Adam ConoverAbout to embark on a project I’ve been wanting to do for a long time: I’m playing through The Legend of Zelda, on an NES hooked up to a CRT, with only the manual and original map to guide me, just as though I were a kid in 1987. Wish me luck!
Going to turn this into a thread as I play through. This cartridge I picked up from a local shop already had a save file for “BUTT”. Looks like the person died 17 times and made no progress. No way I’m deleting that - I’ll save my file in slot 2.
I completely forgot about these screens where the camera suddenly shifts to being from the side rather than top down. Thought they only did this in Link’s Awakening! Also wild that you get BOTH the bow and the boomerang in the first dungeon, but if you actually want to USE the bow, you have leave the dungeon entirely, grind for money, and buy an arrow for 80 rupees! Wild game.
Finding the first dungeon was easy - it’s right on the map that comes with the game! One of the reasons I never made progress on this when I was a kid (in addition to being too young) is that I didn’t have the original manual or map. They give you SO many hints on where to go and what to try, it makes the game far less intimidating than I thought it was, and much more exciting to explore.
Outside the boss room with one heart. The fact that you can hear the boss roaring from a screen away is still terrifying
Update: I’m on Dungeon 5. I was getting my ass kicked by Darknuts (all time great video game enemy name), then realized that I needed to explore the overworld more. So glad I did. Secrets everywhere. Did you guys know that you have to bomb EVERYWHERE in this game?
I feel like I unlearned 30 years of game design today, and it was exhilarating. I've been trained to believe that every secret in a game is CLUED somehow. Instead, it never stops being shocking how many UN-clued secrets there are in LoZ. You just have to look for walls that COULD have an opening in them, and bomb them. I always thought this would be frustrating, but it's actually enormously freeing - secrets could be and ARE everywhere, right under your feet!
Progress update: I’m on Dungeon 6. Despite buying a blue ring (armor!) and getting most of the heart containers, the Wizzrobes in this dungeon are still kicking my ass! I need to find the Magic Sword, but have no idea where it is.
Also: I realized that the sword BUTT is holding means that this is a Second Quest save file. The previous owner of this cartridge beat the game! Great work, BUTT
Found the Magic Sword, finally! And it only took pressing on 100 graves and summoning 100 ghosts
Update: after realizing I had somehow missed picking up the Triforce in L4 (despite completing the entire map!) and the Magic Rod in L6, I am now ready for Death Mountain!
Like-Likes make my blood run cold. 25 years before Dark Souls’ basilisks, and just as terrifying. All because of what a pain in the ass it is to get a new shield! Incredible design.
I still have no idea what the “right” way to kill Blue Wizzrobes is. I just spam my sword at them and take a lot of damage until they’re dead.
Standing on the threshold, realizing that I have no idea what Ganon even LOOKS like in this game. Can’t even picture the sprite. No idea how this game ends whatsoever. Going in blind. Chills!
It is done. I have joined Butt, as the owner of a save file for The Second Quest.
What a game. I’m truly blown away by how great it was. So many moments that hit perfectly; so many design decisions that STILL slap. Just brilliant. I’m so glad I did this. Might write up more thoughts here or on Cohost at some point, but for now, just gonna sit with this hard-won victory. What a game!
Alexis Deveria@adamconover Congrats Adam!
Veebs
Ian A. A. Watson 
Kevin Lee@adamconover congrats!
Matt T@adamconover congrats Adam!!!
Matt Savener@adamconover Great memories with this game, one of the only games (besides Tetris) that ever interested my dad. I remember working through every nook and cranny of it with him, including, yes, bombing every single rock wall in the game. I don't remember the map being in the manual at all! I think we may have played the whole thing blind. No wonder it took so long.
Ernie Smith@adamconover I did this a few months ago. Got through both quests. Whatta game!
Raps Calorie@adamconover This is the first one right? I haven't played it in sooooooooo long.
@adamconover Didnt you just start the playthrough on the first? That seems fast? Am I a snail at games??
Mario Panighetti@adamconover Good luck!! Stand strong against the darkness!
Joshua Doll 🤷♂️@adamconover good luck we're all counting on you
What About 🐲🐢🌟?@adamconover They’re brutal; magic shield helps a lot. Anticipating their teleport patterns will help, though that’s rough with several at once.
Anil Dash@adamconover lol this is me playing BOTW.
