Your memories with A Link to the Past

  • I would like you to talk about this game, and moments that it may have given you.

    For many old-school Zelda fans, A Link to the Past is not only a pillar for modern Zelda games, it is actually one of the most balanced ones out there. It is a game well liked that many were fortunate to have in their SNES. There was also a Gameboy Advance port with some slight changes.

    So, any funny or fond memories to share related to this game?

    • Official Post

    A Link to the Past entered my life twice, both of which are memorable for me.

    The first time was shortly after the game was released. When I was in elementary school, I met a kid named Jake Gott with whom I got along with exceptionally well. Most of the things I was into at the time were not very popular among my peers, but Jake was just as passionate about Star Wars and computers as I was. We spent a lot of time together, and one of the many things we shared was our first encounter with A Link to the Past when his parents bought it for him. He and I had spent hours playing on his SNES together, but that game stood out as different from the rest. It was on a whole different level from Contra III and Secrets of Mana.

    When I was a young teenager, Ocarina of Time came out, but my parents decided the game was occultic, so I wasn't allowed to get it. But the release of OoT got me thinking about LttP again. All the fond memories I had of playing it, and how good a game it was. I decided to save up money to buy an SNES and ALttP. Once I had the money, I bought a refurbished SNES from a second hand games store. But it took weeks of calling pawn shops and game stores until I found one that had a copy of LttP.

    Saving up, searching for, and finally playing through that game as a teenager is a delightful memory for me.

  • My memory of how I got A Link to the Past is the following. I was walking back from school and entering a mall hall with some shops as a shortcut I found one of those pop-gifts ones had the golden cartridge for 200 Mexican pesos. It was exactly what I had with me at the time, possibly from saving up my latest recent allowances. I knew it was a one time opportunity so I went for it. I was so excited to have it in my hands! I had played OoT, joined a few boards and A Link to teh Past was talked on them as a great game, possibly the best zelda game at the time. The one with the perfect balance. I knew I wanted to play that game so badly... I arrived home and then I remembered: I did not own a SNES. :XD:
    Quite funny what blind fanaticism does to you. I was way too obsessed back in the day. *coughs and hides the useless merchandise she's bought since living in Australia*

    The first time I played ALttP was while I was in highschool. It turned out one of my friends had the game, so she agreed to let me go to her place after school to try it out. It was an awesome moment. Seeing the press-start screen, the music and the Triforce pieces. Before I knew it my friend was making fun of me because a corny tear ran from one of my eyes. It was just something so important and unreal to me. Near me no one cared or knew about Zelda beyond OoT, so I really didn't think I could get to play the game. She and her brother watched me play. I went to resque zelda. Not knowing what to do against the guarding soldier with his spiky chain ball, I threw a jar at him and defeated him quite fast. My friend laughed so hard and said she never thought in doing that. It felt so good. Before I knew it itw as time for me to go home. Still that was and still is a day I will never forget.

  • LttP was my first tLoZ game, I liked it soo much. I just knew my dad downloaded a new game in GBA, I tried it. It was Zelda! So much fun playing this game, rescue Zelda etc--defeat enemies, soldiers.. Fun!

    As I know, it is a nice memories to share it. It was some awesome moments to play it. So wow.

    "The days are quiet beautiful, the difference is- past days can't be forgotten, future days can't be avoided".

    "Sent by Queen Legend on her LG D686".

    • Official Post

    But wait...did Mexico have a gold cart LttP? I didn't know such a thing existed.


    Probably I am mixing memories with the NES cartridges and it doesn't exist at all. :XD: My apologies.
    I didn't have LoZ back in the day but I have been able to see some of them.

    • Official Post

    *stands with riot shield at the ready*
    I've never played LttP on a SNES.
    [quick aside - why has capitalising 'lol' become so unfasionable, and SNES has retained it's capitalisation? Seeing as it's pronouced 'Snez' and not 'ess - en -ee -zee', you'd think we'd all call it snes. Oh language.]

    I first played it on my brother's GBA. I think that might have been a good thing, though. Because I grew up with 3D Zeldas, and playing the old 2D's seemed lke a quaint novelty. But in the handheld world it was the newest technology, so it felt a lot more current. Addictive game. I visited him a lot more in those days, so much he started complaining. My bro then sold his GBA (which solved his problem) and I've been restarting and having to drop it on emulators ever since, until a couple months ago when I reinstalled the emulator on the laptop and finally completed the thing. I think emulators are great. I don't own a SNES, and probably won't, or a handheld for that matter, and the emulator gives a good big-screen experience.

    • Official Post

    Nah, that's alright. Some games do take a lot for us to start or finish.
    That's pretty cool you committed to it and finished it on the laptop.
    I don't know what we're supposed to do, I guess we just got used to writing both things the way we do.

  • Never played Link to the Past on a SNES?

    Still better than me. Never played Link to the Past on any console yet.

    What are you even a fan of, then? It's not like any of the other Zelda games are that good. =P

  • I actually never owned it on my SNES, afaik. Like some of my other favorite games, it was all on PC emulators.

    In fact, because of this I often mix up ALttP and LA, which I played even earlier. Both at such a young age that I got stuck and never finished them. Especially LA seemed to have an unending wealth of stuff to do. The last I remember is trying to dig up all of Hyrule looking for seashells..

    I might have revisited ALttP and finished it, but I have forgotten about it. I have vivid memories of going to the dark world and.. Link being a bunny? I'm going to have to play it again, I suppose.

  • I had a very good friend when I was in 1st~2nd grade of Elementary school who had an SNES. He got the game shortly after it came out, and we played it together. The game seemed pretty magical to me at the time. I had played a lot of the original LoZ, but this was on a whole different level, ya know? I remember being kinda miffed the next time I visited and learned he'd played a ton of the game without me. Obviously I was wrong to feel that way, but I just wanted to be part of the experience so bad.

    Years later, when I was 13 years old, I decided to hunt the game down. I'm not sure what prompted me to do that, actually. It might have been the release of OoT that got me interested in the franchise again? My parents wouldn't let me play OoT because of its obvious occult influences. (I'd get possessed by demons if I played it, ya know). For some reason, the older LttP flew under their demon-posession radar. Plus it was just more interesting to me, since I'd fantasized about playing it for years.

    This would have been 2000, so I wouldn't have had Internet access yet. And even if I had, it's tough to turn cash into an Internet purchase in the days when adults were all certain that putting credit card information into a computer was a guaranteed way to get your identity stolen. An SNES was easy enough to find. I bought it from Software Etc. at the local mall. (Software Etc. being one of the companies that sold out to Gamestop eventually). I remember it was shrink wrapped in plastic along with two controllers and all of its cables. Game stores were magical back then, completely different from most of what's out there now. I'm pretty sure I still have the bag I carried it home in, somewhere.

    The game itself, unsurprisingly, was the really tricky thing to find. I spent at least a week, maybe two, calling every place in the phone book that might sell games. I called game stores obviously, but also thrift and even pawn shops. Nobody had it. Finally I did eventually find a copy for $50 at a small hole-in-the-wall shop in the nearest big city to where I lived. I got my dad to drive me there, bought the game, and spent three weeks playing through it in my basement. It was the first game I'd ever acquired on my own, as opposed to getting it for Christmas or something.

    Good times.