Wow, Nintendo was innovating even back in '85 (Jap Zelda)

[coltyhuxx]

Maybe (ok, probably) some of you Zeldaphiles might already know this but I was suprised to learn the following. The Japanese version (Famicom) version of the Legend of Zelda, Zelda no Densetsu, contained the same enemies as the US version - one in particular, you might recall, Pols Voice. He looked like a rabbit. I actually remember twenty years ago (although I can't remember what I did last night :roll: ) reading in the manual that he "hates loud noises." I remember trying to play the recorder, as I'm sure you did, but it had no effect. I always thought that was odd.

Well it turns there was defintely a reason for this clue, originally, at least. The instruction manual blurb was carried over in translation from the Famicom version which had a microphone built into the controller (!). If you blew or shouted into the mic the Pol's Voices would explode!

Pretty cool foreshadowing for Nintendos innovative standpoint, especially considering this was 1985!

http://www.algonet.se/~longbow/zelda/polvoice.gif

I was inspired to post this after someone posted in my other thread about the Star Tropics hardcopy note that you had to submerge in water in order to progress.

http://www.videogamesindonesia.com/labs/donkikun2/hvc_001_control2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~edoscuro/fc_zelda1_front.jpg

[GizmoGC]

No one else replied, but cool! Never seen/heard of that controller before.
I do have a funky Honey Bee NES controller with allows you to get sound through the controller.

[argyle]

Heh, I didn't know that either. You learn something new every-other-day. ;)

[trq]

Sonuva ... that's freaking cool. I had no idea. Thanks, OP.

[Snake2715]

That is cool...

So I wonder if on the VC and you download Zelda (US) if you will be able to use that feature? That would be sweet if they made slight changes like that.

[Ikohn4ever]

neat

[guyver2077]

nice

[whitereflection]

OP, I also recall using the recorder to fight the Pols Voice, but where did you hear that you could blow into the mic on the Famicom controller to defeat it? That's pretty amazing, and a bit hard to believe.

[Zing]

Not that Wikipedia is trustworthy, but here is its entry anyway:

Pols Voices are an unusual breed of rabbit-like enemies that have become common throughout many of the 2-D games of The Legend of Zelda series. They hop around rooms in search of prey and can only be killed by loud noise (in the Japanese Zelda no Densetsu, see below), thrown objects (Link's Awakening), or in rare cases, bombs (Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons).

A passage in the manual for The Legend of Zelda states that Pols Voices hate loud noises, however for non-Japanese players, this has been a source of confusion. The only item in the game that produces a sound, the recorder, has no effect on Pols Voice. The passage actually describes a feature of the Japanese Famicom version of the game; if the player made a sound into the Famicom controller's built-in microphone, Pols Voice would be slain. Possibly to compensate for the NES's lack of any audio input, Pols Voices are also instantly killed by arrows, which pass through them (instead of disappearing upon impact), allowing the player to slay many Pols Voices at once. (Pols Voices in The Legend of Zelda are often found in long line formations for this reason.)

Pols Voices are instantly destroyed by playing musical instruments in the Game Boy Zelda games.

It should be noted that a possible meaning of the name "Pols Voice" refers to a common programming term "to poll." "Polling" means to collect data or a value from some source, often times hardware. So, essentially, the character Pols Voice actually "polls voice" from the microphone.

[javeryh]

Awesome - I never knew that but I definitely remember that line from the instruction book (which I still have :D)...

[KaneRobot]

Thank god that wasn't in the NES version. I can just see myself at a friend's house around '87 staying up until 4 am playing Zelda and screaming into the microphone to try to get each other to laugh.

...resulting in a parent knocking on the door and telling us "JESUS CHRIST IT's QUARTER AFTER FOUR, NO. NOISE."

[Ecofreak]

I learned something new today. wOOt!

[j_factor]

The built-in mic was only in the second controller. The original Famicom didn't have removeable controllers. The second controller didn't have start or select buttons because of the microphone. That's why with some NES games and things there's some weirdness with 2P start not working and such. No Japanese games use the 2P start button (because it doesn't exist), but some US games do.