The Legend of Zelda (NES) | Tales from the Backlog - Scott The Woz 

The way scott plays the game laying on the floor is... adorable, and gives me heavy nostalgia.

My first early video of the channel. You're officially part of my thing I wait patiently for.

8:50 And to believe this gag was referenced way later in his 2019 Christmas special. Scott truly is a legend.

The cryptic hints were great back in the day. Having to ask friends and family what to do and trying to piece together knowledge and secrets was a blast. It felt like an adventure outside the game as well.

All here Hey Scott

I like the style of video you make and wish you luck in the future. And subs

This needs a full-fledged remake. Like in the style of the Wonderboy remake

fun times

Ey I thought you'd never bring Tales from the Backlog back! Can't wait to see which other games you have yet to play. Great video, Scott.

Even 35 Years Later the intro to The Legend Of Zelda is still absolutely breathtaking

I just played through this game for the first time, without a guide. Granted, knowing to burn bushes and bomb walls is so common knowledge now it's impossible to avoid knowing and I've heard a lot of people complain about how obtuse finding level 7 is, so I knew that as well. All that was left to me was finding the exact walls and bushes to open up, which I found a lot of fun. Took me about 9-10 hours to get through and it was endlessly rewarding. I'll definitely be doing it again. Amazing game, might be my favourite in the series.

Darknuts and Wizzrobes are the bane to my existence.

Nice work I like how when you slip in humor you don’t take time to be like “hey guys notice my joke” like some other people, you just say it as if it’s completely normal, which makes it better

Using a manual to know how to play any games is not cheating.

Hey Scott; I appreciate you checking out my favorite game of all time but I have a few things to say. Not gripes or anything, just some facts of the time and how the game works. So one of the biggest things that made the original Zelda so big was actually an utter LACK of walkthroughs available to most players because of the whole internet not really being a thing. I distinctly remember when I first played Zelda and other games that kids at school would trade tips and tricks from their own NES experiences for snacks or toys or whatever. My step-dad and I even made our own bets against each other where we would see who could figure out how to progress through the next dungeon first, and we'd occasionally trade secrets for favors (I told him how to get into the 7th Dungeon for an entire package of homemade pudding, btw). Also, while its true that kids had a lot of free time to play games like Zelda during that time period, it wasn't really because of Summer vacation. Most families actually limited game time considerably during that era, I've met hundreds upon hundreds of people that all said that their parents restricted their game time to an hour to two hours a day if they were lucky (and yes, that includes during Summer vacation). Thing is that kids had a lot less vying for the little free time that they had so they could focus on a single game at a time for several weeks, which is perfect for a game like the original Zelda. I'm not saying that all retro gamers from back then are more "hardcore" or whatever than modern gamers are, but the strict gaming limits meant that you had to figure out ways to mitigate replaying the sections or grinding, which in turn meant that the players were FORCED to become better gamers at a faster rate if they wanted to get farther in the game in such short play sessions. The minimally detailed map also meant that most players drew their own as they played, and a lot of kids kept gaming journals to write those cryptic hints in to try to figure out with their friends at school. Everything became a riddle, and it was almost a precursor to MMOs in a way. There was a real sense of community between players because pretty much nobody was finding everything all on their own. The closest thing to it that I can think of are tight-nit fan communities of currently broadcasting shows. They share all sorts of wild fan theories and try to piece mysteries together and fill plot holes. Its like that, except that after you discussed stuff you went back to the game and experimented with everything that you could think of. Once you'played for a little while you start to notice the rules that the game follows. Things like: -only the center of walls can be bombed in labyrinths -only South-facing walls can be bombed in the over world -bombable sections in the over world are also always in the corner of "rooms" with full walls, within two spaces of the screen's entrance, or on the edge of a big rock (I think that there's ONE that bucks these three trends and its one space above where you start) -nearly every screen of the over world that's not strictly a hallway has a doorway/stairway to a room located on it -doorways/stairways on the over world can only ever lead to a single room, so if there's already an entrance of some sort then there's no secret on that screen -burnable bushes are almost always found in two ways: 1. in spaces with many singular bushes the burnable one is ALWAYS in the bottom row 2. amidst a line if bushes that cleanly divides the "room" in half (there are a few that break these trends but its like 2 or 3 in the whole game) There're plenty of other little tricks that you learn too, but there's no point in listing 'em all here. As for the wall that you can walk through above the money-making game that you got exasperated about its actually pretty obvious that there's something weird there. There's definitely a space above you according to the map and its impossible to get there from the only other adjacent space due to a rock wall AND water. On top of that the tree that the game is inside of is the only off-center "dungeon" entrance in the game. It just screams suspicious after you've been playing for a while. So check this map out: www.nesmaps.com/maps/Zelda/ZeldaOverworldMapQ1.png Looking at it all at once can make it much easier to see some of these rules that the secrets follow. In any case; again, I appreciate you checking out the game at all. I agree that its very archaic by today's standards, and even at the time of its release the Engrish hints were ridiculous. Still, that sense of community the game brought to the table where everyone worked together to solve it is something that'll never really happen again in the modern day. And man, when you started piecing things together there was a real sense of accomplishment when you went back to school and told your friends what you discovered yesterday. Anyway, here's hoping you like other games in the series more. Can't wait until you get around to Link's Awakening. :)

