The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was truly a revolution. Released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64 by Nintendo, Ocarina of Time was the fifth game in the Legend of Zelda series, and the first ever to use 3D graphics. But the revolution Ocarina of Time brought about wasn’t only due to its three-dimensional nature: the gorgeous visuals, immersive soundtrack, enjoyable gameplay and superb writing of the game took the world by storm, and showcased the potential of the videogame medium in all its glory. It’s not an exaggeration to say that this gem contributed to write the history of the video game. Ocarina of Time, in fact, is a masterpiece that can be found in every single instance where “the best video games of all time” are listed.
With that said, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is something that, ideally, every gamer should experience at least once in their life.
Can you only play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on an N64?
But there’s a problem with that: the video game was released exclusively for a single console, that being the Nintendo 64. Unless you still have an N64 laying around — because you managed to get one before it got discontinued in 2002 — you can’t play this game, right? Well, not at all. If you don’t own an N64, you could very well play Ocarina of Time in case you had either a GameCube or 3DS, for which the game was re-released in 2003 and 2011.
But what if you don’t own any of these consoles, and don’t even feel like purchasing one of them? The answer is simple: just play the game on your computer! How can you do that? Well, let’s find out together, shall we? In this article, in fact, we’re going to learn how to play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on PC!
How to play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on your PC
The following tutorial will show you how to play Ocarina of Time thanks to an N64 emulator for PC. An emulator is software, or hardware, that enables a certain computer system to behave like another computer system. So, we’ll simply find out how we can use our PC as our console of interest, the N64, in order to play the game as if it was playing on said console.
Now, let’s get the ball rolling!
First and foremost, the emulator we’re going to use is Project64. The steps to install it are the following:
– on your Windows computer, go to this link to download Project64
– click “Public Releases”
– then, select the first option you’ll get on the page by clicking “Download Now”
– proceed with completing all the steps necessary for the installation
– select your preferred language, then launch the program
– next, go to Vimm’s Lair: Preserving the Classics
– now, click on “Vault” > “Nintendo 64” > “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” > “Download” (you can also download any other game you’ll find on the website)
– back to Project64, select “Options” > “Configure Graphics Plugin…”
– select a higher resolution for the game by clicking “Windowed Resolution”
– change the “Anisotropic” and “Full-Scene Antialiasing” settings by moving the cursor all the way to the right until it says 16X and 8X
– click “Apply” > “OK”
– then, open the zip file of the game (use WinRaR if you don’t manage on your own)
– extract the file inside the compressed folder
– in Project64, select “File” > “Open ROM”, and click on the game file saved on your PC > “Open”
– the emulation should now start
Enjoy!
Sources: Luke Vickery (YouTube), Wikipedia