production staff. Whatever the legal status of the games, Nintendo has turned a blind eye to the existence of Satellaview emulations. Zelda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Triforce Between March 2, 1997 and May 29, 2000, St.GIGA frequently broadcast a ported version of the original Super Famicom The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, called in Japan. Unlike the BS Zelda broadcasts and Inishie no Sekiban, the Satellaview version of Kamigami no Triforce was not a SoundLink Game, did not feature the BS-X avatars as main characters (but rather used Link as in the original), and it was not divided into episodes. More importantly, it was not limited to play-through during a 1-hour block of "Zelda Time" but could instead be downloaded and played at the player's convenience. Whereas the BS Zelda games and Inishie no Sekiban were strictly limited to this 1-hour block and would be rendered unplayable after the time block had expired, the Satellaview version of Kamigami no Triforce (like a large number of other non-SoundLink titles for the Satellaview) instead utilized an internal play-through counter that would tick down from 5 to 0 for each time the game was played. On reaching 0, the game would be locked and would need to be re-downloaded in order to continue playing. Apart from the play-through limit and the fact that the game took a purely digital form, the differences between the Satellaview version and the original Super Famicom version of Kamigami no Triforce were exceptionally minor. Such differences include the addition of "header" info to the Satellaview version and the use of slightly different code for the start menu. Although these differences are minor, emulated versions of the Satellaview version of Kamigami no Triforce have been dumped and can be found online. Due to Nintendo's original partnership agreement with St.GIGA and because the Satellaview version of Kamigami no Triforce was not a SoundLink title, broadcasts of the game continued for several months after the dissolution of the partnership until St.GIGA finally ceased broadcasts in June 2000. Although the downloadable data was in fact material directly produced by Nintendo, this would mark the only time since Nintendo's deal with Philips in 1993 that Zelda video games would be distributed without the direct control of Nintendo. Broadcast dates Notes References External links The BS Zelda Homepage, a restoration project including playable versions of the BS Zelda games. RPGClassics' BS