INTRO
I'm documenting the project of converting the world map from Zelda 2 into a game of Risk. I believe the idea of this project came about while discussing Zelda 2 with a friend over the phone. To be honest, I'm not sure why I picked Zelda 2 specifically. It's not one of my favorite games, but I think with the mountains and oceans, it was easy to sub-divide into countries. I think Final Fantasy VI (World Of Balance) would've looked cooler, but harder to subdivide. It would've also been tough to print out the map from the game, as the world is displayed in Mode7.

DESIGN / PLANNING
I began by searching ye old Internet for a world map. I believe I got one from Game Faqs. At this point, I had two separate maps, as the game splits the world between east and west. At first I printed out each half on a piece of paper and started dividing the world into "countries". I decided to save my progress digitally, and started dividing up the map in MS Paint. After much trial & error, I ended up with 42 countries, which is the same number as Risk (I think).

I also needed to make sure each country had its own name, as it would be lame to say, "I'm attacking from here to here", plus the whole cards/match/bonus thing would need country names. I was able to find a map online that had the city names on it, so I was able to create names for each country based off that. Some I just had to make up based on location/size. Here is a scale-down version of the final map. The full-size map is a 13Mb BMP.

I have finally played the first test game. It was a two-player game with a neutral enemy. It seemed to go fairly well (gameplay wise, as I totally lost). We also came up with what each continent bonus should be. I'm also contemplating added a new section of cards, which can be drawn from instead of the standard country cards (assuming you've captured one country during your turn). These extra cards could be one-time use, such as "get 4 bonus armies at the beginning of your next turn", or cards you keep, such as "earn 1 extra army at the beginning of each turn". To mix things up, there could also be negative cards, such as "lose a turn", or "only two attack dice allowed during your next turn". Fun.

COST / MATERIALS
Since most of this project was done in MS Paint, the majority of the project was "free". I endured some eye pain by staring at the computer screen for hours, however. Once the map was done, I took a quick trip to Kinkos to find out how much it would cost to print a digital picture onto some hard cardboard or foam. Based on the rough dimensions I gave them ("this by this", using my hands), they guessed it would be around $90. Arg. I thought that killed the project right there. I then realized that I could print it out at work, using several normal pages and taping them together. This is how I created my first prototype.

Another question I asked myself: "what about cards, pieces, etc?". I figured I could use the pieces from my Risk game at home, but wouldn't it be cool to have little Triforces, Links, Swords, etc? I then realized I have no idea how I would do that, so I gave up. But new cards would need to be made. The current plan is to create cards in Excel, and then somehow laminate them.

PROGRESS
So how long is this going to take? Once I had decided where countries would be split, the actual MS Paint work began. This took several hours to draw in all the individual lines. While doing so, I also decided to remove the boulders and spider that block Link's path during normal game play. If I can get the cards finished, and a decent printout of the map, I'll consider this project done.

updates / news
02/16/05 - Initial thought pops into my head.
02/18/05 - First draft of "countries".
02/24/05 - Combined East & West maps.
03/02/05 - Added country names to map.
06/03/05 - Touched up some missed lines.
08/10/05 - First prototype printed.
08/11/05 - Web page created.
08/18/05 - Prototypes of cards made.
08/19/05 - First test of gameplay. 1 2 It would seem that the borders are hard to see on the map I printed out. I may have to go back and thicken up the borders of each country (sigh).
08/22/05 - Started working on doubling up the thickness of the borders.

IN CLOSING...
Hopefully this idea will sweep the nation, and I'll become famous for being bored at work. For further dorkiness check out my Final Fantasy Latch Hook project. I have also submitted maps to vgmaps.com for Kid Icarus and Metal Gear. Drop me a line if you have any comments regarding my projects... FFLatchHook (@at) gmail (.dot) com

Also, if you'd like to know more about the man behind the project, visit my bio on this old band site, or the new band's website.

"Zelda" is copyright Nintendo
"MS Paint" & "Excel" are copyright Microsoft
"Risk" is copyright Parker Brothers