Support NeoGAF

[Mudron]

Hey all - my name is Bill Mudron, and if you're a Zelda fan, you may have seen the map of NES Hyrule I drew a few years back to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first Zelda game (that map was featured in Nintendo Power shortly before the magazine shut down).

While lots of people dug that NES Hyrule map, a lot of those people asked me to create a map print of Hyrule as seen in A Link to the Past, and so after a few months of work, here it is:

The map is 24x36 inches (6 square feet, or roughly half the size of a refrigerator) and comes in two flavors: labeled and unlabeled (the labeled version contains text and icons depicting place names and resource locations) while the unlabeled version is buck-naked and depicts Hyrule just as you would see it in-game.

Pre-orders will remain open until late September (along with pre-orders for reprints of all the other gaming maps in my shop) and I'll start shipping prints in the first week of October, which means everybody who nabs one should have their map in hand long before A Link to the Past 2 is released in November.

 

[klausbert]

Didn't ALTTP already come with a printed map?

 

[Mariolee]

"It's dangerous to go alone. Take this!"

 

[KakesuSora]

This is really beautiful

 

[SuperSah]

Stunning. Well done!

 

[GulAtiCa]

That is gorgeous! I'm pre-ordering the unlabel one.

 

[Whimsical Phil]

Hey all - my name is Bill Mudron, and if you're a Zelda fan, you may have seen the map of NES Hyrule I drew a few years back to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first Zelda game (that map was featured in Nintendo Power shortly before the magazine shit down).

...

It's also worth noting that Bill was the guy who drew the final Nester comic in the last issue of Nintendo Power.

 

[Mudron]

...

It's also worth noting that Bill was the guy who drew the final Nester comic in the last issue of Nintendo Power.

Wow, that was a faux-Freudian slip if there ever was one.

 

[Christopher]

What the heck is that thing on top of hyrule castle was that always there?

 

[Brandon F]

Just clicked the link to your NES version. After years of Phil peddling your work on the Player 1 podcast, I finally got a look at what all the hubbub was about. Beautiful work and I will be placing an order for that old print this weekend.

Now do Clu Clu Land!

 

[Mudron]

What the heck is that thing on top of hyrule castle was that always there?

That's a crest I added myself - if you look at maps of Hyrule that were cobbled together from screencaps of the game you'll see that there are lots of bits of the in-game world that either don't fit together correctly from a top-down perspective or are missing altogether - for instance, you never see what the "top" of Hyrule Castle looks like, and so I had to make it up myself.

The same with the top of the Pyramid of Power - it didn't make any sense to draw the sunset silhouette of Death Mountain hanging right behind the top of the pyramid like you'd see it in-game, so I just made that sunset a reflection in the water around the base of the pyramid instead.

 

[Neiteio]

Wow, this is AMAZING!

 

[Platy]

Expected more cartography and less vgmaps.com

Still cool =D

 

[Dominic_Shade]

Oh god, I need this. And that Mushroom Kingdom SNES/NES era map. If only I weren't broke. ;_;

These are seriously good pieces of work though. =D I'd love to see these hanging on my wall someday.

 

[The Lamonster]

Amazing work, dude. Your 25th Anniversary piece has been a favorite of mine for a long time

 

[Lucent]

60lbs? That's a heavy "poster". How would you suggest hanging these on a wall without damaging the poster? I don't like poking holes in posters so I usually get frames.

 

[Manabanana]

60lbs? That's a heavy "poster". How would you suggest hanging these on a wall without damaging the poster? I don't like poking holes in posters so I usually get frames.

60lbs is not the weight of the paper...

 

[Lucent]

60lbs is not the weight of the paper...

lol oh sorry. Umm...what does it refer to then?

 

[Mudron]

60lbs? That's a heavy "poster". How would you suggest hanging these on a wall without damaging the poster? I don't like poking holes in posters so I usually get frames.

60lbs is just the paper weight (what 1000 sheets of said paper weighs when cut to a certain size, if I remember correctly) - it's a thick paper, almost cardstock, but a 24x36-inch print still weighs only a few ounces and is easily framable, no worries there.

 

[Lucent]

60lbs is just the paper weight (what 1000 sheets of said paper weighs when cut to a certain size, if I remember correctly) - it's a thick paper, almost cardstock, but a 24x36-inch print still weighs only a few ounces and is easily framable, no worries there.

