The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest

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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release date(s)	February 18, 2003
Genre	Action Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone (E)
Platform(s)	GameCube

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest is an alternate version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In the US, a bonus disc containing both versions was available as a bonus for pre-ordering The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. In Europe the disc came in the same case as The Wind Waker. The Master Quest basically contains the same storyline as the original, but includes altered dungeon layouts and more powerful enemies. The alterations concerning the dungeon maps contain the addition of other/stronger enemies in several rooms and slightly different room layouts (items are placed on different locations, and puzzles have to be solved in another manner). In many cases, knowledge of the original game can be a hindrance rather than a help, and trying to solve puzzles the way they are done in the original leads only to a trap. The game was originally developed as a 64DD add-on cart for the Nintendo 64 version of Ocarina of Time code-named Ura Zelda.

Ura Zelda's history

Ura Zelda (literally, "Another Zelda") was the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive expansion disk designed for Ocarina of Time. However, due to the failure of the 64DD as a platform, the game never saw the light of day on that platform. Instead, it was eventually released on a bonus disk for the Nintendo GameCube included with preorders for The Wind Waker.

During the early stages of development, two significantly different Ocarina of Time expansions were planned for the 64DD. One, entitled Ura Zelda, would include alternate more difficult dungeons and new enemies, while the other, Zelda Gaiden, would include a different overworld and an entirely new adventure. While Zelda Gaiden would eventually evolve into the standalone game Majora's Mask, Ura Zelda was never released on the Nintendo 64 as a standalone game.

Ura Zelda was actually a patch for Ocarina of Time. The 64DD version was designed so that the original Ocarina of Time cartridge would be plugged into the main Nintendo 64 console while the Ura Zelda expansion disk would be plugged into the 64DD that sat underneath the console. Upon the insertion of the Ura Zelda expansion disk, the Ocarina of Time title screen would change slightly, adding a Triforce icon and "Ura Zelda" on the bottom of the logo. The size of this patch was supposedly about 32-64 megabytes, and due to the smaller maximum size of Nintendo 64 cartridges, the game could not otherwise be released on a cartridge.

Eventually, due to repeated delays in production and development, Ura Zelda's release as a 64DD add-on was scrapped, even as the game was finishing production. As a result, there is no 64DD version of this game available to the general public. Due to public demand for the completed game however, Ura Zelda was released on the Nintendo GameCube as the Master Quest on a bonus disc for those who pre-ordered The Wind Waker.

However, there were a few setbacks in both versions. Since the game was not truly ported in the technical sense (as in being altered and optimised for the console in question) but merely running under emulation, there were some noticeable inaccuracies in the presentation of both Ocarina of Time and Master Quest due to inaccuracies in Nintendo's emulator; when the game ROMs were ripped and played on fanmade emulators, these glitches disappeared because the fanmade emulators had had various bug- and compatibility fixes made to them over several years, whereas Nintendo's emulator was obviously made very quickly.

Whether Master Quest is actually the end result of the Ura Zelda project or merely a quick level-edit to quiet demands and entice preorders is a matter of debate among fans. One significant piece of evidence against it being Ura Zelda is that ROM rips of the game show the game to be the same number of megabits in size as a standard Ocarina of Time ROM, whereas the original concept was to include content above and beyond what an N64 cartridge could possibly hold. It also did not contain any of the promised additional enemies.

es:The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest

ja:ゼルダの伝説 時のオカリナ