Hear the sweet story of a really cool Dad who modded Wind Waker’s spry green-tights adventurer to make his little girl happy.
Parenthood is something personally as a twenty-something geeky duder I know absolutely nothing about; geeze, I’m still unsure if I even want kids in the first place. Rumor has it that they’re a huge responsibility.
Although, for the sacrifices I hear you do end up making there is a special benefit to be had through raising one which is probably more rewarding than playing Halo 4 all night and waking up past mid-day (uh… your results may differ. Greatly.)
Say like hacking The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker so that your little girl can happily play the game as herself and learn that boys don’t have the market of being courageous young heroes totally to themselves, which is what developer Mike Hoye did.
Currently playing through Nintendo’s sea-adventuring epic with his daughter Maya – according to her she really likes the “sailing, scary birds and remembering to be brave” – Mike always had the inconvenience of having to describe Link as a girl while reading back the game’s text to her.
Of course, as with any Zelda title you can enter your own name at the start, but picking a gender to match yours is a no go, a nagging sticking point that Mike, like any awesome dad, wanted to change so much just to make his girls day.
Using the Dolphin emulator and a disk image of Wind Waker, Mike managed to change all references of Link being a boy to a girl. He even diligently gender swapped terms like “swordsman” with “swordmain,” all at the same time keeping in mind the text allotment which needed to fit word-for-word.
How awfully adorable and certainly an accomplishment that deserves Mike as many “Best Dad in the World” coffee mugs as possible. Maybe a ridiculously giant one you always see in gas stations; those things are a hoot! A hoot, I tell ya!
Oh, and if you want to know the finer details on how Mike retooled Wind Waker head over to his blogsite. There’s a lot of stuff which doesn’t make sense to me, but I’m sure you code-monkeys out there will love it, just how you’ll love an electric Skittles sorter (hey, it could come in handy) and the latest info on the Nintendo Wii U’s online service.
