10 Things You Never Knew About The Original Legend Of Zelda

For years, Mario creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, wanted to devise a game where the player had to explore the world to progress rather running in one direction like most platformers at the time. When he had the chance to implement this idea for the 1986 game, The Legend of Zelda, video games were changed forever. It became an instant classic due to its beautiful soundtrack, challenging bosses, and elaborate puzzles.

There have been 19 official LoZ games (not including the CD-i abominations), many of which are regarded as the greatest games ever. Selling over 90 million copies, LoZ has been one of Nintendo's most powerful franchises for over 30 years.

In each game, the developers try to top themselves by making the world vaster, the bosses more epic, and the puzzles more complex. After seeing the time-travelling mechanics of Ocarina of Time or the endless sprawling world from Breath of the Wild, the original LoZ seems tame by comparison.

But we can never disregard the importance in the game that started it all. How the story came to be and how different it could have turned out is just as fascinating as the game itself. Here are ten amazing facts about the original LoZ that you never knew.

It's mind-boggling how much text and dialogue has to be written for modern games. For Batman: Arkham Knight, the lead actor, Kevin Conroy, recorded 36,000 lines of dialogue. The script for GTA V was over 3,500 pages long. Not only does someone have to write all that, editors need to correct every spelling mistake and grammatical error.

Sadly, this wasn't a major priority in the old days. Video games of the 1980s had very little text but the programmers still managed to screw it up. Even Nintendo's pride and joy, The Legend of Zelda, had a number of errors when it was translated into English.

In the introduction, Ganon is called "Gannon" and the Triforce of Power is referred to as "The Triforce with Power". The gems are spelt “Rupies" in the game but are referred to as "Rubies" in the intruction manual. In future games, they are spelt “Rupees.” (Make up your mind, guys.)

The Old Man tells you to “aim at the eyes of Gohma” even though the enemy only has one eye. On top of that, the Old Man misspells Peninsula as “Penninsula.” How come Hyrule has magic and enchanted swords but nobody owns a dictionary?