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The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

1991 video game on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ370055 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is a 1991 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is the third game in The Legend of Zelda series, following Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1987). It was released in Japan in 1991, and in North America and Europe in 1992.

The story is set many years before the events of the first two Zelda games. The player assumes the role of Link as he journeys to save Hyrule, defeat the demon king Ganon, and rescue the descendants of the Seven Sages. It returns to a top-down perspective similar to the original The Legend of Zelda, dropping the side-scrolling gameplay of The Adventure of Link. It also introduced series staples such as parallel worlds and items including the Master Sword.

A Link to the Past is considered among the greatest video games ever made, with particular praise for its presentation and innovative gameplay. It was ported to the Game Boy Advance as A Link to the Past and Four Swords in 2002, and had sold 6.5 million copies across both platforms by 2004. It was subsequently re-released on the Wii, Wii U, and New Nintendo 3DS via the Virtual Console, the Nintendo Switch via the Nintendo Classics service, and the Super NES Classic Edition.

Editorial summary

“The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past” enters the record as 1991 video game on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Legend, Zelda and Link can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1991, 1987, 1992, 2002—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1991-11-21, 1992-04-13, 1992-09-24, 2006-12-02—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Legend, Zelda and Link.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Legend, Zelda and Link provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q370055. VIAF identifies the subject as 292711942. The Library of Congress control number is n2019029813. 12 of 15 selected statements include explicit references; 12 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991, 1987, 1992 and 2002.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past primary sources, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past archive and Legend research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.