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What was your First ,The Legend of Zelda, experience like?


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#1 xenomicx

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Posted 05 August 2022 - 08:04 PM

When Zelda first came out, it was the most talked about thing in school. Everyone that owned Zelda, found themselves with new best friends daily. The only thing we had to go on was an incomplete map that came with the cartridge. Naturally these maps were drawn on, passed around school, and updated with other Zelda owners. It took weeks for someone to make the claim they defeated Ganon. Rumors of a mysterious sword appeared next to Link on the file select screen. 

 

This was all before Nintendo Power. No body knew were to go or what to do. It was all an open world full of discovery.

 

Then some kid got wise and named his character Zelda. Those that had beaten the game were soon realizing that the sword next to Link wasn't some kind of trophy showing you completed the game. No sir! Something else was happening. Things were not in the same place. Level 1 looked different and Level 2 couldn't be found. What was going on? Was this a 2nd quest?

Then someone found Level 2, and we all soon became stuck in what looked like the letter 'A'. Then I did it.....I WALKED THROUGH A FREAKIN' WALL!

 

It wasn't long before everyone figured out new passable wall mechanic in the 2nd quest. Soon, Ganon was defeated again and we all rested assure that Hyrule was saved. Until that kid Steven Adams from our class claimed there was a 3rd quest. His claim was there were 2 swords for the 3rd quest, and much like the 2nd quest...everything was different. He claimed he reached the 3rd quest by defeating the 2nd without dying. So a team of us set out to accomplish just that. Nearly a month went by before I could defeat the 2nd quest without dying. 

 

However, there was no 3rd quest. Did I do something wrong?

 

No said Steven! "You just have to defeat the 1st and 2nd quest without dying like I said." But Steven didn't say that at first. He said he beat just the 2nd quest without dying...now the goalposts have moved. So I set out and defeated both quests without dying. I did so roughly 4-5 months after Zeldas North American release. Both quests were defeated, and Link didn't die 1 time....but still, no 3rd quest. I confronted Steven about this and he said, "You have to do it again. There was a code at the end credits that you have to enter after you defeat. Up and A on controller 2 when you are playing. 

 

So I completed both the 1st and 2nd quests again without dying. Saw no code. Knew Steven was lying. Started a new quest and then went to my menu. I felt so stupid for even trying it now.

 

Then something happened! The game started over! Was this it? Was this the secret way to the 3rd quest? Maybe Steven wasn't lying to me. I had to wait till after dinner to find out. When I came back, my brother was playing duck hunt with dad. I put Zelda back in later that night and nothing. Pulled out the cartridge and blew in it. Nothing. Blew a second time and it started. Only my quest file was deleted. I had to start all over.............................



#2 bigjoe

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Posted 06 August 2022 - 03:31 PM

It was late in the night. My grandmother was playing a game on the NES: The Legend of Zelda. A cat lie perched on the NES, as though mimicing a statue or something. Maybe it liked the warmth. I was struggling with a false memory of why I thought there was a blue gohma in level 9 in the second quest. Search as we tried, we never found it. It would be later in life that i would just accept the conclusion that i was mixing level 9 up with 2nd quest level 8. But something did seem eerie about it all.

 

Late at night, I would have dreams of Level 9 from Zelda. In one of them, Link fell down a hole into this weird red looking room, where Ganon lie in wait. The dream becomes a blur after that. 5th quest is largely inspired by dreams of Zelda.


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#3 Norzan

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Posted 06 August 2022 - 04:32 PM

Cousins from my father's side of the family got a N64 around 1999 and i used to go their house on the weekend. They got Ocarina of Time and i still remember everytime i played i used to just dick around because my cousins wouldn't let me progress since they wanted to beat the game themselves. Same thing happened with Majora's Mask, but i do remember one time one of them asked me to finish Woodfall Temple (this was in the last room before the boss) bcause she couldn't do it herself due to having to do something urgently. Don't know what actually happened next but i'm sure i didn't beat the temple.

 

I think the first Legend of Zelda game i actually beat myself was Oracle of Ages around 2002/2003.


Edited by Norzan, 06 August 2022 - 04:33 PM.

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#4 Anthus

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Posted 07 August 2022 - 02:01 AM

The first Zelda I really remember playing on my own was Link to the Past. I seem to vividly remember the dark world segment before you get the moon pearl in the tower dungeon. I would have been around 3 when it came out, so I probably didn't really play it till a year or two later, on my own. I was more into SMW, as that was a much easier game for a five year old to pick up and play.

 

I also remember playing the first Zelda, but not as much. I more or less watched my dad play it, and I remember thinking LttP was just better in ever single way from movement, to sound, to graphics etc lol.

 

First Zelda I bought for myself was Wind Waker. Also pretty sure if was the first new game I bought for myself too. Gotta love Christmas money.


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#5 FieryBirdyThing

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Posted 07 August 2022 - 01:34 PM

My first Zelda game was Link To The Past, which my Dad bought when we first got our SNES. I want to say I had vaguely heard of the series before then, but in any case, this was my first actual encounter with a Zelda game. At first, I wasn't very good at it (at the time, I was more used to side-scrollers, such as the Mario games), but I did improve over time. I remember poring over the instruction manual and the map that came packaged with the game, marvelling at the illustrations. It's still my favourite Zelda game to this day.

 

In regards to my first experience playing the first Zelda, it was on the Collector's Edition disc on the Gamecube. If I remember properly, over here you had to send off receipts from certain games in order to claim it. I do remember being enthralled by it; I understood that it was the game that started it all and, thus, would not quite be like the Zelda games that had come since.


