Legend of Zelda for the NES - The Best Video Game Media

In this series of blogs I’m highlighting the best of physical game media of all time - the next generation of games could be download only, so enjoy these fantastic objects while you can, they won’t be making any more of them.

Legend of Zelda Gold Cartridge

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) had the biggest of all the physical video game cartridges, with simple cardboard boxes to hold them. Almost all of the cartridges were a standard battleship grey, with games being differentiated by the sticker with the game title and artwork. There was one game however that bucked the trend, and it did so in style, with a solid gold cartridge - or at least that’s what it looked like.

The Legend of Zelda for the NES

The Zelda series requires little introduction, but the original game in the series, the Legend of Zelda for the NES, had packaging to match its ambition.

The game came packaged in a gold box, with a cutout to reveal the gold cartridge beneath, immediately making it stand out on the shelf among all those grey cartridges. Inside the box the game featured a world map, something that many gamers at the time would have welcomed. The map of Hyrule negated the need to draw your own as you played through the game.

The game itself was a revelation, with a world of Hyrule so big that, without that map, you’d have been drawing your own as you played, so it did justice to the ostentatious packaging rather than being an exercise of style over substance. Subsequent Zelda games on later consoles often featured the Gold cartridge, but it was the NES version that was the original and best.