What's the experience of playing The Legend of Zelda?

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: http://www.nesmaps.com/maps/Ze ... 1.png Looking at it all at once can make it much easier to see some of these rules that the secrets follow.

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.

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.

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

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.