Most fantasy works have a pretty straightforward and well-established authorship. For example, J.R.R. Tolkien is the undisputed author of all material relating to Middle-Earth. Video games, however, are not this simple. They are generally produced by a team of specialized professionals, such as programmers, artists, and writers. To make matters worse, in a video game series, each game is generally produced by a different team, even though the producer and the company may remain the same.
The Zelda series, in particular, has a very complicated and convoluted authorship history. In general, all of the Zelda games which fans consider "canon" were originally produced by Nintendo Co. Ltd. (NCL), the Japanese branch of Nintendo. These games were produced by NCL's EAD team, under Miyamoto's direction. They were then translated by Nintendo of America, and these employees added a little bit of their own inspiration to several sources, canon and non-canon. To make matters even more complicated, in the early days of Zelda, NCL and NOA each published their own guide material. NCL produced its own guides for LoZ and AoL, and NOA produced its own materials. Also, several different companies were given the legal right to produce more Zelda material, such as comics and cartoons, though these were not directly supervised by the NCL creative team.
To sort through all this confusion, and to help come to some kind of unified understanding about canonicity, I decided to make this Credits FAQ. This FAQ attempts to list all the people behind every Zelda material ever produced, and give some background on some of the more important people. This is obviously a lofty goal, and will take some time to complete. But I have already made significant progress toward that goal, and I have the beginnings of a comprehensive Credits FAQ available to download. I will add additonal commentary to the FAQ, once I've gathered enough information. For now, the FAQ lists many materials, and the copyright information and credits for them, without additonal comment.
The Zelda series, in particular, has a very complicated and convoluted authorship history. In general, all of the Zelda games which fans consider "canon" were originally produced by Nintendo Co. Ltd. (NCL), the Japanese branch of Nintendo. These games were produced by NCL's EAD team, under Miyamoto's direction. They were then translated by Nintendo of America, and these employees added a little bit of their own inspiration to several sources, canon and non-canon. To make matters even more complicated, in the early days of Zelda, NCL and NOA each published their own guide material. NCL produced its own guides for LoZ and AoL, and NOA produced its own materials. Also, several different companies were given the legal right to produce more Zelda material, such as comics and cartoons, though these were not directly supervised by the NCL creative team.
To sort through all this confusion, and to help come to some kind of unified understanding about canonicity, I decided to make this Credits FAQ. This FAQ attempts to list all the people behind every Zelda material ever produced, and give some background on some of the more important people. This is obviously a lofty goal, and will take some time to complete. But I have already made significant progress toward that goal, and I have the beginnings of a comprehensive Credits FAQ available to download. I will add additonal commentary to the FAQ, once I've gathered enough information. For now, the FAQ lists many materials, and the copyright information and credits for them, without additonal comment.
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Zelda Credits FAQ v1.6
Last Modified: 2/21/2003
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