In the past four years, CD-i member Dopply was working on a secret CD-i project that he uncovered today: He created a remastered version of Link: Faces of Evil and Zelda: Wand of Gamelon. It is similar to the project of CD-i member Shikoteit who developed a PC version of The Apprentice, using the original assets. CD-i member Dopply: "So, I decided to make re-imagined versions of the 1993 CD-i classics "The Faces of Evil" and "The Wand of Gamelon". They are remakes using original assets, available for free download to play on Windows and Linux. Find the download links below.
Dopply: "I definitely underestimated the challenge (after all, it took me about 4 years in my spare time). Thankfully, the nature of the originals made a remake using the original assets easier to pull off and hide some of the coding amateurity that I’d definitely redo if starting from scratch nowadays." Dopply considered recreating Hotel Mario and Zelda's Adventure in the same way, but the assets were not as thoroughly ripped as Link: Faces of Evil and Zelda: Wand of Gamelon. Dopply: "These two games had potential. I’m ready to move on to original games."
When you download the games you'll notice there are some differences from the original CD-i games, but they still capture the game spirit very closely. Dopply: "Features include widescreen mode, remastered mode for less frustrating play, subtitles, touched up sprites, unlockables, and more. They are not 1:1 remakes, with many differences, but I believe they capture the spirit. I developed these over the course of 4 years in Game Maker as an exercise to teach myself game development and fulfill an in-joke between friends. As an amateur effort, the programming got a little rough, but hey, it works, and I learned a ton in the process. Assets were ripped by the community, testing done by close friends, and special assistance by an amazing fellow (who wishes to remain private) that without, this project wouldn't be possible. Big shout out to@geibuchan for amazing work creating custom sprites for an unlockable."
Dopply continues: "Due to the nature of the titles I don't intend on releasing any future updates. These are the final games. You can read more about everything here: http://bit.ly/2USZjeN If you want to support me, I run a gaming Discord I'd love more people to join: I considered it but Hotel Mario's assets haven't been completely ripped like these games have. Moreover, I want to move on to original projects after this. If you have a high-refresh monitor, you’ll need to set your refresh rate to 60 Hz. Same goes for it if you have a refresh rate lower than 60. These are not 1:1 remakes. They were remade from scratch, so movement, enemy spawns, and a litany of other things will be different. They are based off of the originals and mimic them very closely...as mentioned, speed of movement, slight collision differences, and frequency and some locations of enemy spawns will be different. The “source code” in this case would be GameMaker project files, but these will not be available, just the executables."
Windows: bit.ly/372xzdh
Many credits to the following people for making this possible:
- KirroBomber/LuigiBlood
- SuperArthurBros
- TZMG
- Pyro Demon
- Geibuchan