Oh okay. Yeah I was gonna say. That just sounded ridiculous. XD I feel kind of dumb even saying that.

Gonna consider getting one of these. ALTTP is still my favorite Zelda. And I've played pretty much all of them.

 

[A Serious Man]

The 10 year-old in me is freaking out right now. Gorgeous.

 

[Luigison]

Any chance you'll offer framing or give suggestions for framing?

If I used a metal backed frame would magnets stick to it through the glass and poster? I'm think it be even cooler to have Link and other sprite magnets to move around the map without damaging it. (I have a few different sets of Mario game sprites for my fridge.) Does anyone know if there are similar Link/Zelda sprites that would be the correct size for this poster?

How does your map compare to the one that came with the game? (Assuming there was one. I don't recall.)

 

[Dash Kappei]

Uhmmmm... $63 shipped seems steep considering there's no framing at all, but maybe the print is of very high quality, have no idea. They are indeed awesome, considering purchasing a couple.

 

[Mudron]

Any chance you'll offer framing or give suggestions for framing?

If I used a metal backed frame would magnets stick to it through the glass and poster? I'm think it be even cooler to have Link and other sprite magnets to move around the map without damaging it. (I have a few different sets of Mario game sprites for my fridge.) Does anyone know if there are similar Link/Zelda sprites that would be the correct size for this poster?

How does your map compare to the one that came with the game? (Assuming there was one. I don't recall.)

I've attached maps to curtain backings using magnets, so I know magnets will work on paper+cloth, but I'm not quite sure if magnets will work through paper+glass (I suspect it won't, unless that's some REALLY thin glass).

I haven't read the original instruction manual that came with LTTP since it first came out over 20 years ago, but I *am* using the Nintendo Power Player's Guide from that era, cross-checked with other maps online and my own playthroughs of the game.

 

[Mudron]

Uhmmmm... $63 shipped seems steep considering there's no framing at all, but maybe the print is of very high quality, have no idea. They are indeed awesome, considering purchasing a couple.

I know I'm biased in saying this, but yeah, the prints are really high-quality (giclee on super-thick, almost cardstock paper) made by an industrial print company here in Portland, Oregon that produces prints for a lot of professional cartoonists in town. Printing like this tends to cost around $7 per square foot (which works out to $42 per map print), so God knows I'm not making a fortune off of these things - people seem to dig these maps and they're fun to draw, though, so I try to make them as relatively "cheap" as possible for folks to buy.

 

[Jackano]

Very cool work. I pinned it, doubt it will get you sales but at least some exposure!

 

[Frostburn]

Didn't know a Gaffer made the NES map. I have mine framed and hanging up in my house I'll have to edit this post with a picture when I get home from work! Awesome job man, I think I'll need to get the new map to go next to the other one.

 

[atbigelow]

Curious to what other areas you had to fix to line up properly. Looks pretty amazing.

 

[Elfteiroh]

I'm not even a big fan of Zelda, and yet that map looks beautiful! It makes me want to play the game... I should really, before the new game come out... As soon as I have money I'm buying one! (question: Are you shipping to Canada, and if yes, will it cost a lot? Recently the shipping prices have gotten very high and I'm curious...)

 

[Kontergurke]

It's been a while since I last played ALLTP, but isn't the top part of Hyrule castle supposed to be a tall tower with 6 floors at least?
I mean, it's not really important as the in-game overview map doesn't show this tower either.
It's only mentioned by the priest and the fact that you climb six floors to reach Agahnim at the top of the tower.

 

[Mudron]

Curious to what other areas you had to fix to line up properly. Looks pretty amazing.

The biggest problem areas were Death Mountain and Lost Woods/Skull Forest on either side of the map - it seems as if those areas don't quite perfectly fit into the rest of either overworld, and so I masked some of the seams joining Death mountain to the rest of the world with some extra clouds, and I had to slightly reposition the Lost Woods/Skull Forest on their respective halves of the map.

I'm surprised at how well the rest of the map DOES fit together though, considering that Miyamoto & co probably never expected anyone to eventually be able to create pixel-perfect sprite-ripped maps of the game.

