Games didn’t have enough room to integrate a full tutorial in, so they’d come with booklets that acted as story, background, tutorial, etc.
Diredr
I wouldn’t say you were on your own. Legend of Zelda had a manual that explained the story, told you what every item did, told you about all the monsters. Some manuals even had hints or a phone number for a hint hotline. Some came with maps of the game’s world, as well.
It just wasn’t hand-holdy like in modern games because you had the option not to use any of it if you didn’t want to. Sometimes buying used games could be a sort of hard-mode, too, because it didn’t always come with all the extra stuff. In some games, it was basically impossible to tell what a pickup/collectible did without the manual because there was no in-game explanation, just a counter.
It had some nice parts, some bad.
darryledw
Screens of OG Zelda always remind me of a game I played on Machintosh in the 90s
Definitely had an intro on the title screen. That song was my jam.
marmatag
Gonna be honest, one thing I really don’t like with new games is a long, drawn out introduction where you know the real game isn’t started yet. I do miss the days when a game had a tutorial, separate from the game, and then they just dropped you in if you wanted it. However, I was not a fan of RTFM at all. The game should give you all of the information you need to play it. The worst game for this I’ve ever played was FFXI. That fan base was ridiculous with their RTFM when it costed nothing to just accept that the game was brutal to start.
johnsolomon
I really enjoyed this game back when I played it because there was way more than I expected
isrizzgoated
I love it, kinda like when a YT video gets straight to the point. No filler
cheezballs
You love them as retrogames, but if someone released a game like that today for 50 bucks you’d all be super pissed.
drsalvation1919
Resdient Evil 2 would start like that, and so many of us died because we had absolutely no idea how to do anything, the concept of pressing a button to aim, and another button to shoot was crazy.
That said, all tutorials/manuals were in the pamphlets back from when physical media was the norm. Anyone can play a retro game today and think the devs trusted the players to figure it out (which in a sense was true, when there were only 6 buttons to press), but people can play eternal ring today and think fromsoft trusts their players to figure out how to craft rings, when in reality, the whole thing was in the booklet.
So no, you weren’t supposed to be *on your own*.
zyygh
The tutorial came through clever level design.
Just looking at this screen, any player would immediately have their curiosity triggered by that cave. And there, they receive a sword. There’s no need to spend 10 minutes explaining how that sword works; the player is able to figure that out perfectly through trial and error.
Then the player exits the cave, goes literally *anywhere* else, and starts encountering monsters and secrets. If they fail, they learn. If they succeed, great.
Zero actual explanation needed anywhere.
ph30nix01
It helped most of the games were not complicated or had Manuals.
dickspace
Not true. The original game came with an instructional manual and a map of the world.
Rhesusmonkeydave
I AM ERROR.
Interesting, care to elaborate?
I AM ERROR.
Gotcha
Zactrick
I can’t tell you how much I fucking hate these games with unstoppable logos and a 3 min load screen just to go into a menu to start the game then load again
Friendly_Echidna_260
Definitely enjoy that aspect of it. However, lately, my gametime has been limited, so I do appreciate games that give me a little bit of direction.
homer_3
It does have an intro though.
KDEEZO
Images you can hear.
SweetMonia
Or you get a short intro, which you could skip with a push of a button
Dog_in_human_costume
Zelda is hard as fuck. Hoe the hell kid me.was able to finish it…
AmazingPINGAS
Meanwhile the sequel… lol
CarpenterRadio
Just beat this like last week, never played it before! OoT was my real introduction. Had an SNES but never played Zelda for whatever reason and was too young to really grasp the original on the NES.
Anyways, amazing game. Just elegant in its simplicity and revolutionary in its concept and execution at the time. Definitely a must play for people who appreciate gaming history and the history of game development.
Tumblrrito
The main menu literally has an intro explaining what is going on though and even lists all the items lol.
babystripper
You’d love ark
SpadeGon
Today’s video games: Ok you are this guy, you have this job, this is what you do …
Retro video games: Good Luck
theking101xy
How it be irl
NaughtyPwny
There’s little a story into to the game though so n the title screen…and a lot of new games can skip the intro/cutscenes if you don’t care for it. What a weird post.
