As the legendary
Ocarine of Time nears its twentieth birthday, it feels like a great time for me to step out of Hyrule Field and share my Ocarina collection with you.
Hard to findI vividly remember the day that I bought Ocarina for my N64. It was December 1998, and I was working in London at the time. After many months of being hyped up by magazines such as Nintendo Official Magazine, I was eager to get the game at launch. I worked near quite a few places that sold videogames - Dixons, Beatties, Our Price and others - and went I popped out at lunchtime to pick up a copy. SLAM! None were available; it had already sold out in all of the stores near to me! Rather dispirited, I decided up go up to Oxford Street after work; there must surely be copies available there. At a sharp 5pm I jumped on the tube and dashed into the Mega Store... and then HMV, Dixons and the Computer Exchange... nowhere had a copy. It was launch day and my dream of playing Ocarina was going to end in tears?
I wandered into so many other shops to see if they sold videgames; some did but none had any copies of Ocarina left. Finally I headed into the small shopping arcade that used to be just off Oxford Street and I spotted a WH Smiths. The "number 1" slot on their game shelves was empty; no Ocarinas were to be found. For some reason I wandered over to the music desk and asked... the assistant went off to check if any copies were left... and she returned with one!
. I was almost jumping around with excitement as I handed over fifty pounds to complete the purchase! This was it... the sleek, black box emblazoned with the gold insignia was in my hands... I
was going to play Ocarina on launch day!
I rushed home, slammed in the game pak and the adventure began.
Ocarina bitsThis is my original game that I bought at launch back in December 1998.
I love the colour manuals and other leaflets that were packed into the game boxes.
My original version, a mint copy and a spare cart... you gotta be prepared when adventure beckons!
I like the sheer style of the Japanese N64 artwork.
A triumphant trio... N64 PAL, N64 Japanese and 3DS.
As soon as the 3DS Ocarina console was shown I knew that I'd love to have one. It really is a sleek design.
Some folk prefer later models of the system but I always liked the build quality of the original 3DS.
The design is a msterclass in under-stated style.
The gold indents and button markers are wonderful.
The 3DS version had a pre-order bonus in some stores where you got an empty (but with small poster) gold-cover version of the case as well as the normal case. I originally purchased the standard version at launch and was fortunate to obtain an unopened pre-order case through eBay soon afterwards.
This is quite interesting... on the left is the pre-order version of the case and on the right is the version that was supplied with the Zelda edition 3DS console. They are slightly different; the cover has the PEGI 12 logo on the console edition version...
..whilst the reverse is different in terms of the screenshots used and the text layout.
The gold cover version has lovely coloured rupees printed on the reverse which show through the inside of the game case. A wonderful touch!
I ws a big fan of Nintendo Official Magazine; it was targeted at an audience far younger than myself (even at that time!) but I loved the enthusiasm and fun that was packed into the mag. This edition was special as it contained the first review of Ocarina!
The review was huge (12 pages!) and was a pull-out insert in the mag.
The opening two pages of the review...
...and - ^^^ SPOILERS! - their final verdict!
I grabbed this N64 Magazine game guide and the official Prima game guide just after launch.
Many years later, Prima produced a new hardback version of the guide to align with their other Zelda game guides. This book is only available as a part of Prima's Zelda Guide hardback treasure chest.
In recent years I have played Zelda on my New 3DS, for which I obtained a lovely Zelda case cover. It's quite stylish!
Rather infamously, I haven't played past the bit where Link becomes an adult but the adventure is always ready to continue on my 3DS
.
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I hope that you enjoyed this wander through Ocarina stuff. I've now got to re-build my flat to get everything packed away again
.