This will be the time! The Legend of Zelda (NES) - part one

In the Legend of Zelda, you play as Zelda Link in a quest to save Zelda from the evil Ganon. To do this, you must find the eight pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, which have hidden in various dungeons, which are found throughout the vast overworld of Hyrule. The game came out in 1987, and it seems appropriate that this would be the first game I officially tackle as a "ketchup gamer" since there is probably no other game that I have started more times without making significant progress. Given that about twice a year I tell myself "this will be the time", only to get through the first dungeon of the game, and get no further, I have probably beat the first dungeon over 40 times and the second dungeon twice. And that's about far as I have gotten out of the nine dungeons in the game.

So here comes attempt 41. This will be the time!

I happen to have this game on my Wii, so I decided to play on that rather than the original NES, since I'm not sure I should trust the battery of a 20+ year old game. I start the game and am asked to register my name. I'm sure some people have put things like POO or ASS, but I go with my name, because I lack creativity. From here, I am thrown in South-Central Hyrule. Link is in the middle of the screen and there is a door in the upper left side of the screen. Even if I hadn't done this several dozen times, it's obvious you go in the door. I enter a cave where there is a old man who has a sword in front of him. "It's Dangerous to Go Alone," he informs me and presents me with a sword. I take the sword and go from there.

From there, there is absolutely no guidance on where to go. I guess the idea is that you are supposed to explore and make mistakes and even enter dungeons in the wrong order, but I want no part of that. For my playthrough, I am using an annotated map I have found on GameFAQs, which shows me the overworld and where all the dungeons are. I am going to try to beat the dungeons themselves without further assistance, but I feel a little "cheating" is in order.

Of course, I don't need to look at a map to find the first dungeon. This much I have memorized. Up-Right-Up-Up-Left-Enter. After some fifteen minutes I have found and completed the first dungeon.

And then the baby started crying. I have to stop playing. For now! Because "this will be the time!"