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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Version Differences

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Hmmm...
To do:
Dump and upload changed textures (Poe Hat, Dampe Race, Ganondorf's cape)


This is a sub-page of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Ocarina of Time has a lot of official versions/revisions, none of which let you claim the Triforce.

Version Table

Region Version Build Date
JP/US 1.0 RC[1][2] zelda@srd44 98-10-18 23:05:00
JP/US 1.0 zelda@srd44 98-10-21 04:56:31
JP/US 1.1 zelda@srd44 98-10-26 10:58:45
Europe 1.0 zelda@srd44 98-11-10 14:34:22
JP/US 1.2 zelda@srd44 98-11-12 18:17:03
Europe 1.1 zelda@srd44 98-11-18 17:36:49
USA Gateway zelda@srd44 99-01-19 11:37:17
Japan GameCube zelda@srd022j 02-10-29 23:49:53
Japan Master Quest zelda@srd022j 02-10-30 00:15:15
USA GameCube zelda@srd022j 02-12-19 13:28:09
USA Master Quest zelda@srd022j 02-12-19 14:05:42
Europe GameCube Debug 1[3][2] zelda@srd022j 03-02-13 19:46:49
Europe Master Quest Debug[2] zelda@srd022j 03-02-21 00:16:31
Europe GameCube Debug 2[2] zelda@srd022j 03-02-21 00:49:18
Europe GameCube zelda@srd022j 03-02-21 20:12:23
Europe Master Quest zelda@srd022j 03-02-21 20:37:19
Japan GameCube (Zelda Collection)[4] zelda@srd022j 03-10-08 21:53:00
China (Simplified Chinese) iQue build@toad.routefree.com 03-10-22 16:23:19
China (Traditional Chinese) iQue[2] tyu@linuxdev3 06-10-13 14:17:43
  • Japanese/USA 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 N64 releases are alternatively known as NTSC 1.0, NTSC 1.1, and NTSC 1.2 respectively. Although they are technically different binaries, the only difference between the two is the country code byte in the ROM header, which is used to set the ROM's default language. There is no in-game language selection feature.
  • European 1.0 and 1.1 are alternatively known as PAL 1.0 and PAL 1.1, respectively.
  • A PAL Gateway build exists but has not been found.
  • The Japanese/USA Wii Virtual Console releases contain a binary-identical NTSC 1.2 ROM for that region. Also, the European Wii Virtual Console release is the same as the PAL 1.1 ROM.

Notes

  1. A release candidate build which predates the original NTSC 1.0 by three days
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 This version was never officially released.
  3. Contains slight text differences related to GameCube buttons
  4. This is the ROM from the Japanese Collector's Edition disc.

Nintendo 64

NTSC 1.1

NTSC 1.0 NTSC 1.1
OoTN64-Logo1.png OoTN64-Logo2.png

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 method has been fixed in v1.1 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 out again, it will confuse the game into not reequipping the Master Sword when you save and quit.

Steal the Rod

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.

This was fixed in v1.1 by preventing you from casting the rod while you're 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 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.

(Source: source needed)

Ice Mound

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 v1.1, 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 v1.1, 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 NTSC 1.1.

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 NTSC 1.1, they are no longer skippable.

Put Away Animation

In NTSC 1.0, Link did not have a put away animation for his sword or items if one of them was active when you started climbing a ladder, vine or entering a crawl space. This was added for NTSC 1.1.

Additionally, in NTSC 1.0 only there is a single frame of input where the put away animation can be interrupted by using an item. The most important consequence of this is that the animation of Child Link entering a crawlspace can be interrupted by having an item in Link's hands (such as a Bottle) then using another item (such as Deku Nuts) just as Link starts to enter the crawlspace. This will change Link's collision and allow him to clip through a lot of things.

Text Changes

NTSC 1.0 NTSC 1.1
That medicine is made of
forest mushrooms. Give it back!
Yes
No
That guy isn't here anymore.

Anybody who comes into the
forest will be lost.

Everybody will become a Stalfos.
Everybody, Stalfos.
So, he's not here anymore.
Only his saw is left. Hee hee.

That medicine is made of
forest mushrooms. Give it back!
Yes
No

The NTSC 1.0 version is missing several lines of text when you show the Kokiri girl the medicine in the Biggoron Sword trading sequence. The missing dialogue is identical to what she says when you just talk to her, with one exception: she now also mentions that the Kakariko youth left a saw. This was fixed in the NTSC 1.1 version.

