Giant NES Zelda map wall-hanging

Etsy seller Packmania is selling this gigantic CAD$40 Legend of Zelda map/mural:

97x32" (8 FEET BY NEARLY 3 FEET!). Amazing wall mural of the map of The Legend of Zelda for the NES! This amazing centerpiece is printed on a heavy and durable fabric for indoor use. Extremely high quality and durable! Would make a perfect addition to a game room, kids room or man cave...OR pretty much anywhere. Totally unique and found only HERE.

HUGE 8 Foot Long Wall Mural of ZELDA for the NES Map (via Geekologie)

• [tbone4152]

  Isn’t there some kind of copyright issues with that?

  • [Joshua Bardwell]

    That question may not be as clear-cut as you would think. Facts, for example, are not copyrightable, and maps are a classic expression of that. The individual expression of a map is copyrightable, which is why map-makers put “copyright traps”–intentional inaccuracies to reveal copies–into their maps. Based on this, if one were to hand-map the entire Zelda game and produce their own map, one would probably be in the clear.

    Ah, but what about the sprites? Here, I think the situation is murkier. Presumably, the sprites are original artistic expression that is covered by copyright. Therefore, you would likely have to rely on fair use to protect your use. And I think a fair-use case is going to be hard to make here. If we look at the four-factor test, this is for commercial purpose, it is nearly the entirety of the copyrighted work (the sprites and other game art), and it could easily be argued to reduce the potential market for the value of the copyrighted work (since Nintendo has in the past and could again sell this exact same map). Furthermore, this work is not transformative in any way. In other words, it doesn’t look good.

    • [Stephen Schenck]

      Big difference: IRL maps have that distinction because that real world data isn’t copyrightable. Isn’t the world of a game as much a creation of its developer as any in-game maps depicting it? And here, this isn’t some abstract interpretation of the game world – the Zelda map as shown on-screen IS the world.

      Would a Pac-Man maze fall under copyright?

      p.s. Tiles. Sprites move.

    • [tbone4152]

      Wicked, thanks for schooling me some knowledge!

• [Mister44]

  Zelda was my first NES game. After the Intellivision, I was blown away with the graphics and the complexity of the games. AD&D Treasure of Tarmin was the only thing that had come close. I played that game for hours and it is still probably my favorite NES game.

• [Stephen Schenck]

  Waaaaiiitt a minute… I remember there being way more woods and mountain areas in the game than that…

• [NathanHull]

  When I was 11 I had this map (taken from Nintendo Power) on my wall and would stare at it for HOURS. Nostalgia overload.

• [acidrain69]

  Somewhat interested in seeing this done to Final Fantasy 4, 6 and Chrono Trigger. Or maybe Zelda LttP. I grew up in the 80′s with the NES, but I consider the SNES to be the superior system.  Games were somewhat easier in that they weren’t head-bangingly frustrating.

• [jtegnell]

  I’d spring for this if it were LttP as well. 

• [TheMudshark]

  Since Packmania states in the description that someone “worked very hard” to produce this “inspired image”, let me clarify: It takes me all of ten seconds to find the complete map in its original resolution on google (I´m kinda slow), and an additional five minutes to blow it up to the desired size in photoshop (including startup). And if I want to I can put in all the sprites I please.

  The price for the print is ok if it´s printed on durable fabric, but everything else is hardly a big achievement.

  • [Chawong Brewong]

    Permission was given by Fecal Lord who created the image that you find on Google Images…  he did work very hard on the image..  surprised he even has eyeballs after looking at all that 8-bit goodness.