Ok Boomer Kuwanger@adamconover that's what the upgraded magic wand is for. Or as 6 year old me called it, the woo woo stick.
Mark Anderson@adamconover That's one of the worst rooms in the game with those damn things too.
Dylan@adamconover you are really cruising though this! Way to go!
Brett Johnson@adamconover I did the same with Magic Rod. There is something both refreshing and infuriating about having the freedom to miss essential things.
Nick@adamconover Good luck, even after all these years Death Mountain is hell without a map.
Viss@adamconover soon you'll be like one of us - citing things like the 'zelda i just found a secret' noise in casual conversation
Schattenjager@adamconover
I remember this moment from my childhood!
I remember this moment from my childhood!
ThatKomputerKat 
@adamconover #trinitron scan lines are the sexiest scan lines.
C Sawula@adamconover you playing this on a CRT? The screen curve is bringing back memories
@adamconover Time to burn every single tree on the map!
グレェ「grey」@adamconover meanwhile many years ago I started seeing how much I could play of LotZ without killing anything as a gedankenexperiment to explore non violent methodologies in video games.
Turns out it is possible to get the Magic Sword!
But a rewinding emulator and some trickery with the LET'S MAKE MONEY MAKING GAME seemed awfully useful to make that happen. ;)
Mega “Byte” Matt 
@adamconover that number on the save file is the numbers of deaths, for those not in the know.
mrblank@adamconover Hint: 👻
@mrblank this is a great hint, though I have explored the graveyard throughly and found nothing so far! I’ll keep looking…
TinFoilAwards 
@adamconover If Butt could do it, so can you!
The Serfs@adamconover Whoa Adam didn't know you were Mastonodoning! Good to see you
endeavorance 🕊️@adamconover this thread makes me want to do this myself. Another skeleton in my closet is that I’ve never played A link to the past 👀
Fabio Bracht@adamconover Dude, you *gotta* play TUNIC after that. It’s the most first-Zelda-like modern game there is! And it gives out this exact feeling.
One of its main hooks is actually the fact that it has a charmingly old-school instruction booklet in-game, which gives out the clues for the game, in the exact way the first Zelda does. You collect its pages in-game.
It’s gorgeous, it has been mentioned in several Best of 2022 lists, and there’s apparently no way you’re NOT going to love it.
@bracht I loved Tunic, and it’s what inspired me to play LoZ this way!
@adamconover Ah! All the better!
I haven’t finished it yet myself. I think I went through the Quarry before I was supposed to, and then the Scavenger Boss just shut me off completely. Massive difficulty spike.
I think I should back off and explore somewhere else, but not knowing where has kept me from booting the game.
Szymon Bęczkowski@adamconover similar to #geocaching Caches are hidden almost everywhere you go but most people will never know.
@adamconover that’s actually pretty cool game design for its time. I don’t know of any other NES games that did foreshadowing like that.
Andres@adamconover Wait, the map came with the game? I'm pretty sure I had the manual, but not the map when I was a kid. And I bought it from the store, in the original box. 🤔
@Andres4NY Indeed, though you will note that the map is incomplete.
There is a more detailed over world map, as well as more dungeon maps in the "Official Nintendo Player's Guide" but even it left some things out. A sort of "spoilers, but not spoiling everything" methodology.
After all, Nintendo had a "Nintendo Power Hotline" to upsell to gamers for $1.50/minute! ;)
Which meant: I often got random calls from kids at school asking me for tips, because: I was not a toll call. ;( @adamconover
Dylan@adamconover This is incredible. Is this an original map you got on ebay or something? Or a repro? There’s honestly so much we miss out on these days with emulation (or similar things like FPGA) because a large portion of the experience was delivered through the printed materials like the box and manuals.
@wavebeam original, bought it on eBay!
DansNull@adamconover video game manuals used to be so crucial to playing and navigating the game. Until game devs realized that most people didn’t read them, so they started implementing “in-game tutorials”… I miss the days of reading manuals… plus the old manuals usually had cool graphics, and would tell back stories or info about the games characters and world. #RTFM
Tortolia@DansNull @adamconover I remember that Startropics had the equivalent of PC game copy protection in the box - a map or some other piece of paper you theoretically had to submerge in water to get a code you needed to continue past the halfway mark. I think I had to call the Nintendo 1-900 helpline to get it.
jtrofe@adamconover watch out for those nasty characters
Lewis Weil@adamconover Its amazing that it feels so epic, yet the map is actually so small. I love that.