NTSC 1.0 NTSC 1.1
I saw the ghostly figure of Dampé

the gravekeeper sinking into
his grave. It looked like he was
holding some kind of treasure!
I saw the ghostly figure of Dampé
the gravekeeper sinking into
his grave. It looked like he was
holding some kind of treasure!

When you talk to the blue guy in Kakariko Village before having beaten the Water Temple, the English dialogue 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.

NTSC 1.0 NTSC 1.1
Fantastic!
You are the ultimate master!
I will give you this item.
Once you have this equipment, the
only thing left to improve is
yourself!
Fantastic!
You are a true master!
I will give this to you.
Keep improving yourself!

When you receive the Piece of Heart for your shooting skill in the Gerudo horseback archery game, version NTSC 1.0 erroneously had the message intended for the Quiver upgrade. This was fixed in the NTSC 1.1 version.

NTSC 1.0 NTSC 1.1
I'll be darned! You are a true
master!
I will give you an item suitable
for a master.
I'll be darned! You are the ultimate
master!
I will give you an item suitable
for the master.

When you win the Quiver upgrade for your shooting skill in the Gerudo horseback archery game, v1.0 had the message intended for the Piece of Heart ("a true master" and "the ultimate master" were mistakenly switched). This was fixed in the NTSC 1.1 version.

NTSC 1.0 NTSC 1.1
You did great!
How 'bout a big Goron hug,
brother?!
You did great!
How 'bout a big Goron hug,
Brother?!

In the cutscene after Link receives the Spiritual Stone, the Gorons called Link a "brother" in the NTSC 1.0 version. Since there is no genetic relationship between Link and the Gorons (hopefully!), it was changed to "Brother", i.e. capitalized.

Keaton Mask

In NTSC 1.0, the Keaton Mask is spelled "Keatan Mask" on the Item Subscreen. This was corrected in NTSC 1.1.

The mask's Japanese name is "キータンのお面", which translates to "kii-tan's mask", a cute, childlike way of saying "kitsune-chan's mask". "Kitsune" means fox, an animal reputed in Japanese folklore to have otherworldly qualities. As such, while the previous spelling better reflects the Japanese, both of the English romanizations are meaningless.

Enemy Near Music in Ganon's Castle

Hmmm...
To do:
Check whether this also is a thing on PAL 1.0. Maybe get a video of this too.

In NTSC 1.1, for some odd reason, all enemies (including mini-bosses, but not Beamos) inside Ganon's Castle will play the music when Link is near an enemy. This also extends to Ganon's Tower, and the Castle Crumbling sections of the game. This can also cause the Spirit Temple Pre-Boss Iron Knuckle's boss theme to occasionally switch to the enemy near music as well. What is especially odd about this is that in NTSC 1.0 (and every other revision), enemies properly play no music when near them in Ganon's Castle, yet for some reason, NTSC 1.1 mistakenly doesn't disable the music there!

Treasure Chest Game

In NTSC 1.0, if you enter the Treasure Chest Game building and start the game as soon as possible, while the title card is still displayed onscreen, you will get a normal Dungeon Key instead of the Door Key needed to progress through the minigame. This oversight was patched in NTSC 1.1.

PAL 1.0

Fire Temple Chanting

The original Fire Temple music included a sample from Best Service's sample library "Voice Spectral Vol. 1" of an Arabic voice reading excerpts from the Islamic Adhan and/or the Quran. It was subsequently replaced, likely to avoid controversy. Ocarina of Time 3D contains a higher-quality version of the original chant that appeared in NTSC 1.0/1.1, even though it's not actually used in-game.

The sample was also featured in one of the new songs from the Nintendo 64 port of Cruis'n World, "Cairo Cruis'n", months prior to Ocarina of Time's release. Coincidentally, World was also a Nintendo-published title.

NTSC 1.0 / NTSC 1.1
PAL 1.0

Blood

Ganondorf's blood was 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 is still red.

NTSC 1.0 / NTSC 1.1 PAL 1.0
OOT GanondorfBlood1.png OOT GanondorfBlood2.png

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.

NTSC 1.0 / NTSC 1.1 PAL 1.0
You received an Odd Potion!
It may be useful for something...
Hurry to the Lost Woods!
You received an Odd Potion!
You don't know what's going on
between this lady and that guy,
but take it to the Lost Woods!

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 PAL 1.0 to reinsert this information.

NTSC 1.0 / NTSC 1.1 PAL 1.0
Now that we're all back together,
building a bridge over the valley
was a piece of cake.
Building a bridge over the valley
is a simple task for four
carpenters.

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.

