When it comes to the business of breaking a game, you’ll find no group more dedicated than the speedrunning community. While all glitches used in speedrunning can help complete games faster, there are some glitches that live in a league of their own. After all, at the end of the day, a video game is just a bunch of code, and one who can modify that code can control the games universe. With a glitch that lets you modify the code at will, you could even be able to access the mysterious hidden rooms that are otherwise inaccessible in a normal playthrough of the game.
Without getting too much into the technical details, it would be no exaggeration to say that the SRM glitch that was discovered for Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask has made almost anything possible. Entering previously inaccessible rooms is only one of a truly infinite amount of possibilities when utilizing a glitch like SRM.
In the Japanese version of Majora’s Mask, SRM allows us to access a room that was used for testing in the development of the game. In the room, there are several sections designated for testing the mechanics of the game, ranging from the simple ladder to the Stone Tower block puzzle. Interestingly, there are test areas for the crawlspace mechanic that was in Ocarina of Time, but cut from Majora’s Mask. Considering this was never removed from the test room, it might be possible that the crawlspace mechanic was removed late into development.
While there isn’t a great deal we can learn about Majora’s Mask’s development just by looking at this test room, it provides us a window into the lives of the developers. I have personally always been enamoured with how fun it feels to swim as a Zora in Majora’s Mask, so I can imagine many hours were spent in this testing room pool perfecting the swimming mechanics. Next time you pick up Majora’s Mask, consider paying the test room a visit if you’ve got the guts to trigger SRM.
