Quest Notes, 4/20-4/26

Reminder: I’ll sometimes be using the spelling of characters, items, and enemies from the NES Manual. I am aware the spelling has changed in subsequent games.

Background:

I started Zelda on Saturday after a pretty long break– as in, the first time I’ve played it seriously since I picked it up from the now-defunct pawn shop in my hometown for much less than it is worth now, due in large part to the big retro gaming bubble resalers and scalpers are currently riding. Zelda still isn’t the most expensive title out there, but the price has gone up enough to make me raise my eyebrows. I think I originally picked it up for under 5 dollars because NES games were pretty much worthless back in the late 90s and early 2000’s. According to Pricecharting.com, the value has jumped up to about 20 bucks as a loose cart. I was probably 11 or 12 when I got it, and I was still using a crappy RF adapter to connect my NES to the TV in my parents’ room, an old CRT complete with knobs and a coaxial adapter in the back that had tiny, fiddly metal forks you had to screw on to the television. The NES was my first console, and I remember getting the NES Zelda specifically because I wanted more of the series after playing Ocarina of Time. I ultimately found the game too confusing without access to a manual or the internet (at first), and I never got farther than Level 2. Level 4 if you count the time I jumped into Level 4, the Snake Labyrinth, to steal the ladder after giving the game another brief try as a teenager with an internet connection. After making a bet with a good friend of mine that I would beat the game without any walkthrough other than what I would have had before the internet, I decided to replace the 72-pin connector in my Control Deck and give it another shot.

Gear/Resources: A refurbished NES Control Deck, a Sony WEGA CRTV with a little bit of screen bend, a Gold Zelda NES Game-Pak, and a Sprite Zero. Also, eventually the manual.

Log:

A quick primer if you’re not familiar with Zelda: The game kinda throws you into a world without explaining anything. I didn’t read the manual at first (more on that mistake later), so I didn’t have anything but my past two experiences with the game to guide me. The gist, however, is pretty simple. You are Link, hero of Hyrule, and you have to beat bosses in 8 labyrinths, collecting various helpful items as you go to get you to new areas, better weapons, and treasures.

4/21/2018

Saturday was a nice rainy day, and after doing a little work on the NES, I started playing. I played pretty much all afternoon, getting through the first two labyrinths and getting over half the treasures. I died a lot, but that gave me the chance to build up a pretty decent rupy collection (although it took me a while and a wasted visit to one of the secret moblins that give you free money in caves to figure out that the limit on rupies is 255). I was stumped by the old man on top of the waterfall and his clue to “master it” in order to get the white sword, and ended up moving on. I also found one of the fairy fountains, which ended up being a boon every time I died– I would just go fill up on hearts and a fountain and then book it past enemies to my next destination.

I had a hell of a time with Level 2, as there is a room full of blue moblins that take a ton of hits, surrounded by statues from hell that constantly spit out fireballs. I ended up giving up on that for a while, opting to beat the dungeon and get the heart container instead. I came back to that room, barely clinging on to half a heart to claim the Magical Boomerang as my prize– which is great at a distance, but actually adds a new layer of strategy because while the wooden boomerang goes about half the screen and comes back, the magical boomerang goes the full screen distance and takes longer to return, leaving you open to damage if you miss, especially with quickly moving enemies. The boomerang freezes even really difficult enemies like Lynels, though, so it ends up being worth the risk if you can master it.

The big mistake I made was at the end of my game on Saturday night. Every time you die, you have the option to continue, save, or quit to the title. I naively thought that continuing also saved (like in Super Mario World after a castle), but I was dead wrong. I hit the power button on my console (another big no-no I found after reading the manual), and lost the ENTIRETY of my progress. So, I thought after this it might be a good idea to download and read the manual, which tells dummies like me to die and save, or oddly enough, connect a second controller, press “the control pad” (which really means up) and the A button. It’s dumb, but it works I guess. Defeated and sad, I went to bed.

4/22/2017

On Wednesday, I spent a little time in the evening getting my stuff back and got pretty much where I was before, and then some! I ended up discovering, after finding the creepy old man again in Level 3, that you can get the white sword from the cave at the top of the waterfall after beating Levels 1 and 2. I just found it too early on my unsaved playthrough. The doubled attack power makes the game much less of a slog if you’re trying to collect rupies, and makes the absolutely INFURIATING Darknuts who inhabit Level 3 possible to beat. I mean, they are possible with the dinky sword you get at the beginning, but they take a billion hits and I hate them.

4/25/2018

A few days passed without booting up the NES due to overall busyness, and my obsession with getting a backlight installed in my GameBoy Advance. I spent a few nights tinkering with a soldering iron to no great effect, leaving my GBA still dead, and progress lacking in Zelda. In the brief half hour or so I got in those few days, however, I noticed that I had started to feel more comfortable with the controls, and more able to dispatch enemies by knowing their patterns in advance. The initial reticence and stiffness I felt while playing has mostly left.

4/26/2018

My buddy Devin (the person who bet me 100 bucks I couldn’t beat Zelda) came over to practice level 1 for my bachelor party. We’re having a “Nintendo World Championship” of sorts for it, and one of the challenges is a speedrun of Zelda’s first labyrinth. During the playthrough, the console got jerked around somehow (I can’t remember exactly what happened), and now games won’t play unless they aren’t pushed down in the toaster mechanism of the control deck. Starting up games is a little dodgy now, and I’m 100% sure Devin is trying to sabotage me so he doesn’t have to pay me the 100 dollars. He is now the villain of this blog. After he left though, something just clicked. I became a dungeon beating and secret finding machine. First, I beat level 3– a tip for anyone who wants to win? Use bombs all the time. Bomb everything, and not just bosses. I must have found 4 or 5 secret caves by bombing the crap out of every suspicious looking wall I could find. I ended up finding both rooms where you can bet 10 rupies with the old man to quadruple or quintuple your money– or lose even more. I also ended up finding the entrance to level 9 where Gannon awaits. I also found the secret letter that lets you get potions from the two silent old women (who I dubbed the silent hag, because it sounds Fantasy AF), and discovered the warp stairs. I also bought the blue ring that raises your defensive power, but I found that shop on the first day– I just didn’t have the 250 rupies to drop on it immediately. That about wraps it up, leaving me ready to enter the weekend ready to tear up the last half of the game.

Random Thoughts:

I switch from being able to easily defeat tektites to having a conniption trying to beat them, seemingly for no reason

The delay on the sword beam makes me shoot in the opposite direction CONSTANTLY

Darknuts can go gargle railroad spikes

Hey, one of the dungeons is shaped like a Swastika

I wish they’d just give me the magic sword for being cool enough to find it

When you kill a ghost (Ghini) does it become a double ghost? Why can’t you kill the ones that come out of the graves? Are they already double ghosts?

Did Christians set up a mission in Hyrule? Crosses on every damn thing

Overall Progress:

Dungeon: Level 5

Inventory: raft, ladder, blue ring, letter to old lady, power bracelet, magic boomerang, bow and wooden arrows, blue candle, water of life, white sword