ButHowCouldILose
I actually hated this as a kid. Every iteration from here was a joy to me.
DrSquash64
Intros and cutscenes are great for lots of reasons, but so are manuals, I’m not gonna take sides, because modern games and retro games both approach story phenomenally, I don’t think it’s fair to say one’s better than the other in this aspect, but that’s just my opinion.
Ustramage
The first time I rented this, I didn’t know about going down into the first cave. So I wandered around with no way to attack and wondering what was so special about this game.
RedArrow2014
Your intro was usually the first page or two of whatever manual was included with the game. Sometimes it was whatever was printed on the box
ExposingMyActions
Don’t forget via emulation, mods/rom hacks.
hotstickywaffle
For a more modern game, you should definitely try Tunic. It manages to feel so unique, yet so familiar, and really plays to the nostalgia of people who grew up on NES and SNES
TheMightyDice
I mean they say it’s dangerous at least! Take this wood kids sword
CaptainFalconA1
The intro was reading the manual on the way home from the store.
WindUpShoe
WELCOME TO THE LEGEND OF ZELDA
TRY PRESSING THE DIRECTIONAL PAD TO MOVE
YOU CAN MOVE IN ALL FOUR CARDINAL DIRECTIONS AT ANY TIME
TRY TO MOVE TOWARDS THE CAVE LOCATED IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND SIDE OF THE SCREEN
YOU JUST ENTERED A CAVE. CAVES ARE LOCATED THROUGHOUT THE MAP AND MAY CONTAIN REWARDS – OR DANGERS. USE CAUTION AND BE PREPARED BEFORE ENTERING A CAVE
Talanock
They had all of that, they were just in the manual. Now the manual is gone it’s all in the game.
Competitive_Pen7192
I played the original Zelda on that re imagined Game and Watch a few months back. My first Zelda game was Link to the Past so it was interesting to see where it all began. I didn’t take to Zelda 2 very well however and gave up playing it.
44 Comments
The OG legend of Zelda really holds up
But what if its dangerous
Some came with awesome manuals.
Games didn’t have enough room to integrate a full tutorial in, so they’d come with booklets that acted as story, background, tutorial, etc.
I wouldn’t say you were on your own. Legend of Zelda had a manual that explained the story, told you what every item did, told you about all the monsters. Some manuals even had hints or a phone number for a hint hotline. Some came with maps of the game’s world, as well.
It just wasn’t hand-holdy like in modern games because you had the option not to use any of it if you didn’t want to. Sometimes buying used games could be a sort of hard-mode, too, because it didn’t always come with all the extra stuff. In some games, it was basically impossible to tell what a pickup/collectible did without the manual because there was no in-game explanation, just a counter.
It had some nice parts, some bad.
Screens of OG Zelda always remind me of a game I played on Machintosh in the 90s
it was called **Mantra**
[**https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9aWTc-R7Hw**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9aWTc-R7Hw)
BACK IN MY DAY
If you like games that start that way then you should also play [Limbo](https://store.steampowered.com/app/48000/LIMBO/) and [Inside](https://store.steampowered.com/app/304430/INSIDE/).
no 99% loading bar before every location
Play Tunic!!
Definitely had an intro on the title screen. That song was my jam.
Gonna be honest, one thing I really don’t like with new games is a long, drawn out introduction where you know the real game isn’t started yet. I do miss the days when a game had a tutorial, separate from the game, and then they just dropped you in if you wanted it. However, I was not a fan of RTFM at all. The game should give you all of the information you need to play it. The worst game for this I’ve ever played was FFXI. That fan base was ridiculous with their RTFM when it costed nothing to just accept that the game was brutal to start.
I really enjoyed this game back when I played it because there was way more than I expected
I love it, kinda like when a YT video gets straight to the point. No filler
You love them as retrogames, but if someone released a game like that today for 50 bucks you’d all be super pissed.
