During the holiday season, we’re republishing select articles from Nintendo Life writers and contributors as part of our Best of 2023 series. Enjoy!
The year is 1991. ‘Video games’ – the square-shaped plastic cartridges that millions of people blow into every day – are taking over the early adopters. However, they do not know that their precious investment has been counted. The mighty Kyoto company rules the industry today, but a new laser-based challenger is lurking in the bushes.
Is it the mighty Sony PlayStation? No, three more years. Is that a Sega CD? Well, actually, it’s coming in a couple of days. But today, December 3, 1991, the Philips CD-i has arrived. Its name stands for ‘Compact Disc-Interactive’, suggesting that the device plays CDs, of course, but it can also play video games… though not very well.
Maybe you’ve heard of The Legend of Zelda? There will be three such games! They will be absolutely terrible by any measure possible. The creators of Zelda will actually give them up. And aside from the hatred for these Zelda games, soon hardly anyone will remember the CD beyond the abyss of his almost a billion dollar loss for its creators.
Now is the year 2023. The technological landscape is a tapestry of technical wizardry. Huge digital worlds fit in people’s pockets. Ray tracking, facial recognition and sharp resolution displays are common. Games are played by players separated by oceans. Meanwhile, virtual reality is coming into focus.
All the while, a game developer named Seth Fulkerson (some affectionately call him “Dopply”) is ready to release Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore, an old-fashioned platformer video game built from the ground up to faithfully emulate the quirky, often hilarious games once released on Philips CDs, to be exact Link: Faces of Evil and Zelda: Wand of Gamelon. And he couldn’t be more serious about it.
The game demo at PAX West 2023 is proof that no detail is too small to work on, from the perfect reimagining of those games’ visual elements, to the main character’s floating physics, to the fully animated cutscenes — some of which are completely hidden unless you you do not discover. (That’s a lot of work for an Easter egg.)
Fulkerson spoke to Nintendo Life about Arzette, which is being published by retro gaming connoisseurs Limited Run, and its release is currently listed as “coming soon.” We talked about where his niche obsession came from, how he improved the original recipe, and who he surprisingly hired to bring his unusual vision to life.
Alan Lopez for Nintendo Life: I’ve never asked this question before, though it’s really not meant to be vindictive… I’ve never played an actual video game whose source material is generally regarded as such clean bad. How do you make something ‘good’, so to speak, out of something that people generally don’t find much value in?
Seth “Dopply” Fulkerson: I actually find a lot of real potential in those original games that some people think are bad. Yes, they have a bunch of flaws. They definitely are really deficient. But I love the linear/non-linear combination of how the levels are laid out.
[CD-i games] they usually have linear levels based on degrees, then go back and find power-ups, items and stuff, then go back again. [Then] you find new paths and new objects, which I like. And I really like the visual style. I love hand-painted backgrounds, super-detailed sprites… I find scenes that some people find disgusting to be actually super interesting and charming.
I never set out to make a ‘bad’ game while working on Arzette. I knew I could take those genuine bits of potential from those original games and turn them into something that was much better.
The original games had a style born out of limitations. What is it like to emulate such strong constraints?
We definitely went for it. For a lot of the gameplay mechanics…like the infinite respawning of enemies for example…I knew I wouldn’t keep. But keeping the same general art style and very similar palette and ghost outlines…it was a really fun challenge.
That’s interesting to me, especially since the whole genre of this past generation of people emulating retro games has blossomed, but I’m pretty sure this is the first ‘CD-i-like’ I’ve ever seen. What would you say to someone who doesn’t remember or know about those games and is playing Arzette for the first time?
Many people have no reference point for what inspired Arzette and still enjoy it. Because at the end of the day, it’s a hand-painted action platformer with charming and sometimes cheesy cutscenes. I think there’s still a lot to love.
But if you are familiar with the source material, there are Easter Eggs, there are a few references here and there for you. I tried not to go so hard with [references].
I guess legally you can’t even reference [the original Zelda CD-i games]? At least that’s what I gathered from your online presence when you talk about Arzette.
[laughter] No comment.
No comment? [laughter]
No, no, no… just kidding. Obviously, they’re an inspiration, and I bill it as a spiritual successor, but you know, I try to make it my own individual thing.
we have one of the painters from the original games that inspired Arzette, Rob Dunlavey. He made a map of the world and another level of art
Can you talk about the CD Zelda games and your own experience with them?
That! I first experience was like a lot of people: memes, remix videos and the like. But you know, I have a soft spot for games that are perceived as ‘bad’ or not loved enough. So I really latched onto it. Mainly because I really liked the art style, the cutouts, and also learning about it why the games were as they are, with all development restrictions. I find him so charming.
I saw the potential in those games and wanted to explore them, and hopefully show people that if you have enough time and resources and good design, things can turn out good.
What is potential of those games?
Well, to make it fun for them. [laughter]
Do you see the potential for other people to make games like this?
I would certainly hope so. I would be very flattered if there was a new generation of ‘CD-and-likes’, that would be fantastic. [laughter]
You said you took pictures of everything, is that correct?
That. Every wallpaper in Arzette is hand painted. So the design process was that I would do it all on graph paper, along with my design assistant and good friend, John Linneman of Digital Foundry. We went back and forth on level design. Then I would gray-box it, and then make a sketch based on those initial refined gray-boxes. Then I would hand it over to an artist to paint.
And we actually have one of the painters from the original games that inspired Arzette, Rob Dunlavey. He also created a world map and another level of art for the game.
How did you get to him?
I actually got it, as well as a couple of voice actors from the original games, Link and Zelda from the original games…
Oh! I didn’t know that.
Yes, I reached out and presented the project; I made sure they knew it wasn’t a joke, that I was serious and that I wasn’t just a crazy person. And they were great on board. I made it very clear that this was a passion project, like a love letter to those games, not a mockery.
When they realized what I was doing, they were excited. We had a good time.
Is there something more than just the aesthetics of being a CD-like game? Or is there an element of gameplay?
I think it’s the early ’90s, [full-motion video] era — the CD-ROM era — which is very much the track that Arzette is set in… I find that there is so lots of potential in those games. Especially the way they were built and advertised, it seemed almost like a dream…
Realizing that potential, instead of the nonsense that turned out to be, I think it would be potential [of CD-i-inspired games].
Is there anything else about Arzette that we haven’t touched on or shared with the public yet?
Well, working with Limited Run was great. They really supported me. Working with all my colleagues was excellent; they all understand the project and what I’m aiming for, and many of them are my friends, and this was a game we’ve all been kind of waiting to make. It feels great to finally succeed.
Lots of surprises and lots of things to love about Arzetta are in store. I didn’t make this game as a joke, I made this (with) a sincere attempt to make a good game with that aesthetic. I hope it shows in the final product.
This interview has been slightly edited for clarity.
Thanks to Seth for talking to us. Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore is coming to Switch “soon.”
