Site Info
"A Link to the Past Randomizer" (ALTTPR) is a modification of the third installment of The Legend of Zelda series (originally released in 1991) where each playthrough features a randomly-generated shuffling of the items in the game (in advanced game modes, many other aspects of the game are also shuffled).
ALTTPR can be enjoyed casually or competitively, but many (if not most) players are interested in the implicit goal of attempting to finish each given seed in the fastest amount of time possible.
For more general information about ALTTPR, visit its main homepage.
Note that by default most of the information presented on this site will focus on "basic" ALTTPR settings (e.g. Open 7/7 seeds), but of course a good portion of it will also extend to other game modes.
All of the video recordings on this site were authored using a recent version of snes9x-rr.
You will notice that Link is wearing different tunic colors/mail upgrades in some of the videos:
Videos where Link is wearing the green mail/tunic mean that the inputs were recorded in real-time, but rerecords were used to eliminate any execution mistakes (and in some cases, bad RNG). Of course, it's unrealistic for anyone to play at peak execution with no mistakes 100% of the time, but these strategies should still be seen as realistically achievable.
Videos where Link is wearing the red mail/tunic indicate that the video was recorded using frame-advance. In other words, the inputs were recorded frame-by-frame, with no affordance given to human error or reaction time. It's therefore not realistic to match the execution shown in these videos, at least not with any level of consistency. (Note that this does not necessarily mean that the video represents a fully-optimized tool-assisted strategy, just that frame-perfect inputs were used).
Frame-perfect timings are often used to compare the theoretical best times achievable by two or more strategies (this most often comes up when comparing dash, walk, and hookshot paths through a given area)
As of v31.2.0, the main branch of ALTTPR uses a "Fast ROM" conversion, which significantly reduces the amount of in-game lag occurring in a variety of situations. This not only speeds up certain parts of the game, but has an important effect on certain room strategies and item usage that previously generated a large number of lag frames.
Unless otherwise specified, all videos and timings on this site assume that FastROM is being used (in the practice hack, indicated by the "blue rupee" icon in the upper-left corner).
Note that other versions of the game, such as the vanilla (non-randomized) game, as well as other randomizers (Archipelago, SMZ3) do still use the "SlowROM" variant of the game, which can affect timings accordingly.
The timings and videos featured in this site are meant to be representative of a high level of play, but of course, it's impossible for a set of pre-recorded videos to fully encapsulate real-world factors such as resources on hand, variations in RNG, and most importantly, the fact that every single individual will execute differently.
Just because a given strategy is shown as optimal does not necessarily mean it will be the best strategy for you. Keep this in mind as you utilize the information on this site and decide what conclusions to draw from it.
I am just a single human being doing this in my spare time; please understand that the information I provide is not meant to be comprehensive or infallible. As such I would encourage anyone interested in learning more about the game to also visit one of the many other existing ALTTP(R) resource sites, including but not limited to:
I've been playing ALTTPR since 2020, and as a self-directed learner, I've found video guides and other informative content to be invaluable in helping my growth as a player. Somewhere along the line I found that I had my own interest in putting research into various parts of the game and creating resources to be shared with others. This led to me putting together a "Bite-sized Rando" video series on YouTube showcasing various pathing comparisons and nice-to-know pieces of technical knowledge.
This website is my personal attempt to provide a well-organized and thorough (though not comprehensive) resource for players who, like me, are hoping to learn how to improve at this game. It is partially motivated by a strong desire to provide video evidence substantiating timing comparisons, but also by a rather personal dissatisfaction at how much valuable knowledge seems to exist only as messages tucked away in the eternal "lost and found" of Discord messages scattered through history.
Outside of ALTTPR, you may know me as the sole developer of upcoming indie music game Rhythm Quest, or as a "9-bit chiptune"/electronic music producer with a prolific discography.
You can visit my main website at ddrkirby.com to learn more about myself and my projects.
If you found this website to be helpful, you can support it by simply sharing it as a resource.
If you'd like to give monetary thanks for the time and research that I've put into building this site, you can do so by donating to me directly via ko-fi:
DDRKirby(ISQ)'s ALTTPR Compendium is not a collaborative project; I build and maintain it myself in my free time, at my own pace.
That being said, if you find a clear mistake or a piece of misinformation, feel free to contact me at ddrkirby@gmail.com with your specific correction.
Please share references to this site! Using a section heading, or the link icon (
) to the left of it, will allow you to link directly to that section for quick reference.Sharing videos directly from the site (e.g. in a discord message) is okay too, but please make a best attempt to provide credit where credit is due -- many hours of labor were put into putting this all together!
Most of the video footage featured on this site is recorded using the LTTP Practice Hack.
The map images used on this site are taken from Ian Albert's site.