Looking Back;
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By Matthew Taylor
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Picture from the updated 3DS version
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Ocarina of Time was a strange game to me at first. No jump button and a kid dressed in a weird Robin Hood style get up. I hadn’t played any other Zelda games and didn’t hear about it’s production or see any pre-release press that might grab my interests. I bought it because the guy at my local independent video game store told me “it is awesome and you might like it”. Like some sort of digital drug dealer, he turned me onto the good stuff.
Prior to picking it up, I had played the game in Kmart on one of those demo stands that stores used to put up. The big plastic things with a Nintendo 64 hidden behind perspex; a largish TV sitting dangerously above a set of almost broken controllers. I didn’t like it. The controls were weird and constrictive. I couldn’t figure out the gameplay mechanics for fighting and I didn’t understand what sick person would forget to add a jump button. I’d tried to play it a few times while my mum was off shopping for clothes and couldn’t grasp it. |
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Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released in November to December 1998. Five months later I’m left with post birthday funds from relatives and looking for something to play. I begged my mum to take me to the video game store on Military Road, South Australia. The corner store had been opened for only a short time and I’d always hassle mum to take me there, just to browse. With enough money for a used game but not for a brand new one, my mum and I asked the clerk what he recommended. I left with a used copy of Ocarina of Time.
We didn’t have many games at the time, but they were a family event. It didn’t matter if they were christmas present to share, or a present for your birthday; my sister, my little brother and I would face dungeons and kill Bowsers together. While my older sister had the dexterity and a later bedtime, I had the mind for maps and puzzles. We made an awesome team. |
Scene of the crime - Sourced from Google maps
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The day I bought OOT I had football practice. I loaded the game up and collected the Deku Shield and Kokiri sword before I left and when I returned it was straight back in.
Exhilarating memories exiting the forest for the first time and entering into the expanse of Hyrule. The calming hours fishing in a digital lake. Genuine fear when facing the ReDead. Laughing at the way a Goron would wake up when you approached and sadly sigh as you walk away. I could map out the whole world in my head.
We got to Kakariko Village before the calls began. It was the late 90‘s and at the end of every gaming magazine was a list: tips and tricks hotlines. Priced like a call-girl at the back of an adult magazine, but instead of a girl on the other end asking me what I wanted them to wear, I was met with some dude with a walkthrough and an internet connection. Couldn't find the last Cucco? At $1 a minute some dude would spin a story of how to find it. This didn't last long. Phone bills came in and we were banned from using the phone unless we explained who we were calling.
After a few months, a guide to the permanent Biggoron’s Sword, collecting Poe’s and completing temples, we defeated Ganondorf, saving Princess Zelda and the people of Hyrule.
When my sisters interest in the game wained, I started my own save and traversed Hyrule alone. I’d end up putting months into the game. I never finished it on a solo play-through, but I do hold the family record for biggest catch at the Lake Hylia fishing pond.
Exhilarating memories exiting the forest for the first time and entering into the expanse of Hyrule. The calming hours fishing in a digital lake. Genuine fear when facing the ReDead. Laughing at the way a Goron would wake up when you approached and sadly sigh as you walk away. I could map out the whole world in my head.
We got to Kakariko Village before the calls began. It was the late 90‘s and at the end of every gaming magazine was a list: tips and tricks hotlines. Priced like a call-girl at the back of an adult magazine, but instead of a girl on the other end asking me what I wanted them to wear, I was met with some dude with a walkthrough and an internet connection. Couldn't find the last Cucco? At $1 a minute some dude would spin a story of how to find it. This didn't last long. Phone bills came in and we were banned from using the phone unless we explained who we were calling.
After a few months, a guide to the permanent Biggoron’s Sword, collecting Poe’s and completing temples, we defeated Ganondorf, saving Princess Zelda and the people of Hyrule.
When my sisters interest in the game wained, I started my own save and traversed Hyrule alone. I’d end up putting months into the game. I never finished it on a solo play-through, but I do hold the family record for biggest catch at the Lake Hylia fishing pond.
