Today is The Legend of Zelda's 25th anniversary - well, its second 25th anniversary anyway. As you might recall, Nintendo made a big deal out of celebrating that milestone all throughout last year, with several free game giveaways, a snazzy art book and even a major symphony concert series that's still touring the States. But today is Zelda's 25th anniversary in America, as Link's original adventure went on sale in the USA back on August 22, 1987.

It seems appropriate to celebrate that particular moment too – even in the wake of Nintendo's grandiose celebration of the game's Japanese launch – since the North American debut of the game established so much of what has become enduring and iconic as the Zelda franchise has continued. The game we got in 1987 wasn't entirely the same as what Japan's fans received in '86, and those little tweaks and changes made all the difference in how Hyrule was able to draw in new players from around the globe.

Saving the Princess, Saving Your Progress

Setting the Gold Standard

The Invincible Pols Voice?

Let's start with the physical format of the game itself. The Legend of Zelda wasn't a cartridge-based game to begin with – in Japan it debuted as "The Hyrule Fantasy: Zeruda no Densetsu" on a floppy disk, the medium of choice for Nintendo's Famicom Disk System. The Disk System was an add-on peripheral for the base Famicom unit, and attaching it turned the 8-bit game machine into a bit more of a computer – which, among other things, enabled games to save their progress.But America never got the Disk System. So, as Zelda was making the transition across the Pacific, Nintendo of America had to physically rework the game to function from within a normal cartridge housing. The result was some different sounding music, though that was nothing too drastic – the game still sounded great here. But the real difference came with the save system – in order for American adventurers to be able to save their place the same way Japanese gamers had, NOA essentially had to invent an all-new method of on-board data storage for its cartridges.So every copy of The Legend of Zelda that shipped into US stores 25 years ago came equipped with a little battery inside, facilitating the ability to put down the controller and power off your NES partway through the journey to rescue the princess. (Nintendo's official line was that the battery would last for five years, but my personal copy has never lost its save data.)It may seem a simple thing today, saving your game in progress, but it was a huge innovation for the console gaming industry, and it changed the direction of 8-bit game design forever. With the ability to stop and start an adventure at will, game makers pushed forward with making lengthier, more in-depth quests.It might've been easy to miss the magic happening inside the Zelda cartridge's plastic case, though, as the outside of it was just so shiny. That was another major change Nintendo of America made as the game came into our country – it got a special golden paint job."The Hyrule Fantasy: Zeruda no Densetsu" didn't really stand out visually from other game releases in Japan in 1986, as it shipped on an essentially normal disk with standard package art. The art was great – it depicted Link kneeling, sword and shield at the ready, in front of a painted map of Hyrule. But NOA wanted something more epic. Something more eye-catching.So America got the gold. The Legend of Zelda became the first to earn the rare honor of a special paint job on its cartridge plastic, shining with a brilliant golden luster the moment you saw it on the store shelf. And NOA made sure you could see straight through to the cartridge, too, by teasingly cutting out a small portion of the box's cardboard in the upper left corner – it let fans take a peek inside and see for themselves that the game within was no normal game at all. Soon after, a trip to the cash register was made by millions.This pioneering presentation in paintwork has been repeated only a few times in the 25 years since. Later Zelda sequels like The Adventure of Link and the Collector's Edition of Ocarina of Time also got golden cartridges, while Pokemon fans are perfectly familiar with the fact that their series of choice began with Red and Blue Versions that lived up to their names – not to mention the Yellow, Gold, Silver and others that came later. Some other companies have tried the technique themselves over the years – the SNES Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage shipped on a blood-red cartridge, for example. But the Big N itself has been reserved with the practice, letting you know you're holding a truly special game when you pick up a title that isn't the standard black or grey.The changes made to get The Legend of Zelda to America weren't all related to the physical cartridge and its packaging, of course – there is the translation of the game's text to English to consider too. The lines that Nintendo's localization team came up with have arguably had even more of a lasting impact than the technology shift of battery saves or the golden paint – they've become absolutely ingrained in gamer culture. Quoted by every Nintendo fan, memorized by millions."It's dangerous to go alone. Take this." Spoken by the first Old Man encountered in the first cave, handing Link his first ever sword."It's a secret to everybody." Said by the Moblin whose hidden den you could uncover in the overworld, right before he rewards you with free Rupees."Eastmost penninsula is the secret." Well, actually, that one's just nonsense. In the Japanese version, the same character who says that actually gives you a useful hint about arrows instead of that spelling-error nonsense.Probably the most interesting in-game change that was made, though, was when Nintendo of America had to compensate for another hardware discrepancy between regions – though they didn't seem to let the team working on the instruction manual in on it. In the manual, in the bestiary introducing you to Hyrule's many different enemies, there's an entry for the rabbit-looking Pols Voice that clues you into its weakness for loud noises. Makes sense, right? The thing has huge ears. So when you come across the creature in a dungeon and remember that hint, you naturally try to kill it by using Link's whistle.But nothing happens. The Pols Voice just keeps bouncing around. It turns out that that clue actually was properly translated, but it was meant to direct gamers to the built-in microphone on the Famicom's second controller – Japanese players could blow or yell into the mic to take down Pols Voice and move on. America's NES controllers were built without that microphone, though, so there was no way to leverage that weakness. The beast might still have been weak to noise, but we had no way to scream at it.Thankfully, NOA added a new weakness for Pols Voice – one shot from an arrow takes them down easily.

And those, Zelda fans, are just a few ways that Link's original adventure was altered for its arrival in America. If you're new to Zelda, hopefully this educated you a bit about the past. And if you're a longtime follower of the franchise, well, you probably knew all these facts already – and if so, join us in toasting the game's 25th American anniversary.

Lucas M. Thomas is going to go fire up his old Zelda cartridge and check to see if his save data actually is still there. You can follow him on Twitter