Resdient Evil 2 would start like that, and so many of us died because we had absolutely no idea how to do anything, the concept of pressing a button to aim, and another button to shoot was crazy.
That said, all tutorials/manuals were in the pamphlets back from when physical media was the norm. Anyone can play a retro game today and think the devs trusted the players to figure it out (which in a sense was true, when there were only 6 buttons to press), but people can play eternal ring today and think fromsoft trusts their players to figure out how to craft rings, when in reality, the whole thing was in the booklet.
So no, you weren’t supposed to be *on your own*.
The tutorial came through clever level design.
Just looking at this screen, any player would immediately have their curiosity triggered by that cave. And there, they receive a sword. There’s no need to spend 10 minutes explaining how that sword works; the player is able to figure that out perfectly through trial and error.
Then the player exits the cave, goes literally *anywhere* else, and starts encountering monsters and secrets. If they fail, they learn. If they succeed, great.
Zero actual explanation needed anywhere.
It helped most of the games were not complicated or had Manuals.
Not true. The original game came with an instructional manual and a map of the world.
I AM ERROR.
Interesting, care to elaborate?
I AM ERROR.
Gotcha
I can’t tell you how much I fucking hate these games with unstoppable logos and a 3 min load screen just to go into a menu to start the game then load again
Definitely enjoy that aspect of it. However, lately, my gametime has been limited, so I do appreciate games that give me a little bit of direction.
It does have an intro though.
Images you can hear.
Or you get a short intro, which you could skip with a push of a button
Zelda is hard as fuck. Hoe the hell kid me.was able to finish it…
Meanwhile the sequel… lol
Just beat this like last week, never played it before! OoT was my real introduction. Had an SNES but never played Zelda for whatever reason and was too young to really grasp the original on the NES.
Anyways, amazing game. Just elegant in its simplicity and revolutionary in its concept and execution at the time. Definitely a must play for people who appreciate gaming history and the history of game development.
The main menu literally has an intro explaining what is going on though and even lists all the items lol.
You’d love ark
Today’s video games: Ok you are this guy, you have this job, this is what you do …
Retro video games: Good Luck
How it be irl
There’s little a story into to the game though so n the title screen…and a lot of new games can skip the intro/cutscenes if you don’t care for it. What a weird post.
I actually hated this as a kid. Every iteration from here was a joy to me.
Intros and cutscenes are great for lots of reasons, but so are manuals, I’m not gonna take sides, because modern games and retro games both approach story phenomenally, I don’t think it’s fair to say one’s better than the other in this aspect, but that’s just my opinion.
The first time I rented this, I didn’t know about going down into the first cave. So I wandered around with no way to attack and wondering what was so special about this game.
Your intro was usually the first page or two of whatever manual was included with the game. Sometimes it was whatever was printed on the box
Don’t forget via emulation, mods/rom hacks.
For a more modern game, you should definitely try Tunic. It manages to feel so unique, yet so familiar, and really plays to the nostalgia of people who grew up on NES and SNES
I mean they say it’s dangerous at least! Take this wood kids sword
The intro was reading the manual on the way home from the store.
WELCOME TO THE LEGEND OF ZELDA
TRY PRESSING THE DIRECTIONAL PAD TO MOVE
YOU CAN MOVE IN ALL FOUR CARDINAL DIRECTIONS AT ANY TIME
TRY TO MOVE TOWARDS THE CAVE LOCATED IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND SIDE OF THE SCREEN
YOU JUST ENTERED A CAVE. CAVES ARE LOCATED THROUGHOUT THE MAP AND MAY CONTAIN REWARDS – OR DANGERS. USE CAUTION AND BE PREPARED BEFORE ENTERING A CAVE
They had all of that, they were just in the manual. Now the manual is gone it’s all in the game.
I played the original Zelda on that re imagined Game and Watch a few months back. My first Zelda game was Link to the Past so it was interesting to see where it all began. I didn’t take to Zelda 2 very well however and gave up playing it.