New Legend Of Zelda Glitch Found, Allows 4-Minute Speed Run

There have been plenty of examples of gamers taking classic games for a speed run to finish them in only a few minutes instead of several hours. This time, a newly discovered glitch with the original Legend of Zelda game allows players to finish it in only 4 minutes.

The very first Legend of Zelda game was not exactly that long, particularly for modern gamers who are used to playing titles that could easily go for 24 hours or more. However, beating it in only 4 minutes was generally considered impossible, if only because it simply did not have the mechanics to allow it. With the discovery of the glitch thanks to the efforts of prominent speed runners, this is now possible, Tom’s Guide reports.

The glitch was actually first discovered by someone with the YouTube username Sockfolder, but it was MagicScrumpy who explained the process in a way that ordinary people would understand. This is great since the glitch does involve quite a bit of programming acrobatics that only those who understand coding can comprehend in their entirety.

In any case, anyone who wants to exploit the bug can start by naming their characters “ZELDA” for their first save file. For the other save files, their names don’t really matter. Once the “ZELDA” name has been inputted, it actually activates the “second quest” of the game, which ups the difficulty. After that, it’s just a matter of following the instructions of the video carefully, which will then allow players to skip practically all relevant quests and fights.

Eventually, players will be transported to the default location of “Princess Zelda,” allowing her to be rescued. The whole thing is explained in MagicScrumpy’s video, but as Business Insider puts it, a lot of it relies on manipulating the game’s sprite limit. Even with this being the case, the amount of work that must have gone into finding the glitch must have been grueling.