The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Program Revision Differences

Ocarina of Time has multiple versions: NTSC 1.0, NTSC 1.1, NTSC 1.2/PAL 1.0 (they're identical save for the language) and PAL 1.1 for the Nintendo 64, as well as the emulated GameCube, iQue Player and Virtual Console releases (not counting Ocarina of Time 3D). The only difference between the Japanese and North American releases is which language is set as the ROM's default (although there is no in-game selection). The GameCube version was released twice - once including Master Quest, and the other as part of the Collector's Edition compilation.

NTSC 1.0 version
This is the original version.

N64 Logo
The N in the N64 logo seen on the game's startup was revised for this version. It appears much darker, more colorful and glossier than the previous version.

Swordless Link
The famous "Swordless Link" bug was fixed. At the beginning of the fight against Ganon, Link's Master Sword is knocked out of his hands. If you then saved and restarted the console, the Master Sword would still be in the inventory, but no sword would be equipped to the B button. This causes multiple bugs, the most well-known of them being the fact you can use your C buttons on Epona, which is not normally possible. While this original method has been fixed in 1.1 and all subsequent versions by automatically reequipping the Master Sword when your B button is blank, there is another method involving the use of a second glitch, allowing you to play any item as if it were an Ocarina. This way, if you use the Sun's Song to restart the fight and have Ganon knock the Master Sword again, it will confuse the game into not reequipping the Master Sword when you save and quit.

Steal the Rod
The "Steal the Rod" bug was fixed. If you were to equip the Hover Boots in the Fishing Pond and cast the rod while hovering, you could walk around freely with the rod cast. You could even leave the Fishing Pond and take the Fishing Rod with you. This allowed for a great number of glitches, like putting Deku Sticks or Bottles on B. It was fixed in 1.1 by preventing you from casting the rod while you are hovering.

Fishing Rod Crash
A crash involving the Fishing Rod was fixed. If you trigger the fisherman's "you can't leave" text (by going to the door to leave the pond with the Fishing Rod in hand), then immediately use the fishing rod (these need to nearly be done at the same time), the game will crash when you reel in the lure all the way. This was fixed in NTSC 1.1 by disallowing the Rod's use within close proximity to the door.

Ice Mound
The "Ice Mound" bug was fixed. After you kill a set amount of Leevers, a big purple one appears. If you kill it by repeatedly shooting Ice Arrows at it (it takes a lot of them), the Ice Block would stay there even after it dies. In 1.1, the Ice Block vanishes like it's supposed to when the purple Leever dies.

Graveyard
In NTSC 1.0, the edges of the holes in the Graveyard were grabbable, which made it very hard to jump inside as Link usually just leaped over the hole. In NTSC 1.1, the edges are no longer set to be grabbable, so Link falls in.

Bomb Drop Glitch
If you somehow let a bomb explode in your hands as you walked forward, the next time you pulled out a bomb it would automatically be dropped; this was fixed in the NTSC 1.1 version.

Deku Stick Glitch
If the player manages to equip the Deku Stick on B and saves and quits, then the Master Sword will not replace it, enabling Link to go through the game this way.

Skippable Text
In NTSC 1.0, you could quickly skip through Zelda's text boxes just before she gave you the Light Arrows. In 1.1, they are no longer skippable.

Text changes
When you talk to the blue guy in Kakariko Village before having beaten the Water Temple, the English dialog had an erroneous extra line break in it, which caused the text to overflow out of the box since it can normally only hold four lines. This was fixed in the NTSC 1.1 version.

When you receive a heart piece for your shooting skill in the Gerudo horseback archery game, version NTSC 1.0 had erroneously the message intended for the bigger quiver. This was fixed in the NTSC 1.1 version.

When you win a bigger quiver for your shooting skill in the Gerudo horseback archery game, version 1.0 had the message intended for the heart piece ("a true master" and "the ultimate master" were mistakenly switched). This was fixed in the NTSC 1.1 version.


 * Darunia called Link a "brother" in the NTSC 1.0 version. Since there is no genetic relationship between Link and Darunia (hopefully!) it has been changed to "Brother", ie. capitalized.

