Gaming like It’s… 1998: The Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time

I very much enjoy and value the occasional gaming session, especially now that I am haunted by a protracted cold and what seems to be my first sinusitis. (Fuckin’ hell…) I will survive, but my exploding head and general energy level force me to take non-business hours slower than usual: time otherwise spent out and about lends itself to be spent in front of a gaming device. This state of blissful indolence won’t last forever, though, so I will document my adventures in video games here, in the hope of returning to them in more hectic times and actually finishing them.

I am starting with a true classic of video game history, by many considered as one of the best games of all time: The Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time. Because sick time is Zelda time. And autumn time is Zelda time! Any time is Zelda time, really. But which version should I play, and on which device?

Equipment

Here are my choices:

• Wii U Virtual Console
• Nintendo 3DS Remake
• Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack
• Emulation (I made a backup copy of the Gamecube version on a modded Wii.)
• Ship of Harkinian

I had to go with the last option and try to get this source port running on my modded Switch. This promised to be a perfect little tinkering exercise with a lot of potential game enhancements. And wow—little did I know what kind of treat I was in for!

To get started, you will need a PC (Windows/Mac/Linux) and a legally obtained PAL ROM of either the N64 or GameCube game. Then go through the steps of their README’s Quick Start section or follow one of the setup guides. The documentation is really good, and after mere minutes I had everything I needed to fire up the game.

Additionally, I added GhostlyDark’s OoT Reloaded (SoH) HD texture pack to the mix to make the game look even more gorgeous. If you also want to play on Switch, make sure to download the HD files, not 4K! The Switch is nowhere near powerful enough to handle, let alone appreciate them. There is even a request for a 720p version.

The structure of the folder that I merged into the root directory of my Switch SD card looked like this:

switch
└── soh
    ├── mods
    │   ├── Reloaded_v10.4.2_HD.otr
    │   └── Reloaded_v10.4.2_HD_LinkAnimatedTextures.otr
    ├── oot.otr
    ├── soh.nro
    └── soh.otr

Setup and First Steps

The first couple of minutes after starting Ship of Harkinian I just sat there, stared at the Switch screen, listened to the Zelda music, and freaked out a little about how beautiful everything looked. And that was even before turning on the HD textures!

So before starting to play the game, I pressed the minus button to open the SoH menu and tweaked a couple of things:

• Turn on HD textures under Enhancements > Graphics > Mods > Use Alternate Assets.
• Activate some quality of life improvements (Toggling boots in the water temple, anyone?) by choosing the Vanilla Plus preset under Enhancements.
• Change controls to dual analog under Settings > Controller > Additional Controller Options > Camera Controls > Free Look/Third-person Camera > Enable Free Look. Absolute game changer!
• Tweak Settings > Controller > Controller Mapping to use right stick for Right Stick and not C-Buttons and put C-Buttons on other unused buttons. I also switched A and B buttons to align with the Switch layout.

And now, finally, it was game time: I found sword and shield in Kokiri Forest, slayed the first boss inside the Deku tree, and made my way to Hyrule Castle. It was glorious and I cannot wait to play more.

I will report back here once I clocked in some more hours.