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by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/19/2026, 9:07pm PDT |
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96. The Legend of Zelda
Creator: Shigeru Miyamoto / Nintendo
Genre: Action-Adventure
Year: 1986
Platforms: Nintendo
Mobygames link
Available through: eBay, MisTER, NESticle, NEStopia. It is beyond the scope of this article to note the various ways that Nintendo has repackaged and resold the emulated version of the game over the years. It looks like you can buy it for almost all of their systems, something I had done at one point.
Other games that make up the legacy: Ocarina of Time.
There are certain games that, if you do not have them on your top 100 games of all-time list, make you an asshole, and this is one of them. These lists need Legend of Zelda more than Legend of Zelda needs them. The Strong Museum of Play from the city of my birth has an oftentimes poor "video game hall of fame," but they got this one right and have included it in their HoF.
It had to have been influenced by the games Venture and Tower of Druga, but Miyamoto is the kind of guy that would tell you he never set foot in an arcade before creating the design for Donkey Kong or that Japan never had the color cobalt blue before he got it into the ice cubes for Mario Bros., and we sort of have no choice but to believe him.
I was curious if Zelda would appeal to our nation's modern-day five year olds. I have a Retron 77 machine that takes, among other things, NES cartridges - I can confirm that Super Mario Bros., Double Dribble and Excitebike hold up. Nintendo wanted/needed the NES to seem like a toy, not a video game system, in America originally, and to their eternal credit they made a bunch of games that appeal to every generation of kid since the NES debuted. I don't have The Legend of Zelda in cartridge form, but I do have the ROM, so I started up an NES emulator (I used NEStopia, as the original recommended one - Mesen - did not play Zelda correctly when I started it up, offering graphical glitches and I have spent enough time with emulators and configuring them that if an NES emulator can't instantly show Zelda correctly, I am just going to try one of the other 50 ones that exist).
It is fun, my nephew had a good time with it. I gave him a little guidance to go into the black area on the first screen to grab the sword before trying to kill all the enemies at first and once he did that he figured it out. You gotta give Nintendo credit, they figured out how to make timeless games for kids.
There is one part of The Legend of Zelda that we have to talk about and it almost stopped me from including it entirely, except for what I wrote at the beginning. When your health is low in Legend of Zelda, a tone will play as a warning. It continually repeats. It, like any other tone, is obnoxious and undesirable. Now. I found getting more health to refill the health bar to be easy, but this is not acceptable. It should have never made it into the cartridge. This is one of the things you would notice if you had people play it who were not experts. Nintendo does a good job when it comes to consumer testing otherwise, so I am shocked that this made it through. I guess bumping this game into the late 90s is a fair compromise. (Star Trek: A Final Unity, the adventure game, is not here because of a similar issues - on the second away mission, IIRC, you have to solve a puzzle in a room with a similarly shrill, terrible sound effect and I just stopped playing. It was awesome up until then.)
This is a Top 100 list about going beyond. So I grabbed a copy of the .NES file and orchestrated a patch off the disassembled code that lowers the volume of this shrill sound so that it can no longer be heard. I felt that tweaking the volume rather than eliminating the sound was safer. You may find and enjoy it here. When you aren't worried about clickbait, your Top 100 games of all-time list might engage in dabbling in some light Assembly programming to create the most perfect version of a classic video game. Other efforts just list Stanley Parable.
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The 100 Greatest Video Games of All-Time NT by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/16/2026, 10:56pm PDT 
Re: The 100 Greatest Video Games of All-Time by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/16/2026, 11:27pm PDT
Finally the definitive, objectively true, list NT by E. L. Koba 06/18/2026, 2:56pm PDT
My middle name was going to be "Objective" before by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/18/2026, 5:30pm PDT
In an alternate universe with a different phonetic alphabet... by Entropy Stew 06/23/2026, 12:29am PDT
100. Scorched Earth (1991, DOS) by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/16/2026, 11:28pm PDT
I loved this one as a kid. There was a Mac version which was pretty good. by blackwater 06/20/2026, 3:11pm PDT
Re: I loved this one as a kid. There was a Mac version which was pretty good. by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/22/2026, 10:06am PDT
