The Story of the Zelda Test Cartridge

     This is by far my favorite item in my collection. The following is a rather shortened version of the history of this cartridge as far as the collecting community is concerned. This is just a small disclaimer to please keep in mind that this is how I remember the cartridge coming about and as such, I'm sure other collectors may remember things differently...


     I first became truly interested in the old Nintendo Repair Centers when attention came to a copy of Zelda someone had found. It was just about like every other Zelda cartridge out there...the same label, the same game play...the only difference being that the game was housed in a cart that was bright yellow in color! At the time, no one had a definite answer as to what it was (for the most part testing equipment had barely leaked out to collectors as the Authorized Service Centers were still in business). There were various suggestions as to what it could be: A pirate cartridge, A gold Zelda Cartridge in which the gold had been scraped off, a cart someone had painted to give it a special distinction among their other games, a limited condition cart that was given away as either a promotion or for a contest, and there were one or two who said it was a special cartridge that was designed by Nintendo for use in their repair shops. Of course, as always, each suggestion met with speculation and questions that couldn't be answered with absolute facts. The person who had the cartridge, which I believe he said was found at a local flea market (but that could easily be incorrect), said that it was very obvious to tell that the cartridge wasn't painted. Someone quickly pointed out that if you had a gold version of either Zelda game that had scratches on it, you could see quite clearly that the color underneath the coat of gold is black, so that suggestion was dispelled. No one was aware of any promotions or contests that had ever advertised a special edition Zelda Cartridge. If this was a pirate cartridge, why would the game have the seal of quality on the front label, have the warning label on the back and be closed with the security screws used by Nintendo? But these facts didn't leave everyone with the notion that this was indeed a Test Cartridge. There were still a slew of questions that no one had an answer to...when the cart was opened and compared to a regular gold Zelda Cartridge, it was found that the board was identical. Why would Nintendo make a specially designed production run of a popular game to send out to test centers when they could have just sent out a regular copy of the game? If the board was the same as a regular Zelda Cartridge, what would it actually test for that any other cartridge wouldn't be able to detect? For a lot of people, there just wasn't enough evidence to support the notion that this was indeed a piece of testing equipment and gradually the topic faded away and was forgotten. It wasn't until a long while later that the origins of this cartridge were finally verified.

     When Nintendo disbanded their Service Centers (save a select few who retained their status), slowly but surely various testing equipment began to leak out into the hands of collectors, among which were the test cartridges. These cartridges were used to test both hardware and various first party accessories to detect if they were operating properly. Most featured a front label sporting Mario pulling a NES cartridge out of the ground in true Super Mario Bros. 2 fashion, though not all. However, what visibly distinguished a lot of these carts from regular NES games was the fact that they were bright yellow in color! (this can not be said of all test cartridges as most, if not all, NTF 2 test carts have a standard gray outer shell). Now when the Yellow Zelda cartridge was brought up again, most people would have thought that would have sealed the deal on the origins of it, but that was not to be the case. Those two or three collectors who had obtained some testing equipment had found no Zelda Test Cartridges. Though this did not disprove the notion that the Zelda Cartridge was actually a piece of testing equipment, a few argued that someone could have obtained a test cartridge with a bad/missing label, or just somehow found an empty case and decided to place a Zelda sticker on the front and back, stick a board inside and call it a day. They used for defense the fact that all the other test cartridges that were shown to exist used distinct testing programs and were not actual licensed games. For the few who argued about the legitimacy of this cartrige, they would not be convinced until another was found.

     After time, this entire argument faded away as I believe the main forum this discussion had happened on was shut down. Eventually, as time passed by, the cartridge (Not the same one) resurfaced into discussion and the questioning happened all over again, though this time the person who had obtained one did so by buying out one of the aforementioned repair centers. This allowed the collecting community to believe that this was in fact a legitimate test cartridge, but no one knew why it was created and used by the Authorized Service Centers. The general consensus is that it was manufactured closer to the end of the NES's lifespan for use with testing the Top Loading version of the Nintendo Entertainment System, though to my knowledge that could not be confirmed or denied with another suggestion...until now!

Zelda Test Cartridge

Coming Someday...