Fire Temple chanting
The original Fire Temple music included an Arabic chanting sample from Best Service's sampling CD "Voice Spectral Vol. 1", that (unintentionally?) was a recording of the Islamic Adhan and/or the Quran. It was subsequently removed in this version once Nintendo was made aware of the fact, in order to avoid controversy.

Blood
Ganondorf's blood has been changed from red to green (resembling vomit) so the game could keep its E rating - most notably, this is seen at the end of the game when Link defeats both of his forms. However, red blood can still be seen in the game - if Link takes relatively heavy damage, there will still be an unrealistic red spurt, and all the stained blood in the Shadow Temple and Bottom of the Well are still red.

Text changes
Most changes to the English text that were done in this version were made in order to make the text a bit closer to the Japanese text.

The original Japanese text had a subtle hint that there's some kind of relationship between the hag and the weird guy. This got lost in the translation, so the text was altered in NTSC 1.2 to reinsert this information.

The text was again changed to be in line with the Japanese original. However, in the Japanese version, it says "five carpenters" because apparently the boss is also counted.

It was a bit pointless for the Gerudo to ask you if you wanted to try the horseback archery "again" even if you've never played the game before. Therefore, it was changed in the NTSC 1.2 version.

In the original Japanese script, King Zora only knew that Ruto went to Lake Hylia. For NTSC 1.0 and 1.1 he seemingly engaged secret agents who told him Ruto is in the Water Temple. This has been changed, again to be in line with the Japanese text.

King Zora bug
A bug with King Zora was fixed. If you don't have the Zora Tunic and talk to King Zora after unfreezing him he will normally give out the Zora Tunic. However, after the dialog ends there is a single frame in which you can perform an action before the tunic is awarded. If you have any item in the adult trade item slot (even items that can't normally be placed there) and do certain actions like holding the the R button during that frame or pulling the hookshot out and putting it away with A, you will receive the Eyeball Frog instead of the Zora Tunic. This window for input was patched in the NTSC 1.2 version.

Bongo Bongo bug
In the Shadow Temple boss room, you could drop a bomb down the hole leading to the Bongo Bongo fight. This would hurt him and trigger his normal attack cycle without the cutscene running, leaving him invisible for the remainder of the fight. In this state, Bongo Bongo can't hurt you at all, but you can easily hit him by dropping a bomb in the center of the drum to stun both hands at once and then slashing away. You could also lock up the game like this by dropping some bombs and then falling down yourself, with the bombs interrupting Bongo Bongo's introduction sequence and leaving the cutscene running eternally. In the NTSC 1.2 version, it is impossible to hurt Bongo Bongo in this manner.

Nayru's Love bug
A crash bug was fixed in the PAL 1.1 version. By dying while under the effect of Nayru's Love (possible if you die from the heat in the Fire Temple, for example), you could use other magic items while Nayru's Love is still running, which results in an immediate crash. From the PAL 1.1 version on, you can no longer use magic items after dying when Nayru's Love is still running.

Hyrule Field bug
As Adult Link, venturing in the southeast corner of Hyrule was likely to cause a crash or softlock after a while due to the game running out of space for allocating more actors (this corner contains loads of trees, bushes and a Big Poe lingering around here) / simplistic memory reclaiming. The PAL 1.1 version stabilized the game so crashes should no longer happen.

Intro
The Nintendo 64 logo at the game's startup was removed from the GameCube version.

Crescent and Star
The game used the crescent and star symbol a lot, typically to represent the Gerudos. However, it closely resembled the symbol of the Ottoman Empire, now used as stand-in symbol for Islam. Presumably to prevent offending Muslims, it was changed to a new symbol used in later games of the series and in the re-releases of Ocarina of Time. In the GameCube version, this most notably affects the Mirror Shield, all movable blocks, and the overhead signs found for example in Gerudo's Valley. The original emblem still appears decorated in Dampé's crypt in the future (which was leftover and completely replaced in the 3DS version with new engravings). Interestingly, the iQue edition exclusively released in China uses both symbols (the newer design in more decorative instances directly pertaining to the Gerudo, and the older emblem for everything else such as puzzle blocks and the Mirror Shield). The Virtual Console version also replaces the Gerudo symbol, but is otherwise based on v1.2 (though Ganondorf's cape during the final battle is unaffected).

