

This is a completely different game. I am super impressed that this works as well as it does. It feels like a version of Binding of Isaac. Very easy to get in and play for a while and then take a break. It is fun seeing how many rooms you completed and in what time. If you love Dungeon Crawlers I highly recommend this game.

I read some other reviews and I agree with others. The music is the only thing holding this hack back. I wish the rooms would have different music. It could be tied to the color of the room. I would love to hear Zelda tracks or even tracks from other games. This is the only thing that I could see improving this amazing game.

This is an amazing hack that everyone should play!

I haven't been able to put this hack down. It's just a great concept, allowing me to traverse randomly generated rooms in an endless dungeon. I introduced this to several friends, and we've all been taking turns trying to outdo each other's records.

I liked the palette-changing aspect of the 2.0 release. That gives the experience a bit more personality. And while the original LoZ only had the one dungeon theme, it got tiring pretty quickly. That's why I really appreciated the ability to turn the music off in the 2.0 release.

But on the topic of the music, I had an idea that might help give the hack a bit more personality moving forward. Would it be possible to import songs from various NES games and apply them to the different levels/palettes of the dungeons? Imagine the adventurous dread of hearing the underground theme from Startropics while navigating room to room, or moving cautiously towards the next boss as Kraid's theme from Metroid loops for the next 20 rooms or so.

The NES has an expansive library of good monster-slashin', room crawling hits that could accompany the player in their quest to defeat the Ancient Dungeon. Regardless, the game is a hit as it is, and I'm very grateful for the time, effort and execution put into this hack. Even if it doesn't see another revision, it will keep me & my friends entertained for a long time.

I grew up with the SNES, so the original Zelda never really clicked with me. But this hack in short bursts is something I have enjoyed for quite some time now. Now with 2.0 it's gotten even better. Thank you for a fun new way to play the game!

This hack interprets the events of Zelda as a strict roguelike dungeon crawl. All the overworld segments, interactions and information gathering from the vanilla game are absent. Instead, Link is dumped in the middle of an ever changing dungeon where each room has a chance to reward him with hearts, rupees or the occasional new tool for his repertoire. So many rooms in, Link will face a boss, collect another heart container, then move into a series of even more challenging rooms. The overall objective is to survive 255 rooms in total, ultimately culminating in a confrontation with Ganon himself.

While 255 is an ostensibly high number of rooms to explore, the game moves at a pretty comfortable pace, and there shouldn't be any issues clearing the entire dungeon in one sitting - which you'll have to do, because there's no way to save and resume your progress. Should you die, you'll be forced to forfeit your items and restart the dungeon from the very beginning.

The conditions for enemy appearance seem pretty well thought out. If an enemy would require a specific item to dispatch, then said enemy won't appear until Link has actually obtained that item. That isn't to say the hack doesn't sometimes place the player in unfair situations, though. Some enemies do appear long before they have any business to, and while it's not impossible to defeat them, it's an unnecessary tedium that could be averted with a little extra balance to the game's conditional logic.

Verdict: Is this hack worth your time? Absolutely. There's only so much replay value to be found in the vanilla game, and most hardcore Zelda fans have already mastered common challenges like 3-heart runs and swordless questing. Re-imaging the game as a roguelike experience ensures virtually endless replay value.

Now, onto a few humble suggestions and observations:

- Allowing pols voice to appear before the player obtains the white sword or the recorder is just plain evil. It takes far too many hits to defeat them with the wooden sword, and none of Link's other tools (recorder aside) can damage them. The author might consider decreasing the health of this enemy to compensate for their sometimes early appearance.

- The rate of treasure acquisition feels a tad too conservative. Coming up on 80 rooms in with only the wooden sword and some bombs at my disposal definitely leaves something to be desired.

- Wallmasters could be added back in, but change their logic so that instead of taking Link back to a previous room, they simply grapple him in the same way like-likes do.

