If I had a lot of money, I would rebuild the world of OoT...

[Electric Rain]

So, I finally got around to playing my ROM of OoT: Master Quest. It's really just another excuse to play through the game, I guess. It's only the dungeons that are different, after all. They mostly just rearranged the order of the rooms, and they threw in some slightly unorthodox curve balls in the design, such as this one in the Bottom of the Well.

That's a crystal switch in its eye... it was hard to find and very clever, I thought.

Anyway, this post isn't about Master Quest. It only explains why I had the idea I'm about to explain. As I was riding Epona around Hyrule field, collecting Big Poes for my 4th bottle, I was thinking about how amazing the overworld is. Besides its immersive soundtrack, amazing graphics, addicting gameplay and involved storyline, this game has an almost "dreamy" (for lack of a better word) environment. I thought, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if I built some sort of model of Hyrule?" Then I thought, "Hmm... how big would I make it? Would I want it to be a small, detailed model that would just sit on a desk or something? Or would I want it to be bigger than that?"

Then it hit me. Why not make it to scale? The obvious answer is because it would cost millions and millions of dollars. Duh. But if I ever had the money, I can't think of anything more amazing than to buy a hundred acres or so of land, and recreate the entire world of Hyrule on it. Think about how many people would want to visit it! Most of you reading this would travel across the world to see something like this! Wouldn't you love to walk in the world of Ocarina of Time?!

The dungeons might not be very practical, but I could do Hyrule Field, Lon Lon Ranch, Kakariko Village, Hyrule Market, Hyrule Castle (this might be able to be just a cheap "front" or something, as you can't technically go inside the Castle in the game), Lake Hylia (that would be beautiful), Zora's River, (which would also be beautiful and probably not too hard/expensive... comparatively) MAYBE Zora's Domain, Kokiri Forest, the Lost Woods, and if I had CRAZY money, Gerudo Valley, though the valley itself might prove difficult...

I wouldn't make it into a theme park or something like that. I'm not gonna put a huge roller coaster in the middle of Hyrule Field... that would TOTALLY kill the environment. No, I would want to keep it as close to the actual design as possible. It's not like land would be important. I would just buy some heavily wooded land and hollow out a huge portion in the middle. The OoT world is encased in a forest anyway; think about the edges of Hyrule Field.

What could you do there? Well, what can you do in the game? The shooting galleries in the village and the market, the treasure chest guessing game, the diving game in Zora's Domain, the fishing pond at the lake... All of these things would be things you could do in real life at this place. I think I would want to stay away from the horse racing, horseback archery and the Bombchu Bowling Alley, though. Probably want to stay away from anything that could kill people.

Another way to make it more awesome and make more money: The shops in all areas could be made into souvenir shops, and the houses in the market, the forest, and the village could all be places people could stay the night. Most of them are in the village, and there really aren't many in total, but too many people there at once could totally ruin the atmosphere as well. But... rates would have to be through the roof anyway. You KNOW lots of people would pay it.

I've put a sick amount of thought into this for only a day of thinking. It sounds like a dream. Literally. It sounds completely impractical and makes me sound like I'm an 8 year old that thinks anything's possible if you really want it to happen. But I'm not. I'm 17, and am actually thinking about this as a real possibility. I think it could be absolutely legendary. I know I'll need millions of dollars to pull it off, but hey, everyone has goals, right? Maybe I can partner up with some rich freak in my adult life, or, heaven forbid, maybe I'll actually make a career doing something that allows me to make this kind of money. I don't know. But everyone has a "What would I do with XXX dollars?" answer, right? Well, this is mine, and it's not something boring like buy a big mansion and a bunch of cars.

So, what do you think? Do you have any additional thoughts on how to make it better? Thoughts on how I can make the millions of dollars required to build it? I'll take whatever you've got, just let me know what you think!

[khaag]

I think yo use too many smilies.

Cool idea though.

[Electric Rain]

Ah, they're the only way to show emotion via text, you know? People can't see the look on your face or hear the tone inflection in your voice through text...

[gamer2]

A Legend of Zelda OoT theme park would be pretty creative, redesigning the dungeons would be necessary through because those are what make the Zelda games fun and exciting. Pretty much get rid of anything involving the hook shot, hover boots or magic.

[Electric Rain]

You know, you're probably right. Personally, the dungeons are actually my least favorite parts of the game. The "dreamy" environment I referenced is my favorite part of the game.

However, the dungeons are obviously a big part of the game, and they would certainly make the place come alive. I'm just afraid it would be SO much more expensive and difficult to pull off. I mean, how would I do Jabu Jabu's Belly?

[gamer2]

wet rubber? I dunno.

[Electric Rain]

I suppose I'm actually underestimating what is possible for the right price. They do some pretty crazy stuff at some of the higher-end theme parks... there's probably no reason I couldn't replicate the dungeons as well.

The dungeons are all on the edges of the map, so I could actually wait and let those be add-ons later (Don't want to start off TOO big... right?). I can start out with Hyrule Field, Kakariko Village and the Market, and work my way out from there. I just have to make sure I buy enough land to allow me to expand the proper amount down-the-line.

I could totally do horseback rides at the ranch, too. Just no games with the horses... too dangerous.

I wonder if Nintendo would sue me or praise me for this... By the time I would be able to have it built, OoT will be a pretty old game. I'm not sure if they'd care. You guys will all be in your late 30's saying, "Wow! He actually got it built! I HAVE to go see this thing!" Great... this place is gonna be flooded with a bunch of middle-aged men.

