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A hidden world in the NES ‘Legend of Zelda’ was just uncovered 30 years later

Published Jan 6th, 2019 2:07PM EST
Legend of Zelda
Image: Nintendo

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One of the more remarkable things about the original Nintendo is that many of the console’s more popular games — from Super Mario Bros. 3 to Tecmo Bowl — are still playable and thoroughly enjoyable. Sure, the 8-bit graphics can’t hold a candle to what you’ll find on more modern-day consoles, but the wild success Nintendo saw with the NES Classic underscores just how much fun many of those older games are.

Of course, if we’re talking about some of the greatest NES games of all time, there’s no denying that the Legend of Zelda needs to be part of the discussion. The original Legend of Zelda — which was released all the way back in 1986 — was such an iconic hit that it would go on to spawn well more than a dozen offshoots across a number of different consoles.

Now seeing as how the original Zelda game is more than 30 years old at this point, you’d be forgiven for thinking that every single part of the game has already been discovered and conquered. Alas, you’d be mistaken.

In something of a fascinating story, a developer recently managed to access the game’s “minus world,” essentially another part of the game where developers could try out different gameplay dynamics. Naturally, developers implemented code to prevent players from accessing the game’s “minus world”, but a YouTuber with the handle SKELUX managed to figure out a way around it.

The gameplay on Zelda’s “minus world” is a bit buggy — though still playable — which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given that it wasn’t intended to be playable in the first place. That notwithstanding, the video below should be quite entertaining for fans of the original classic.

Yoni Heisler Contributing Writer

Yoni Heisler has been writing about Apple and the tech industry at large with over 15 years of experience. A life long expert Mac user and Apple expert, his writing has appeared in Edible Apple, Network World, MacLife, Macworld UK, and TUAW.

When not analyzing the latest happenings with Apple, Yoni enjoys catching Improv shows in Chicago, playing soccer, and cultivating new TV show addictions.