NTSC 1.0 / NTSC 1.1 PAL 1.0
Do you want to try again for
20 Rupees?
Yes
No
Do you want to try for
20 Rupees?
Yes
No

It's a bit weird for the Gerudo to ask you if you wanted to try the horseback archery "again" if you've never played the game before, so it was changed in the PAL 1.0 version.

NTSC 1.0 / NTSC 1.1 PAL 1.0
Princess Ruto has gone to the
temple of Lake Hylia and has not
come back... I'm so worried...again!
Princess Ruto has gone to Lake
Hylia and has not come back...
I'm so worried...again!

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

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 dialogue 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 R button during that frame or pulling the Hookshot/Longshot 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 PAL 1.0 version.

Electrocution Death Animation

In NTSC 1.0/1.1, if Link dies of something other than electricity while in the middle of his electrocution animation, his death animation is missing a sound effect for when he falls to the floor. PAL 1.0 added a sound effect here which was later carried over into NTSC 1.2.

(Source: gabyelnuevo)

NTSC 1.2

Bombchu Shop

Hmmm...
To do:
Check whether this also is a thing on PAL 1.0.

In the NTSC 1.2 version, the "Bombchu Shop" caption is not present if you enter the shop before it's open for business.

Kakariko Cutscene

In the v1.0 and v1.1 N64 versions, the cutscene where Kakariko is on fire, the shadow beast escapes the well, and Link learns the Nocturne of Shadow, an early layout of Kakariko Village can be seen. The subtle difference is that the cutscene contains the same tree as in the Child-era Kakariko with no bushes around the tree. Instead, a cluster of bushes are found around the secret cave area. N64 v1.2 version fixed this inconsistency.

Zora's Fountain

Hmmm...
To do:
Check whether this also is a thing on PAL 1.0.

NTSC 1.2 added an invisible red rupee on top of the large structure that can only be reached with the Scarecrow's Song in Zora's Fountain.

Bongo Bongo Cutscene

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.

PAL 1.1

Nayru's Love Crash

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 Crash

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.

Gerudo Color Bug

The Gerudo who gives you the Gerudo's Card in Gerudo Fortress after freeing all four carpenters is slightly glitched in that her clothes will change depending on the tunic Link is wearing and will start flashing like a bomb when a bomb is pulled out in front of her. This was fixed in the PAL 1.1 version so she's always wearing red clothes. This was not retained in the GameCube, Virtual Console, Nintendo Switch Online releases

Pause subscreen

Hmmm...
To do:
check whether this is a thing on PAL 1.0 too. It doesn't seem to be in NTSC 1.2

When the game boots up, pausing the game for the first time defaults to the Map Subscreen, but it will be the Item Subscreen when the game is restarted (by dying and choosing not to continue). This was fixed in PAL versions where the game always defaults to the Item Subscreen.

USA Gateway

This version was used at various hotels where games could be played from a LodgeNet server with a rental fee.

  • The save function is completely disabled in the pause menu and getting a game over skips the save prompt.
  • The rumble function is also disabled.
  • The file select screen only has a single file available.
  • All PAL 1.1 fixes have been incorporated with the exception of the Gerudo commander, who still changes color.
  • The anti-piracy checks were removed.


(Source: EllipticEllipsis)

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 a stand-in symbol for Islam. Presumably to prevent offending Muslims, it was changed to a new symbol in later re-releases of Ocarina of Time from Gateway onwards along with later games in the series. This affects various things like the Mirror Shield, movable blocks, floor switches, overhead signs and Ganondorf's cape.

Nintendo 64 Gateway and later
OOT GerudoSymbol1.png OOT GerudoSymbol2.png

Unique to Gateway, the symbol on the armor of Iron Knuckles was also changed. The updated design was also used in Majora's Mask but got reverted for all later versions of Ocarina of Time, possibly by accident.

Original Gateway
Zelda-IronKnuckle-Symbol-Original.png
Zelda-IronKnuckle-Symbol-Updated.png

GameCube

Intro

The Nintendo 64 logo at the game's startup was removed.

Dampé's Grave Gerudo Symbol

Despite being removed in the Gateway build, the old Gerudo symbol texture in the first and last rooms of Dampé's Grave is present again in all of the GameCube builds. This was caught and corrected for all later emulated releases with a new texture.

Text Changes

Nintendo 64 GameCube
You got a Door Key!
Use this key to continue to the
next room. Select a treasure
chest and see how lucky you are!
You got a Door Key!
Use this key to continue to the
next room. Select a chest and
see how lucky you are!

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

Nintendo 64 GameCube
Shabom
If you try to cut it, it will bounce
off your blade!
Shabom
If you cut it, it will burst open and
knock you back!

