Check Out This Really Cool History of Zelda’s Gold Packaging
Posted on February 20 2015 by Rod Lloyd
Many of us Zelda fans can remember the first time we saw a shining gold cartridge out of the corner of our eyes, beginning our lifelong obsessions with the iconic series. Well, have you ever wondered exactly how often Zelda games have utilized glistening gold in its packaging? Luckily, Zelda super-fan Brett Elston on Laser Time has written up a comprehensive record of golden game packaging Zelda has endowed us with.
You can read the article right here; it has a wealth of interesting information. For example, Elston notes the differences between the gold NES cartridge and the less exciting, yellow-ish Famicom cartridge in Japan. To think, Japanese fans were denied what I would consider the shiniest of all gold carts. Elston also exposes how little the Zelda series actually took advantage of gold packaging. The ones that did include some degree of gold may remain in our memories, but only about half of main-series Zelda games carried that noteworthy shimmer.
The article is well worth a read for the images alone. Elston is a well-known video game historian, and he provides several pictures of gold items from his own Zelda collection. He even makes the artistic choice to take his photos under the rays of sunlight, showing off the beautiful reflectivity of these golden treasures. Seeing the Ocarina of Time logo reflected in the sunlight really makes me want to visit a church with stained-glass Zelda windows.
Brett Elston runs a video game music podcast on the Laser Time network called VGMpire. He recently released a Zelda episode titled “Hyrule Hits Vol 2.”
What did you think of this history lesson? Do you have a favorite piece of Zelda‘s glorious, gold packaging? Let us know!
Source: Laser Time
Rod Lloyd is the Editor-In-Chief at Zelda Dungeon, overseeing the news and feature content for the site. Rod is considered the veteran of the writing team, having started writing for Zelda Informer in 2014 as a Junior Editor. After ZD and ZI officially merged in 2017, he stepped into the Managing Editor role and has helped steer the ship ever since. He stepped up to lead the writing team as Editor-In-Chief in 2023.
You can reach Rod at: rod.lloyd@zeldadungeon.net
