Zelda Universe – 25 Years in 25 Days: 1986

Our friends over at Zelda Universe have launched a brand new article series at their website entitled 25 Years in 25 Days. They are counting down the last 25 days to the release of Skyward Sword while also celebrating 25 years of the Legend of Zelda. Each day they they will be posting an article representing one of the years in Zelda, starting with today’s article, 25 Years in 25 Days: 1986.

The Legend of Zelda was released on February 21 in Japan as a launch title for the Famicon Disk System, a peripheral for the Famicom console that allowed the use of rewriteable disks. Before the battery backup system was invented for cartridges, the Disk System allowed a save feature to be added to games, which was essential for something like The Legend of Zelda due to the sheer size of the game. Although we celebrate 1986 as the year of Zelda’s birth, the game was in development since at least early 1985. Series creator Shigeru Miyamoto drew inspiration for the game from his childhood days of exploring the forests, caves and lakes around his home town of Kyoto, Japan. Who knows, maybe as a child he was already imagining himself stumbling upon magical relics like the Triforce and battling fearsome monsters such as Octoroks and the world of Hyrule was already taking shape back in the 1950s!

This is just a short tidbit of the lengthy article written over at Zelda Universe. You can head on over to Zelda Universe to read the article in its entirety.

I have virtually no memories at all of 1986 as much like the Legend of Zelda series, this was the year that I first came into this world. I was just an infant, not knowing how to walk, how to talk, or let alone how to pick up a controller and play The Legend of Zelda. Truth of the matter is, almost nobody in the United States got to play Zelda or had even heard of the Legend of Zelda in 1986, as it only was released in Japan. Still, this game marked the beginning of the series that would change the landscape of video games forever.

I’m not sure what it was about the game that caused fans to grow so attached to it. Was it the non-linearity that allowed fans to go wherever they wanted to? Was it the depth of the games enemies and dungeons? The huge inventory? Perhaps just that it was the first game that featured a save system. Whatever it was, it created a whole breed of video games that have evolved and lived on until today. 1986, the birth of the Legend of Zelda.

Be sure to check back tomorrow at Zelda Universe where part II of the series will be released, covering 1987.

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