Page 41 of the NES Legend of Zelda manual

[Mr. Smashy]

Here's page 41 from the manual of The Legend of Zelda for the NES. I've played through the game more than once on a few platforms and I've never seen the cave that's pictured in the top right corner. Has anybody ever come across this cave where you can choose between the sword and the boomerang? Is this in any Japanese release of the game? Does anybody here have the version of Zelda with this in it? What's the story on this one?

I did a bit of searching on the the Internet and on this site and the only mention that I could find of this was in a thread that has something to do with Metroid's Samus being some kind of transvestite.

[o2william]

Ah yes, the mysterious bommerang photo. We discussed it some time ago in this thread. Nobody was sure what it might be, unless it's a screenshot from an early proto version of the game. It sure doesn't seem to be in the final version (U.S. or Japanese).

I think many hardcore NES players have spent sleepless nights wondering about it, but it seems like it will forever remain a mystery. I'm betting it's a prototype pic.

[lkermel]

yep, it is probably a prototype pic. I wondered about this one too for a long time.
This reminds me, as a kid, I also spent sleepless nights trying to get to those 'secret rooms' that could be seen at the back of the first Psygnosis' games for the Atari ST, namely Barbarian and Obliterator. I wonder if they came from an early proto or if they were just made up in a painting software... I remember they even showed monsters not included in the final game... no fair ...

[Blitzwing256]

there was a very very early ad for zelda in japan that had a short cartoon where that image is from, and consequently alot of the images in teh story part of the manual were from that short animation. that cave shows up in that ad.
so yeah very early prototype/mockup

[Cambot]

I just like the word "Link'll."

[Tron 2.0]

there was a very very early ad for zelda in japan that had a short cartoon where that image is from, and consequently alot of the images in the story part of the manual were from that short animation. that cave shows up in that ad.
so yeah very early prototype/mockup

You must mean the famicom disk system promo.

When i saw it i was surpise where nintendo got that for the, NES version in the manual.

http://gameads.gamepressure.com/tv_g...al.asp?ID=3200

[rbudrick]

I've tried blowing up the pic in the NES manual before, and you can vaguely make out some kana, but I've always wanted to see what the blacked out words were... Anyone got a really good blow up from this ad?

-Rob

[Blitzwing256]

I only ever saw the ad on one of those shitty streaming sites a few years back, and coudln't save it locally sadly.

[ProgrammingAce]

Anyone got a really good blow from this ad?

I won't take this out of context... I won't take this out of context... I won't take this out of context...

[rbudrick]

I won't take this out of context... I won't take this out of context... I won't take this out of context...

Lol! Edited. Shows I should really read what I type before I post it...

-Rob

[aaronpetrosky]

Maybe this is an early version of the Chris Houlihan room. Heh

[cyberfluxor]

It somewhat reminds me of when I beat Mario64 and while watching the credits saw the Big Boo Haunt level, never knowing of its existance until then because I never read reviews, walkthroughs, and didn't do much on-line research for gaming (we're talking '97~'98 here). So after wondering around a bit I finally figured out why the hell ghosts were in the courtyard. I felt like I found an easter egg when I did it for the first time, like "Oh my god! What a wierd way to setup a level entrance."