IN CELEBRATION OF ZELDA: THE OCARINA OF TIME'S ANNIVERSARY

On this date one year ago, November 23, 1998, Miyamoto's dream, Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, finally graced the pages of gaming history and heralded a new adventure for Nintendo's greatest hero in the green tunic. Gamers who had waited anxiously for this game to make its grandiose debut were finally rewarded on that hallowed day with a game that stands as the best Nintendo 64 game ever made. Many fans of the classic Zelda adventures stood in line to capture this moment within their consciousness and revitalize that feel of adventure as the legendary knight, protector of the fair maiden Zelda, keeper of the Triforce, and wielder of the Master Sword. The game was golden, like it's trailblazing predecessors for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and with it's unveiling Nintendo had golden hopes that it would be the greatest financial success the company had so far incurred. Indeed, Nintendo sold millions of copies within the first month and outperformed many Box Office movie hits of that year setting new records in sales. Zelda 64 received many acclaims from industry spokespersons and was awarded as Entertainment Software Title of the Year. Truly this was a gala event in the history of the series and the a great honor for the pinnacle of Shigeru Miyamoto's artifice.

And so too on this date, Video Gamer X's "The Odyssey of Hyrule" began it's ascension to glory with a sharing of his first Zelda 64 experience and the creation of a strategy guide devoted directly to this breathtakingly magical game. Although old established Zelda game specific websites like, "The Zelda Headquarters," "The Golden Land," and "Zelda Central" devoted much attention to Zelda 64, these bore a progeny of upstarts that proliferated across the domains of cyberspace. Zelda 64 became the most talked about game on the internet, a medium of communication that had not existed prior when the previous incarnations of the game were the hot topic of their day. It was the internet that spawned rumors about the existance of the ephemeral Triforce, allegedly obtainable in the game by some, and it was the internet that led to the discovery of numerous errors in the programming of the game. Long after the pomp and circumstance of the game's introduction into the gaming community had quelled, savvy gamers were still uncovering easter eggs of circumstance and poor product testing. It was T-Dog and Video Gamer X who paved the way for many glitchmasters to follow, and allowed for the prolonged enjoyment of a game beyond it's finite replayable challenge.

Zelda 64, was a game that brought with it as many questions and criticisms as praise. Analyzing the game thoroughly revealed many circumstances that remained either ill-defined or unresolved. There were many unusual screenshots that lurked about of removed areas from the Beta Preproduction Copy of the game, and old interviews with The Master himself indicating that the game contained these things and "Plot Hooks" to a then unrevealed sequel under development for Nintendo's dodgy system, The N64 Disk Drive. Pervasive conundrums like the Hyrule Running Man's Race, the peculiarity of the Gossip Stones, and the uselessness of the Happy Mask Shop's masks left many wondering if these things represented events that were not completed by the creators of the game. The disappointing ending made many wonder if the game had been rushed by Nintendo Inc. to make a holiday season deadline.

The fire of the Zelda 64's birth is now merely a smoldering ember amist the the new generation of games and systems touting DVD, copper processors, and millions of polygons per second, but that spirit that resides within the memory of playing the game for the first time still resides comfortably within the hearts of gamers who experienced this fairytale from beginning to end and is reborn every time someone gazes into the eyes of Princess Zelda and discovers a link to something profoundly magical. As the Nintendo 64 becomes eclipsed by Project "Dolphin," the one game that stood out for that system will forever be The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. Undoubtedly it has made an effect on many people, and in all hopes Miyamoto's next endevor will be the greatest Zelda of them all.

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