Prerelease:The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/A + C

May, 1997

A batch of screenshots and a handful of trailers unveiled in May served as our first look at a new, more complex interface: A + C.

Actions

Unused Jump Strike

Link is seen performing a jump strike that was taken out of the final version of the game, but reused in Majora's Mask. The animation files for the jump strike still exist in the game, though they are not used.

Interface

Apr. '97	May '97

GUI	Players are no longer limited to the A + B buttons when equipping items. The white letters identifying the buttons have disappeared, and the icons are now differentiated by color alone.
A Button	Link's sword is still equipped to A, but the icon has migrated to sit atop the C buttons.
B Button	The B button is no longer shown on the GUI.
C-Left	A brown bow is equipped to C-Left. The number of arrows differs between screenshots. The item counter has changed fonts yet again.
C-Right	Bombs are equipped to C-Right. Their number differs between screenshots.
C-Down	A sword resembling the one that appears in April's screenshots is equipped to C-Down.
Hearts	Link now has ♥♥♥♥♥♡♡♡ hearts. The first of Link's remaining hearts now pulses, increasing and decreasing in size.
Rupees	The rupees have moved back to the bottom-left corner of the screen, and the font size has increased again. The counter reads 000.

Items

Swords

Black Sword	Brown Sword

Link can now choose between two different swords.

The first is a long, black katana that requires two hands.

The second is a brown-hilted sword that can be used with the shield.

Bombs

The bomb icon remains unchanged.

Bow

The bow icon has been updated, and is now curvier than before.

Characters

Navi

Navi was now shown to change colour, turning red when hovering over enemies like Dodongos and Leevers, pink when hovering over Poes and Cuccos.

In addition to becoming more helpful in battle, Navi's increasing characterization had a strong effect on the game's story. Naming the target indicator had, in Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's words, "breathed life into what had been an impersonal marker". Character designer and director Koizumi reminisced that, once the character had been named, he started coming up with a flood of ideas about what he could do with her. Examples included Navi being able to indicate via colour whether a creature you'd encountered was good or bad, and being able to talk in order to guide Link through the story.

The fact that Navi provided Link strategy tips meant that the amount of dialogue script director Osawa had to write greatly increased.

Environments

Revisited - Stalfos Boss Room

Another shot of the Stalfos Boss Room with the new interface. This one better depicts the nonfunctional door.

Revisited - Ganon’s Tower

Prototype	Final

The orange room from Ganon’s Tower makes an appearance once again. This time, a staircase that appears to lead into a dead end is visible. A torch idol with its tongue hanging out is mounted into the wall.

Deku Tree

May 1996	Concept Art	Final

The first appearance of the Deku Tree. His mouth is closed, his nose is red, and sunlight filters through his branches. These rays of sunshine are present in concept art, but are not seen in the final game.

Lon-Lon Ranch

A stable in a grassy plain, with a road bordered by grass and a short fence just across from it.

Desert

Link watches the sun set in the desert as Navi flutters around his head. This is the first concrete evidence of a night and day system.

House

A simple 3D house. It seems the developers experimented with modelling residential interiors before they chose to go with pre-rendered backgrounds instead.

The fact that many interior areas in the final game have models with detailed collision meshes under their pre-rendered backgrounds is a reflection of this time.

Graveyard

An eerie graveyard haunted by two Poes. It is filled with simplistic gravestones and bordered by a wall. The moon shines down from overhead. A version of this area was found in the 1997 overdump.

Pebbled Area II

This area uses the same ground texture as the pebbled area from A + B. It contains a pack of Tektites which chase down Link.

Pre-rendered Temple

A temple with a pre-rendered background, the first to appear in early screenshots. As only grottos, house interiors, and Hyrule Castle Market have pre-rendered backgrounds in the final game, this backdrop didn’t make the cut.

Mysterious Structure

Link stands atop a mysterious structure in an unknown location. The area was found in the July 2020 iQue source code leak, albeit untextured.

The developers seem to have a fondness for blue and pink skies.

Enemies

Cuccos

Link focuses his attention on a flock of nasty-looking Cuccos.

Tektites

Red Tektites bounce around a rocky-bottomed valley after Link.

Leevers

Link challenges a handful of Leevers. Interestingly, Navi does not change colors to indicate their presence in the final game.

Gels

These enemies, no longer found in the game, except for a single texture that requires hacking to find, resemble Gels from other Zelda adventures. The full model was found in the July 2020 iQue source code leak.

This screenshot is an exception to the others in this batch in that Link only has ♥♥♥♥♡♡♡♡ hearts. It must have been a fierce battle!

June, 1997

In June, media outlets revealed the first information about the timeframe for the game's release, as well as further talk about the game's size and 64DD expansion.

E3 1997

Americans got their first look at Zelda 64 gameplay footage at E3 1997, held from June 19th to 21st at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.

Specifications

Nintendo Power quoted Miyamoto on the cartridge's forecasted size: 128 Megabits (16 MB), a number significantly under the final cartridge's 256 Megabit (32 MB) capacity.

Release Date

Nintendo Power also cited Zelda 64's Japanese's release date as late 1997. Both Nintendo Power and N64.com claimed that the game would arrive in North America in early 1998.

Contrary to their expectations, fans had a very long time to wait. Ocarina of Time was released in Japan and America in late Nov. 1998, nearly a year after their predictions.

64DD

According to Nintendo Power, the 64DD version of the game would be released following the cartridge version, and would further expand players' Game Pak adventures.

July, 1997

Specifications

In July, Nintendo Power reported that Zelda 64 was 50 to 70 percent complete, though it was only be shown in demo form at E3. The size was once again heralded at 128 Megabits.

Release Date

Once more, the magazine touted the North American release date for the game as early 1998.

Miyamoto mentioned in an interview that a U.S. localization of Zelda 64 would, at maximum, take only 4 months to complete. N64.com used this information to speculate that the game could potentially be released as early as April.

Enemies

Revisited - Cucco

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Revisited - Gel

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Revisited - Dodongo

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Revisited - Poe

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Revisited - Stalfos

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Revisited - Stalfos Boss

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Tektite

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