You remember the gold cartridge? Honestly, if you grew up in the late nineties, that shiny plastic felt like a literal relic from another world. People ask all the time, when did oot come out, but the answer isn't just a single date on a calendar. It was a rolling earthquake that hit different parts of the globe while the gaming industry held its collective breath.
It started in Japan. November 21, 1998.
Nintendo dropped The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on a Saturday, and the world of 3D gaming basically fractured into "before" and "after." North America got it just two days later, on November 23, 1998. If you were in Europe, you had to wait until December 11. Imagine that today. In the age of digital global launches, waiting three weeks for a game while the rest of the world is already exploring the Temple of Time would cause a total internet meltdown. But back then? We just stared at the back of the box in game stores and waited.
The Context of 1998
1998 was a freak of a year for games. You had Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life, and StarCraft all fighting for oxygen. It was crowded. Yet, when Ocarina of Time arrived, it didn't just compete; it sat on a throne. Shigeru Miyamoto and his team at Nintendo EAD weren't just making a sequel to A Link to the Past. They were trying to figure out how a camera should even work in a three-dimensional space.
Before this, 3D movement was clunky. It felt like steering a tank. Then Link showed up with Z-targeting.
It changed everything.
The development was a saga in itself. Originally, they thought about making it a first-person game. Can you imagine? A Zelda game where you never see Link’s iconic green tunic? Thankfully, they realized that seeing Link do backflips and swing the Master Sword was half the fun. They also flirted with the idea of the 64DD—that ill-fated magnetic disk drive expansion for the N64. Because the 64DD was a commercial ghost, the team had to squeeze one of the biggest, most complex games ever made onto a 256-megabit (32-megabyte) cartridge.
That’s smaller than a high-resolution photo on your phone today.
Why the Ocarina of Time Release Date Actually Matters
When you look at when did oot come out, you’re looking at the peak of the "Console Wars" between the Nintendo 64 and the original PlayStation. Sony was winning. They had the cool factor, the CDs, and the Final Fantasy cinematics. Nintendo needed a miracle.
Ocarina of Time was that miracle. It sold 2.5 million copies in its first 39 days. To put that in perspective, that’s roughly $150 million in revenue in 1998 dollars, during a time when gaming was still considered a "kid's hobby" by the general public. It wasn't just a success; it was a cultural pivot point.
The game introduced a "day and night" cycle that felt revolutionary. You’d stand in Hyrule Field and just watch the sun go down. The wolves would howl. The skeletons (Stalchildren) would rise from the dirt. It felt alive. Most games back then were static levels. This was a world.
The Master Quest and the Ports
If you missed the 1998 window, you probably caught one of the many revivals. Nintendo is nothing if not excellent at selling you the same masterpiece three or four times.
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- The GameCube era brought the Master Quest. This was originally the "Ura Zelda" expansion meant for the 64DD. It finally saw the light of day as a pre-order bonus for The Wind Waker in 2002 (Japan) and 2003 (North America).
- The 3DS remake in 2011 was a huge deal. Grezzo, the developer, cleaned up the graphics, added gyro aiming, and—blessedly—made the Iron Boots an item you could toggle with a button press instead of pausing the game every five seconds in the Water Temple.
- Now, it lives on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. It’s accessible, though purists still argue that the original N64 hardware has a specific "fog" and atmosphere that the emulators can’t quite mimic.
Misconceptions About the Launch
People often think Ocarina of Time was a launch title for the N64. It wasn't. Not even close. The N64 came out in 1996. Zelda arrived two years later. That delay is actually why the game is so good. Nintendo delayed it multiple times to polish the "engine." Eiji Aonuma, who is now the big boss of the Zelda franchise, started his journey here as a dungeon designer. He’s the reason the Forest Temple feels like a weird, twisted ghost house.
Another weird myth? That the "gold" cartridges are super rare. They aren't. They were just the "Collector’s Edition" for people who pre-ordered. Millions of them exist. What’s actually rare are the specific "Version 1.0" cartridges that still have the original fire temple music (which featured Islamic chanting) and the crescent moon symbols on the Mirror Shield. Nintendo changed those in later 1999 pressings (Versions 1.1 and 1.2) for sensitivity reasons.
The Legacy of November '98
So, when did oot come out? It came out at the exact moment the industry needed to prove that games could be "art." It sits with a 99 on Metacritic. That’s not a typo. It is the highest-rated game of all time.
It taught us how to lock onto enemies. It taught us that a musical instrument could be a gameplay mechanic. It taught us that a story could span seven years of a character's life, showing the tragic consequences of "saving the day" too late.
If you’re looking to revisit this piece of history, you have options. You don't need to hunt down an old CRT television and a dusty N64, though that’s the "pure" way to do it. The Nintendo Switch version is the easiest entry point. However, if you really want to see what the community has done lately, look into the "Ship of Harkinian." It's a fan-made PC port (you need your own legally dumped ROM) that allows for widescreen, 60fps, and all sorts of modern bells and whistles that the 1998 hardware could only dream of.
How to Experience Ocarina of Time Today
If you've never played it, or it’s been twenty years, here is the most practical way to dive back in:
- The Switch Route: Subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. It’s the fastest way to play, and you get the save-state feature, which makes the more frustrating parts of the 90s design much more manageable.
- The 3DS Route: If you can find a 2DS or 3DS, this is arguably the "best" version. The updated textures and the ability to manage your inventory on the bottom screen makes the Water Temple actually enjoyable.
- The Purist Route: Find an original N64 and a copy of the game. Just be prepared for the 20fps frame rate. It’s jarring at first, but your brain adjusts after about thirty minutes, and you start to feel the "weight" of the world that the developers intended.
- Study the Speedruns: Go to YouTube and look up the Ocarina of Time world record. It is a masterclass in breaking a game. Seeing how runners use "wrong warping" to get from the first dungeon to the end credits in minutes is a fascinating look at the game's code.
The game is more than just a date in 1998. It’s a blueprint that every open-world adventure game since—from Skyrim to Elden Ring—has been following. Go play it and see where the DNA of modern gaming started.