Legend of Zelda OoT/MQ & MM - Gamecube to N64 patches (with fixes/decensorship)

[Aroenai]

Patch fixed for PAL roms, thanks Ozidual!

[Assid]

I can confirm that french screen is correctly displayed now. Thanks !

[Spencer.Ryan.C]

It looks like people are already cashing in on yours (and others) work on OoT MQ. I have come across at least a couple sites offering repro carts.

[Aroenai]

Subtle change, "Circus Leader's Mask" has been renamed "Troupe Leader's Mask" since it's closer to the original Japanese text and they already made that change with MM 3DS. Turns out I was using a buggy version of a yaz0 compression tool, so now it shouldn't be such a pain to find and change compressed textures in Majora's Mask! English only for now, just because I still need to dump the other textures and whip up the corrections in Photoshop.

Yeah, we've already been aware of that for a while Spencer.Ryan.C... Luckily, the most common one is using a broken rom!

[ozidual]

Subtle change, "Circus Leader's Mask" has been renamed "Troupe Leader's Mask" since it's closer to the original Japanese text and they already made that change with MM 3DS. Turns out I was using a buggy version of a yaz0 compression tool, so now it shouldn't be such a pain to find and change compressed textures in Majora's Mask! English only for now, just because I still need to dump the other textures and whip up the corrections in Photoshop.

Nice!

Yeah, we've already been aware of that for a while Spencer.Ryan.C... Luckily, the most common one is using a broken rom!

I wouldn't even trust the most common seller.  They're shipping some carts with missing chips right now.  That's the problem with repros - they really don't care and they'll ship whatever they have whether it works or not.

[Aroenai]

Wasn't that just discussion for adding an EEPROM chip for reflashing it to play other games with saving? OoT uses SRAM, so that's why they were talking about it in that thread.

[ozidual]

It was for the Conkers cart.  I guess it had one EEPROM chip, but needed two?  It was impossible to save the game as it was.  They charge the same price for all of their carts, and there's even a cart that comes with all the chips on it, so it's not a cost thing.  They just don't care.

[mikeveli20]

Please excuse my ignorance, but why would someone want to use these versions of the games instead of the original N64 versions? From what I can tell these patches just take the gamecube version and make them just like the n64 version. Can't really see the point.

[ozidual]

Good question.  The main answer is Master Quest. 

Zelda Ocarina of Time: Master Quest was originally only available for the GameCube.  In other words, if you wanted to play Master Quest, you were stuck playing with a lot of weird and broken things.  It's still playable, just not ideal.  Aroenai and I dug through the code and converted MQ so it would play just like the N64 games.  We did the same to the GameCube versions of the original Ocarina of Time as well because:

1. It was an easy thing to do since the code is very similar between MQ and OoT
2. In theory, the GameCube versions have fixes not included in the original N64 versions
3. It creates a unified system, so if you have never played OoT before, you can play OoT and MQ on the same version.

As for Majora's Mask, Aroenai is taking the best of all versions of Majora's Mask and bringing them together on the newest version available (the GameCube version).

[mikeveli20]

Thanks for the reply. That makes a bit more sense. Are the expansion pack changes for OoT a big improvement? That seems it might be something that makes these versions superior to the original n64 versions.

[Kerr Avon]

Ozidual could you or Aroenai write a description about the three Zelda games (Ocarina of Time, Master Quest, and Majora's Mask)
for the 'Which version of a game should you play, by port quality, bugs, enhancements etc' thread, please. Maybe saying which is best (is there a difference between the PAL and NTSC versions of the originals, what the patches do, etc) and maybe which version is best for the beginner, and which version is best for the fans who've played the originals and want a new take on the games.

[ozidual]

Fix	| NTSC GCtoN64	| PAL GCtoN64	| NTSC GCto1.0	| PAL GCto1.0	| NTSC Aroenai	| PAL Aroenai	| NTSC 1.0/1.1	| NTSC 1.2	| PAL 1.0/1.1
HUD Color Correction	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
L replaced with Z	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
C stick replaced with C buttons	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Ozidual Text fix*	x	x	x	x	_	_	x	x	x
Aroenai Text fix*	_	_	_	_	x	x	x	x	x
Game Ending Fix	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Game Ending Timing Fix	_	x	_	x	_	x	x	x	x
Options Language Select Restore	_	x	_	x	_	x	_	_	x
1st Time Language Select	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	x
Game Saved Screen Restore	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Intro Logo Restored	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
MQ Water Temple Door fix	_	_	x	x	x	x	N/A	N/A	N/A
Gerudo Symbols Restored	_	_	x	x	x	x	x	_	_
Fire Temple Music Restored	_	_	x	x	x	x	x	_	_
Ganon(dorf's) Blood Restored	_	_	x	x	x	x	x	_	_
NTSC 1.0 English Text Timing	_	_	x	x	_	_	(1.0)	_	_
2x international text speed	_	_	_	_	x	x	(J)	(J)	_
S of Agony finds all hid chests	_	_	_	_	x	x	_	_	_
Cow Nose Ring restored	_	_	_	_	x	x	_	_	_
Expanded Name Entry Screen	_	_	_	_	_	x	_	_	_
Map Select Translated	_	_	_	_	x	x	_	_	_
Blurry Comma Fix	_	_	_	_	x	x	_	_	_
Utilize Expansion Pak	_	_	_	_	x	x	_	_	_
Anti-Aliasing Patch	_	_	_	_	x	x	_	_	_

