The Ocarina of Time Beta files

Hey, I found this site that has the biggest collection of Zelda beta files ever!!!

Beta Files

I thought it would be quite cool to have a thread where you can discuss these.
Post your thoughts on these files (talk about any of them).

what is a beta file??

A beta file is a screenshot of that certain game in development. So OoT beta files are screenshots of OoT in development. Some of them are very interesting. They're all there in that Link.

Seems the Hylian Shield design came fiarly late in the games devolpment from those shots.

Awesome! Some new ones in there I haven't seen before! A lot of them I'm looking at and wondering why they were phased out from the game in the first place. There was a picture of Link on his horse as an adult chasing what looked like Zelda's white horse (with Zelda on it???). I wonder what that was about? And that one with the long road vanishing off into the distance, looked like a farm of some sort. Such great ideas! What happened to them??

I guess the only way I'll know is if I someday get a job in the "dream team." Imagine having access to all of those scrapped ideas. I'd be like a kid in a candy store!

The thing that interests me the most is that on a pic like this one:



you can see that Link uses the forest medalion (sp?) as a item. maybe you could have used them the same way as you used the medalions in ALttP. I think that that would have been pretty cool.

I'm not sure what you mean by using medallions in ALTTP (I havn't got that far yet) but I think they were used in the same way the warp songs are.

And on this screenshot, it looks like Link uses bombs with the B-button... Strange, it must mean that the graphics are completed first, than the gameplay...

One picture that I liked was early screenshots of the Lost Woods. If you find these (there are two in total) it actually looks like woods. The trees are tall, it's all misty, and seems to go on for miles. I'm thinking, why did they take this out? It looks way better than our Lost Woods, and it wouldn't of been so hard to implement. It's just so much better looking than a load of wooden tunnels in different rooms.

Originally Posted by Da Bee

One picture that I liked was early screenshots of the Lost Woods. If you find these (there are two in total) it actually looks like woods. The trees are tall, it's all misty, and seems to go on for miles. I'm thinking, why did they take this out? It looks way better than our Lost Woods, and it wouldn't of been so hard to implement. It's just so much better looking than a load of wooden tunnels in different rooms.

Yeah I've always dreamed of running through a forest like that in Zelda. I think the technology was a factor in them scrapping it. It looks like they finally have a 'real' forest in TP though. Should be good.

*Evil laughter* I've always loved to look at beta screenshots. I found a site a while back with a whole bunch of them, but I forget where it is now. Anywho... I'm pretty sure I've seen all of those before, although that did interest me in looking for more beta screenshots on the internet and I found some here. Seems like originally there were more tunics. Shame they didn't keep some more in the game though.





Edit: I found the site I was talking about.

Oh thank you so much!
I found that site before and then never saw it again!
Thank you, I loved that site!!!

And those other screenshots, a lot of those could have been achieved with gameshark, or even common glitches! But that woman in white looks very creepy for some reason, it just doesn't look natural!

Awesome! Black, yellow, and white tunics!
Too bad they didn't keep em. Well at least they brought white and black to Smash Bros I guess.

I tried some of those tunics out with Gameshark. Oddly enough, the white or possibly the yellow tunic (can't remember which right now) had the same effect as the Goron Tunic. That is, Link could stay in hot places.

The black tunic to me just looks like a glitch. The code makes the game try to load data which doesn't exist, therefore no texture loads for the tunic - hence the black.

Great find. That gold ironknuckle looks awesome. It would have been awesome if he was thrown in Ocarina. I've seen a good deal of these already, but they never cease to amaze me. I'm glad they made the changes that they did. The town, shield, and stalfos look pretty awful. Is that Link fighting a metallic link? Kind of hard to tell.
And there's the triforce pic that started a whole lot of speculation.

I always enjoy looking at beta files. Sometimes they look like more fun than the actual game oO.

But really, the first one where Link is entering what looks to be a crystal or ice temple, it looks great. The shadow is a nice effect.



A floor master ^^. He looks like he's in a labrynth of sorts. Interesting...

Originally Posted by Bloodsword

A floor master ^^. He looks like he's in a labrynth of sorts. Interesting...

I think that reminds me of the maze you push the block around in the forest temple. Maybe it's an early version of that!

That site you were talking about, it's called Zelda's Secret ocarina. I think.