By the way, if anyone here can find me some really detailed maps or something of the different areas in OoT, that'd be helpful. I think I'm going to try and start off with a virtual version of my idea. I'm going to use Bryce to start re-building the OoT world, and we'll go from there.

[Kurt_]

Best. Idea. Ever.

And if you're willing to put years of hard work into this, it could be much cheaper than a million dollars. But you'd have to be very skilled in many professions

I would think the most expensive part would be, of course, the dungeons, but if those don't fit in your budget, the most expensive part would probably be the buildings. Hyrule Field is basically one gently sloping hill with a few smaller ones around the outside, after all. Find someone with some heavy equipment, and you can roughly scrape out Hyrule Field in a couple days. Then you use a shovel and some man-power to finish it off the landscaping, and plant lots of plants with plentiful roots to keep everything from sliding back down. This would be very important. Basic Landscaping shouldn't cost you a horribly large amount, I mean, it only takes a minute or two to travel from Kokiri Forest to the castle by horseback.

You may find this very interesting: http://www.zeldaelements.net/5betaquest.shtml



Note that there is basically one hill. Find a property with a hill (How hard could that be? Seriously!) and you're good to go.

One part that would anger me is that Lon Lon Ranch overlooks the entire field, perched on the highest point of the map right in the middle, but it is surrounded by a tall fence. Creative License + Me = Waist High, Wooden Tie Fence instead. This kind:


Something you can still gaze out from, but something that would also contain livestock.

[samus]

believe it or not i've never played oot until now. mostly because my parents wouldn't buy it for me and by the time i got old enough to get a job i forgot about my n64..

srsly. i would definitely love to see a full scale hyrule. you could do a constant renaissance fair thing and have people reenact and crap. wait.. that sounds like an amusement park.

[Electric Rain]

Thanks, Kurt.

My step-father's actually a heavy-equipment operator (and a really good one, at that), so labor wouldn't cost me anything.

I saw that Big Poe location image yesterday and it's the best one I've found so far in terms of the landscape. I need something that really shows the elevations in the different areas of Hyrule field. I saw that beta quest thing briefly as well yesterday, but I'm not sure if I understand 100% what it is. But what about this "Moon Jump" hack/cheat? Would that allow me to get a bird's-eye view of the field, among other areas of the game? That would really help.

I would want this to be a REALLY accurate representation, with every little hill and tree taken into account, so I'm not sure what I'd do about the ranch, but I definitely see your point about the wooden fence. It's obvious that they did this due to hardware limitations in the game. They wouldn't be able to render Hyrule Field as the "backdrop" of the ranch like that... But it would be a beautiful view from the ranch...

I think the lake would be pretty easy, too. How hard is it to dig a giant hole and fill it with water? There are man-made lakes 5 times bigger than Hyrule Lake all over the place... I think the fishing pond off to the side would be a big hit, too.

What I'm most worried about regarding the dungeons is what people would actually do in there. It's obviously too dangerous to have open, firey pits all over the place that people could fall into, don't you think?

believe it or not i've never played oot until now. mostly because my parents wouldn't buy it for me and by the time i got old enough to get a job i forgot about my n64..

I feel so bad for you! Well, at least you're finally getting to play it...

srsly. i would definitely love to see a full scale hyrule. you could do a constant renaissance fair thing and have people reenact and crap. wait.. that sounds like an amusement park.

Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea, but then again... what kind of scenes could really be reenacted?

[Kurt_]

Once again, creative license. Some plaes are inaccesible by normal means anyways, like the shadow temple. So just make a cool looking entrance and leave it at that.

A most awesome idea that would cost you a bunch of money is to hide speakers all over the place, so as you wandered into different areas, the music changed.

[Electric Rain]

Once again, creative license. Some plaes are inaccesible by normal means anyways, like the shadow temple. So just make a cool looking entrance and leave it at that.

That's very true, actually. Same goes for the Spirit Temple. The Haunted Wasteland would take up a lot of land, and I doubt anyone would want to go through it to reach the Spirit Temple anyway. EDIT: Also, the Water Temple. You have to dive to the bottom of the lake to get in there, a lot of it is underwater, and people would get lost in there just like they do in the game. I wonder how feasible Death Mountain would be... I mean, it's a pretty big mountain, after all. I would have to buy a piece of land with a mountain on it, I think. I would probably have to leave Death Mountain out, but there's a large problem with that: Death Mountain is a very important piece of the background in Kakariko Village and even the rest of Hyrule Field. Trouble spot! What do I do about this!? How hard would it be to "build" Death Mountain upon flat land?

A most awesome idea that would cost you a bunch of money is to hide speakers all over the place, so as you wandered into different areas, the music changed.

I TOTALLY thought that as well, and it wouldn't be that expensive at all compared to the rest of this project. Place some loudspeakers in a few trees here and there and you'd be set.

[ShockSlayer]

I've always has a dream of making a sscaled down zora's river + domain and lake hylia.

SS

[rockem sockem forever!]

inside the deku tree would be awesome. you would need a huge old tree or lots of plywood.

[Kurt_]

A major problem with all dungeons and buildings is that they're small on the overworld and grow greatly in size when you go inside. Since you're going mainly for the field, most dungeons would be off-limits because of realistic size constraints. Take the Deku tree for example. 20, 30, 40 feet max in diameter, but when you go inside, he grow to at least 60, all hollow space.

According to the moon jump cheat, Death Mountain on the overworld is just a cut-out...