Just when you thought you’ve seen everything there is to do in Ocarina of Time, a massive internet leak reveals more surprises. Fans around the world have carefully chipped away at putting together source code that leaked from a Nintendo data security breach in May. A significant amount of the data is prototypical Ocarina of Time content that didn’t make it in the final cut. Character models, concept sketches, and even parts of an unidentified dungeon saw the light of day after laying dormant for nearly 22 years.
Even by itself the dungeon is amazing. As seen in the YouTube video, there’s enough data put together for Link to traverse several rooms of the dungeon while it’s running on Nintendo 64 hardware. For gamers, the discovery is groundbreaking. It’s a piece of lost video game history that may finally connect the dots to the unfinished Ura Zelda project. Initially promoted as an Ocarina of Time expansion pack for the 64DD, the project was cancelled and remained an elusive mystery.
Or perhaps the dungeon was meant to serve a different purpose. Could this be the beta Ganon’s Tower that would have been the counterpart to Peach’s Castle in Mario 64 due to space constraints? The red carpet, stairways and layout of the main room have an uncanny resemblance to the final draft. Winding halls and intriguing statues greet explorers to an Indiana Jones-like atmosphere. A few onlookers remarked smatterings of A Link to the Past. The possibilities of what could have happened here seem endless to the imagination. It’s certainly a valuable piece of history to a timeless classic.
