You learn something new every day, and something new that fans are learning today is the fact that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time originally had teleportation portals that would transport players to different locations across Hyrule. This bit of trivia was originally revealed a few months ago during an interview with a developer who worked at Nintendo in the 1990s, and helped make beloved Nintendo 64 games such as Super Mario 64, Starfox 64, and 1080 Snowboarding. According to Giles Goddard, the former Nintendo employee in question, a very early test build of Ocarina of Time featured floating crystals that acted as portals that would warp Link across the game's world.

As those familiar with the game might know, the final product instead opted for a more open-world approach to exploring Hyrule. However, fans were incredibly curious about what these supposed portals looked like, eager for a glimpse at what one of the world's most famous games looked like early on in development. Goddard was initially reluctant to share further details, but early this morning, he opted to show a GIF of what that original tech demo looked like. You can see it for yourself, below.

pic.twitter.com/wAGkn4abwG

— Giles Goddard (@giles) November 2, 2021

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[Kioku]

Ocarina of Time could have been a very different beast. Interesting...

 

[diggeloid]

Holy shit this came out of nowhere! That transition animation was buttery smooth too. When the camera enters the crystal, it seems to retain the orientation of the crystal, and then slowly realigns itself.

I think the game is better without that kind of teleportation, but it sure looks cool!

 

[The Catboy]

In before Nintendo C&D the post

 

[JuanMena]

Cool! OoT never ceases to impress us

 

[SG854]

I heard it was suppose to be similar to Mario 64 where there is a main hub world and you transport to different worlds. Then they got the technical issues worked out and made it more opened world.

 

[Ralkila]

I mean it has portals, using the songs to travel and the green stone in dungeons. I know that he planned to use them as puzzle like portal but , technically it has them.

 

[Plazorn]

Wow, think of how OOT would have been different. It might have been the “Crystals of Time” instead!

 

[tech3475]

I mean it has portals, using the songs to travel and the green stone in dungeons. I know that he planned to use them as puzzle like portal but , technically it has them.

Isn’t that ‘teleportation’ though as opposed to ‘portals’? SM64 used the former AFAIK for the endless stairs and it’s been a while since I played OoT.

The first part of the video looks like an actual ‘portal’.

 

[Zense]

This would've only been possible with an SSD, according to Insomniac Games.

 

[SG854]

This would've only been possible with an SSD, according to Insomniac Games.

Super Secret Diamond

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

I would be impressed seeing that in a game today nevermind on N64

 

[ZeroFX]

nice tech demo, very cool.

 

[MikaDubbz]

Holy shit this came out of nowhere! That transition animation was buttery smooth too. When the camera enters the crystal, it seems to retain the orientation of the crystal, and then slowly realigns itself.

I think the game is better without that kind of teleportation, but it sure looks cool!

I think the effect would quickly have gone to shit once the perspective would have been properly implemented as a third person game.

 

[osaka35]

I remember reading about this a while back, about how he regretted not developing the idea on his own. it was quite a while before portal came out. happy to see the visuals tho.

 

[Dr_Faustus]

Absolutely awesome!

....And backed up for just in case.

 

[TheZander]

Would have been cool if they kept it i hated traveling around. They should put these in wind waker and get rid of the sailing

 

[SuperDan]

They just recently made a VR MOD for Zelda 64 .. & if you are a big Zelda fan like myself it was quite a randomly fun experience.. very janky & un polished but definitely playable .. i like VR Games but i still get motion sick after a while depending on what im playing Pavlov VR has many Zelda Maps to play Team deathmatches on ... we was trying a few last night Zelda Wind Waker .. was fun

 

[1B51004]

...so what you're saying is that nintendo could have made portal 3 (or portal '0')?

 

[CoolMe]

In 1st person view only? Maybe due to technical limitations on the N64, but why this idea was never implemented in any other Zelda is beyond me. It looks basic but it has potential.
@1B51004 I wouldn't say this is Portal like, it's still very basic here, without mentioning not having the ability to open portals at will, no dual portal setup, no puzzles in sight, etc.
But the idea has potential specially in a Zelda game.