Wrong Polarity and Playing Zelda

[Trashman]

I wanted to play Zelda no Densetsu on my FDS but plugged in the wrong adapter to my Famicom and blew the Power Regulator.  

I'm in the process of ordering parts for it, but I thought I'd play via my backup AV Famicom. However, no matter what type of controller I attempt to use, I cannot get the game to recognize an input. I've tested other FDS games and they work fine with US/JPN controllers on the AV. Is Zelda only compatible with the original Famicom? Are there other games that won't work on an AV?

[Trashman]

Nevermind, I figured out I had to swap to side B 

Is there a way to Save in Zelda without dying?

[Skawo]

You press START on controller 1, and then Up and A on controller 2.
It still registers as a death on the file select screen, though.

[P]

The same trick works in Zelda II and in Metroid as well, all regions.

I could be wrong but according to my memory only Zelda 2 and 3 counts saving and quitting towards the game count, while Zelda 1 only counts dying as a game like later Zeldas do.