- Perhaps the author could work in a way for some rooms to contain push-able blocks leading into basements where the player can collect a treasure. (It shouldn't be necessary for the player to exit back into the same room they were previously in. Exiting could always deposit the player inside the next random chamber instead.)

- Spike traps could be added back in using the configuration that allows them to appear in the middle of the room rather than adjacent to any entrance points. Some of the dungeons in the vanilla game had spike traps in a mid-room position. I can't foresee this being a problem.

- Warp zone rooms could be added, following a similar structure to those seen in the vanilla overworld. Entering a stair warp would move the player ahead several rooms at their own peril. This could be useful later on, after the player has confidently collected enough items to push ahead with the Ganon fight.

I just completed the first quest and will play a run with the second quest later, but I have to say that I am surprised that this wasn't attempted until now. Before I was hesitant but after the latest update, I gave this a shot.

I felt the randomness was fair (more or less) and the way my run played out made sense. I lucked out and got the wand early on so it made the rest of the game easier for me, especially when the book upgrade came in clutch to kill stronger enemies much faster. I didn't get much use out of the boomerang as it was just there more or less, and the candle was just slow and not useful in many situations until I got the red one and it helped a bit. Beyond that, it was all good from there.

Wow..it gets better. Sometimes as a hacker you see a hack, and play it, and think to yourself, "I wish I had made this hack." This is one of those times. Honestly great hack. The new additions in v2.0 make this a great time to jump in if you haven't played this yet. Zelda hackers continue to impress with amazing hacks and this one is no different.

This hack is really fun and challenging, but the item cycling is actually worse than the start menu. It only cycles in one direction (since L and R don't exist on NES) and also forces me to remove my thump off the d-pad to hit select. I think the start menu should be brought back with the added QOL of making it either scroll faster or just pop up immediately. Other than that, great hack.

This game isn't for your average completionist Zelda 1 player, but it does provide a challenge to unlearn and relearn Zelda 1 strats.

I've been playing this for a couple of hours and it's really fun, I love this new take on an old classic. Also it's compatible with some graphics only hacks for extra flavor, patch the graphics hacks first. ;)

Alotta replay value? It's here, so put on your Link hat and best busy with this hack, it's really enjoyable.

I don't think I've ever played a rogue-like or anything like it, but this take on the original Zelda is brilliant! It feels like an arcade edition of Zelda 1- how far can you get this time? I like the randomization of it all, so it's never the same experience each time, and I can enjoy the Zelda 1 experience without committing to a full playthrough of the original game. It's now my go-to game to pick up and play when I have time to focus on playing. I'm definitely looking forward to any future versions that come out. I highly recommend anyone who plays games to give this a try- the new gameplay structure has made Zelda 1 a much more accessible and fun experience!

Now what if something similar was made for the other 2D Zeldas...?

I had a feeling, it go up to 255. That was kinda fun, and I love how I was able to buy the best items for only 63 rupees. lol I do agree with the other reviews though, with change of dungeon pallette, music, etc. It's cool how you get Ancient Dungeon+ after you beat it once!

That was my first thoughts when playing this... I mean, that's really what it is! It's amazing, and feels eerily close to playing The Binding of Isaac on the NES(which if I recall, someone attempted to do as a homebrew project years ago.) Recommended!

I love playing randomized games (especially LOZ) and this is an awesome one because you don't have to keep making different roms each time. Super fun!

And now, of course, the constructive criticism... Like others have said, a palette change every so many rooms or every boss or whatever would be cool... as far as the music, there are basically four songs in the game so maybe a randomized one of those four when the palette changes would be cool... also, just for the sake of making it your own, maybe change the scroll at the beginning to either be your own story of this or maybe just a description of the game itself or something, and a new winning screen, just to make it different... and I feel like if there is a way to show the highest score so far when you die as well as your current score would be cool... and if you can figure out how to do this with other top-down zelda games that would be amazing!

Thanks again for this!

