
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was a genre-defining release, and it was also a showcase for the graphical power of the Nintendo 64; this was a time when 3D games were incredibly new and exciting. Naturally the project, and Nintendo's work in producing the game engine, was a long time in the works before we got our hands on it. Most famously there's the Shoshinkai 1995 demo, which showed early efforts to create a 3D Link in combat.
Giles Goddard, famous for moving to Tokyo alongside Dylan Cuthbert to assist Nintendo and produce games like Star Fox, did some notable work on visual technology in the N64 era. He created the Mario face that can be manipulated in Super Mario 64, and was also involved in the aforementioned Zelda 64 tech demo that was shown in 1995.

Speaking to MinnMaxShow, he talked a little about source code for the demo that he found in his archives. Intriguingly, he outlines Portal-style effects that he developed on N64, in which Link could view an area through a portal, step through and be transported. Goddard admits that when he saw Portal he recognised an idea he'd had running years earlier, joking he 'should have released it then'.
He explains that the nature of R&D for a project like Ocarina of Time meant the main development team may never have seen the technology in action, or indeed wouldn't have been able to implement it. It's fascinating nevertheless, you can see the interview excerpt below.
It's worth remembering that Giles Goddard and his team at Chuhai Labs are working on an interesting project in the here-and-now, too. He's aiming to create a 'new' 1080° Snowboarding, producing Carve Snowboarding for Oculus VR; it'll be worth keeping an eye on that if you're a VR aficionado.
So, would you have liked to see this portal idea in Ocarina of Time or even Majora's Mask?
[source youtube.com]
Comments 8
It needs work but it has potential.
@jump the patent and sue wishes are sarcasm I hope?
Would have fit right into Ocarina of Time and it’s amazing that it was toyed with in R&D.
Portal is awesome though (I like that part of this timeline — please don’t harm it!) and the chance it could have been possible to have that kind of flexibility in Ocarina is very low. Still, it feels like a 3D Zelda mechanic and… we’ll go ahead Nintendo let’s see something similar in a new Zelda title. Could be great fun.
Just imagine a Majora's Mask atmosphere, mixed with a dungeon that would require the use of the portals he mentioned in the video above. As incredible as that game was, this could have both frustrated players in a new way, and also let players from that early 3D era in gaming see what was possible. I would have loved for this to be included.
@Nontendo4DS a quest 2 at $300 is barely an investment, and it’s awesome. Only reason to wait would be to sell an old console like I did, ps4 went away, and purchased the better model quest and like 15 games now for what I had invested in my ps.
@Nontendo4DS If you don’t mind sharing a sweaty head piece after some beat saber, I’m in the US
@Nontendo4DS If the portal was only to and from the point you are currently on in the map, I doubt that would make fast transportation less of a necessity. Maybe even more so.
Portal 2 needs to be on Switch. It would be cool if they remastered the original portal to fit the Portal 2 art style, packaged them together, and made it $30, while it would cost more the remastered original would make it worth it. I'm sure it would sell like crazy, despite being a package of two old games.
Nice, they almost beat the original Prey alpha/beta to it.
Well, okay, not even almost, since that started in 1995 and was made with portals in mind from the very start.
Cya
Raziel-chan
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