Number 1. The original. I was so happy when BOTW gave the the open exploration based feel from that very first game again. The other 3d games we just so linear and hand holding in comparison.

5, and it was one of my older sibling's friends that just let us have a bunch of their games that they were done with. It quickly became my favourite game on the N64, along with Smash Bros later on.

#1 I’m almost 40

Unrelated, but what Zelda should i play, I've retired on link to the past, and minish cap

#1 for me. That gold cartridge really stood out amidst my collection of other NES games, for more reasons than one. Naturally, I needed a guide to get through my first playthrough, but I kept coming back to it and eventually had the whole game damn near memorized.

No phantom hourglass then?

First ever was #1, first one I beat was #11 though

#1. Had to go to a distant friend's house to play it because no one else had a Nintendo yet.

God I'm old...

#2 for me

Link to the Past, for GB Advanced. I could never finish it.

I had never played a Zelda game (or even any nintendo game except wii sports and mario kart wii) 3 years ago. Decided to try ocarina of time 3d on an emulator and got hooked. I still need to play majora's mask and skyward sword of the 3D games and I have a few 2d Zeldas left but overall it has been a great experience and awesome journey, and I have also branched out and played all metroid and 3d Mario games and consider myself a Nintendo fan now.

Edit: this post has actually inspired me to boot up a link to the past and give it another chance and I realised part of why I didn't get into it originally was the input lag that can rather easily be mitigated in retroarch. Having a great time

I was around for 1, didn't play any until 5, and have only played 5 and 6.