The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest Playthrough (Progressive Scan Mode) - Part 1

This is part 1 of my capture of me playing through The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest for the GameCube. This is being played through the bonus disc that was given away as a preorder bonus for the Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker back in 2003. I'm playing the game in progressive scan mode using an actual GameCube (not the Wii).

I'm a huge fan of Ocarina of Time and have played the game countless times since I received my gold cartridge copy for the Nintendo 64 back on Christmas of 1998. Sometime after that, I started reading about an expansion to Ocarina of Time called Ura Zelda that was supposed to release on the 64DD (the planned disk drive expansion to the Nintendo 64).

I didn't really know what Ura Zelda would be like, but I loved Ocarina of Time so much that I figured it had to be amazing. I figured that once the 64DD released, I would have to get the hardware add-on. However, the 64DD never released in America (to my disappointment), and it received only a limited release in Japan with just a handful of games. Ura Zelda also was never released for the Nintendo 64, and all focus quickly shifted to the GameCube.

Then, sometime before the Wind Waker's scheduled release date, Nintendo suddenly announced probably the greatest preorder bonus I could ever imagine: a free bonus disc for the GameCube containing both Ocarina of Time and Ura Zelda under the new title the Master Quest. I was already preordering games by this point so I quickly placed a preorder for Wind Waker. As I recall, the bonus disc was then released before Wind Waker itself, which gave me time to finally try Ura Zelda before jumping into Wind Waker.

Unfortunately, when I finally tried Ura Zelda, I was left under whelmed. It turned out that this incredibly hyped expansion to the N64's classic title simply featured reworked dungeons with new puzzles and different routes. That's it. No new overworld. No new characters. No continuation of the original story. I couldn't believe that after all that hype, all I got was a bunch of different puzzles. What a letdown.

I beat the Master Quest one time before Wind Waker released and then never came back to the game. Although the Master Quest was certainly more challenging than Ocarina of Time, it wasn't better. The original game's puzzles and dungeon layouts flowed better and made more sense. Also, this was the first time that I discovered the existence of different versions of Ocarina of Time because I suddenly noticed different music in the Fire Temple and different symbols on various objects. I actually preferred the original Fire Temple music and the red blood as well, so I kept going back to my gold cartridge instead of this bonus disc.

One interesting fact about this bonus disc, however, is that it doubles the native resolution of the game from 320x240 to 640x480. It also supports progressive scan mode, meaning 480p. If you compare this footage to my S-video capture from the N64, you'll see a massive difference.

Although I don't particularly care for the Master Quest, I figured people would still like to see a playthrough. While recording this I noticed that I must have deleted my original save file to make room for other games. That's how little I care for this title. Anyway, I'll be keeping track of each Heart Piece I contain in each video, similar to my other Zelda playthroughs. Enjoy.

In this first part I created a new save file and explored the Kokiri Forest before completing the first dungeon, Inside the Deku Tree.

Recorded with the Hauppauge HD PVR and the GameCube's component cables.