How Players Finally Obtained the Triforce 23 Years
Later in Ocarina of Time in the most absurd way. The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time is a
nostalgia bomb full of strange childhood mysteries and distant memories. Rumors dominated
this game around the lunch table at school, and with no way to check the credibility of
things, these rumors sometimes flourished. One of the biggest rumors in Ocarina of Time was
obtaining the triforce. And this rumor was backed up by a famous fake online thread. However, would
you believe me if I told you that players finally obtained the triforce 23 years later? And they
did so on an unmodified Nintendo 64 console and game cartridge? Well, I have a bit of a story
to tell, and it covers everything that Ocarina of Time meant to a lot of us as kids. This is the
story of how the triforce was actually obtained, and the absolutely insane method that was used to
pull it off. This is Triforce%. I hope you enjoy. On February 4th in 1999 a series of images
hit the web that left gamers shocked. Somehow, someway, a new song was
discovered called the Overture of Sages. And with this song one could eventually go
on to obtain the Triforce in Ocarina of Time. Due to the user interface of the item
screen, many players believed that the Triforce was the last remaining secret
collectable within the game. After all, why create the indentation of the triforce if
it couldn’t be filled in like other quest items? This shook the internet. And Ariana, the one
who supposedly knew the secret, was keeping the process from everyone. For over a month this user
was withholding the full set of steps to obtaining the triforce, while the internet just waited in
anticipation or tried to debunk Ariana’s claims. A few steps were revealed, which involved learning
a song from Kaepora Gaebora called the Overture of Sages. But this song didn’t appear within the item
screen, just like the scarecrow song. You then played this song right before you first pulled
out the master sword for the very first time, and in doing so, Link warped to the temple
of light. Pulling out the master sword would ruin this process. The temple of light was
apparently like a short maze, and after going through it you would eventually find Rauru, and a
cutscene plays out where he summons the triforce. Eventually Ariana cracked and spilled
their secret though. Unfortunately, this whole series of steps and images that
appeared online were a hoax, but it became the greatest known gaming rumor of the late 90’s
and the 2000’s. Ocarina of Time is known for some pretty absurd quests. Whether you’re taking items
all around Hyrule to obtain Biggoron’s Sword, or you’re doing an absurd series of actions,
in hopes of obtaining some colored gauntlets that weren’t actually a hoax, players became
accustomed to searching this land far and wide. But deep within the files laid a slew of scrapped
beta elements that never saw the light of day. And so, Triforce% was born. A speedrun
designed to resurrect the past by utilizing game inputs to fill in the gaps. And this
was done through the power of ACE and SRM. Arbitrary Code Execution and Stale Reference
Manipulation were two discoveries that rocked the Ocarina of Time speedrunning community.
With these tools players could manipulate the world around them by altering the values
and coding associated with certain functions. By various inputs and precise setups, players
could inject their own data essentially and cause the functions within the game to change.
This is how a player can go from running around in Kokiri Forest to suddenly warping to the end
of the game. The Holy Grail of Ocarina of Time speedrunning had been discovered. But these two
functions were always used to shave off time or remove parts of the game to make it faster… But
what if the opposite was done? And this is how all of this started. We all grew up wondering if
we could beat the running man. Hoping we could learn one final secret song. Wanting the ice to
just melt. Wishing our most legendary adventure to date wasn’t truly coming to an end. The credits
rolled though and our quest was over. But I know I didn’t stop playing. I went back into Hyrule
and explored its landscape over and over. I tried to touch the moon in the sky and attempted
all sorts of other strange things. Unknown to me at the time was that there were a lot of things
within the game I couldn’t see. Beta elements left behind. Hints of code suggesting that the
game was once different. And starting in 2019, a talented team assembled to make one of the most
legendary speedrun attempts known. Could ACE be used to create rather than destroy? And 3 years
later we’re here to finally talk about that. Could these beta aspects be revived and placed back into
the game on an unmodified console and cartridge? Well, somehow, it was accomplished. Now keep in
mind the story to string all of this together had to be created by the team, but the execution
to pull this off isn’t something I’ve ever seen done before. This speedrun involves a talented
speedrunner called Savestate and also TASBot. It’s quite an interesting combination, but this ACE
execution is… massive, compared to other attempts. And using TAS on an actual Nintendo 64 console
isn’t usually reliable since it will fall out of sync eventually. So human speedrunner Savestate
will be playing for the majority of the run except for a short window of time, where TASbot
will begin executing a predetermined range of inputs for ACE on all four controllers on
the Nintendo 64. From that point forward, Controller 1 will be restored to Savestate, as
