Legend of Zelda prototype discovered

Who says archeology is boring – especially when we’re talking about digital archeology. Someone managed to dig up a prototype version of Legend of Zelda for the NES, where this early build was released internally and not meant for public circulation. Guess this “secret” of sorts was pretty well kept for a couple of decades, only to have it leaked out in the 21st century. Check out this build of the original The Legend of Zelda for the NES/Famicon (a.k.a. Zelda no Densetsu), where hardcore fans of the game have already started to make comparisons between the prototype build and the final game. Of course, the final game is a whole lot more challenging that what was initially conceived, as rooms come with less enemies, while you require less hearts for some items including the Magical Sword. Oh yeah, did we mention that certain enemies are also a whole lot easier to dispatch of? What you see on the left above is the prototype build, while the opposite image would be what you get in the game itself.