In Zelda 1, wasn't there a dungeon entrance (it may have been something smaller, like a treasure) that was discovered by burning a random bush? Like... one of the hundreds of random bushes in the game? Try that in today's games and see how gamers react.
To be fair, the first Zelda was deliberately designed to foster communication between players. You would never be able to find every secret by yourself, but by talking to others players and sharing your findings and experiences with each other, you could discover more about the game. That's one of the reasons why it was so popular.
I think one of the reasons you don't see as much obtuse stuff like that these days is because of the internet. It's just so easy to look up all the secrets and hidden items immediately, so it's just like looking up a cheat list instead of discovering things piece by piece.
--
Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan