The Legend of Zelda has a habit of producing gold versions of their games. The original Nintendo Entertainment System Legend of Zelda has a gold cartridge, as did Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and Ocarina of Time. In 2021 a rare gold Legend of Zelda sold for $870,000. When I was a kid I got an original limited edition gold version of Ocarina of Time, but I had to destroy it to play it. Today I’m going to tell you a story of a different era of gaming; consoles and games releasing at different times around the world, region locking

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As a kid my parents bought me my first console, it was a Nintendo Entertainment System with the pack-in double game of Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt. I would go on to play my very first Zelda game on this console with my Dad, this was Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. I don’t remember why I skipped the first Legend of Zelda, but Zelda II is where I started.

I loved the Nintendo Entertainment System and played it all the time. A fiend of mine’s Dad used to repair arcade machines, so I would go over to his house to play arcades. We didn ‘t have to put money into them, all you had to do was press a button and you’d get credits. We’d play all the latest arcade machines like X-men, The Simpsons, and Neo Geo classics.

My friend would then introduce me to the concept of importing games from the far east, as he imported his Super Famicom from Japan, which would later be called the Super Nintendo in the US and Europe. Given he imported the console from Japan, that means he got it earlier than everyone else. The Super Famicom was release in November 1990 in Japan and wouldn’t come to Europe until 1992. Can you imagine that these days? Imagine the Switch 2 releasing in 2025, then it not being released in your country until 2027… it’s impossible to comprehend these days. The interesting thing about importing consoles in the 90s was they were region locked, either through the PAL or NTSC system or through the shape of the console and the cartridges. This is an important point, and one we will come back to later.

I remember the Summer he got A Link To The Past. We would play it for hours. This was back before the internet was widely available, so we had to figure everything out, or wait for magazines to publish tips and tricks. That was one of my favourite summer holidays from school, playing through A Link To The Past, long before anyone else was playing it in the UK, figuring everything out through trial and error, no videos, no guides. That experience cemented my love for The Legend of Zelda.

Now, let’s get into the story of my original gold Ocarina of Time that I had to destroy. By this time I was fully bought into Nintendo. I’d played through Zelda games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, on Super Nintendo and Gameboy and then we started hearing about a new console in development called Project Reality, and it would later be called the Ultra 64, and then the final product name would be the Nintendo 64.

I had to be among the first people to play the Nintendo 64. So I followed the example from my friend and I wanted to import the console from the Far East. I gathered up all my Super Nintendo games and console, sold that to generate some money, and I think my parents must given me some money towards it too.

I found a company in the back of a magazine who would import the Nintendo 64 from Hong Kong to the UK. The good thing about importing this version from Hong Kong would be I would get the console earlier, the bad thing, and something I didn’t really know about yet was the region locking. The Nintendo 64 released in Hong Kong in 1996, whereas the Nintendo 64 released in the UK in 1997, so I would be able to play it months before anyone else. I had the money, I found the distributor, I paid them and it came in the mail. I was beyond excited.

It arrived, and I got Super Mario 64 with it. One of the best games of all time. But there was an issue. Hong Kong distributed the NTSC version of the console, and in the UK we had PAL versions of consoles and games.

Nintendo games and consoles used to be region locked, so there was a version for Japan, America and Europe. A simple example is the Super Nintendo. While Japan and Europe shared the design of the Super Famicom and the shape of the games, you couldn’t play Japanese games on a European Super Nintendo. The Super Nintendo from USA also had different shaped cartridges, they were more square in design. On my friend’s Japanese Super Nintendo, if we wanted to play games from the US (which we often did), then you would have to buy an adapter – you would plug this into the console and it would have 2 cartridge slots, one on the back for the natuive console and one on the front for the game you want to play.

I had experienced region locking before, although I didn’t know it at the time. I have family in Canada, and when I was a kid I remember going to visit them one Christmas. I got Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas. I loved the Turtles. I couldn’t wait to play the game, but my family in Canada didn’t have a Nintendo. I had to wait until I got home. We were there for Christmas and New Year, so I had to wait over a week. Then, when we FINALLY got home I put the cartridge into the Nintendo Entertainment System, turned it on and… nothing. It wouldn’t play. I didn’t know back then you couldn’t play games from North America on European consoles. Back then you couldn’t just look up the information, the internet didn’t exist. I was distraught.

Nintendo implemented region locking on the N64 but it was much more subtle. N64’s from USA, Europe and Japan/Hong Kong looked the same, but for a subtle difference. The consoles were the same shape, but the cartridges were different shapes. There are 2 small notches on the carts and they were in different places on USA games and Hong Kong games. That meant while in theory you could play USA games on the Hong Kong N64, the cartridges didn’t fit into the machine.

I didn’t find this out until I ordered The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. I preordered it from the USA, I got a gold version, it was a thing of beauty. I remember, I took the day off school and planned to play it all day, as much as I could until I couldn’t play anymore. This was what being a video games fan was all about. The aniticipation, waiting for the mailman to deliver the game, the packaging, getting it before anyone else. It was like Christmas morning when it wasn’t winter. I still chase that feeling today.

But then, horror. I opened up the game, tried to insert it into the N64 and it wouldn’t fit. I didn’t understand. I had my N64, I had my copy of Ocarina of Time, I had the day off… but for some reason these things did not fit together. WTF, I thought. What am I going to do. I don’t remember how I found out about this, but I knew you could play N64 games from the USA on the Hong Kong machine. I think it’s because they were both NTSC machines, although I could have that wrong… However I found out about it, I knew what I had to do. I had to somehow make Ocarina of Time fit into my N64.

My Dad was a carpenter, he had all these tools. So I waited for him to get home from work that day and explained the problem to him. He casualy said “No problem”, we could just cut off the bits of the cartridge to make it fit into the N64. After all, it was just plastic. Great, a solution. It’s not perfect, but at least I’d be able to play the game.

So my Dad set up his tools, we put the brand new limited edition gold version of Ocarina of Time into a clamp to hold it securely in place, and then he started removing the edges of the cartride with a little precision saw. N64 cartridges are interesting items. At the bottom you have the cart sticking out, so it can plus into the N64 deck. That meant sawing off the corners of the plastic, which meant the saw would get very very close to the cartridge itself. One mistake, and the saw could go into the cartridge and it would be game over… the whole thing could be destroyed.

Luckily that didn’t happen, he removed the corners of the cart and I plugged Ocarina of Time into the N64, flipped the on button, and it booted up. Finally, I could play Ocarina of Time. But, at what cost… I had to scarifice the gold cartridge to play it.

Thinking about it now, we could have taken apart the Nintendo 64 itself and removed the plastic in the console that was preventing the cartridge from slotting into place, rather than destroying the cartridge itself, but dismantling a whole console sounds pretty complicated, plus we didn’t have any guides on the internet for this stuff.

These days I still have gold versions of Legend of Zelda games. I would like to build up my collection again. I have a gold version of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, plus I have the limited edition Tears of the Kingdom Switch. I would love an original gold Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System, or maybe even a gold version of Ocarina of Time. Although this time, I’ll try not to take a hacksaw to it.

Let me know what you think in the comments.