A mistranslation was corrected in Navi's comment for the bubble enemies encountered in Jabu-Jabu's Belly. Link is the one who gets knocked back if Shaboms are hit from close proximity.

Nintendo 64 GameCube
Well Come! Welcome!

This is the greeting the carpet merchant in the Haunted Wasteland uses. In Japanese, the merchant's dialogue is in katakana, which indicates foreign speech and uses wave dashes (〜〜〜) to represent elongated vowels. This attempt at conveying the same thing in English might have been misinterpreted as a mistranslation and got "corrected" in the GameCube version.

Nintendo 64 GameCube
You obtained the Stone of Agony!
If you equip a Rumble Pak, it
will react to nearby...secrets.
You obtained the Stone of Agony!
It causes your Rumble Feature
to react to nearby...secrets.

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 was changed.

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", with Kokiri Forest's "Hole of Z" changed to "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 later releases.

Another change is that the R Button got updated when the GCN release happened, making the R and its bevel a tad bigger, presumably to match that of a GCN Controller

Emulation Shortcomings

In addition to the doubled native resolution, minor graphics and effects are different in the emulated releases, as a result of bugs or limitations in the Nintendo 64 emulation:

  • The lens flare effect from the sun is absent.
  • The glare from the torches at the gate to Hyrule Castle Town is absent.
  • Link incorrectly casts shadows on the "ground" in the ending cutscene where Zelda uses the Ocarina of Time to send Link back to his childhood.
  • 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 absent and it appears as a moving brown smudge instead. (This same difference can also be seen on the barriers you shoot with Light 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 pause 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.
  • Seams in the map geometry are more visible.
  • Fish 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.
  • The purple shimmery noise effect on the bottled Poes seen in the Potion Shops is absent.
  • Twinrova's fire and ice magic is missing some additional effects, resulting in a very dull appearance.
  • The balls that make up the Tailpasarans' bodies are monochrome, rather than white, purple, and fuchsia.
  • Due to ignoring invalid opcodes, certain actions that crash the game no longer do that in the GameCube or Virtual Console versions.
  • The framerate is overall more stable in post-Nintendo 64 releases, which causes the music to desynchronize in some cutscenes.

Some of the shortcomings above are exclusive to the GameCube emulation. However, other releases have their own visual quirks.

Ending

For some reason, the ending is a pre-rendered video file rather than being rendered in-engine. The in-engine credits were not removed and can still be accessed via glitches. The only notable difference is that the game ends on a black-and-white The End screen rather than the sepia screen the Nintendo 64 version used.

As a result of this, the ending lacks several features present in the Nintendo 64 version:

  • If the game is completed with zero deaths on the save file, variations of the song played for Pierre the scarecrow will be heard if the player waits at the final screen long enough.
  • The minor visual variations in the Nintendo 64 versions' ending cutscenes which can be affected by your actions, such as the Fishing Pond owner wearing his hat or not, and the Running Man wearing the Bunny Hood or not, are absent.

Later emulated releases revert back to playing the credits in-engine.

iQue

  • Like the GameCube version, the Nintendo 64 logo at the game's startup was removed.
  • The old Gerudo symbol is still present in map textures but is changed for textures used for actors.
  • The iQue versions fix an issue where the game would leave a roughly 0x3000-byte space unreserved on the heap.
  • The iQue versions use zlib for file compression over a presumably in-house file compression known as Yaz.
  • The iQue versions have a smaller heap to work with. This exacerbates a number of glitches that occur due to various actors being unable to allocate space for themselves.

Traditional Chinese

OOT FileSelect-TraditionnalChinese.png
  • The Traditional Chinese version uses more than 4 MB of RAM. It contains a hack that reserves ovl_En_Horse and other gameplay content past the end of the normal system heap (which still ends at 4 MB).
  • On the file select screen, the blue night skybox fades into its cloudy form.

Virtual Console and Nintendo Switch Online

Rather than modifying the ROMs directly like the GameCube releases, changes are instead done externally by the emulators in these releases.

  • None of the text changes from the GameCube releases are implemented.
  • Rumble support is not implemented in the Wii release but is present on Wii U and Nintendo Switch.
  • On Wii, the green dot next to the crescent moon on Flat the Poe's hat was removed to prevent resemblance to the old Gerudo symbol. This change is not present in later releases.
  • On Nintendo Switch, the texture on the Gerudo Membership Card is not replaced and still uses the old Gerudo symbol.
    • The crescent and star symbol on Ganondorf's cape was not replaced in any release despite it having been updated in the Gateway, iQue and GameCube builds.