25 Years of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

[Reed Rothchild | 9,528]

4 minutes ago, Gentlegamer said:

*ahem*

Half-Life

https://www.half-life.com/en/halflife25

Hey, I was a PC Gamer subscriber, so I was all over it.  But I feel like the Half Life hype was much quieter that year.  There were too many shooters on the scene, and Valve was an unknown quality, so it didn't stand out as much until after it came out and the reviews rolled in.

In fact, I don't think it garnered a single cover story from PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World, Computers Games Strategy Plus, or anyone.

[Gentlegamer | 174]

Just now, Reed Rothchild said:

Hey, I was a PC Gamer subscriber, so I was all over it.  But I feel like the Half Life hype was much quieter that year.  There were too many shooters on the scene, and Valve was an unknown quality, so it didn't stand out as much until after it came out and the reviews rolled in.

I'll give you that, in pro-wrestling terms, Half-Life didn't get a push the way other games did at the time, it found its place after blowing the socks off reviewers.

[Gentlegamer | 174]

2 minutes ago, ZeldaFreak said:

I think the thing to take away from all this is that 1998 was an absolutely incredible year for gaming as a whole. Multiple groundbreaking titles all released back-to-back-to-back.

Yes, 1998 is one of those video game inflection points of awesome that are rare.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,528]

Just now, Gentlegamer said:

I'll give you that, in pro-wrestling terms, Half-Life didn't get a push the way other games did at the time, it found its place after blowing the socks off reviewers.

Yep, agreed.  I got SiN for Christmas that year from my dad because it was too late to realize what I should have asked for lmao

This cover accurately sums it up

[Gentlegamer | 174]

3 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Yep, agreed.  I got SiN for Christmas that year from my dad because it was too late to realize what I should have asked for lmao

This cover accurately sums it up

My close, personal friend, Jeff Green* reviewed Half-Life for CGW.

*I chat with him online and sometimes mod his twitch streams

I also apologize if I've derailed the thread, this should really be about Ocarina of Time.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

Also, that is an absolutely amazing collection there @joe19! Multiple things there I've never even seen before, would definitely love to get some more details about some of that stuff.

I've had, and still have a couple rare OoT-related things. At one point I did own a gold Not For Resale copy of Ocarina of Time, and I still do own two gray not for resales, one of which has a somewhat strangely shaped back sticker on it, which I've never seen on any other NFR, I got it from jonebone back in the day, and he I believe got it alongside a bunch of other N64 NFRs from a former Nintendo employee if memory serves. I would take a picture but I'm lazy, it's basically the same as the normal back sticker you'd find on any other NFR, except it's more of a rectangle than a square. I also have CIB copies of the Taiwan and Hong Kong versions of the game (Used to have several other variants, but have since sold them off to fund other stuff.)

The "holy grail" of my little collection is the Belgium-exclusive Feel Everything bundle though:

But yeah, overall my tiny lil' collection pales in comparison to yours, haha. Super jealous of some of the stuff you have.

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

I'm gonna need a top down Ocarina demake.  

[OptOut | 8,884]

54 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

I'm gonna need a top down Ocarina demake.  

You're gonna need a kick in the tuckus. 

[Brickman | 3,986]

Awesome collection for still the best Zelda game released. BotW and the original come close but they can’t top OoT. The music, the atmosphere and dungeons are all perfect. Here’s to another 25 years!

I still remember waiting all day and hoping my mum was able to secure a copy of the game. Got home and there it was!

This was released near the end of December in Australia and I think it was the last week of school. Being summer here, I spent most of summer holidays playing it.

[fox | 1,667]

Got it on Black Friday from Kay Bee Toys in the mall.  Lines were snaked around every aisle throughout the store.

3 hour wait to get to the checkout.  Worth it for OoT.

[GPX | 1,369]

Wow, 25 frickin’ years! 
The only Zelda I’ve actually completed was Wind Waker on GameCube. However, the Zeldas on N64 (OOT and MM) are some of my favourite items among my personal collection. Will aim to finish them one day. 

[RH | 4,903]

7 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

I'm gonna need a top down Ocarina demake.  

That actually exists, or the project got close to completion.

The site is old and the cert has expired but you can get to the page:

http://www.oot-2d.com/

[Link | 2,712]

1 hour ago, RH said:

The site is old and the cert has expired but you can get to the page:

http://www.oot-2d.com/

we have seen countless attempts at this idea come and go for over a decade now, never making much progress, and we plan on breaking that cycle.

1 hour ago, RH said:

That actually exists, or the project got close to completion.

2016/03/update

Hopefully coming this June!

Project progress  19.5%

 

[Gloves | 11,778]

Speaking of, this appeared in my feed today: 

 

[joe19 | 26]

While we're on the subject of remakes, this 4K texture pack for OoT3D is awesome. Looks amazing on a big screen TV: https://www.henrikomagnifico.com/zelda-ocarina-of-time-3d-4k

Edited November 22, 2023 by joe19

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

More importantly, today is the 10th anniversary of the best 3D Zelda game, A Link Between Worlds.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/11/anniversary-zelda-a-link-between-worlds-is-10-years-old-today

[joe19 | 26]

Updated main post to add more on big standee and Mask of Truth.

[OptOut | 8,884]

13 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

More importantly, today is the 10th anniversary of the best 3D Zelda game, A Link Between Worlds.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/11/anniversary-zelda-a-link-between-worlds-is-10-years-old-today

A Link Between Worlds is incredible. It's like Link to the Past if it was good. 

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

I feel like half the school had this game when it came out. Everyone was discussing strats on the Water Temple after Xmas break. Funny enough, the one part I got really stuck on was finding Saria in the Lost Woods because I didn't read the text and just moved on to explore every inch of the map until I figured I needed to go back to the woods.

The temples are great in this game but the child quest is pretty boring after playing through the game a few times. Still a great game I like to revisit. I think I still have the promo stuff like stickers, gold shopping bag, etc. from release.

[joe19 | 26]

There wasn't too much fanfare about the anniversary. I wasn't expecting anything from Nintendo directly, but overall I only saw a couple articles mention it. I wonder if that's a sign that the game is gradually being forgotten. I'll try to keep it alive with another update (added pics/details of flaming logo tee to main post).

[Link | 2,712]

6 hours ago, joe19 said:

There wasn't too much fanfare about the anniversary. I wasn't expecting anything from Nintendo directly, but overall I only saw a couple articles mention it. I wonder if that's a sign that the game is gradually being forgotten. I'll try to keep it alive with another update (added pics/details of flaming logo tee to main post).

What I typically see is celebrations of a franchise as a whole. In 3 years they might do "40 years of LoZ". "25 years of our great institution" in Skyward Sword. They did Super Mario 35th anniversary, but not 20 years of SM64 or 30 years of SMW. I don't think OoT is being forgotten

[joe19 | 26]

Fun fact: the amount of time that has passed since OoT3D was released (12 years, 5 months) is almost as much as had passed at the time of its release since the N64 release (12 years, 7 months).

Updated main post with more on NFR carts.

[DarkTone | 984]

On 11/21/2023 at 9:03 PM, a3quit4s said:

Never been a fan of 3D Zeldas

[NostalgicMachine | 235]

I remember buying OoT in January 1999 with my birthday money. I bought the Prima strategy guide along with it. It was my favorite game ever until about 2013ish.

[joe19 | 26]

I’m posting to notify that the main post has been updated, and in doing so I have become a poster. Details of my fellow poster (with Link/Ganondorf) added to the main post.