Zelda 64 Early 1997 Footage Compilation (Ocarina of Time Beta)

Footage from the early-mid 1997 (A+C Interface) build of the game. This was before the addition of elements like Child Link, the Ocarina of Time and most of the game's story. It was only after E3 1997 that the game was delayed and went through a massive overhaul.
Most of the footage comes from the French VHS tape "Vous N'en Reviendrez Pas" (You Will Be Amazed), the German VHS "Wieviel 3D Hältst Du Aus?" (How Much 3D Can You Take?) and the Spanish VHS "Sólo Para Nintendo" (Only On Nintendo)".
Shoutouts to Raco130, Spielewelten, Hard4Games, Edge Magazine, Old E3 VHS Videos and Gene Simmons for gathering this footage from VHS tapes, TV shows and E3 recordings.

[@biggaygamer6404]

I like how smooth links movement is in the beta like turning around instead of snaping that direction link acually turns I don't know if it's just me but I really prefer the moment style from beta then final release

[@TheArtCorner74]

The reason link has such smooth animations in the beta is because there was less going on in the beta, for hardware limitations they had to simplify Link's movement which honestly is a shame but understandable

[@jsjsjjehesjjejej1828]

Betas tend to be more desirable from my experience as well

[@PrimevalDemon]

@@jsjsjjehesjjejej1828 it's often easy to fall into the mindset of "grass being greener on the otherside" due to having a smaller scope to view from the outside looking in. A vertical slice which is what most of this footage is (meaning a level or build of a game designed from ground up to represent ideas and concepts to be displayed in the final product only completely insular and largely removed from the game itself or in otherwords a demo completely unique to itself No level intended or taken from the product but one that in many cases might well represent something in development or realized in the end. Example/ case in point here being Ganondorf Castle and The Great Deku Tree interior dungeons. Another example of a vertical slice being ultimately utilized within a final game as a bonus area but still separated from the core experience would be "The Painted World of Ariamis" from Dark Souls/ Dark Souls Artorias of the Abyss/Remastered. Think of a slice of cake cut from a large wedding cake. Once cut and separated from the larger construct one can view all layers, levels and elements stacked on-top one another from top to bottom and from inside and out. This is the namesake. Though what isn't always appreciable is the cost and "weight" of the ingredients seen and utilized. Sure an element might be sweet to taste and pleasant visually, herein such a "garnish" would be the smoother motion and animation segues of the player character. But just as with baking sometimes things that work well by themselves or are pleasant visually come at cost only those preparing the "dish" / final result can measure. Like a chef sampling a stew before sending it out to be eaten enmassé. Take for example a chocolate shell syrup over ice creme. It might look nicer and might sound an improvement, added crunch Overtop a soft malleable form. Yet if such an ice creme is of hot fudge than it will only muddy the intended form and taste for no other reason than the idea being appreciated more than the end result. This example is more in-tune with the presented narrative. One small tweak, a change of animation fluidity is always appreciated visually but sometimes such things are detrimental especially in cases where file size is a very pressing concern. If animation is held to high demand such a demand would be dealt and held to a wide swathe of elements Enemies, objects and characters aside from just the main player character model. These demand logic and coding to perform and often have several overlapping instances per situation i.e swimming, jumping, running, rolling. In a purely isolated context such as a slice/demo where all the constraints of a larger project melt away a few bytes of code are a non issue but outside of its bubble such realities quickly turn into fantasy as deadlines and design demands often restrict all but the most reliable (often basic) end result. Don't want to ruin a rushed entrée for sake of looks and not taste, or risk a cakes collapse due to design and not its weight being considered, nor game made glitchy for graphical greatness at cost of engine executable stability. To players and viewers such graphical garnish is hard to not appreciate but it is almost always fully removed from the context of what is held behind the curtain of computational prudence that the developers are forced to abide. Sometimes such changes are no more than visual taste or art style (such as Capcom's original Devil May Cry series versus its 2013 outsourced reboot "DmC" for example or Capcom's Final Fight series compared to its reinvention "Final Fight: Streetwise") in such cases it is hard to say which side is better but here it is more discerned less through dreamy wistfulness and more through demand for design more than design for demand? I hope this translated adequately to explain the intended thought process of remembering both sides of the scenario. Let me know how you feel! I hope it doesn't sound or come across aa rude as I certainly fall into similar thoughts as well but here at least it is more easy to glimpse the likely reasoning that previous comments also pointed towards. Take care!

[@knightman528]

It was originally developed for the 64dd

[@WideMouth]

The sharp turnaround is much better for gameplay though. I really hate when the player character in games takes forever to respond to my inputs because of “realistic animations.”

