As the story goes, at the beginning of this game the world was in an age of chaos. One day, an army attacked Hyrule in search of the Triforce of Power. The army was lead by Ganon who obtained the Triforce. Fearing that he may obtain the Triforce of Wisdom, apparently the last remaining Triforce, Zelda split it up into eight pieces and scattered them throughout Hyrule. She also sent out her maid Impa to look for a man with enough courage to destroy Ganon. Enraged at what she had done, Ganon imprisoned Princess Zelda and sent out a search party to find Impa. Impa, at this point, was an old woman. After travelling great distances she could go on no longer. It was at this point that a group of Ganon's henchmen found her. Just as they were about to capture her, Link appeared and fought them off. Impa told Link everything that had happened, and driven by a sense of justice, Link went to Hyrule. However, the only way he could possibly be powerful enough to face Ganon (who held the Triforce of Power) was to find the eight pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom scattered throughout the land.

The Legend of Zelda, considering its an NES game, is truly epic. The world, although lacking in detail and rather monotone, is absolutely massive. Without the map that came with the original game, or without any sort of guide, it is incredibly easy to get lost and incredibly difficult to find your way around in this game. A lot of the exploration depends on trial-and-error and luck, as you're not told where to go in this game, simply expected to figure it out for yourself. If you can complete this game by yourself, give yourself a pat on the back because this task is far easier said than done.
Of course, The Legend of Zelda isn't all about going from one dungeon to the next, this game started the whole searching for Heart Containers side-quest that has appeared in every Zelda game since. While this really is the only other thing to do in the game besides the main quest, it should be noted that the main quest is quite long. First timers, with help, could probably complete this game in about 30 hours. Without any sort of help, they may never finish. However, it should be noted that there is a second quest in this game in which the locations and layouts of dungeons (save the first one, although the layout is different) is completely different than in the first. The second quest could almost be considered an entirely different game. It should also be noted that this game is extremely difficult - easily the most difficult in the series. If you haven't played this game you should definately give it a try. Nintendo knew they had something special with this game, which is why they released it on a golden cartridge. (Unlike the N64 version, all NES copies of this game were released on a golden cart.) It's not perfect, but it was good enough to spawn countless sequels and make Zelda a household name.