The Legend of Zelda Oddities

A 25th-anniversary look back at a dozen strange sidelights of Nintendo's classic fantasy game.

Posted by  | Monday, February 21, 2011


The Hyrule Fantasy on Disk
The first version of The Hyrule Fantasy: Legend of Zelda (as it was called in Japan) arrived not on ROM cartridge, but as a floppy disk. It launched with the Famicom Disk System, an accessory for the Japanese NES that let games be distributed on 3″ disks similar to those used with PCs at the time.

Nintendo considered the Zelda title ideal for the new medium because of both the game’s epic size (and thus storage requirements) and for the disk system’s ability to store saved games directly on the disk itself. That’s right: no battery backed SRAM or holding in the reset button here.

This Disk System version of Zelda also played slightly different music than the US version due to the fact that the Disk System contained extra music capabilities not found in the NES.



Slides: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

23 Comments For This Post

  1. chris Says:

    Or you could just play the flute and freak them out.

  2. Mark Says:

    "Or you could just play the flute and freak them out. "

  3. Michael Says:

    ""Or you could just play the flute and freak them out. ""

  4. Moopie Says:

    """Or you could just play the flute and freak them out. """

  5. JaredNewman Says:

    A save slot in slide six! What an honor.

  6. Benj Edwards Says:

    You know it, man. I think I stumbled across the Technologizer community Zelda cartridge. 🙂

  7. Mark Says:

    I remember that 1987 commercial all too well. I was 11 and the only thing in the world I wanted was to buy an NES to play The Legend of Zelda. I saved for almost a year and bought it at my local Sears. Remember when Sears had a toy section?

  8. OldGamer Says:

    There was a second cartoon produced in the 90s as well.

  9. Charles Says:

    I still Have the First NES and the Zelda game set. I get it out some times and play just to see if i still remember all the hidden items. My dad has the first Atari and a lot of the games for it. Does that tell my age.

  10. MLStrand Says:

    My friend Jazzy, who collects games/game consoles said:

    I’m surprised they didn’t include in that list the CD-i Zelda games! there were 3 Zelda games that were released on the Phillips CD-i – the only Zelda games to appear on a non-Nintendo console!

  11. Arnum Says:

    I believe I am the only human to have never played The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy. I have a Wii, is it worth getting? Maybe I will rent it for one night first.

  12. EZPC Recycle, Inc. Says:

    LOOOVE zelda @ Arnum it is VERY worth it to get! These are rpg classics that should never disappear.

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  17. Pimples Says:

    What a fantastic game. it is nice article I was surprised to know about the CD_i zeldge game. Best of luck for you in future.

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  20. giv Says:

    Arrows kill Pols Voice easily, 1 arrow will go through a row of them.

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  22. Julien Says:

    What a nice post. Thanks for for bringing back good memories! I am glad I stumbled upon this.

  23. Andrew Says:

    I know when I first read about Pol's Voice weakness, I immediately thought "use a bomb – that'll be loud", and it seemed to work. Never even knew about the microphone on the Japanese Famicom at the time.