I played through the whole first quest in my first try and I had fun, but I have to say that it did get boring after a while. Seems like the difficulty didn't ratchet up quickly enough and I was really going through the motions by the end. Would be cool if the color of the level randomized every so often like Tetris.

Fun idea, definitely worth a play, but the replay value is low for me. Everyone should try it, though. I'd\'ve been really excited to try again if it was like half as long. I couldn't figure out the purpose of getting the ladder aside from a few isolated rooms that didn't appear until I had the ladder anyway.

This is a really fun hack that lends a lot of promise for things to come. Was a great stream playing this earlier trying to get as far as I could. Excellent work here. Very polished. Would like to see more features for future iterations.

One suggestion I have is could we get an option to disable music, but leave the SFX intact? 3 hours of that dungeon theme was starting to make my head spin, lol.

Great work here! Hope this also gets a RetroAchievements set!

What a wonderful idea! And LoZ works perfectly as an underlying engine for a dungeon-diving roguelike.

My furthest run made it to room #61 and lasted about 20 minutes.

I think this is an great idea and could be a MUST PLAY with some small tweaks. So here are my suggestions in no particular order.

• If you want to stick with the dungeon theme (no overworld rooms), I suggest changing the dungeon's color palette every so many rooms. Maybe every 6-10? Also, and this is even more important if you stick with dungeon rooms only: the music. I'd honestly suggest modding in some other NES game dungeon themes and swapping those every time the color palette changes. These two changes would go a long way toward making the game playable for long stretches.

• I know the exits don't really matter, however, it would be cool if there were secretly walls you could bomb or stairs that appeared when pushing blocks. And those exits could lead to some rest/refresh rooms.

• If you're not opposed to it, I would suggest alternating dungeon and overworld sections. This helps with the music issue (though I still think you should incorporate more music) and helps vary the visuals as well. Be sure to have 6-10 room themes on the overworld as well: forest, desert, mountain, beach, etc. Overworld rooms would obviously play differently than the dungeons since the player can choose to ignore enemies and continue onward, but that also helps breakup the gameplay loop.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I really enjoyed what this hack offers and my suggestions/criticisms only come from a place of love. This is an incredible starting point and I think you're really on to something here!

Randomization has been a successful tool for breathing new life into older video games. What you get from Ancient Dungeon is pure dungeon crawling action. Every time you pass through a door (even if you think you'll retrace your steps), you wind up in a brand new room with monsters just begging to be defeated.

The gameplay translates well, incorporating all the items and upgrades you get from the base game as rewards for defeating the interspersed boss monsters or by paying up at strange old men. Those peahats sure take a long time to land, though.

The pacing seemed surprisingly well-done when I played. I wonder if they knew how many screens the average player traverses on their quest to save the princess. Apparently you only encounter rooms which require certain items once you acquire those items, which I unfortunately did not get to experience in my playthroughs, unless you count Dodongos. The problem is, you only get eight bombs from the get-go as in the original game, but there's no backing out of a room until the bosses are defeated, so if you miss three times on the triple Dodongo fight, or you just don't bring enough bombs with you, I would imagine you're up a creek.

Downsides? Well, the first that comes to mind is the music. I made it to room 100, and only got the same dungeon theme, which, while moody and evocative, is terribly short, and it eventually gets to be quite repetitive. There aren't many songs in Zelda 1, perhaps.

The other issue is the visuals. Oh, there's nothing wrong with them, but after a while you're liable to get bored staring at the same blue palette. It would be interesting if they could perhaps randomize a palette after each boss, or something along those lines. Many people might not want to reach room 100 when their tolerance for repetition ranks too high. To a lesser extent, this also applies to room layouts, which borrow from the original game's. I wonder if it would be too much of a digression from the source material to spice things up now and again with something we haven't seen before.

Still, this is a fantastic feat, and a welcome addition to the growing collection of randomizers available for older titles. This game still packs quality gameplay and cunning challenges that are bound to test your abilities, if maybe also your patience.