One of your videos popped up randomly in my feed, I watched it and now I've been binge watching your channel. Thanks ❤️

Hi Scott, new subscriber here, I came across your channel by chance one day and I just love the hell out of your content, very informative and funny, my kind of youtuber, and I'm really happy that your channel is blowing up so fast lately. You deserve it, man, every single one of your videos is just gold. Please continue to be such a fantastic guy and godspeed! Also, I suffer from crippling depression too, so that's a plus. Or minus, I dunno.

I remember playing windwaker HD and my Mom having seen it, then mentioning something about it being something that she played when she was a teenager. I personally find it amazing seeing how it bridges the generational gap, and does it so well.

Found your channel about two weeks ago and you became one of my favourite RU-vid channels to watch I can see you having a bright future so keep up the work man.

Hello Scott! I just recently started watching your videos and I was hooked. The way you talk about things that are interesting to me but do it in a funny way makes for a truly entertaining video, worthy of a sub.

Here are my two cents. If you have the time and the patience, try to experience the game on its own, without a guide, and just explore to your heart's content. It creates a more memorable experience, as you become familiar with the entire overworld. Sure you can use a guide, but just going straight to each destination and not taking in everything cheapens the experience as a whole. Each screen was designed to make you think "I wonder what secrets are here" and the map gets ingrained into your psyche from the constant search to uncover every last detail. Of course I grew up with the game and got to play through it long before the internet was a thing and I got to experience it as intended. And it was a magical experience to say the least. But I can see how gamers nowadays just lack the time, patience and interest in general to try to complete such a marvel, partially because we have so many games to play, but also because we have games with better (abeit still not perfect) translations and easier to understand clues. Either way, it's a love it or hate it game, and it's one I absolutely adore.

your videos are greatly under viewed, you have great theories/reviews/news with a good bit of humor involved so glad that i found you

This will always be one of my favorite games

I enjoy these backlog episodes i usually dont watch videos on games that have been reviewed many of times but i like the way you make videos keep it up man