[@SKOT_3]

The deku tree area at this point looked so magical, more colorful, bigger. It makes me want to explore it for hours.

[@MalabarTheGreat]

The big red nose of the Betu Tree reminds me of Santa Claus lol.

[@tamuren1397]

I bet you find less than an hour of content to explore.

[@seekp2676]

I wish nintendo would release this old early version of Zelda 64, im so curious on how the stages and bosses were originally supposed to be, its like a completely different game

[@jon-erich9752]

I honestly doubt it exists at this point. From my understanding, Zelda 64 wasn't like Resident Evil 4 where they scrapped entire versions of the game and restarted development. It was more like a continuous evolution and even in late stage development, changes continued to be made. With early 3D games, entire parts of a game could changed in a family short amount of time. In fact, one reason why the developers preferred realtime cutscenes over FMVs (aside from storage space issues) is because having realtime cutscenes made it easier for game scenarios to be rewritten even in the late stage of the game's development whereas FMVs take a long time to render meaning that a scenario has to be set in stone well in advance and no changes could be made that would contradict what's in the cutscene.

[@katblackwell]

i agree with previous commenter. you could, however, play the Spaceworld '97 Demo Recreation Mod, which is super awesome. or you could watch a video of it, to which i recommend ZFG's stream playing it, it's up on youtube.

[@danielbarrios4379]

I think the same friend, it was a completely different game, there was not even a link child, they practically restarted everything, I hope that there is still a DEMO version like the ones in spaceworld for example, and that at the moment it could be stored in someone's drawer collector hoping to see the light one day...

[@danielbarrios4379]

@@jon-erich9752 but still they could have saved a DEMO version or made a backup copy and stored it somewhere, I hope that one day it will come to light...

[@danielbarrios4379]

@@katblackwell the recreation of the spaceworld is a fucking shit, and they are not even based on this early version of 96, they're based on the '97 version

[@meatwax]

It may not look like much now, but back in the day seeing this on VHS was the stuff of legend.

[@lootria]

having just played oot for the first time, seeing some of these areas iike early desert colossus, graveyard, or deku tree is really cool tbh

[@Mjflight98]

I like how the beta was more darker then the final and the frames looks like at 30/40FpS in the beta then 20

[@Lavkia]

Yeah. I could be wrong, but i swear there's even a lot of trailers from the game late into 1998 that still show it with a higher framerate than what we got I assume the decision to cap it to 21 frames came way late into development. Maybe just a couple of months before release

[@Mjflight98]

@@Lavkia it was beautiful in the trailer very consistent and more frames and literally idk what made them backpedal to 21 frames

[@junosoft]

@@Mjflight98 fine tuning for performance, I suppose.

[@ScrimBeat]

It probably was not running on an ordinary N64. Since these earlier builds had stuff that the N64 could not handle. As in Huge areas like beta castle town, etc. It was probably on some Beefed up N64 which is cool to think about

[@chainsawvulture]

@@ScrimBeat The game was originally going to be released on the 64DD, which was basically a more powerful version of the N64, but was scrapped when the system ended up being a flop.

[@sphereShots]

I can't believe no one's added those old attack animations to a rom hack yet. At least I haven't seen it

[@XyDark1]

I think it's because these animations are actually lost

[@kyyusa]

@@XyDark1 It was all leaked and found on 2020 Gigaleak

[@RikardKarlssonYoutube]

These old trailers are so awesome! 🤩

[@bogchamp5627]

that song slaps

[@asumiluna9066]

maybe one day well get blessed with another leak/devcart dump for these lost builds of oot. its already amazing, the fact we have the unreleased build of 0.9, but seeing spaceworld, ura zelda, and a+b builds of oot surface... oh man it would be the most important moment in oot history.

[@kyyusa]

I really love how Zelda 64 looks, the animations are awesome, the sword swing and the link smooth movement, everything. The game history itself looks to be diferent too, since that we can just see Adult Link (just in late dev phase the Child Link really apear).

[@Foulowe59]

Love the thumbnail

[@knightman528]

Nice edits 👍

[@KBXband]

This is sick as hell, this front flip. 0:49

[@JacobKinsley]

0:49 zora link jump slash

[@FierceDeityRick]

Looks like a completely different game almost, and the running sword sweep would later be used in TP.

[@souldyce9732]

When I was a kid I always thought there are 2 versions of this game :D

[@Sabbalab92]

It's wild to see this footage now that we have the alpha maps from the data leak. I do wish Nintendo had shown this stuff of their own free will though. If Nintendo had a documentary made about the making of the game, that would have kicked ass.

[@KenMasters.]

Zelda 64 should've happened where it takes place in Ganon's Castle with an obtainable triforce, and Ocarina of Time & Majora's Mask being its sequel and threequel.

