Chris Houlihan

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Chris Houlihan is a character in A Link to the Past.[2]

Biography

Chris Houlihan is only mentioned through a Telepathy Tile found inside a secret room which also contains 45 Blue Rupees. The room is a failsafe that the game sends Link to when it detects an error in his Y coordinate. Five different methods can be used to access it,[3] all of which use the Pegasus Shoes and some of them Bombs.

The Telepathy Tile mentioning Chris Houlihan was removed in A Link to the Past & Four Swords.[4]

Trivia

  • Chris Houlihan is only mentioned in the English version of A Link to the Past. Other languages simply state that it is a secret room.[5][6][7]
  • It is believed that Chris Houlihan was the winner of a Nintendo Power contest held during September and October of 1990, where the winner would have their name programmed into a future NES game.[8] Nintendo Power did not publish a formal announcement specifying the contest's winner, but eventually Chris's win was mentioned in the December 1994 issue of Club Nintendo, the official Nintendo magazine for Latin America,[1] and later by Nintendo Power itself in its February 1998 issue.[9]
    • Chris Houlihan has never made any statements about winning the contest, and there had been some debate as to whether the contest prize story or even Chris himself was real. In 2025, a YouTuber named Kevin Hainline claimed that Chris Houlihan gave him details about his contest story, and that Nintendo Power editor Scott Pelland, who ran Nintendo Power's contests, had supposedly supported these claims: the player who had competed and earned the contest's prize was actually Chris's father, who asked for his son's name to be used. Nintendo Power also had Chris's name placed in the 1991 Game Boy port of Nintendo World Cup, by renaming the character Terry to "Chris"; but they decided that merely using his first name was not enough, so they contacted Shigeru Miyamoto to help arrange for the full name Chris Houlihan to be placed in the English localization of A Link to the Past. As part of his prizes, Nintendo Power mailed Chris a free copy of Nintendo World Cup.[10]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Let's say that you and Luis Alberto Moya made us seek like crazy; Luis told us that Chris' room would appear on top of the pyramid and, when trying to see what this room was all about, we spent a long time [searching] and did not get to see this secret room. We thought that it could have been a type of bug, but when we received another letter mentioning this room somewhere else and [we were] still unable to find it, we decided to talk directly to whom created the game, so we asked our friends at Nintendo and they informed us that it is a room that appears randomly and there are cartridges where it will never appear. Chris Houlihan is the name of the boy that won a Nintendo Power contest and with it he also won the right to have his name programmed in the Zelda-A Link to the Past game.Déjanos decirte, que tú y Luis Alberto Moya nos pusieron a buscar como locos; Luis nos dijo que el cuarto de Chris aparecería arriba de la pirámide y nosotros, al tratar de ver de qué se trataba este cuarto dedicamos mucho tiempo y nada más no conseguimos conocer el cuarto secreto. Pensamos que podía haber sido alguna especie de bug pero al recibir otra carta mencionando este cuarto en otro lado y tampoco encontrarlo, decidimos dirigirnos directamente con quien hizo el juego, así que le preguntamos a nuestros cuates de Nintendo y nos informaron que es un cuarto que sale totalmente al azar y hay cartuchos en los que nunca saldrá. Chris Houlihan es el nombre del niño que ganó un concurso de Nintendo Power y con él ganó también el derecho a tener su nombre programado en el juego de Zelda-A Link to the Past. (Club Nintendo, Editorial Samra, December 1994, pg. 3)
  2. ↑ My name is Chris Houlihan. This is my top secret room. Keep it between us, OK? — Telepathy Tile (A Link to the Past)
  3. ↑ MaddHatts, 5 Different Entrances to the Chris Houlihan Room , YouTube (video), published February 15, 2010, retrieved October 6, 2015.
  4. ↑ Triforce Legend, Salle de Chris Houlihan dans A Link to the Past (GBA) , YouTube (video), published October 9, 2013, retrieved October 6, 2015.
  5. ↑ ここは、秘密の部屋だよ~ん。みんなにはないしょだよ~ん。 — Telepathy Tile (A Link to the Past)
  6. ↑ Dies ist mein ganz geheimes Zimmer. Das bleibt aber unter uns, ja? — Telepathy Tile (A Link to the Past)
  7. ↑ C'est ma pièce la plus secrète. Que cela reste entre nous, ok ? — Telepathy Tile (A Link to the Past)
  8. ↑ Have you ever imagined yourself in a NES game? Well, this is your chance! If you meet Warmech, snap a photo of him and send it to the address below by October 15, 1990. One winner will be randomly selected, and his or her name will be programmed into a future Nintendo game! (Nintendo Power no. 16, Nintendo of America, September/October 1990, pg. 13)
  9. ↑ In 1992, NP contest winner Chris Houlihan secured his place in gaming history by having his name featured in a hidden area in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. (Nintendo Power no. 105, Nintendo of America, February 1998, pg. 7)
  10. ↑ Kevin Hainline, Chris Houlihan Is Real , YouTube (video), published September 10, 2025, retrieved September 11, 2025.
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