Of all the challenging ways to play Legend of Zelda that people have attempted on a NES console, one of the most famous is the "swordless" challenge. In this challenge, the player must beat all of the game, up until the final boss Ganon, without using a sword. It is not possible to damage Ganon without a sword however, so many swordless runs reach Ganon's room to die there.
In order to actually complete the game, Baxter does pick up a sword and kills Ganon. However, the sword is only obtained shortly before attempting the final level, and even then, the sword is not used until absolutely necessary. In the meantime, sit back and watch a run which relies heavily on luck manipulation and effective bomb usage to beat the game very quickly. For more details, see the author's comments.
You can watch this run played back on a real NES console.