Edited by FieryBirdyThing, 08 August 2022 - 04:48 AM.

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#6 Haylee

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Posted 07 August 2022 - 09:33 PM

Zelda Classic but unironically


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#7 Architect Abdiel

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Posted 08 August 2022 - 11:27 AM

First Zelda experience, I was 8. My mom bought me a Nintendo 64 and Ocarina of Time for Christmas. I played it and beat it. And I didn't hate the Water Temple.


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#8 Nathaniel

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Posted 08 August 2022 - 12:43 PM

The Legend of Zelda, with the gold NES cartridge, and the standard NES controller.  I was just a kid (7 or 8, I believe), so the memories are not all that clear.  The first run never saw its completion, but I remember it being over 130 deaths, and I think I got to at least level 6.  It got erased due to not properly holding reset and power (or it failed to save despite doing it right), so I had to start over, and I did.  I eventually won, but I know I had files erased on numerous occasions.  Saving was wonky during the NES era.


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#9 xenomicx

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Posted 08 August 2022 - 10:01 PM

Saving was wonky during the NES era.

Yes it was! My friends brother was at level 99 on Final Fantasy. We pulled it out of the console so we could play Dr. Chaos. When my friends brother put it back in, the entire save file on Final Fantasy was deleted.

We ran for our lives!


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#10 peteandwally

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Posted 22 August 2022 - 08:47 AM

My family had just moved to a small apartment complex behind a mall from a different city. That year, I would start first grade, and we lived on the other side of town from school, so there wasn't really a neighborhood vibe or anything, just a few kids in the complex to play with. This was in the 80's, so parents weren't afraid to let kids wander about on their own like they are these days. I would ride my bike to the mall and go in Toys'R'Us all the time just to look at games and toys. Atari was out, but we didn't have one. One of my favorite shirts was a tank top with an apache helicopter on it.

 

Soon I met one of my first memorable best friends, Courtney. The son of an olympic sprinter lived two doors down. After school, I would go to his place and play Kung Fu on his NES. He also, appropriately, had the track and field game. Around the corner, I soon met Chul and Tek, two Korean kids with parents in graduate school at the University. They had games from Japan that we never got here, like the Mario lost levels. We would take turns playing and dying until it was time to go home for dinner.

 

That Christmas, it was predictable thinking back on it, but my Dad got me a Nintendo with three games: Mario/Duck Hunt, Contra and The Legend of Zelda. HOLY SHIT. The family took turns playing Mario for a while. My Dad and I would play Contra together too. Eventually, we'd beat both games. No one understood or had interest in Zelda though, and soon it was only me playing. Every time you'd find a new secret, or new item, it was like Christmas all over again. My parents wouldn't let me play too much, and when I had to play outside, I pretended to be Link. I made my own bow and arrow and a sword from constructs. I found a red toy ring from a 50 cent machine at Toys'R'Us one day and collected old bottles and junk for potions, etc. Most of my adventures occurred in a small retention pond at the corner of the apartment complex where the builders had stacked large limestone rocks excavated from the foundation when the apartments were built.

 

I even remember a dream I had about Zelda. The area by the water south of where you find the bracelet had lynels, but it was a new dream quest.. That area is one of the first things I designed in ZQuest.

 

Now, two of my kids are older than I was back then. The 7-year old played the Link's Awakening remake with me on Switch. Maybe tonight, I'll pull out the 30-year-old NES we have under a bed somewhere and load up the original cartridge.. that box of old games is just about the only thing I've held onto from my childhood, and now I get to play games I loved with my own kids. 

 

No doubt, Zelda changed my life for the better. I've lived a life of a hero (I hope) because my first experiences with a game was with LoZ. There's something magic about Link having the Triforce of Courage, the misuse of Power by Ganon, and the need to protect Wisdom. That mindset has served me well in the real world. Remember, kids. When things seem overwhelming, and Ganon's forces seem on the brink of total domination, there is one hero that will turn the tide... but not just one, all of us are that hero. We all have that courage.

 

~PnW


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#11 xenomicx

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Posted 24 August 2022 - 05:19 PM

Every time you'd find a new secret, or new item, it was like Christmas all over again. 

I remember that too! We rented the game a few times before we bought it, so we didn't have the handbook to tell us anything either. I remember finding level 8 early one time and getting the magic book. We had no idea what it did for years because we picked it up before picking up the wand. Every discovery was like Christmas.



#12 Norzan

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Posted 25 August 2022 - 12:18 PM

To this day the most vivid memory i have from the first game in the series i beat myself (i mentioned it was Oracle of Ages) was getting stuck in Crescent Isle. A bunch of lizards just show up after Link survives a shipwreck and steal all of his stuff with the game not telling you how to get them back. Me and my friend (the copy of the game was his) and we got stuck in this part for so long that we quit for a little bit. I still have no clue how we got past it.

 

I replayed the Oracle games a couple of years ago and i honestly still think they are great.



#13 Banana Pudding

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Posted 20 January 2023 - 07:52 AM

I played Super Mario Bros. first on NES.  I think it was either 1987 or 1988.  Second game I played was Legend of Zelda.  Funny because my grandmas name was Nelda.  She didnt get the joke because she never played video games, in fact, she may never have used a computer either.

 

At that time I liked Mario better but then when I was a little older in 1990/1991 thats when I finally got into the game and beat it for the first time.  


Edited by Banana Pudding, 20 January 2023 - 08:01 AM.



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