 THE "Z" FILES II With Zelda Gaiden coming out in Japan, and perhaps someday in America, one wonders what new areas, abilities, and overall changes will be made to the game that we so admire - Zelda 64. Perhaps by looking back at old PRE-PRODUCTION screenshots we can get a glimse of Miyamoto's URA-Zelda (as it was called then) I've been digging the internet and my hard drive for these and for sure I can say that they are examples of what the programmers where doing at various stages of Zelda 64's development years ago. You will notice how some though are representative of areas that do not exist as far as anyone knows at this time in Zelda 64. One can infer that the missing areas were either destroyed, changed or removed from the game we play today or were part of Miyamoto's 64DD Ura-Zelda. The Following are preproduction screenshots various websites had during 1997 of the Temple of Time. Notice the oddities that were present at that time. 
Weird looking light medallion pedistal?  The Triforce is Upside-down! Duh...?  The next image is very old from perhaps late '96 to early '97 when the actual play system and button arangement were being developed. Notice the poor quality of graphics in the graveyard and of the "poe". Navi is also magenta? The buttons for Link's equipped weapons are transparent and larger. His hearts are also of a different shape. Any screenshots that look similar to this are really old.  Ahh, yes, the infamous Unicorn Fountain that had the Triforce (Previous episode of the Z-Files) and the unicorn statues in it. Here's another nasty pic of this mysterious "who knows where the hell this one went" area. Did somebody say...Zelda 64: Gaiden?  Here's one that will get under your skin. The following is an image of young Link in a pre-rendered (like Hyurle Market, Temple of Time) area, but as far as I can tell this one is NOWHERE in the current Zelda 64. So this leads me to believe that it was cut or part of Zelda 64DD. This almost looks eerily like what the next screen might look like if you somehow managed to get beyond the obstruction behind the four gossip stones in front of the Temple of Time and wandered down that *obviously* visible path. This one makes you wonder. 
The following image is yet another preproduction screenshot of Link near a sign. But look at the sign, different ehh? And this time Navi is a pastel blue color. I should have a page called the many colors of Navi, because I've seen her in every color of the rainbow in these old shots. Notice the writing on the action button (in this case green) I don't think that's japanese. It could be, but compared to other shots I've seen it just looks like some other language. I could be wrong though.  The next images are from a dungeon that looks very similar to the Deku Tree, but as you can see this dungeon has windows with light streaming in and on the map it looks very differnet than the Deku Tree. Young Link also has The Ocarina of Time equipped. Notice in the First image that Link is using some kind of magic that makes purple smoke and sparkles. What happened to that spell? In the second image Navi is turned Red. 
 Here's a screenshot that I have no recollection of obtaining. It's an Impossible scenario of Young Link visiting Shiek. I don't know what exactly to say about this one. As far as I know this can't happen.Update: I have received hundreds of mails about this picture, and yes, I've known for over a year now that you can only see this with gameshark. It's an oddity but not a Z-File but before I used the gameshark it was mysterious in Early '99.   Back to the Odyssey of Hyrule |