* Aroenai and I have slightly different text fixes, but they are essentially the same.
** Does not affect the original Ocarina of Time (just Master Quest)

It isn't exactly what you asked for, but here's a table

Which version to play
If you are completely new to Ocarina of Time or if you aren't looking for a specific version (1.0 vs 1.1 vs etc), play Aroenai's patches.  If you are an old-timer who eats at the same place every time because they get it just right, play the GCto1.0 patches.  If you are a minimalist who wants to experience the GameCube games or a closer to NTSC 1.2/PAL version, play the GCtoN64 patches.  My future replays will be on Aroenai's patches.

PAL vs NTSC
The PAL and NTSC versions should be fully playable on all systems (some older PAL TVs might have an issue).  If you want to switch languages ever (non-Japanese/Arabic languages), I would use the PAL version.  If you ever want to transfer your game over to the Debug ROM, I would use the PAL version.  You cannot easily transfer a save file between NTSC and PAL.  We tried to make the two versions as close as possible, though there might be slight timing differences between PAL and NTSC cutscenes.

If you are curious about differences between different versions of Ocarina of Time (https://tcrf.net/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Ocarina_of_Time/Program_Revision_Differences) has a lot of them.

[numanoid]

What exactly does "Utilize Expansion Pak" mean?
Nevermind, read the first post more thoroughly

Also, from an emulation perspective, are there any technical advantages in playing the actual gamecube version vs the gc->n64 version (like a smoother framerate or better looking graphics)?

[Kerr Avon]

Ozidual, that's an excellent description, thanks. I take it it also applies to The Master Quest?

Also, what version of Majora's Mask would you recommend for the beginner, and (if there's a real difference between patched and unpatched, or NTSC vs PAL) the experienced MM fan, please?

[ozidual]

Ozidual, that's an excellent description, thanks. I take it it also applies to The Master Quest?

Yup yup.  What we have done has no affect on game layout really, and game layout is pretty much the only difference between OoT and MQ.  Interestingly, the dialogue is exactly the same between the two.  So the above data applies to MQ as well as OoT.

Also, what version of Majora's Mask would you recommend for the beginner, and (if there's a real difference between patched and unpatched, or NTSC vs PAL) the experienced MM fan, please?

As for Majora's Mask, I only played it twice.  Once many years ago, but my save game disappeared before I could finish it and once fully about 3 years ago, so take this with a grain of salt.  Aroenai's vision seems to be creating an ultimate version.  Based on the TCRF page (https://tcrf.net/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Majora's_Mask/Program_revision_differences), MM seems to have good parts spread across all the different versions.  I think Aroenai is trying to bring them all together.  As long as he doesn't bring back the original Japanese 1.0 saving scheme (no owls, it only saves when you reset time), I'm sticking with his vision

Also, from an emulation perspective, are there any technical advantages in playing the actual gamecube version vs the gc->n64 version (like a smoother framerate or better looking graphics)?

I haven't replayed on an emulator.  In theory, Aroenai's would look better on an emulator too.  See below for Aroenai's original explanations of the Expansion Pak:

Not an emu only patch, but the Expansion Pak is required now. It's faster because there's more heap allocated to the game now (more heap -> more space to store models, actors, code, etc. which means less moving things in and out of ram which would cause a delay). OoT has two LOD's, the lower quality LOD is a memory saving trick because the less detailed models don't take up as much space in ram as the high quality LOD. Since we have more ram, we don't need the lower quality LOD which is what was disabled (same as MM basically). I'm sure not having to constantly load two different meshes for objects probably speeds things up too.

It is quite a noticeable difference in quality and speed, the game feels more like you're playing on an emulator or the Gamecube actually.

Btw, the expansion pak patch also addresses a problem in Hyrule Field where actors (projectiles, bombs/arrows, song of storms, Epona) will stop spawning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6okVFR8i2I (iQue version, but it happens on n64 as well)