Created in 1986 by the Japanese mastermind Shigeru
Miyamoto, this game was the first of its kind. It was the first action
game with a significant puzzle component, the first major console game to use
an overhead perspective in order to allow two-dimension travel across a map,
and the first for the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) to allow the user
to save and restart at a later time. Its franchise has spawned a dozen
games and is still going strong.
It was an awesome game, and it's still my favorite for the NES. The Zelda
franchise has produced some amazing games, but the original will always have
a special place in my heart container.
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When I was a child, I was taken by the game. Once I finished
it, I had so many ideas for how it could have gone that I decided to design my
own Legend of Zelda world. I didn't have a definite purpose for this;
I had a vague idea that I could come up with rules for playing it after it was
done. I designed for the joy of designing. This project occupied
much of my time during the summer between second and third grade. It was
one of my earliest and largest utter wastes of time. For this reason,
I will always remember Zelda with a healthy nostalgia.
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If you think you remember The Legend of Zelda, cut your teeth
on this puzzle that I created many years ago!
I have played through the game several times. Until December of
2004, my proudest Zelda-related accomplishment was that I had reached Ganon
without using a sword, in both quests. It is possible, and what's more,
I worked out how to do it without any help. If you decide to try this
and need a hint, check out the GameFAQS link below. That page includes
a walkthrough for swordless play. It also includes a guide for finishing
the first quest in under an hour, a challenge I found intriguing. I promptly
worked out my own plan for performing this feat, and after several revisions,
consulatations, and failed attempts, I finally managed to beat the 60 minute
barrier on January 4th, 2005! My best time is now 49:56. (I used
the Sinead O'Connor album Universal Mother to time myself.)
Now, this is far from any kind of
record. There are people out there who can beat the game in as little as 33
minutes. Amazingly, they can do it without getting either of the magic rings
or any medicine. I'm not quite at that point, so what I've got here is not for
hardcore gamers, but...I dunno, midcore! With that said, here is my under-an-hour
walkthrough for The Legend of Zelda!
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I found Zelda Classic in 2004. This is an awesome internet community that's
been around since 1999, building new quests for Zelda emulators and generally
having a good time tweaking the game in various ways. At first I was excited
at the prospect of putting some of my childhood ideas into practice. I
began playing a handful of homemade quests and found them intriguing and pleasantly
bizarre. When I downloaded the editor, however, I found that it was difficult
to use and rather inflexible. What's more, I found that a bug kept me
from using it, and it had been enough trouble thus far that I gave up--at least
for a while. But to be fair, the editor is a work in progress! I
do still want to learn to use the Zelda Classic editor and make use of the nifty
ideas I keep coming up with.
Other links: NES emulator guide
(Complete with links. Would you believe there were so many
NES emulators?) Legends of Hyrule RPG
(A role-playing system based on the early Legend of Zelda games.) NintendoLand's
Zelda section
(Info on all the Zelda games. Comprehensive and high-quality.)
