The Legend of Zelda No-Death Playthrough (Actual NES Capture) - Part 1

This 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.

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.