Media kindly provided by Lavacopter.
1997
January 21st
Link has a new item on the B button, this time possibly a finite number of shields. He attacks an enemy resembling a metallic knight.
Link stands in a Mario 64-esque town, with a beta heart design and rupee counter, likely set to a default number. You can’t get over 3 digits in the final game.
Link uses a stab attack unseen in the final game.
January 27th
Rumor has it that this character was named Aria and guided the player in a manner similar to Navi. Her model is still present in the game under the name object_human.zobj and was fixed by the Team Beta Triforce, a group once endeavoring to modify Ocarina of Time to more closely resemble its early incarnations.
Unlike the drop shadow of the final game, Link has a fully rendered silhouette here.
Link uses another stab attack unseen in the final game.
April 21st
An early Poe.
The A and B buttons are fused together for the bow.
Aria appears again at what may be the Lakeside Lab at Lake Hylia.
The primitive nature of these early land-based Octorocks that appeared in the earlier Zeldas had some wondering whether this screenshot was faked.
A Stalfos sheds blood.
Our friend the knight appears again, this time within a building resembling a castle. Miyamoto has stated that, like Mario 64, Ocarina of Time was once intended to take place in Hyrule Castle. The door here uses a texture from Super Mario 64’s Wet Dry World.
An early Dodongo’s Cavern.
An early Keese.
Link in wireframe.
May
Our first look at a new interface, A + C. Link has two swords in addition to arrows and bombs.
The ammo counter is now below the buttons rather than on.
A house fully modeled in 3D, unlike the prerenders we see in the final game.
Navi turns red around enemies.
A prerender we didn’t see in the final game.
Navi is pink!
Possible Gel/Zol enemies, though these aren’t normally seen in Ocarina of Time.
The red nose of the Deku Tree makes him look comically ill. It seems Kid Link still doesn’t exist at this point.
August 8th
A new interface. A + B + C. Navi is on the B button and the sword has a new gem. The Forest Medallion (once the Wind Medallion, evidenced by left-over text accessible by Gameshark) was once capable of being equipped, and possibly cast Farore’s Wind.
An early desert.
An action, Jump, is once again shown on the B button. The Hylian shield has not yet received its final design, and with no Kid Link, Adult Link is the one to battle Gohma using the bow on A rather than a slingshot.
A friendly horse follows Link, possibly an early version of Epona. Bombs are equipped on A, perhaps showing that it was just an alternative to the C buttons.
Here we see an early water texture.
September
October 3rd
Our first shot of Link on Epona with the Ocarina of Time equipped. A long, wide road runs through what might be early Lon Lon Ranch or Hyrule Field. Link can feed Epona with B.
This larger shot shows us that the spiritual stones were once embedded in the Ocarina of Time.
Our first shots of Kid Link and three new items. A yellow slingshot and infinite Deku Stick are equipped on C and the Kokiri Sword holds a green gem, not red. Link looks to be at an early Death Mountain.
Spaceworld November
A tent at a possible early Gerudo Valley.
Early Z targeting.
Link fights Stalfos in an enemy test map still present in the final game.
An early minimap, this one topographical.
The bridge here also has a streetlight.
The numbers have vanished from the slingshot. Were they toying with the idea of infinite ammo again? The bomb flower is also looking pretty psychedelic.
A white horse, possibly Impa’s, runs free in Hyrule Field.
Early text bubbles. “I’m Saria of the Kokiri Tribe! Nice to meet you… Jara!” Who Jara is is unknown, it might be the name the player chose.
An early Kokiri said to be named Fado, later found in the final game as the creepy girl on the Biggorn fetch quest telling you that adults turn into Stalfos in the Lost Woods. Her name is similar to Mido’s, both notes on the Do Re Mi scale.
I wonder whether the behind-the-head camera in one of those videos was ever intended for the final game, or whether it was a consequence of starting development using the Mario 64 engine.
Is it just me or the Hylian shield sports the long rumored 4th piece of the triforce?
Is it just me or the Hylian shield sports the long rumored 4th piece of the triforce?
surprised the commenter didn’t say anything about the crazy colored bomb flowers
surprised the commenter didn’t say anything about the crazy colored bomb flowers
Ah yes, thanks, I’ll mention that. ^^ I did the commentary, but it’s entirely possible I’ve forgotten, mistaken, or missed something. Do let me know.
Ah yes, thanks, I’ll mention that. ^^ I did the commentary, but it’s entirely possible I’ve forgotten, mistaken, or missed something. Do let me know.
With a keen eye you can also notice how early videos here shows Navi targeting bosses where the triangles turn dark blue/black instead of red with normal enemies. In the fight with the Ghoma-spider as an axample the triangles becomes black and when the small spiders hatches from the eggs, Navi’s triangels are red instead.
Also, the sound effect when targeting bosses and enemies in the same video sounds more like 8/16-bit like than in the final version.
And finally, in some IGN-video I watched some weeks ago you can hear Navi talking japanese instead of English. A Navi that doesn’t speak English would be awesome in the final version!
With a keen eye you can also notice how early videos here shows Navi targeting bosses where the triangles turn dark blue/black instead of red with normal enemies. In the fight with the Ghoma-spider as an axample the triangles becomes black and when the small spiders hatches from the eggs, Navi’s triangels are red instead.
Also, the sound effect when targeting bosses and enemies in the same video sounds more like 8/16-bit like than in the final version.
And finally, in some IGN-video I watched some weeks ago you can hear Navi talking japanese instead of English. A Navi that doesn’t speak English would be awesome in the final version!