General Classic Ura Zelda, The Lost Quest

[Mases]

What exactly is Ura Zelda? Ura Zelda was being made as a N64DD expansion disk. It basically would be a major patch to Ocarina of Time. The reason that this was being made as a N64DD rather than a stand alone game was because of the sheer size. The patch simply had too much information in it to be released on the relatively small sized N64 cartridges.

Many believe that Ura Zelda was the Master Quest version of Ocarina of Time that was released on the GameCube, but the facts don't all agree with that. Ura Zelda was suppose to be an altered quest to Ocarina of Time, with a lot of new additions and features. The additions in master quest were really small at best. Heck, it was just dungeon alterations. What exactly were these new features in Ura Zelda?

Some argue that many of the features that were in the Beta OOT that were taken out of the game, were in fact some of those lost additions that would be in Ura Zelda. However, some believe that many of those features actually made their way into Majora's Mask and not Ura Zelda.

After surfing the net, wikipedia has a short paragraph about the game...

"Ura Zelda was eventually released on the Nintendo GameCube as Ocarina of Time Master Quest. However, this version was not the original release, as the N64DD version did more than just change the dungeons; Ura Zelda also made the game longer, added dungeons, items, attacks and magic spells; altogether expanding the game. Players could also create custom masks using Mario Artist: Talent Studio and Game Boy Camera that Link could wear."

The custom masks portion makes me think that Majora's Mask did in fact use a lot of the information from the game. I'm very curious to know what those other features were. Those new items, attacks, and magic spells. What else was there that would make this game longer? Is there anything at all that is left from Ura Zelda? Or was it all just seperated into what became Master Quest and Majora's Mask?

Will we ever get to know for sure what Ura Zelda really was and/or possibly ever be able to play this lost title?

 

[Dark_link-77]

Play... Probably 130% never - probably locked away in the vaults of Nintendo somewhere or in Miyamoto's closet along with a small italian man that he thinks is Mario.

From what I gather, URA Zelda was going to be based on real time (which are partially carried over to Majoras Mask) Making use of the onboard battery which would power a cmos chip for time on the mobo.

I have found some really cool stuff though within the Zelda Ocarina of time V1.0 rom. If you load it into a hex editor and view the ascii or every search for "64DD" it has a whole bunch of 64DD instructions that look for the cartridge. Apprently the name for the Zelda Expansion cartridge was: EZLJ ... I think this possibly stands for Expansion Zelda JAP. The release ocarina cart is CZLE (Cart Zelda ENG) Debug rom is the same. But the debug rom does not contain the same amount of information about the 64DD as Ocarina rom did.

I know that they were specifically 64DD commands not only because they mentioned the 64DD but because they had the 64DD's command for the "Leo" libary. Like "LEO_" etc etc.

 

[Chrono]

Some of the attacks included the beamblade which was in MM acquired via Fierce Deity. Some items found in MM games data that never showed were as such : hookshot, fairy ocarina, and fairy slingshot.

Ura Zelda is Beta Zelda64 in my eyes. Majoras Mask and Twilight Princess seemed to have brought back beta OoT with certain aspects. But yes I agree Master Quest IS NOT and never will be the real Ura Zelda. We were promised a whole new Zelda, and I believe we in fact did get that...it was called Majora's Mask.

 

[Dark_link-77]

Some of the attacks included the beamblade which was in MM acquired via Fierce Deity. Some items found in MM games data that never showed were as such : hookshot, fairy ocarina, and fairy slingshot.

Ura Zelda is Beta Zelda64 in my eyes. Majoras Mask and Twilight Princess seemed to have brought back beta OoT with certain aspects. But yes I agree Master Quest IS NOT and never will be the real Ura Zelda. We were promised a whole new Zelda, and I believe we in fact did get that...it was called Majora's Mask.

Agreed. While hacking the game we found the Reed whistle was actually stashed in Ocarina of time as well... Another last minute item they dropped.

And I found the stone of agony in Majoras Mask

 

[linkman8]

Surely the Master Quest contains at least a few features that were originally intended for Ura Zelda, but obviously not nearly enough of them. I mean, new items, attacks, dungeons? Sounds cool to me, and I wish they'd release it as a new form of Ocarina of Time.
Maybe, just maybe, some day they'll release it on Virtual Console...

 

[Dark_link-77]

Maybe, just maybe, some day they'll release it on Virtual Console...