It's funny, because I just recently revisited this game. In the past few weeks, I've replayed it myself, and I've watched several blind Let's Plays. It actually surprised me just how well it conveys itself, and I don't think you're giving a guideless play enough credit. Level 1 will almost certainly be the first dungeon any player finds, and it will feel like it was just stumbled upon, but it's due to the map design. If a new player goes too far to the east or west in such a weak state, they'll run into harder enemies and die. When they try to go north, they will find that there's only one way to go, because the rest of the paths are blocked by water, trees, and rocks. Upon traveling north, the large bridge stands out and draws the attention, leading to the first dungeon and the establishment of the game's main objective, which is finding and beating these dungeons. Level 2 is indeed hard to find, unless you look at the manual. But with 4 heart containers and a boomerang, moblin-infested areas will be manageable, which is exactly where you need to go to find dungeons 2 and 3. In Level 3, an old man says "Did you get the sword from the old man at the top of the waterfall?" At this point, if you have beaten levels 1 and 2, then you have enough heart containers to pick up this sword. In level 4, an old man says "Walk into the waterfall". If you do so, there will be a "Pay me and I'll talk" lady, who tells you "Go up, up the mountain ahead" which unlocks level 5. You can't get any clearer than that. Level 5 is the first dungeon where bombing walls is required. The game teaches you this by locking you in a room with a bunch of Gibdos who drop bombs. It's possible to get trapped forever in there, but you'll be given 8 bombs in this room alone, so you'll probably figure out what to do, especially if you've played other Zelda games. Additionally, there's a man in dungeon 5 who will upgrade your bomb bag, but you won't find him unless you're paying close attention to the dungeon map and notice a missing space at the top-right corner. Also, now that you know walls can be bombed, you will be rewarded on a subsequent playthrough if you try bombing walls in the first few dungeons, and you will discover huge shortcuts that bypass most of the dungeons' challenges. In level 6, an old man says "There are secrets where fairies don't live" which is a clear hint to finding level 7. Level 7 gives you the red candle. Once you beat it, you are expected to go on a burning spree and try it on every bush in the game, which surprisingly doesn't take that long. Doing so will prove quite rewarding, as you'll find numerous rupees, secret shops, and perhaps most importantly, dungeon 8. The brilliance behind the red candle is that once you uncover these secrets, you can remember them for future runs and get to them using only the blue candle, giving you a ridiculous power boost at the very beginning of the game. Bomb-wall secrets are surprisingly intuitive to find on one's own. They lie at flat northern walls, often surrounded by non-flat walls, and will jump out to you as soon as you know what you're looking for. Plus, once you find a useful secret, that's even more power to you for a future play-through. The game does have some unreasonably-hidden secrets, but they are all optional, and were meant to be shared and gossipped about on the school playground, similar to the secret stars and coin blocks in Super Mario Bros. The players I watched, who played blindly, picked up on most of these patterns and beat the game in about 10 hours. Some struggled on blue darknuts, or got stumped trying to find the path to the boss in dungeon 7, but they pulled through. It takes patience, but I think the game holds up surprisingly well when playing guideless. That is, until the 2nd quest, which can go screw the hell off. I don't blame anyone for using a guide on the 2nd quest, I've never even beaten it myself.

Love your content! The endings are always hilarious 😂

I've seen your video in discover section, watched it, stayed for a while, watched some more and finally subscribed. Nice work!

Fun fact: It’s dangerous to go alone.

8:02 Nice dungeon map.

You are my new favorite gaming channel. I’ve been gaming since the 2600. I got Zelda when I was 12 and was blown away. Played it for hours. Beat both quests.

Scott! You are the current Creator on the Rise! Congrats, man! You've grown a hell of a lot since Alax introduced me to you. Keep it going!

I completely agree with the idea of not finishing this game, even with a walkthrough. I remember I got this on the 3DS virtual console and in one of the later dungeons, I got bugged into a wall because of the ladder. I had to restart and I hadn't saved since a few hours (and a couple dungeons) before. Needless to say, I haven't touched it since...

This game ruled my life in the 80's. I was obsessed with it. Good memories

FIRST channel deserving of the spotlight, gl bro

How do you only have 47k subscribers.... so glad i found your channel last week. Slowly becoming my favorite

I see the first TLOZ like a classic car; looks nice because the classic vibe, fun to try and figure it out how it works, but never good for a daily use on modern era.

This is the only channel I enable notifications for

Just found your channel and BOY OH BOY am I️ enjoying your content.Keep up the good work my guy

I've been watching through all of your videos, and you've inspired me to pick up and play through a variety of games, instead of sticking to 1 or 2 games, and it's been a blast. I also recently picked up The Legend of Zelda on the 3DS virtual console, and it's nice knowing that someone who does play a variety of game also gave up and looked up a guidebook. I still try to do every dungeon blind at first but damn it's just so difficult. I totally agree with your take that you can't truly enjoy this game without a guide.

