The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time is generally considered to be an example of a practically perfect game. Practically perfect. What it’s missing is all of the cuccos being turned into tiny Barney the Dinosaurs.
Following an intensive two-year stint delving into the depths of the game’s code, Zelda 64 Reverse Engineering has managed to recreate the entirety of Ocarina of Time, thereby allowing mods. What is incredible is that the team has straightforwardly copied the code from scratch using much more modern coding languages than were available when the game was out on shelves, back in 1998. It’s sort of like that scene in the lighthouse in Annihilation. You’ll know the one. If you don’t, watch Annihilation and then come back to acknowledge the cool comparison I just made.
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“Last night, Fig, who is a notable community member as well as a project lead, matched the last-remaining function in the project,” announced the team (cheers, VGC). “This means that all compiled code in the game has been turned into human-readable C code. We thought for a time that we may never be able to match every function completely, so this is an incredibly exciting accomplishment.”
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Of course, we know how jumpy Nintendo gets near unofficial projects that riff off its intellectual property. Fortunately, the work that Zelda 64 Reverse Engineering have carried out is not infringing upon the original (for the time being). I’m still a little worried given how zealous the developer’s legal lot are.
What we are all looking forward to is the inanity that will now be possible with modded content in one of the greatest games ever made. The Bottom Of The Well with Lady Dimitrescu as the final monster? Kaepora Gaebora swapped for The Rock? Hey, I should stop giving away ideas for free.
Featured Image Credit: NintendoTopics: Nintendo, The Legend Of Zelda