The new Gerudo Symbol in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask can be seen in the Pirate's Fortress, in the room where the Hookshot is obtained.

Text Changes
The Zelda series generally refers to boxes with items as just "chests," regardless of their contents, which may explain this minor change.

Shaboms are the bubbles you can encounter for example in Jabu Jabu's Belly. The previous description was just plain wrong, since the bubbles never bounce off your blade, they simply burst. Therefore, the description was changed for the GameCube version.

This is the greeting the carpet merchant in the Haunted Wasteland uses. In the Japanese version, it had lots of tildes (〜〜〜) which usually suggests repeated syllables. His dialog is also in katakana in the Japanese version, which indicates foreign speech or loan words. Sadly, this has been changed in the GameCube version.

When you get the Stone of Agony, the Rumble Pak is mentioned. The GameCube technically has a built-in rumble feature rather than a Rumble Pak, so this had to be changed. The Virtual Console release is unaffected despite a lack of rumble support.

Control Icon Changes
Certain controller icons and text were changed in the GameCube version. For example, where the Nintendo 64 version said to "press C" for an item, the GameCube version says to "use C." All references to "Z-targeting" were changed to "L-targeting" (this also includes the Kokiri Forest's "Hole of Z" changed to the "Hole of L"). References to the blue action icon, green action icon and red pause button were changed to green, red and white buttons (respectively), which is noticeable in the HUD and also extends to the shop cursor color. These changes are not present in the iQue and Virtual Console releases.

Emulation Differences
In addition to the doubled native resolution, minor graphics and effects are different in the GameCube and Virtual Console releases, mostly as a result of bugs or limitations in the Nintendo 64 emulation:
 * The lens flare effect from the sun is absent.
 * Morpha's nucleus is a white and red-spotted orb-like shape rather than a fuzzy red object with a prominent cyan vein.
 * The phantom Bongo Bongo has a purple shimmery noise effect when in non-solid form. This effect is removed and it appears as a moving brown smudge instead. (This same difference can also be seen on the barriers you shoot with arrows in Ganon's Tower.)
 * Some effects are more pixelated or have their color saturated, such as those seen around the Ganondorf battle.
 * Ganondorf's "waves of darkness" seen in the cutscene before the battle is missing some additional pink colored effects.
 * The lightning effect that Ganondorf's regular ball of magic cast on the floor when it travels across the room is visible even if the platforms under it are gone.
 * The energy that Ganondorf charges up to strike you with when he's low on health is yellow rather than the black sphere with yellow edges.
 * The start menu takes longer to load as the game captures the screen image into memory, causing an audible break in the currently playing sound effects and/or music. The lower resolution and color depth of the original Nintendo 64 framebuffer is more apparent here.
 * Certain line breaks in the game's geometry are more visible.
 * Fishes that can be caught in a bottle lack the texture on their heads they had in the Nintendo 64 versions, instead the heads are only a plain whitish surface without the eyes and other details.

Saving
The game no longer asks if the player wants to continue playing the current file after saving in the GameCube version.

Stability
Certain actions that crash the game no longer do that in the GameCube or Virtual Console versions. The framerate is also overall more stable in post-Nintendo 64 releases, with the iQue release being the most fluid. However, since the iQue release performs faster than the game was intended, it is most prone to a glitch in which certain things fail to load when they should (such as Link's arrows and the Poes in Hyrule Field, as well as at least one key in the Spirit Temple). The European versions are also of varying quality - the GameCube release notably has the best conversion from NTSC, whereas the Virtual Console release is least optimized for the PAL format.

Scarecrow's Song
The bonus for completing the game without wasting any lives in the save file was removed in all versions after the Nintendo 64. Originally, variations of Link's song he made for the scarecrows will be heard if the player waits at the final screen long enough. This has been silenced for an unknown reason.