The Legend of Zelda No-Death Playthrough (Actual NES Capture) - Part 1
29This is part 1 of my capture of me playing through the Legend of Zelda for the NES. This is not an emulator and was not played on the Wii or Wii U Virtual Console. This footage was captured directly from my front-loading NES using a real gold cartridge version of The Legend of Zelda.
Following up on my other recent uploads, here's some new 60 fps Zelda footage. All of the 2D Zelda games run at this frame rate (except for the two DS games).
The original Zelda might not have been the first Zelda game that I played as kid (as far as I can remember), but I know that I did at least play it shortly after my brother picked up Zelda II around 1989. Since we didn't own the first Zelda game growing up, my brother and I would have to borrow it from other people. We borrowed that game several times and played the hell out of it. It's a classic, and I really wish we had our own copy when we were growing up, but I can't complain since I had the chance to borrow it and beat it several times. The weird thing though, is that I can't remember how I learned to beat it. I've just known most of the secrets for as long as I can remember. I think it was just common knowledge back in the late '80s.
Anyway, sometime around 1994 or so I was walking around Toys R Us when I spotted a stack of the Classic Series re-release of this game on a low shelf in the video game section. They were only $7 each. Even though a lot of people had moved on from the NES by this point in time, I hadn't. That was simply too good of a deal to pass up, and even my mother couldn't argue with that. So I finally got my very own copy of the game after borrowing it for several years. However, I was shocked when I opened the box and found a gray cartridge inside, not the gold cartridge that I was used to. But luckily, it was the same game that I had grown up with, and it worked great since the connectors were perfectly clean.
In early 2012, however, I decided that I needed a gold cartridge, so I sold my pristine gray cartridge on eBay for about $50 and picked a complete copy of the original gold cartridge version for only $20 more. This footage was captured from that gold cartridge.
One of the things I love about the first game is the focus on combat and the large, dangerous overworld. I think this game has the best overworld of any Zelda game, and I love that you can take dungeons out of order or just go around finding all sorts of secrets and items before you ever set foot in a dungeon.
I also love the final level, which is the only final level that can rival the Great Palace from Zelda II. It's a massive, maze-like gauntlet that dwarfs all of the prior dungeons. It even features its own enemies and music. That's the way a final dungeon is supposed to be done. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new footage.
In this first part I completed Level 1, bought a Blue Candle, collected two Heart Containers, picked up the note from the old man, grabbed the White Sword, and then beat Level 2.
Recorded with the Hauppauge HD PVR and a composite connection at 60 frames per second. I used a Toshiba model D-R550 DVD Recorder to upconvert the NES's native 240p signal to 480i so that the Hauppauge could capture the console's audio/video signal.
I'm using an NES Advantage joystick.