In 1987, Nintendo released the second entry into the famed Legend of Zelda series, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Because of the extreme change in gameplay style, the title was considered somewhat controversial.
As popular and polarizing as the game is, however, nothing about the game is more popular than the two NPC characters named Error and Bagu. Error and Bagu use the same character model, and because of a joke made by a programmer working on the Japanese version of the title, one of gaming’s most legendary quotes was born.
The character error famously says “I am Error…” This comes from a Japanese phrase that translates to “My name is Error” in English.
As for Bagu, his introduction to Link is “Bagu is my name. Show my note to River man.” What does Bagu mean? Bagu is a Japanese word that translates to “software bug.”
For a company whose reputation at the time was a serious, professional company, this programming joke showed just how fun making games can be.
