Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES) - Gold Cartridge, Authentic Nintendo, Tested

The gold cart

Every original US Zelda II came in a gold cartridge; the only gray ones are Nintendo’s 1992-93 Classic Series reissue, coded NES-AL-USA-1. This is the gold one, with the plain NES-AL-USA code of the original run that arrived in December 1988, the holiday it and Super Mario Bros. 2 were reported as the season’s top-selling carts. The copy photographed even carries the round Seal of Quality, the first of the three gold variants collectors track.

It is also the Zelda built around side-scrolling sword fights and experience levels. You walk a top-down overworld, but every fight drops you into a side view where blocking high and low matters, and you level up attack, magic and life. Nothing else in the series plays like it, which is exactly why people come back to it.

“I am Error”

The most quoted line in the game is not a mistranslation. The townsman really is named Error, and a look-alike elsewhere is named Bagu (“bug”): a programmers’ joke that only half-survived the English release. The line later became the title of an MIT Press book about the NES.

The battery

Saves live on a coin-cell battery soldered to the board, three slots of them. The battery measured over 3 V, or I replaced it; ask if you want me to check the board or fit a new one before it ships. Hold RESET while you switch the power off, as the manual says, to protect your saves.

Grading a gold cart

The gold is paint, and the console slot wears it. Insertion wear in the gold is graded like any other scuff on my condition scale. The back label also carries a number pressed into the paper, found on genuine carts; it is not writing and doesn’t count against the grade.

Zelda II is on Nintendo Switch Online today; this is the gold cart in your hand. The original Super Mario Bros. is its natural shelf neighbor.