We’ve seen lots of prototypical content of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time surface from the Nintendo Gigaleak, not least of all the beta dungeon seen in pre-release footage. While we’ve seen the dungeon running on Nintendo 64 hardware, modder Dr. Disco (aka z64me) has now taken things a step further at bringing the structure to life — and bringing Link closer to death. The prototype enemies that inhabited this dungeon in early demos are now restored, including beta versions of Stalfos, Iron Knuckles, and Floormasters.
Of course, while the creatures’ models and animations were extracted from the leak, the enemies’ AI could not be found. In order to animate them, Dr. Disco applied the combat behavior of the enemies from the final build of Ocarina of Time. As YouTube user Hard4Games explains, “Their placements are set to mimic early screenshots and trailers, but it’s not meant to be taken as a 1:1 restoration of what the dungeon would have been like in terms of enemy placement.” It may not be the exact same demo as seen in the old pre-release trailers, but it’s extremely close and looks fantastically accurate to the original prototype.
In the video, Link has also been modded to match his retro look from the prototype, adding even more authenticity to the original demo. Some work was also done on the Iron Knuckle models — which, for some reason, had two shields in the leaked data — in order to give the brute back its sword.
Just when I thought we couldn’t possibly get any closer to that legendary prototype of Ocarina of Time, the discoveries made from the Gigaleak and the work from the modding community continue to amaze me.
Written by Reece Heather
A lifelong Nintendo fan and a longtime editor at Zelda Universe, Reece will forever be grateful that he somehow dodged the Naughty List of Christmas 1998, when Santa delivered the life-changing gift of a Nintendo 64 with Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, and Mario Kart 64. When he's not playing games, Reece is usually reading Punisher comics, delving helplessly into the weirdest depths of anime and manga, or spending time with his cocker spaniel Gracie -- the goodest girl ever!