That would be so awesome man, I wish they could, it might be all disassembled though

 

[Chrono]

Petition. It worked for the Zelda cartoons (if anyone remembers the petition that was started by Bring Back Zelda HQ aka Teamsavezelda). Yea it wasn't the only thing, but it helped greatly...its worth a try...?

 

[linkman8]

No, I'm sorry to say I haven't heard of Teamsavezelda. Although the petition is worth a shot, I personally don't know if it'll work or not.

 

[Chrono]

Yeah probably not, but atleast if we show Nintendo or whoever we need to of how many people want this game, maybe they'll figure out they can make a bundle out of a development cartridge. I would probably pay a few hundred for beta OoT lol.

 

[Mases]

Did some really quick research and found an old article on IGN about Ura Zelda and its relation to Majora's Mask.

http://ign64.ign.com/articles/069/069749p1.html

Basically, Miyamoto clearly states that Majora's Mask is in fact a completely different game than Ura Zelda. It also seems from the way they talk about, Ura Zelda is in fact just what Master Quest was. The same quest with brand new dungeons.

I'm sure there is a lot more to it than this, sinec well, this article is from back in 1999, but it is worth mentioning. Maybe Ura Zelda was in fact just Master Quest.

 

[Chrono]

It is said to be...But the real Ura Zelda is not the Master Quest. The Master Quest was just a half assed version of Ura Zelda. See even that article promised new adventures and quests, but we only got slightly more difficult dungeons. We were promised OoT beta as Ura Zelda...since the version that was completed before the final was in fact a completely different quest.

 

[Mases]

The quote that stood out to me is what Miyamoto said,

"Also, in the light of games that require the memory Expansion Pak like 'Donkey Kong 64,' we wanted to make a 'Zelda' game that took advantage of the Memory Pak as well. That game is Zelda Gaiden. Therefore, this will not be a game where the locations of the dungeons are simply changed around."


Based on the last sentence there, it seems that he is inferring that Ura Zelda is just that, the same game as OOT, but with locations of the dungeons moved around. It seems to me, it was similar to what the second quest to the Legend of Zelda was. Same overworld map, same storyline, same items, same charachters, but just simply, some items moved around and the dungeons were revamped.

I'm really begining to believe that Ura Zelda was just that, Ocarina of Time Second Quest. What we got out of Master Quest was not EVERYTHING that was in Ura Zelda, but it was a majority. It seemed that Ura Zelda was somewhat dropped as a project when Zelda Gaiden (Majora's Mask) was taking center stage. Ura Zelda (Master Quest) was just released as a toss in when you pre-ordered Wind Waker in an attempt to help drive sales because Nintendo knew that the game was under such high demand.

 

[Chrono]

Thats incorrect. Read the quote again..

"That game is Zelda Gaiden. Therefore, this will not be a game where the locations of the dungeons are simply changed around."

NOT. That part clearly says it will be more than just changing of dungeons. What we got is not the real ura zelda, not even close. Ura Zelda had more than just changed dungeons, had new areas, new items, etc etc etc. During the development of ura zelda, it was promised to do just that, I will cite source later.

 

[Mases]

The quote basically says that Ura Zelda, at the time was just that, changed dungeons around. Miyamoto was explaining that Majora's Mask is a completely new game and not just an addon / expansion pack to the Ocarina of Time.

Perhaps Miyamoto was just downlplaying Ura Zelda because he wanted to try and push Majora's Mask. I think he wanted to get away from the OOT hype and build on top of the new adventure. There probably really was more to Ura Zelda than he explains here, but in this exact quote, he is basically saying that Ura Zelda was just moved around dungeons.

 

[Chrono]

Ok this is from 2000 - http://ign64.ign.com/articles/084/084100p1.html

August 25, 2000 - Wondering what ever happened to the 64DD-only Legend of Zelda add-on, "Ura-Zelda"? If you're like us (and the rest of the gaming world), you probably thought it was quietly cancelled after Nintendo realized that its Japan-only 64DD device does, in fact, suck. But that's not the case at all. Speaking to the press in an open forum held yesterday in Tokyo, Japan, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto casually commented that "Ura-Zelda" (aka: Legend of Zelda DD) has been completed for some time now.

Ura-Zelda isn't so much a new game as it is an expansion to an existing one: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (it is not compatible with Majora's Mask). The 64DD upgrade title offers new items, levels and characters for those who already own Ocarina of Time. Miyamoto dispelled rumors that Ura-Zelda would offer online play, saying that Nintendo had never intended to incorporate such a feature into the title.

Unfortunately, Miyamoto offered no specifics as to when Ura-Zelda would come out for 64DD, or even if it would.