[@danielbarrios4379]

i would liked

[@xydark2466]

Cool

[@zelkidd]

Combat looks variable too i wish i could play this😕

[@mariowario5945]

What of the beta was better than the final product?

[@rgerber]

wow it looks so much hi res and every background/model has more polygons and just higher resolution

[@stedmangg]

I think that's just the VHS grain and blur making it look like that. Some of these beta maps were discovered on an F-Zero prototype cart and they're much less detailed than anything in the final game.

[@danielbarrios4379]

@@stedmangg nope, those isn't the maps the video, for example the hyrule field have trees and very fog, therefore are differents...

[@totallynotkhobsessed]

@@danielbarrios4379 it was originally supposed to be on the DDD during v Faze one and two (Most of the footage we see in this video is faze two with a tiny bit of one)

[@danielbarrios4379]

@@totallynotkhobsessed hyrule field with trees is fase A&B, and the video is fase A&C indeed

[@totallynotkhobsessed]

@@danielbarrios4379 if it's on a and b then yes it would have been dd

[@a1rg3ar31]

I wonder what that area with Link doing the down thrust was supposed to be.

[@danielbarrios4379]

@@haydensmith4085 I doubt it there are not even traces of the existence of the gerudo, nor of the temples, rather I think it is the mountain of death or something like that

[@knightman528]

I think it is Death Mountain or a very early desert Colossus

[@megaman37456]

Why does the music sound like a Rayman 2 ad?

[@emdevsoft]

does this footage have sound?

[@Lavkia]

Unfortunately no. The first song in the video is actually the one they used in the promotional VHS tape with most of the footage, so i just reused it. The E3 videos might've had a few sound effects, but since they were recorded from a screen in the middle of a busy venue, you can't hear anything

[@danielbarrios4379]

At minute 2:19, just when the video ends, you can see an area, perhaps the old Hyrule field, it seems that the video is incomplete?

[@rgerber]

i just thought on top of Ganons Castle?

[@danielbarrios4379]

@@rgerber no, i seen a bridge similar to the oldest hyrule field

[@Lavkia]

Answering a year late here. You can see this footage if you search "nintendomania completo 203" by Gene Simmons on KZbin, at around 10 minutes and 5 seconds. That specific area only shows up for a couple of frames, so i slowed it down a bit I also thought this was the top of Ganon's Tower from the "fst_dan" leak, but looking at it again, i think you're right. The inclined structure in the background and the elevations in the floor do look exactly like the Old Hyrule Field bridge. It's the same camera angle between the magazine picture and the video footage, so they probably come from the same source

[@danielbarrios4379]

@@Lavkia i am sure is old hyrule field, but the envioriment sky is more red red wine, same the old graveyard... and maybe in far seems have trees and fog

[@Lavkia]

The fade to black from the footage messes up the colors, but it looks like the same sky, yeah

[@pokemonovice9758]

Link moves much better there, and looks normal size

[@danielbarrios4379]

hey my size is 1,70 same than link :)

[@pokemonovice9758]

@@danielbarrios4379 Link is 1.50 m

[@danielbarrios4379]

@@pokemonovice9758 wow so i lived fooled all this time XD

[@Soulintent95]

From 00:30 onward is what i remember watching over and over again as a child. Wishing wed have gotten that game instead. I feel as though their original plan would have been much better than what we got. I love oot, but it just always felt as though it was missing a lot of potential.

[@danielbarrios4379]

i think the same friend

[@kyyusa]

Well, OOT originally should be made on N64DD, so yeah we could have better graphs, anims, etc etc.. And imagine if they used the Expansion Pak, just like they did on MMJ, the game would be so awesome

[@Jackpot_DMC1]

link animation looks smooth, why did they make it look like a robot in the final version

[@knightman528]

Because the game was originally developed on the 64dd, but was changed due to motion data or probably the loading times

[@XyDark1]

@@knightman528These animations are seen in the SW97 demo, the reason they were removed was because it made the game feel “slow”

[@fannysmith3644]

slimes!!! edit: chu-chu, sorry folks :^P

[@buster5661]

I guess no one cares about the original audio

[@knightman528]

I care

[@BeverlyHighland]

Eh, don’t know why you didn’t use Zelda music. The music you used made it impossible to watch

[@Lavkia]

Believe it or not, this is actually the stock music that Nintendo used to promote the game. I guess it's a 90s thing

[@BeverlyHighland]

@@Lavkia weird

[@rilonius2865]

@@Lavkia I really wonder what kind of music was in the game at this point of development if any has been implemented yet.

[@karyudoofficialfanclub8828]

this game looks trash compared to the karyudo video game

[@SilentPipe]

Guess whos back... ;)