Beta Quest / BiT Theory

[mzxrules]

Somewhat accurate info on Beta Quest

Some years ago, an infamous code was discovered called Beta Quest. By disabling the HUD, the game enters "Cutscene Mode", which scrambles the map exit pointers for some reason. This causes many incredibly bizzare links between map pieces.

Enter the Back in Time Glitch. Discovered around 2007 for Twilight Princess, it was the first glitch that made it possible to "play inside the title screen". A big part of the reason why this is even possible is due to Nintendo's use of "Real Time Cutscenes". Instead of spending time loading and playing an intro video, the game engine loads instead, and the game "controls" Link to create the scenes in real time. Because it relies on the main game engine, a temporary save file is hard-coded into the game.

But what does this have to do with Beta Quest?
When Beta Quest is activated at start-up (all worlds), it is presumed that Ocarina of Time has it's own placeholder save file that is loaded, for use with the title sequence. But unlike Twilight Princess, you start off with the entire equipment screen full. Then to escape Beta Quest mode, it's simply a matter of going into Zora's River (land entrance only) -> Zora's Fountain -> Big Octo room to disable Beta Quest mode. From there you can just warp to the Temple of Time, storm Ganon's Castle and beat the game.

Example Route Part 1 Part II

Issues:

We don't have any possible way to activate BQ mode as of yet.

From my tests, BQ can be enabled by somehow setting address .

No Name Crash could stand to be an issue.

Rattleman mentioned that after the final blow to Ganon, the "Get the Forest Medallion" cutscene plays as a child.
Possibly caused by leaving the BQ cheat on by mistake.

Ideas for activating BQ:

There are two known ram addresses that deal with BQ. The first completely disables the HUD if set to 1. This causes the map exit (and possibly warp locations) to change their destinations, but doesn't activate BiT. If we could activate this, it would mean that we'd have to get Nocturne to warp straight to Ganon to be able to save time.

The second, 11B9E3, has absolutely no noticable effect during normal gameplay. By death quitting when this value is not EF however, we can activate BiT BQ. From here, all we have to do is just play Nocturne to warp straight to the bottom of Ganon's tower mid collapse, which also de-activates BQ.

Some videos i think might help us get to BQ
Timer Warp

[mysticremen11]

that would be awesome a BiT for oot too. all that would be missing is a BiT for MM

[Lexkeeta]

not trying to sound stupid or anything, but wouldn't the route just be to the courtyard where it says "The End?"

Also, I've never seen Ganondorf or Ganon beaten with ISG before lol

[ING-X]

lol mzx, this sounds similar to an old theory i had about using beta quest as a route a few months ago

anyway this would be very interesting, it would be an insanely glitched route but that's what any% oot is all about nowadays - glitching the everliving shit out of the game

this run of course would have to be done on 1.2, because otherwise the name glitch will kick in and crash the game (on 1.2 for whatever reason they made a default name of "LINK").

[mzxrules]

Been playing a ton of OoT, searching for the Beta Quest and i've discovered a few things.

The inventory screen data field starts roughly around 11A5D0 in the RAM, though there is other stuff stored here as well (such as the current time). I believe that it's this area where bottle adventure hits it's hardest. After that you run into a mostly blank patch of the ram (though it's possible that this could have something to do with the dungeon data field [ex. compass/boss key/ rooms visited]), then after that is the scarecrow song (long version, though possibly short version as well). This area of the Ram isn't written to as the song is being recorded, but rather after it's been played and the scarecrow plays it back for you.

11B92F determines if the HUD should be active or not. You also have Naryu's Love timer in there, and then 11B9E3 itself. Around this part of the Ram are some very interesting things. The Music mod code 11B9DF is nearby, and after the BQ code itself is an interesting code i call the "Time of Day Appearance" code. With OoT's skybox, the game transitions between two? color schemes as time goes on, and what this value does is show where along in the transition the skybox should be. The fade in (and possibly fade out) transitions are also inside this cluster of Ram, which together almost explains the eerie atmosphere the Beta Quest has.

The Beta Quest route has changed significantly also. I learned today that if you play Nocturne of Shadow, you will warp straight into the final room inside Ganon's Tower as it's collapsing, with Beta Quest mode disabled, meaning that it now would take only about 4-5 minutes to beat the game after activating Beta Quest.

not trying to sound stupid or anything, but wouldn't the route just be to the courtyard where it says "The End?"

Very interesting thought, but i don't think SDA would rule it as being beaten.

[ING-X]

A while back I was messing with the debug rom and found out what logic the game uses to figure out the beta world starting area - it's just walking around in whatever cutscene corresponds with the beta world you're in. The title screen is cutscene 4 in hyrule field, and cutscene 0 in hyrule field is link's dream sequence (which is why beta world 0 has that horse sound). I don't know if this has any relevance but it's interesing.

Also mzx i would suggest using a 1.2 rom for further testing in beta quest because a 1.0 or 1.1 rom would make this route utterly useless (crash due to name glitch right before ganon).

The beta quest code for 1.2 is 8011C093 xxxx, so the address we need to set to 0000 is 11C093 in a 1.2 rom (n64).

[mzxrules]

I noticed something odd while i was RBAing with Cojiro, though it could be nothing.



The values circled in green are those that are the ones that are documented to change during RBA, but the values in the rows between the red i've heard nothing about. These seem to change depending on where Link stands, and they only change whenever i caught my fish on B.

[ING-X]

I noticed something odd while i was RBAing with Cojiro, though it could be nothing.



The values circled in green are those that are the ones that are documented to change during RBA, but the values in the rows between the red i've heard nothing about. These seem to change depending on where Link stands, and they only change whenever i catch my fish.

Spooky

[Bonooru]

this is all great and wonderful but if you cant activate beta quest in normal gameplay then what use is it?