As the inaugural game of The Legend of Zelda series, it was first released in Japan as a launch title for the Famicom's Disk System peripheral, a year and five months before it was released in the United States. Because the Famicom Disk System was not released outside Japan, the game was published internationally on the Nintendo Entertainment System's cartridge format in 1987. The NES cartridge has an internal battery to facilitate data saving. Nintendo released the game in Japan in 1994 on cartridge format for the Famicom.

Gameplay

When The Legend of Zelda was released, its gameplay defied categorization. The game incorporated elements from action games, adventure games, role-playing games, and puzzle games. The player controls Link from an overhead perspective as he travels in the overworld, a large outdoor map with varied environments. Link begins the game armed only with a small shield, but a sword becomes available to Link if he ventures into a cave which is accessible from the game's first map screen. Throughout the game, merchants, Fairys, towns people, and others guide Link with cryptic clues. These people are scattered across the overworld and hidden in caves, shrubbery, or behind walls or waterfalls.

Barring Link's progress are creatures he must battle to locate the entrances to nine underground dungeons. Each dungeon is a unique, maze-like collection of rooms connected by doors and secret passages and guarded by monsters different from those found on the overworld. Link must successfully navigate each dungeon to obtain one of the eight pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom. Dungeons also hide useful tools which Link can add to his arsenal, such as a boomerang for retrieving distant items and stunning enemies, and a recorder with magical properties. The first six dungeons have visible entrances, but the entrances to the remaining three dungeons are hidden. Except for the final dungeon, which cannot be entered until the previous eight have been completed, the order of completing dungeons is somewhat arbitrary, but some dungeons can only be reached and/or completed using items gained in a previous one.

Nonlinearity, the ability to take different paths to complete the game, separated Zelda from its contemporaries. Link can freely wander the overworld, finding and buying items at any point. This flexibility enables unusual ways of playing the game; for example, it is possible to reach the final boss of the game (but not defeat him) without taking the sword. Nintendo of America's management initially feared that players might become frustrated with the new concept, left wondering what to do next. As a result, the American version of the game's manual contains many hints, tips, and suggestions for players.

anchor: The second quest After completing the game, the player has access to a more difficult quest, officially referred to as the Second Quest, where dungeons and the placement of items are different and enemies stronger. Although a more difficult "replay" was not unique to Zelda, few games offered a "second quest" with entirely different levels to complete. Entering "ZELDA" as the player's name starts the second quest immediately. The Second Quest can be replayed each time it is completed.