The Legend of Zelda (or The Hyrule Fantasy: Legend of Zelda in Japan) is the first game in The Legend of Zelda video game series. Although not the first adventure game, it is often credited for perfecting the adventure genre. The game was first released in 1986 in Japan, and in 1987 everywhere else.     

Gameplay

The goal of The Legend of Zelda is to collect the 8 pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, defeat Ganon, and to rescue Princess Zelda. To obtain the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, the player must take on the role of the hero, Link, and explore the first eight dungeons in the game before embarking on the journey to the final dungeon, Level 9: Death Mountain, to defeat the evil wizard Ganon. 

Controls

D Pad: Moves Link around and selects his secondary item
A: Sword Attack
B: Secondary Item
Start: Brings up the sub screen
Select: Moves the cursor on the save select screen and pauses

Save Select

The Legend of Zelda was the first NES cartridge in North America to have a battery-backed save feature.[6] On the select screen, the player can continue their progress, register a name, or eliminate a file. When the player registers a file name, they start a new game and create a name for the file. In elimination mode, the player is able to erase one of the files so they are able to start a new game on that file. The numbers below the name of a file represent the number of game overs that occurred while playing on that particular file. The hearts under "Life" represent the amount of remaining health in Link's quest. 

Story

The story of The Legend of Zelda is very simple and follows most fairy tale ideas; Princess gets captured by a giant monster, hero must save princess, hero travels all over the land to save princess, hero defeats monster and saves princess. The only hint to a story and motivation of saving the princess was a short paragraph at the beginning of the game. Here it is, keep in mind that this is the original NES English localization:

"MANY YEARS AGO PRINCE DARKNESS GANNON STOLE ONE OF THE TRIFORCE WITH POWER. PRINCESS ZELDA HAD ONE OF THE TRIFORCE WITH WISDOM. SHE DEVIDED IT INTO 8 UNITS TO HIDE IT FROM GANNON BEFORE SHE WAS CAPTURED. GO FIND THE 8 UNITS LINK TO SAVE HER."

This was later revised to fix all the translation errors, such as GANNON being updated to GANON, and TRIFORCE WITH POWER/WISDOM to TRIFORCE OF POWER/WISDOM. For the whole plot of The Legend of Zelda see the PLOT section below. 

Plot

    Main article: The Legend of Zelda Story

    This story is taken directly from the western localization of the game's instruction manual... 

A long, long time ago the World was in an age of Chaos. In the middle of this chaos, in a little kingdom in the land of Hyrule, a legend was being handed down from generation to generation, the legend of the "Triforce"; golden triangles possessing mystical powers.

One day, an evil army attacked this peaceful little kingdom and stole the Triforce of Power. This army was led by Ganon, the powerful Prince of Darkness who sought to plunge the World into fear and darkness under his rule. Fearing his wicked rule, Princess Zelda, the princess of this kingdom, split the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments and hid them throughout the realm to save the last remaining Triforce from the clutches of the evil Ganon. At the same time, she commanded her most trustworthy nursemaid, Impa, to secretly escape into the land and go find a man with enough courage to destroy the evil Ganon. Upon hearing this, Ganon grew angry, imprisoned the princess, and sent out a party in search of Impa.

Braving forests and mountains, Impa fled for her life from her pursuers. As she reached the very limit of her energy she found herself surrounded by Ganon's evil henchmen. Cornered! What could she do? ... But wait!

All was not lost. A young lad appeared. He skillfully drove off Ganon's henchmen, and saved Impa from a fate worse than death. His name was Link. During his travels he had come across Impa and Ganon's henchmen. Impa told Link the whole story of the princess Zelda and the evil Ganon. Burning with a sense of justice, Link resolved to save Zelda, but Ganon was a powerful opponent. He held the Triforce of Power. And so, in order to fight off Ganon, Link had to bring the scattered eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom together to rebuild the mystical Triangle.

If he couldn't do this, there would be no chance Link could fight his way into Death Mountain where Ganon lived. Can Link really destroy Ganon and save the Princess Zelda? Only your skill can answer that question. Good luck. Use the Triforce wisely.