Is it possible to recreate OoT Beta?

[Armos]

Ok I was thinking if this is possible, I've seen some awesome modders, 3D Modelers, people who are good with texture packs, etc. I know the people on the Ura Project team are working their asses off on making the Ura project happen. So I was wondering if it's possible to recreate the entire beta for Zelda OoT? Has this been done yet? And if it hasn't is anyone going or planning on to recreate it? Sorry if a similar thread has been already posted. I was just curious.

[xdaniel]

Hrm, "the beta" is way too broad of an outline for any kind of video game, really. Without getting into all those descriptions of "alpha", "beta", "prototype", "prerelease" and such, in terms of OoT, there's just too many semi-known states of development...

 

I mean, the first question when trying to attempt something like this would be, "which period of OoT's development do I want to recreate?" There's - borrowing some of MN's old categorizations from ZSO - A+B Only, A+C Only (...I think?), A+B Reversed... something else I've forgotten I think, etc. Even if you've decided to ex. try and recreate A+B Reversed (so relatively late in the development, the era with ex. the spiral staircase in Zora's Domain), there's only so much you actually can recreate until you get into "hm, there's no footage or screenshots of <insert area here>... how might it have been...?", at which point it's less of a reconstruction and more of a regular hack.

 

In short, there's too many periods in the development we know about, but at the same time too little verified information about them to accurately recreate them in the final game, unless we do someday get a prototype ROM of OoT from whatever period. And then we'd have the true state of development from... who knows, April 26th 1997 or whatever, so that we wouldn't need a reconstruction for that specific period anymore.

 

Not wanting to discourage you or anything, it's just way too difficult in my opinion, less from the technical standpoint, but from the artistic and design standpoint so to speak.

[Armos]

Hrm, "the beta" is way too broad of an outline for any kind of video game, really. Without getting into all those descriptions of "alpha", "beta", "prototype", "prerelease" and such, in terms of OoT, there's just too many semi-known states of development...

 

I mean, the first question when trying to attempt something like this would be, "which period of OoT's development do I want to recreate?" There's - borrowing some of MN's old categorizations from ZSO - A+B Only, A+C Only (...I think?), A+B Reversed... something else I've forgotten I think, etc. Even if you've decided to ex. try and recreate A+B Reversed (so relatively late in the development, the era with ex. the spiral staircase in Zora's Domain), there's only so much you actually can recreate until you get into "hm, there's no footage or screenshots of <insert area here>... how might it have been...?", at which point it's less of a reconstruction and more of a regular hack.

 

In short, there's too many periods in the development we know about, but at the same time too little verified information about them to accurately recreate them in the final game, unless we do someday get a prototype ROM of OoT from whatever period. And then we'd have the true state of development from... who knows, April 26th 1997 or whatever, so that we wouldn't need a reconstruction for that specific period anymore.

 

Not wanting to discourage you or anything, it's just way too difficult in my opinion, less from the technical standpoint, but from the artistic and design standpoint so to speak.

 

Sounds about right.

[Secant]

Short answer? No.

 

Basically what xdaniel said in that there are so many periods of development, so much content created that was scrapped, one would be hard-pressed just to fit "the beta" in the ROM we have now. Not to mention, there are conflicting things such as remodeled maps, objects and characters and engine differences that make a consistent singular game impossible to make which incorporates every known aspect of OoT before its release.

 

That all goes without even saying that it wouldn't be a truly complete, finished, or even necessarily coherent game. OoT went through many plot revisions, so again, half of what you're asking depends entirely on which period of development one might aim to recreate. The simple fact of the matter is that we just don't have enough information to make a mod with an actual plot that more or less captures what it was originally intended to be. There have been some attempts (Team Beta Triforce's BRP, Forbidden Legends, PJCLink's beta mod, etc.), all of which have ended in semi-disastrous failures.

[SanguinettiMods]

If it makes you feel any better, it is however entirely possible to re-create and even restore some elements of "Beta OoT" Such as Link's previous model designs, or early enemies.

[Zeth Ryder]

What Sanquinetti said is correct, especially if you want to restore Prerelease stuff(the game has a boat load of that left ingame still).

You may not get -everything- perfect, but for the most part, you can do quite a bit of it!

 

I started a PR project ages ago, I never got around to finishing it though.

 

[Armos]

What Sanquinetti said is correct, especially if you want to restore Prerelease stuff(the game has a boat load of that left ingame still).

You may not get -everything- perfect, but for the most part, you can do quite a bit of it!

 

I started a PR project ages ago, I never got around to finishing it though.

http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr132/Riggy23/Zelda%20Prerelease%20shots/THELEGENDOFZELDA-30.png

 

http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr132/Riggy23/Zelda%20Prerelease%20shots/THELEGENDOFZELDA-170.png

 

Thats some quite work Zeth. Really interesting, Wish I had the skills to do something like this...

[Sacklome]

What is that leaf C-item that link is equipped with in the screenshots?

[The Fanatic of Zelda]

What is that leaf C-item that link is equipped with in the screenshots?

 

It was used to call Epona.