The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time · Nintendo 64 · Build: November 1996 · Discovered: 1996 · Trade Show Demo
A 3D Zelda was first shown in short real-time demonstrations at Nintendo's Shoshinkai and Space World shows in 1995 and 1996 — footage of an older-looking Link that differs noticeably from the game released in 1998.
Nintendo first showed a 3D Zelda at its Shoshinkai show in November 1995: a brief real-time sequence of an adult Link duelling an armoured knight, intended to demonstrate the Nintendo 64's capabilities. More footage followed at Space World in November 1996, by which time the project was a full game in development. The early footage shows a Link closer to the adult design than the young hero players control for much of the finished game, and none of the shipped game's combat systems, such as Z-targeting, are visible. The game was also originally linked to the planned 64DD disk drive before being completed as a standard cartridge release in November 1998. Unused rooms, items and text left in the final ROM have since been catalogued by fans and offer further clues about earlier stages of development.
The 1995 and 1996 showings were brief. They established that a Zelda game would come to the Nintendo 64 in full 3D, showed an older-looking Link, and gave little away about how the finished game would play. Systems now associated with Ocarina of Time — Z-targeting, the ocarina songs and the split between child and adult Link — were not yet on display.
After release, players and ROM researchers found unused rooms, items, text and other leftovers in the game's data. These remnants are fragmentary and need careful interpretation, but together with the early footage they give a partial view of how the game changed during its long development.