In the memory of many players, 1986’s “The Legend of Zelda” is an epoch-making work that laid the foundation for open-world adventure games. However, it was not until recently that researchers discovered that there were actually two different versions of the original “The Legend of Zelda” for the Famicom Disk System (FDS)!
FDS version of “The Legend of Zelda”: the pioneering work of disk drives
In 1986, “The Legend of Zelda” was first released on FDS in Japan. This disk drive launched by Nintendo was an external device for the Famicom (FC). It could use rewritable disks and was cheaper than traditional cassettes. It could also download new games through a dedicated machine. However, due to the rapid advancement of cartridge technology, the life cycle of FDS was relatively short, and many disk games of that year were later changed to cartridge versions.
However, recent discoveries have proven that the first version of “The Legend of Zelda” on FDS (let’s call it v1.0) actually has some key differences from the later v1.1!
Breakthrough loophole: teleportation flute
v1.0 vs. v1.1: 5 major differences between the original Legend of Zelda
V1.1 directly CUEs off the title music and plays it again after the subtitles are scrolled at the beginning!
- Title screen music issues
In v1.0, the background music of the title screen is played in a loop, but because the length of the music is slightly longer than the time displayed on the title screen, the music will be out of sync when the screen is replayed. If you let the title screen loop dozens of times, this misalignment becomes even more obvious. It was speculated that the issue might have been discovered after a lengthy display in the game store, so Nintendo quickly adjusted and v1.1 fixed this. - Breakthrough loophole: teleportation flute
In the v1.0 version, players can use a specific technique to use the teleportation flute to fly directly to the love container on the raft on the river. Items that should have required a ladder to get can actually be easily obtained! This bug is fixed in v1.1. - Differences in cover printing
To distinguish between v1.0 and v1.1, you can first look at the color of the words “Famicom Disk System” on the cover of the FDS game:
The words “Famicom Disk System” in v1.0 are white
The words “Famicom Disk System” in v1.1 are yellow
In addition, the printing years on the inside pages of the cover are also different:
The inner page of v1.0 is written in 1985
v1.1 inner page changed to 1986
- The difference between disk stickers
There are also slight differences in the FDS disk itself. The design of the v1.0 disk sticker is different from that of v1.1. The specific style requires further study and comparison. - v1.0 is rare in quantity and even fewer exist!
According to research, the production volume of v1.0 version is only about 20% of v1.1, which is a rare version. More importantly, FDS disks can be overwritten repeatedly. Many v1.0 version disks have been overwritten by later game content. It is even more difficult to find the “original unwritten v1.0 disk”!
Later, the cassette version of “The Legend of Zelda” was considered a remake!
After the FDS version, “The Legend of Zelda” was launched on a NES cartridge version in 1987 and on the American NES in 1988. Due to the different storage architectures of FDS and FC cassettes, this is not a simple transplant, but a complete remaster. Therefore, the cassette version of “The Legend of Zelda” is already v1.1, and v1.0 only existed in the original FDS disk drive era.
The true first version of “The Legend of Zelda” has long become a historical legacy
Source video: MatsukeN / マツケん
This discovery proves that the original v1.0 version of “The Legend of Zelda” has become a rare legacy of the red and white console era, and even many collectors may not realize which version of the game they have in their hands. If you have an old Legend of Zelda FDS disk, you might want to check it out and you might be holding the 1985 version of the legend!