When two boys unwittingly come across a haunted version of their favorite video game, their lives are changed forever as they are sucked into a world of monsters, secret societies, conspiracies, and a prophecy dictating the coming apocalypse. This s...
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When they saw the title slowly fade into view, the accompanying background depicting a lone, gallant warrior galloping across a grassy plain as the moon hovered overhead, the boys let out a breath. They had seen the title screen before, and gameplay of the game online - they knew of how iconic it was, and recognized the weight of what it represented - but never before had they actually had the chance to play the game. Even with how familiar with the game the two were, today was like breaching a new frontier.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time represented the first ever title in the Legend of Zelda series that was completely in 3D. For that reason alone the image of Ocarina of Time had been built up in the boys' heads for a large amount of time. A large part of the reason why they coveted the Nintendo 64 was that it represented a complete shift in the way games were made, and represented a more innocent time for 3D gaming, an innocent time for gaming in general.
A lot of 3D platforming games on the console were often clunky and awkward, but Ashton and Kyle found a certain charm in those types of games - it was clear that the developers were still trying to figure out how to present a video game in a 3D space, and it was an interesting experiment to see them try.
The flashing red "PRESS START" text beckoned them, and before they could gaze anymore, they snapped out of it and proceeded to the file select screen.
The moment they came to the blue-colored interface of the file select, they were met with something slightly unexpected- there was already a save file there, titled "CHRIS" in all caps.
"Dude, what is that...?" It took a second for Kyle to realize what it was, thinking back to the old vendor's story. "Ohhh, shit! That's--!"
Kyle checked the "CHRIS" profile. They had logged a lot of hours into the game, seeing as they had nearly gotten all of the heart containers and collected all the medallions needed to proceed to the final boss. They didn't want to go any further than that.
"Damn...what do we do with it?" Kyle asked.
"I dunno, man. I kinda don't want to touch it." Said Ashton. "You know, to honor Chris and all that."
"Yeah, you're right. It'd be pretty fucked up if we deleted it."
Ashton and Kyle decided to create a new profile for themselves, using the nickname they used in all games: "Slick".
As the game began, they sat through the introduction cutscene that they were all too familiar with: the scene of Link dreaming, the Great Deku Tree sending Navi the fairy off to accompany Link for the adventure to come - despite knowing where the story would go, Ashton and Kyle were pumped. As they watched, they noticed small, dead pixels which would pip onto the screen every so often, and how certain textures on the 3D models would occasionally warp and flicker for split seconds. This was natural for a game this old - they attributed this to the age of the cartridge and paid it no mind.