Controller ports 2 through 4 will essentially inject the needed information into the world
around them. The number of inputs? Over 2 million. If that sounds absurd, that’s because it is. But
this button mashing frenzy changes everything. Now, if you haven’t watched the official run for
this I highly recommend it because it is an hour of bizarre nostalgic bliss. There’s a link
in the description below that will take you to it. But through this ACE execution, a ton
of things are added into the game and strung together into a logical order of events similar
to the rumors that used to plague us in the past. The player starts off by doing a typical ACE setup
in Kokiri forest. But once they get to the ACE input section, TASBot takes over for a moment and
begins chewing through a massive amount of inputs. Not long after, the first beta element is brought
to life as the Arwing flies into Kokiri Forest. Link then heads into the forest and exits several
times in a specific order to trigger the next beta element - this Kokiri figure. Of course, the team
took some creative liberties to tie these assets together. The Beta Kokiri kicks off our fetch
quest and sends us to get a butterfly that they want. Now you can’t catch a butterfly in a bottle
but the 3d model for the item does exist in the game. So the player heads into town, talks to the
shopkeeper, and eventually buys the butterfly. The butterfly is brought back to the Beta Kokiri
and we receive Magic Powder. This Magic Powder essentially restores the scrapped mask mechanics
that were eventually used within Majora’s Mask. So skull kid takes our magic powder and our
bunny hood and gerudo mask become enchanted. Bunny Hood now lets us run super fast. The gerudo
mask now causes an illusion too, so once we get to Gerudo valley we are allowed to go inside. We
encounter Nabooru who sees through our illusion though. And it’s through Nabooru that we learn
the full song of time. So the player normally only plays the first part of the song in the game and
then Link autoplays the rest, but the full song of time utilizes the leftover secondary ocarina
system which allows playing the accidentals, the in-between notes besides the five normal
ocarina notes. Learning this song lets Link swap to the past and future without having to pull
out the master sword. There are very limited hints that the Spirit Temple may have had its own time
traveling mechanic that did not require Link to leave the dungeon. This can’t be proven fully
since what is found in the files is so little, but this is why this functionality was applied
to this longer Song of Time. With this ability to change time itself, we now set our sight
on an unbeatable foe… The Running Man. So the Running Man of course haunted us
as kids. No matter what we did he would always beat us by one second. Trying to go
to the temple of time and warp through time would cause the timer to stop as well, so it
seemed he was unbeatable. And in fact, he is, as the game always makes him beat you by one
second. But what if we challenged the running man, turned back the clock seven years before
the challenge occurred, and then decided to hop back through time at the finish line?
Our clock gets set to a negative value and thus glitches out - and this is how the game
handles negative time values for the timer. But when we warp to the future, the
Running Man freaks out that we won and he tells us to meet him in
Hyrule field for our reward. And this reward… is a giant purple rupee. However,
this beta relic from the past is actually a trap. Its original programming dictates that it
explodes when it is collected. And of course, since the running man finally lost he calls
us a cheater and a humorous boss fight begins. After we defeat him we realize that the reason
why the running man was unbeatable was because he obtained something magical 7 years ago.
He wishes to return to normalcy and gives us the Sage’s Charm. This item allows us
to equip our acquired medallions as spells like they once were hinted at in the beta. So
the Fire Medallion granted a power similar to Din’s Fire. And it’s this new ability that allows
us to tackle another mystery from our childhood. Zora’s Domain was unlike other areas in the game.
When we dispelled the curse or evil influence from the land it did not return to normal. Sure
the lake filled back up with water… But the ice never melted. It was eternal. But melting the
ice and accessing the secret underwater door was a hot rumor years and years ago. And speaking
of hot, no flame would accomplish this. However, in the Triforce% run, the fire medallion’s ability
can do the trick, and Zora’s domain is finally defrosted. We can then head into the underwater
alcove and warp to the Unicorn Fountain. Now the Unicorn Fountain was an area that was
supposed to have appeared within Ura Zelda, the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive expansion of Ocarina of
Time. However, this ultimately fell through - and the area only existed in a screenshot. But
rumors about this area being a resting place for the triforce grew. Once Link enters this area
and plays Zelda’s Lullaby, the beta great fairy appears that once was shown on the early
promotional VHS tapes of Ocarina of Time. This great fairy teaches us the Overture of Sages
- the infamous hidden song that Ariana revealed so long ago during their hoax. Once
obtained, we can then play this song in front of the master sword just like the rumor
outlined which takes us to the sacred realm. We hold the three sacred virtues at this point.
