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Forest of Illusion, a Twitter user who collects and hosts information about beta builds of video games, has accidentally made a new discovery involving a classic Zelda game. After dissecting a prototype cartridge of F-Zero X, they found that the ROM dump contained a few files from an early build of Ocarina of Time. Supposedly, the files are dated to around the same time as Spaceworld 1997. The information that was pulled from the dev cart consists of beta map data for the game, along with early textures and graphics files. Following this discovery, some users began porting the maps into Ocarina of Time, letting players experience these areas in full, such as a beta version of Kakariko Village, which can be seen in the above video.

We have a prototype Nintendo 64 cartridge of F-Zero X that contained data from an early build of Zelda 64 that used to be on the cartridge. We're estimating it's from Spaceworld 1997. We're going to look into this more. Of course everything will be released. pic.twitter.com/Q5SoAbsdWM

— Forest of Illusion (@forestillusion) January 19, 2021

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[linuxares]

This is neat
I know it's totally useless for us, but it's just so lovely to see the progress of how a game gets built.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Neat! Always amuses me when devs just shove random beta/prototype things on other, mostly unrelated prototype/beta things.

 

[SnakeOil092]

More than 20 years later, and we are still unravelling everything OoT related.

 

[CMDreamer]

More than 20 years later, and we are still unravelling everything OoT related.

And Super Mario 64 too.

Good things never get old.

 

[Keylogger]

Why in F Zero cart??

 

[Deleted User]

Some cool mockups appeared online.

 

[SG854]

Neat! Always amuses me when devs just shove random beta/prototype things on other, mostly unrelated prototype/beta things.

Thats because these carts were reused. They were flashed then reflahsed with new stuff. Replaced with newer games they were working on. So half of the ocarina time beta rom is on it.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Why in F Zero cart??

F-Zero was flashed over ocarina of time after they finished working on that game. They reused carts. Fortunately only half was written over so we have half of the beta.

 

[sup3rgh0st]

Here is a Google Doc of all of the changes that were found so far
https://docs.google.com/document/d/...wBuGJXK3G1AMbmHntspSGRJ_jd5wSpyMOa0riA3uD/pub

 

[raxadian]

This was alreafy suspected but is nice to have it confirmed. I wonder if we will have a fully decompiled Ocarina of Time for this time next year?

 

[sup3rgh0st]

This was alreafy suspected but is nice to have it confirmed. I wonder if we will have a fully decompiled Ocarina of Time for this time next year?

If work continues at its current pace, then it's certainly possible https://zelda64.dev/progress.html

 

[Darksabre72]

If work continues at its current pace, then it's certainly possible https://zelda64.dev/progress.html

cant wait for it to be done

 

[Deleted User]

If work continues at its current pace, then it's certainly possible https://zelda64.dev/progress.html

Psst! This is supposed to be a secret until release!
Nintendo is watching!

 

[Porous_]

I know why they don't, but it would really neat if Nintendo shared more development details and assets years down the line so people can learn from their process.

They don't even need to share the files themselves. That GDC 2017 talk for Zelda: BotW Nintendo did shortly after the game came out was really insightful. I guess that's a good stepping stone for them.

 

[leon315]

Beside much effort and risks to save the princess without carnal intentions, I wonder why LINK is left handed?

 

[raxadian]

cant wait for it to be done

Considering all the shared code it may also help to decompile other games

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

Beside much effort and risks to save the princess without carnal intentions, I wonder why LINK is left handed?

Why not?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I know why they don't, but it would really neat if Nintendo shared more development details and assets years down the line so people can learn from their process.

They don't even need to share the files themselves. That GDC 2017 talk for Zelda: BotW Nintendo did shortly after the game came out was really insightful. I guess that's a good stepping stone for them.

Honestly, I wish they did more gdc talks

 

[MaskedMarvel]

Of all the hipsterish things you post here as "news"... This really takes the cake.. Bravo Looking forward to the next major announcement that weeb visual novel x is being localized.

 

[Deleted User]

You can now download a pre patched Ocariana of Time rom on youtube.
It has 20 beta maps restored.
Can´t post a link for legal reasons.

 

[AlexMCS]

I like how some of these assets look BETA than the release version.
...ok I'll see myself out.