I still remember playing the first Zelda and managing to find the red ring before my father did.  A very memorable moment.  I still remember when he asked my mother for Zelda 1 for Christmas and instead got Zelda 2.  Years later in my teens I had the exact same experience, asking for Zelda 1 and somehow got Zelda 2 instead.

I remember seeing Zelda 3 at my cousins and wanting to play it right away, and even playing the first scene on Zelda Links awakening for the Game boy.  Finding your sword for the first time in the gameboy version of Zelda was one of the most gratifying feeling I had in any video game back in those days.

When Zelda 64 was released, I recall playing a bit of it in the video game store and was immediately addicted.