Courage as the Full Song of Time to face the unknown. Power as the Sage’s Charm to wield
powerful spells. And Wisdom as the Overture of Sages - to always look for something more. As this
scene progresses we then climb the staircases that loop around the sacred realm visiting each sage
along the way. Finally we come across Sheik, who ultimately grants us passage up one last staircase
to a great door featuring the Triforce. As Link enters this room a blue chest is before him just
like in the beta footage. And within this chest is the prize we’ve been after this entire time.
Tucked deep within the sacred realm the triforce assembles itself in front of Link, who reaches
out and touches it and takes on its power. And I have to stop here for a second and say, a spoken
summary of this honestly doesn't do it justice. Seeing this live was legendary. But now that
Link held the ultimate power and was capable of having his wish granted… It only made sense
that he would make a wish. The Hero of Time who was whisked between a child and adult ultimately
chooses to see what the future holds, and his wish is granted. On a floating island Link appears…
But he isn’t the Link we just were. Breath of the Wild Link walks to the edge of the island as
Zelda appears… And honestly? I’m just going to be quiet and let this part play out. It hits me with
a lot of emotions, and seeing it was incredible. Link... It seems you've managed to bring together a great number of people. I'm so happy to see this. I know they're out there, but it would be nice if we could see them, don't you think? [Everyone in Twitch Chat - type "here together" now!] Look! [Messages from Twitch chat were pulled into the game and shown on screen.] You asked to see our future? Here it is. Thank you Link, for all you have done for us. Thank you Zelda. Let us create the future, together. So I’m not gonna lie… I kinda teared up
watching this. The ending of Ocarina of Time always had a special place in my heart,
so seeing a new reinvented ending that sort of points towards the future with all these people
watching… Um, it kind of got to me honestly. Man… I once spent 24 hours in this game in VR
and this kinda gave me a similar feeling to that. I don’t think I’m ever really
going to be separated from this game. It had such a huge impact on me as a kid
and seeing this now 23 years later is a whirlwind, if I’m being honest. Oh
gosh… I’m like wiping away my eyes. Ugh… Now of course this is a crazy accomplishment…
but it’s the story behind the run and how it was pulled off
that makes it special. A story that took 3 years to come to life
and I want to share that too. Triforce% started with Sauraen, an engineer who
had previously made software for music editing in Ocarina of Time and other N64 games. Even back
in 2018, more than a year before the first ACE exploit was found in Ocarina of Time, he was
thinking about using ACE to get the Triforce. When the exploit was finally
found in November 2019, within less than a week he started
a Discord server and a GitHub repo and got to work. Despite having worked on N64
tools, he had never made a romhack before, so he recruited a few members of the OoT romhack
community, and together they made a draft of the scene where Link gets the Triforce. Sauraen
went to MAGFest 2020 and met dwangoAC there, who’s the head of the TASBot community. TASBot
is a robot which plays prerecorded controller inputs into game consoles, which Sauraen knew he
would need in order to get the data into the game. Sauraen pitched Triforce% to dwangoAC, who
agreed to join the project and became the project’s producer. He contributed valuable
guidance and input to the project, bringing in skilled developers from the TASBot community
and acting as liaison to Games Done Quick. In the first half of 2020, Sauraen and the team
built custom firmware for TASBot and a set of programs which would run within OoT and turn the
initial arbitrary code execution into complete control over the game. I was there to sort of
provide insight about the flow of events and what mysteries and rumors should be touched on. By
the summer, they were able to inject the Triforce scene into the game. Unfortunately, nobody on the
team had the speedrunning skills to do the ACE setup by hand, so they had to use a modded copy
of the game which made ACE very easy to obtain. The project stalled for a while until
they were able to recruit Savestate, a former world record holder in many categories
of Ocarina of Time speedrunning. In November 2020, just over a year after the ACE exploit was
found, Savestate became the first person to get the Triforce in Ocarina of Time using a
completely unmodified, original cartridge and N64. But this was not a very fulfilling experience.
The run went like this: the player would do a complicated ACE setup, wait around for a minute
for the data to be injected, and then walk into a house and warp to the Triforce room. But the team
wanted getting the Triforce to make sense in game, which led to the idea of creating a plot based
on urban legends about Ocarina of Time. Many of the urban legends came about because of beta
content, either content fans saw in magazines or on TV about Ocarina of Time, or content that was
found in the game files. For example, there were videos of Link seeing the beta Great Fairy at the
Unicorn Fountain, and of course, Link getting the Triforce. So the team decided to put these pieces
together, and make a new plot, like a hidden sidequest, which would use these beta elements.
