The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures is a video game in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series. It was released for the Nintendo GameCube in Japan on March 18, 2004; in North America on June 7, 2004; in Europe on January 7, 2005; and in Australia on April 7, 2005. The Game Boy Advance hand held game console can be used as a controller when using the Nintendo GameCube Game Boy Advance Cable bundled with the game.
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures | |
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Developer(s) | Nintendo EAD |
Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
Series | The Legend of Zelda |
Platform(s) | GameCube |
Release date(s) | JP March 18, 2004 NA June 7, 2004 EU January 7, 2005 AUS April 7, 2005 |
Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer, Co-op |
Input methods | GameCube Controller, Game Boy Advance |
Compatibility | 5 Perfect |
GameIDs | |
See also... |
Dolphin Forum thread |
Game Boy Player
Game Boy connection support can be supported via joybus emulation. Such requires VBA-M (r947 or newer) and a dump of GBA BIOS (see here an excellent dump guide). To connect GBA:
- Launch Dolphin (only r6059 or newer will work with DSP HLE plug-in, otherwise one must use the DSP LLE plug-in
- Start Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures and choose multi-player
- In connection screen, go to Config => GameCube and change the ports to GBA
- Launch VBA-M, go to Options => Emulator and uncheck "Pause When Inactive". Then, go to Options => Link => Joybus options, mark "Enable Joybus Connection" and use default settings (127.0.0.1)
- When enabling joybus, Dolphin will freeze (don't panic, its OK!). Now load the GBA Bios in VBA-M, after the splash screen Dolphin will recognize the joybus link and game will detect it as a standard GBA.
To connect other GBAs, just repeat last instruction. Remember to unblock Dolphin and VBA-M in your firewall (some firewalls may block joybus link), otherwise Dolphin will stuck in connection screen. If you are in doubt, refer to this video for more details.
Problems
Z-Order/Transparency Issues
Some sprites, primarily trees, are not ordered/transparent appropriately and layer on top of the player sprites. Refer issue 3426.
Odd Glitches
Odd rendering glitches sometimes occur.
Crashes
Game can crash, stop, and/or freeze while going to another area after getting the fire rod on the other side of the river. Other crashes may occur, refer issue 5490
Moon Gate Crash
The game crashes when entering a Moon Gate, or operates very slowly under some versions. Can be resolved by enabling, Skip CPU EFB Access.
Can't Hold Button
In the game, there are events that require holding a button such as pulling a switch. It may not be possible to hold it for long enough because the button press is disrupted among frames. This problem can be avoided by disabling "idle skipping" in the configuration or by using VBA-M as the controller
Sound
Sometimes one soundtrack will loop or hang causing all other sounds to be muted.
Pixel Shader from Byte Code
With 3.0-191 and likely other revisions, restarting the game after play has started will generate the warning "CreatePixelShaderFromByteCode failed at Src\D3DShader.cpp 151".
Configuration
Only configuration options for the best compatibility where they deviate from defaults are listed.
Graphics
Config | Setting | Notes |
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Video Backend | OpenGL or Direct3D 11 | The Direct3D9 plug-in has invisible texture problems post window resizing |
Skip EFB Access from CPU | On | Corrects hang/crash/slow performance at Moon Gates |
Texture Cache Accuracy | Position 4 | Prevents texture errors and all Link sprites being black. |
Version Compatibility
The graph below charts the compatibility with The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.
Testing
This title has been tested on the environments listed below:
Test Entries | |||||
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Revision | OS | CPU | GPU | Result | Tester |
r4598 | Windows Vista x86 | Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.2GHz | Intel GMA 945 | Fully playable: 50-80 FPS with default settings and DX9 plug-in | |
r6315 | Intel Core i7-720 | ATI Radeon HD 5730 | Fully playable, even with multiplayer (GBA Link with Dolphin and VBA-M) | ||
r6887 | Windows Vista x86 | Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 @ 2.2GHz | ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 | Playable: Could play until the Moon Gate crash. 50-60 FPS with DX9 plug-in and OpenCL enabled. | |
r7303 | Windows 7 x64 | AMD Phenom II X3 N850 @ 2.2GHz | ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 | Slow: 10-30 FPS with DX11 | |
r7440 | Windows XP x86 | Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.93GHz | nVidia GeForce GTX 260 | Playable: Some massive slowdowns and the known glitches. First Moon Gate worked fine, second crashed the game. | Proto |
r7714 | Windows 7 x64 | Intel Core i3-370M @ 2.4GHz | ATI Radeon HD 6370M | Fully playable: No slowdowns, no known glitches. | |
3.0-436 | Windows XP x64 | Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 | ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT | Runs okay, 25-35 FPS. | |
3.0-681 | Linux Ubuntu 12.04 x86_64 | AMD Athlon 64 X2 @ 3.2GHz | nVidia GeForce GTS 450 | Work great, but the game can freeze (issue 5490). | RyDroid |
^3.0-377 | Windows 7 x64 | Intel Core i7-2600K | ATI Radeon HD 6850 | Work great, but the game can freeze/slowdown on when you enter a moongate. Fixed the problem with "Skip EFB access from CPU". |