 

[Mudron]

I'm not even a big fan of Zelda, and yet that map looks beautiful! It makes me want to play the game... I should really, before the new game come out... As soon as I have money I'm buying one! (question: Are you shipping to Canada, and if yes, will it cost a lot? Recently the shipping prices have gotten very high and I'm curious...)

Yep, I ship to Canada - shipping across the border costs $12, and yeah, you're right, before January, it would've only cost half that much to ship a map to Canada, but then the United States Postal Service went nuts and pretty much doubled the cost of all international shipping.

 

[Mudron]

It's been a while since I last played ALLTP, but isn't the top part of Hyrule castle supposed to be a tall tower with 6 floors at least?
I mean, it's not really important as the in-game overview map doesn't show this tower either.
It's only mentioned by the priest and the fact that you climb six floors to reach Agahnim at the top of the tower.

You never get to see the top of Hyrule Castle in the overworld, but I did design this big six-tiered thing with statues representing the other six maidens (aside from Zelda herself), but it was just too big (and covered up a lot of the cemetery/sanctuary stuff behind the castle), and so I stripped all that out and put a simple crest (essentially the same giant Triforce crest found in Skyward Sword's desert sanctuary) on top of he castle instead.

I suppose you can assume that the six floors you have to climb to reach Agahnim exist in some hammer-space reality created by Agahnim's magic or....something. Something something?

 

[Glix]

Great work, man. I don't know if I'll have the coin for this, or if the gf would let me frame and hang them in our tiny apartment, but they are beautiful.

 

[Parallacs]

Just a heads up: your labeled map has the print description listed twice.

It looks great though. Great job!

 

[Elfteiroh]

Yep, I ship to Canada - shipping across the border costs $12, and yeah, you're right, before January, it would've only cost half that much to ship a map to Canada, but then the United States Postal Service went nuts and pretty much doubled the cost of all international shipping.

Only 12$ ? Cool! I was dreading a price closer to 20-25$ to be frank! I might buy it sooner than I thought!
Next week I'll probably make my pre-order. Thanks for the info!

 

[Mama Robotnik]

Really, really great work!

 

[metsallica]

Bought a couple, amazing work sir.

 

[Mudron]

Just a heads up: your labeled map has the print description listed twice.

It looks great though. Great job!

Fixed! Thanks for the tip.

 

[Drac]

Do you ship to Europe (France) ? I have a big white wall that would be interested

 

[Glip_Glop]

Your Art Deco 11th Dr. is beautiful.

 

[majorscud]

Looks awesome. Makes the wait for the new 3DS Zelda even harder.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

Think I may have to buy The Last Guardian print.
The Castlevania one is also exceedingly badass.

 

[Mudron]

Do you ship to Europe (France) ? I have a big white wall that would be interested

Yep! I ship everywhere - Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia - even to Detroit!

 

[Mudron]

Looks awesome. Makes the wait for the new 3DS Zelda even harder.

Yeah, I had done the basic layout of the Link to the Past map design last year, but the announcement of LTTP 2 spurned me on to actually finish it.

I got to play LTTP 2 at PAX was happy to find that at least giant chunks of the overworld seem pretty much the same.

 

[Mudron]

Think I may have to buy The Last Guardian print.
The Castlevania one is also exceedingly badass.

Thanks - I spent all last fall working on the Castlevania print in the hopes of getting it done before Halloween, but it took a lot longer to finish that I had anticipated. I finished it on Halloween afternoon, which was obviously a little too late to have prints of it made, but I'm glad to have it available this year in time for spook season.

 

[Mudron]

Just a note that I'm submitting all orders to the printer tomorrow (and will start shipping maps out next week)!

http://mudron.tumblr.com/post/62050380449/fyi-im-taking-pre-orders-for-reprints-of-all-of

Also, I've posted higher-res versions of the labeled/unlabeled versions of the A Link to the Past Map here:


zelda 3 labeled by mudron, on Flickr


zelda 3 unlabeled by mudron, on Flickr

 

[Draft]

Hyrule was really a magical place to explore back when everyone didn't talk so much.

 

[Mudron]

Hyrule was really a magical place to explore back when everyone didn't talk so much.

While replaying the game for these maps I was surprised at how much NPCs *do* talk (I've played a lot more LoZ/AoL thank ALTTP).

 

[Kanyon]

Dude, this is some fantastic work!