I was playing this shit on a Commodore in like second or third grade before that by Entropy Stew 06/23/2026, 12:35am PDT
99. Mine Storm (1982, Vectrex) by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/17/2026, 10:26am PDT
Yeah, no emulator gets that iconic vector look right. by Mischief Maker 06/17/2026, 1:04pm PDT
It will appear later in the list! by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/17/2026, 1:30pm PDT
98. NASCAR Racing 4 (2001, Windows 98) by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/17/2026, 11:20pm PDT
A phenomenal choice. by pinback 06/18/2026, 5:46am PDT
Puppygames made a version of that: by Mischief Maker 06/18/2026, 5:59pm PDT
Dammit! That was supposed to be a reply to the paradroid post. NT by Mischief Maker 06/18/2026, 6:00pm PDT
Oi! by Jerry Whorebach 06/30/2026, 1:13pm PDT
A dream! What a week for dreamers ;) by Ice Cream Jonsey 07/02/2026, 10:26am PDT
Best played via wide screen NT by Lonnie 07/02/2026, 10:54am PDT
Driving shitboxes is my favorite part of racing games! by E. L. Koba 07/02/2026, 2:33pm PDT
This week's free Epic Games Store game is I Have No Mouth and I Can't Scream by Jerry Whorebach 07/02/2026, 6:32pm PDT
Re: This week's free Epic Games Store game is I Have No Mouth and I Can't Scream by Mysterio 07/02/2026, 9:01pm PDT
Gah! That was me again. NT by Mischief Mysterio 07/02/2026, 9:02pm PDT
I knew it was you. by Jerry Whorebach 07/03/2026, 2:45pm PDT
Jerry is an expert on compliant asian women NT by Houseboat moored in Angeles City 07/03/2026, 7:08am PDT
I saw the box before I knew what Ellison looked like in real life NT by Ice Cream Jonsey 07/06/2026, 11:53am PDT
97. Paradroid (1985, Commodore 64) by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/18/2026, 5:29pm PDT
96. The Legend of Zelda (1986, NES) by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/19/2026, 9:07pm PDT
Did any other games get the gold cartridge treatment? NT by Mischief Maker 06/20/2026, 1:06pm PDT
Z2 NT by judgement day 06/20/2026, 1:35pm PDT
Action 52? NT by hehehe 06/20/2026, 9:29pm PDT
95. Fatal Frame (2001, Playstation 2) by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/22/2026, 10:08pm PDT
94. Metal Slug (1996, Neo-Geo) by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/26/2026, 8:09am PDT
93. Rocket Jockey (1996, Windows 95) by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/26/2026, 9:09pm PDT
92. Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi (2003, Arcade) by Ice Cream Jonsey 06/30/2026, 9:34am PDT
You should probably mention Ketsui's gimmick: by Mischief Maker 06/30/2026, 11:41am PDT
A cruel gimmick. Toying with them first! NT by Dan Flashes Boss 06/30/2026, 3:24pm PDT
91. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1995, Arcade) by Ice Cream Jonsey 07/02/2026, 12:03pm PDT
Enter the Ultimate Kombat Kode by Noob Saibot 07/04/2026, 2:39am PDT
canned combos + run button NT by suked 07/04/2026, 2:59pm PDT
Where can I listen to music that sounds like the MK3 soundtrack? Is it a genre? by Lobo 07/10/2026, 1:46am PDT
Good question by Noob Saibot 07/11/2026, 2:38pm PDT
Thank you. by Lobo 07/29/2026, 10:20am PDT
Re: Good question by Gary 07/29/2026, 11:36am PDT
Re: The 100 Greatest Video Games of All-Time by Ice Cream Jonsey 07/06/2026, 10:13am PDT
Re: The 100 Greatest Video Games of All-Time by pinback 07/06/2026, 3:48pm PDT
90. Paperboy (1985, Arcade) by Ice Cream Jonsey 07/06/2026, 9:12pm PDT
Do you just find these on Craigslist? NT by Yaris 07/07/2026, 12:27pm PDT
Re: Do you just find these on Craigslist? by Ice Cream Jonsey 07/07/2026, 9:15pm PDT
This was one of the greats, I agree. by blackwater 07/07/2026, 4:16pm PDT
89. Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars (1996, DOS/Windows 95/Mac) by Ice Cream Jonsey 07/09/2026, 8:52am PDT
How many spots above this is HoMM3 then? NT by the obvious question 07/09/2026, 8:19pm PDT
Well. Shit. NT by Ice Cream Jonsey 07/09/2026, 8:57pm PDT
Five second rule! He can still change it if it happens before NT by the next entry! 07/11/2026, 5:39am PDT
There are people who stick by HOMM2 over 3. Especially the music. NT by MM 07/11/2026, 5:55am PDT
HoMM2 is the one I played when it came out, but, regarding franchises by Ice Cream Jonsey 07/11/2026, 9:11am PDT
88. Links LS (1996, DOS) by Ice Cream Jonsey 07/13/2026, 8:51pm PDT
87. Devil Daggers (2016, Windows 10) by Ice Cream Jonsey 07/13/2026, 9:12pm PDT
86. Counterfeit Monkey (2012, Inform 7) by Ice Cream Jonsey 07/21/2026, 9:13pm PDT
I know Jonsey mentioned the numerous interpreters available by But I play on Chromebook or phon 07/22/2026, 10:06pm PDT
This is great, thank you NT by Mysterio 07/23/2026, 9:27am PDT
You too?? NT by Lonnie 07/25/2026, 8:21pm PDT
Ha, no this is ongoing by Ice Cream Jonsey 07/26/2026, 11:26am PDT
85. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Windows 10 / Playstation 4 / Xbox One) by Ice Cream Jonsey 07/28/2026, 11:16am PDT
Re:What is your historical "importance" score weight for this list? NT by PC Gamer 07/29/2026, 2:30pm PDT
84. Rollercoaster Tycoon (1999, Windows 98) by Ice Cream Jonsey 08/05/2026, 6:28am PDT
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