The Legend Of Zelda 64 [Lost Items & More / Beta Hack]

With Gameshark Codes and the ability of some “hacker”, the Roms of Zelda for N64 were explored in depth, looking for particular beta remained in digital memory. During the development of the game, Nintendo has removed a lot features and remodeled several items, but was not able to completely erase them. Indeed, within the cartridge you can find some items that do not appear in the final product. Working on combinations and inserting binary complex numerical codes, these objects may appear Beta in the game. And interesting to note the variety polygonal models, which often reveal more information about the history of the development of 3D Zelda project (descriptions below the gallery).

Images:

The photo with the “fish” is taken from Majora’s Mask: the polygon model of the Hylian Loach may have been connected with the rumors of the fishing minigame, it was removed from the final version of the game.

The other photos are all taken from Ocarina Of Time: green leaves used in the Beta as a whistle to call Epona, a poe like in the final version of Twilight Princess, the image in the menu that says “Disk” indicates the connection of the cartridge on Ocarina with Zelda URA on 64 Disk Drive was also found. “Hi! I’m a talking door”is one of the many texts that can be found in the code of the game, but were not used in the full version. The column of stone was probably used as a structure for a dungeon, while the gray tombstone may be a primitive version of the Gossip Stone. The vase is a simple beta model of what we know, but those strange animals with blue beak are really interesting. They resemble extravagant hairy birds,and were perhaps a kind of enemy, but it is difficult to understand exactly what they should be.

The Arwing of Starfox is perhaps the most curious object in beta. It is complete with all its animation: flying, shooting Link and once hit, it crashes in flames exploding on the ground. Why programmers had inserted a spaceship in Zelda? The answer probably is: only Miyamoto knows, but we can assume it was an “easter egg”, a quote for the players, on a quest in Zelda URA. A group of hackers has noticed that the binary number that activates the Arwing is somehow connected with the trap in a game. In some situations, when Link opens a chest of treasure,he is frozen instead of getting objects. Perhaps the Arwing was a second type of trap, activated a second unknown mode: Link would open a treasure chest, which would release the enemy spaceship.

The bird is a polygonal model removed from the final game, it could have been used for some videos of the plot or as a natural animal to animate the scene, a like the butterflies. The cube stone was perhaps something to move to solve puzzles and platforms to reach too high. The beta fish is similar to those in the final, but his enormous size is bizarre: Were there were fish of various sizes on the bottom of Lake Hylia? The tuft of grass and container of the heart are beta versions of the polygonal models used later in Ocarina. Finally, a large rectangular building, probably used in some dungeon.

As Chris Jeremic has made us to notice, thanks to the Zelda 64 Actor Viewer, Cooliscool found some unfinished / beta models in the game’s code:

An incomplete Zora model

Beta Shopkeeper

Some Beta Guy

And a Beta Kokiri

Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano ▼

Screens from: http://web.archive.org/web/20080106174248/zso.krahs-emag.com/beta/items.html

Thanks to SuperFun64 for the english translation!

For more info read this article: Project Zelda 3D – The Development of Zelda 64

Videos:

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1. Zelda: Ocarina Of Time [Gameshark Beta Quest]
2. The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask / Gaiden [N64 - Beta]
3. The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask “Beta Quest”
4. Zelda: Ocarina of Time [Debug Version & Test Map]
5. Zelda 64: Ocarina Of Time [N64 - Beta / Tech Demo / Proto]