You've resurrected a RU-vid genre that I thought had completely vanished. Keep this up!

For me the Legend of Zelda is still a great game to play today. There's just a magic thing on just wondering around, drawing your map, finding secrets you even don't know they were there, gathering all the clues toguether. It's just incredible thinking there is an 80s game that make me feel the sense of adventure more than some games of today. And I find a great potential on just being so mysterious.

This was the first video of yours that I ever watched back in the day.

This and Pitfall were the first adventure games I played and i was in awe. You could just keep going and find new things. I'm old and bias but this game is incredible.

GOD DAMN you already have 33k? Your such a good RU-vidr bro!

Man he needs to keep making tales from the backlog and do all the Zeldas

Was researching ambiios buying my first Nintendo console since the wii and I came across your video and man am I happy I did your so underrated how have you not blown up yet you deserve way more views

My Dad played this game as a kid, he still knows everything about this game. He even had a neighbor that called him over to help with Zelda. Every time we play this game my Dad Just knows exactly what to do. I have had a very easy experience playing this thanks to him. And honestly I’m really happy I found a game my Dad, my brother, and me can all enjoy together in my room with my CRT TV. The Legend Of Zelda will always be magical for me and my Dad/brother. Such an amazing game that deserves to be played over. Sure we use Nintendo Power Magazines when our Dad isn’t home (Specifically Issue #1 because of its entire over world map) but overall I can easily say. That’s easily the best way to experience this masterpiece of a game.

Still 2+ years later and we still have no clue why fling smash is wet.

I've played this game fairly recently for the first time, and just for the heck of it (and probably because i'm masochistic) I tried to play it without a guide. What I did instead was I built a map (using Ms Paint), and marked off the location of every secret, traps, shops, and dungeons. I found it pretty enjoyable; though, I will agree that bombs should of been more plentiful, as I constantly ran out of bombs while trying to find secrets.

I Wait For Every Time You Upload Because There Just So Funny And Entertaing While Being Kinda Informative Aswell. Keep Up Your Great Work

Hey scott love ur vids man, ur a huge inspiration to me

The original legend of Zelda is a game that needs a remake

I remember playing this at 6-years-old in 1986. It blew me away! It’s hard to see now, but this was the “Skyrim” of its time. And “Nintendo Power” wasn’t out yet! You had to use those cryptic clues and just try everything! Burn all the bushes and bomb everything!

I know it's been a while, but please continue! I would love to see you cover more zelda games.

i like your blend of sarcasm, humor, and in-depth analysis. Have a sub!

4:02 Funny you say that. My best friend got stuck because she didn’t know where the wooden sword was. She was wandering Hyrule Aimlessly.

I remember having so much fun with the game. I thought it was gonna be super dated and not fun, but this is definitely my favorite NES game. I remember feeling so satisfied after finding secrets by myself without a guide. Then I got to dungeon six and went nope and haven't played it since.

Your channel has exploded recently! When I first subbed to you, you just had 9k subs!

Holy shit I've been on a binge watch of your channel and I must say, you're great!

I just beat this game again over the weekend. It was a blast--just went off of memory from elementary school, though I did cheat two times because I couldn't find a couple of the dungeons and I never did get the red ring. In any case, I don't think that it was nearly as hard as this review implies. Sure, it's cryptic but how hard can it be to think about stuff a bit?

6:42 "How would I know I have to burn this tree or this wall?" Trial an error. i figured it out when I was 5. Although when you're 5, you have a lot of time on your hands. "Oh wait, I can burn a tree? I'm going to try burning all of the trees!"

You’re videos are great keep up the amazing work very knowledgable In gaming great work

From the bottom of my heart. Thank you for this video. I no longer feel alone.

Dude where’s your Zelda II video this was 2 years ago man.

Am i going crazy? I just noticed it says "straegic" instead of strategic on the Zelda box cover in your video, but when I click on the cover under your description of the video, it is spelled correctly. There has to be a story about that. Love your videos, Scott!

