In 1998, I was in my senior year of high school. While other students were obsessing over who to ask out to the homecoming dance, my mind was focused on only one thing: traveling through Hyrule in three dimensions. I had poured over every word that Nintendo Power had published about Ocarina of Time and could probably have recited it in my sleep. So when I heard that demo carts were going to be installed in stores like Toys “R” Us and Target, I knew that I had just accepted a new quest: find the demo!
For the next few weeks, every sighting of a Toys “R” Us or Target resulted in an immediate unplanned stop. Every time, I would rush through the store with a walk just barely underneath a run because I dared not risk angering the red-shirted gods. Time after time, my eyes quickly scanned the monitors branded with the familiar rainbow “N” of the Nintendo 64. Once they were met with only Mario, I would speed my way back out of the store.
As it often goes, I didn’t find the demo until I’d just about given up. My mom and I had stopped by Target just to pick up some groceries, and I hadn’t even planned on checking for the demo until I heard some distinctly un-Mario-like “hyahs!” I quickly peeled off from my mom with a hasty “I’ll meet you there” and went to the video game section.
Turning the corner, I was greeted by the moving versions of the blessed images Nintendo Power had shown me. Young Link wandered through Kokiri Village, but he seemed to be struggling a bit. He drunkenly bobbed and weaved, smashing his face into the fences of the village. A kid a little younger than me was playing, and though he was struggling a bit, he looked like he was having a blast.
I didn’t want to wait behind the boy, pressuring him to hurry up, so I went and looked at the game cases, but my eyes were always darting back. He had moved on to picking up and throwing plants. Oh no. An old granny was coming into the electronics area. Surely, she was going to take my turn! Nope. She just asked for help from the clerk. As my eyes shifted back to the boy, I noticed that Link had learned how to Z-Target and talk to the Kokiri children. I circled around the kiosk, looking at PlayStation and N64 games before moving on to DVDs, but all the while I waited to pounce on the kiosk with Ocarina of Time. I was trying to wait patiently for my turn but was only managing to look like a lion circling its prey.
As I turned the corner of the video game aisle for what seemed like the millionth time, I saw the boy’s head whip around. Someone had called him! His little hands dropped the controller, and I would like to say that I strolled up nonchalantly. Perhaps most seventeen-year-old seniors would have been able to, but not me.
I practically leaped upon the controller. My hands gripped it tightly as I tilted the stick to send Link running. The village spread out in front of the young Link. As I met each member of the Kokiri, they told me of their concerns about the Great Deku Tree. Oh, and something called Z-Targeting that they seemed excited about. I heard Navi say “Hey Listen!” a few too many times. The demo’s timer ran out, and I started it over again. Link climbed ladders and made ill-advised jumps out of tree houses that ended with a bone-rattling thump and loss of hearts. He dodged boulders, flipped and circled around the elf-like children, and picked up rocks and threw them, all in three dimensions.
As my mom strolled by and said that she was ready to check out, I both longed to stay in this new Hyrule and was simultaneously ready to go. Zelda had made the jump to the third dimension, and I knew that in a few short months, I would begin a new quest that would be one for the ages.