The plot would start small, showing little pieces of content left in the cartridge, but get bigger
and more custom until it got to the Triforce. To tie these separate pieces together,
the team came up with an overall story. The heart of the wielder of the Triforce
must be in balance between the three forces: Courage, Power, and Wisdom. Otherwise they
wouldn’t be able to get the full Triforce, even if they touched it. So of course, Link
has to develop and prove his courage, power, and wisdom, over the course of the plot.
And in Zelda games, Link always receives some sort of item to represent his internal
growth. So the team decided on three items to represent the three virtues: the full Song of
Time for courage, the Sages’ Charm for power, and the Overture of Sages for wisdom. Besides
the three virtues, these items worked well to advance the plot in that order. The full Song
of Time was key to beating the Running Man, which was a famous urban legend. The Sages’ Charm
would allow the player to equip the Medallions, which was a beta feature, and in turn this would
allow them to melt the ice in Zora’s Domain, another urban legend. And finally, just like in
the original hoax, the Overture of Sages was the final key to the Sacred Realm where the Triforce
was held. The team filled in the rest of the beta elements along the way as best they could, though
admittedly some of them are a bit of a stretch. From the beginning of 2021, the team
worked on creating the assets, programming, and development tools needed to make all these
beta elements and urban legends come to life. Some things were made by modifying content
from the base game; others were made completely from scratch. By October 2021, the team had a
reasonably complete alpha version of the project, and submitted it to Awesome Games Done Quick
for the following January. Unfortunately, GDQ has a strict policy that all content
must be 100% complete at submission time, and while the run was playable and
could have been shown, it really wasn’t finished. More importantly, though, AGDQ
was going to be online-only, and the GDQ judges agreed with the Triforce% team that it was very
important that the project be shown in person. Everyone wanted to see a hype audience reaction,
and people would be more likely to trust, that everything really was being done live
on unmodified hardware, if the hardware was shown to a live audience. So, the project was
postponed to Summer Games Done Quick 2022. This gave the team the chance to plan and build
an even more exciting finale for the project. Sauraen had been thinking and discussing with
the team: after Link got the Triforce, what would he use its power for? And once the team got the
Triforce, what would they do with the power of the attention and goodwill from the audience they had
just gotten? If you’ve seen the Triforce% trailer, you might recognize these questions. There’s a
parallel between the team getting arbitrary code execution and then being able to do whatever they
wanted in the game, and Link getting the Triforce and having his wishes fulfilled. Link had
already become a god as soon as the ACE setup was finished, but the plot leading to the Triforce
made it concrete within the game world, in a way that Link himself could understand. So the
team wanted to continue this parallel, creating a finale which would show off Link’s mastery of
Hyrule and the team’s mastery of the Nintendo 64. Link is able to warp to the future to become his
Breath of the Wild self and meet Zelda of that era. And the team showed real cel shading, high
poly models, voice acting, and physics simulation on the N64. And then, finally, these two parallel
levels of reality come together. Zelda’s wish to see the people who Link has brought together
causes the Twitch chat to manifest in the sky. Utilizing ACE, the Twitch Users messages were
fed into the game in real time through controller inputs. The fans get to see their own names and
messages in an unmodified copy of Ocarina of Time, and the Breath of the Wild characters react
to them. Zelda delivers her half of the final message, that the fans are the future, and Link
speaks the second half: “Let us create the future, together.” It is our dedication to this game, the
fans and the community, in theorizing and reverse engineering and even making up hoaxes, which has
kept the spark of this game alive for 23 years. And which ultimately made the creative,
deeply meaningful art of Triforce% possible. Ocarina of Time will forever have a hold on
me. I’m older now, and when I’m really old to the point where my life starts to fade some,
I’m still going to be thinking about this game. Maybe that sounds silly, but if you’re here and
still watching I think you get what I mean. I can’t forget how it felt. How the ending felt. How
the overwhelming credits music is engraved into my brain. And working on this project took me right
back to the moment again. Seeing it finally come out, it felt like I was experiencing the ending
to Ocarina of Time all over again, for the first time… But I wasn’t alone this time. I wasn’t a kid
by myself with my Nintendo 64. I was with hundreds of thousands of people who felt the same way. And
that’s really what made Triforce% very special. I hope you enjoyed this video,
and I look forward to experiencing the future of Zelda alongside all of
you. Thanks for watching, and cheers.