You *BLEW UP* from 6k to 47k *CONGRATS* Damn I'm so happy for you.

I hope Scott brings this series back sometime soon.

People say don't use a guide because they already know the game inside and out having played it for 50 hours as a small child with a small selection of like 7 games to choose from three of which were mario and the others being crap like Friday the 13th and Ghostbusters. Sure, when you don't have anything else to play, wandering around for hours and bombing every wall in sight might be fun. The point is, those people will play this game now and go straight for where they need to go, with no guide, because the guide is in their memories.

Hey Scott, are you ready to hit 100k subs yet?

Dude, you made this on my birthday, sweet!

Another great video.

I'm still curious how I learned this game when with no guide back in the day.

I played this game in late 1988 with my siblings, honestly we never needed a guide or thought it was overly cryptic. We beat it, with a bit of trial and error of course, but it was never frustrating. Castlevania 2, now that's some cryptic bullshit right there. So glad I picked RC Proam over Simon's Quest for my birthday the next year.

This game made me a fan for the rest of my life. I still remember where things are 30+ years later.

Hey Scott, Just wanted to say I came on with the "upcoming RU-vid" rush, but I am really impressed with the quality of videos and hope to see you keep it up, You have +1 sub!

crazy to think he doubled his subs in like a week

Nintendo should really remaster this game for either 3Ds or Switch. THIS WOULD BE AMAZING! Just imagine LOZ in HD that plays a lot like ALBW.

I can't believe you've already gotten to 100k subs! I remember when you were just under 1k

Scott, this game came with a fold-out map that really helped you explore the overworld. It really added to the experience! (The Nintendo Power coverage didn't hurt either). I finished this game in elementary school, and still love it to this day.

I beat Legend of Zelda when I was 8 after months of grinding and playing with my mom. No guide was available in those early days, just the call center $2.99 per minute. I remember being on the other phone when my mom called them. We got as cryptic answer when we asked about where a dungeon was. The dude straight out said something like above the waterfall. Nothing else, just waterfall. We still beat it after like a year of playing nothing else and I was very young. I should be allowed to put that on resumes ffs. 😂

8:53 OHHH, THAT’s where that joke from the bankruptcy video came from

When I finally played Zelda 1 in like 2015 I managed to get through it with "just" the manual (and a bit of knowledge by osmosis over the years, but that was only that walls could be bombed... and I thought that was only dungeons.) There was a pretty cool "Wait what?!" moment when I lit a tree on fire (it was supposed to be a joke) but Scott is right, using a guide is gonna see you having an overall better time than I did, because finding the way forward past a certain point is beyond obscure. A very important early step in a great series, all the same.

Yo Scott, I saw you on the trending page!!! Like you were creator on the rise! And it's awesome man! You're really funny and talented and hope to see you grow larger and larger!

Please do more Zelda videos!

Scott, great news. Your channel was featured on the trending tab as a “creator on the rise”

I've been watching your channel for what now feels like forever, yet I have no idea how I never saw this video

Probually the best youtuber I’ve almost watched all videos

Why was this attached to an ad for an NES ROM?

5:15 Wonder what they took inspiration from for the shape of the dungeon...

Great video!

37,000 subscribers... you were at 1,500 like 3 weeks ago. Congrats man

8:36 Look at the top left map Nine

8:36. The map 💀

Congrats on being on trending Scott.

Wow this is the earliest I’ve been to your videos

0:06 Oh okay, any relation to Steve Wozniak?

What A Weird Ad "Retro Game Contra Mario Tetris | Retro Games(nES/FC Emulator)" But Ok

I personally used Excel to plot a map of the different screens bc I don't find following guides all that fun. It allowed me to see where I've been and where I hadn't, but also how to get around the place and what enemies to expect in each screen. I also kept note of every secret riddle thing I could find and cross them off when I felt that I'd found what they were talking about

Another video to watch instead of doing my job. thanks Scott

Best moments from the ep: 6:12 8:50