My First Zelda

I know its a little blasphemes for me, to call my self a gamer, and have this be true. I've never played a Zelda game. Never even put one in my hands or on my screen. 
However, my girlfriend and I were consolidating our video game collections, and I came across this .
 

i say in this order, the legend of zelda, ocarina of time, majora's mask. i never played 2 but i think it is a crappy version. ur going to like ocarina of time.

This answer depends on how many games you'd like to play of the Zelda series.
 
Interested in playing only one?  - Ocarina of time
Two?  -  A Link to the Past, then Majoras Mask.
 Three? - A Link to the Past, Ocarina of time, Majora's Mask
 
My favorite game in the series in Majora's mask hands down, but others disagree. Definitely play atleast Ocarina of Time, because that game changed the landscape of adventure games, which is awesome.

oh man.... i want this game.. I found it at a store, but they sell for 100$

Thanks for the insight. Any other ideas out there?
I am thinking I'm going to start with OoT however. And see how I go from there.

" This answer depends on how many games you'd like to play of the Zelda series.  Interested in playing only one?  - Ocarina of time Two?  -  A Link to the Past, then Majoras Mask.  Three? - A Link to the Past, Ocarina of time, Majora's Mask  My favorite game in the series in Majora's mask hands down, but others disagree. Definitely play atleast Ocarina of Time, because that game changed the landscape of adventure games, which is awesome. "

Majora's Mask is pure genius in video game form. 

Start with the original.

Oh Jesus, don't. That's my advice.

The first Legend of Zelda absolutely holds up gameplay-wise, as long as you're ok with the 8-bit graphics.
 
I went back and played it a couple of months ago. Still an awesome game. If you only have the choice of those, I'd start there. My favorite of the series is still Link to the Past though. Get your hands on that!

I agree that it kind of depends on how many you intend on playing. If you're going for more than one (as you should), I'd suggest you start at the beginning and move your way up, that way you can somewhat appreciate what an accomplishment Ocarina was. Hard to gauge unless you actually see how they were able to transition from 2D to 3D and bring the whole Zelda feel with them. It was really nothing short of mind-blowing. May not affect you in the same way given the dating of the graphics and all, but you can still get an idea. There's a reason many consider it the best game ever made (myself included).
 
You don't need to play every one of them. Start with The Legend of Zelda, skip the Adventure of Link (blows) and replace it with A Link to the Past if you can, then do Ocarina, then Majora. And yes, the original Zelda can be a bit of a chore by today's standards. A little tedious, but still worthwhile. Link to the Past, Ocarina, and Majora's Mask hold up beautifully though. After that, if you ind you like them, there's a whole slew of entries past and present worth playing