Gaming Preservationist Shares Rare Majora’s Mask Debugging VHS Tape

I’ve watched plenty of Let’s Plays and tutorials in my time as a gaming enthusiast, especially with so many games on my bucket list I know I’ll never have the time to truly dive into. But getting to see original debugging footage of a game I’ve already played? That’s a first for me!

In their recent video “Leaked ZELDA: MAJORA’S MASK Debugging Tape,” YouTube’s Hard4Games shows off a never-before-seen PAL region (i.e. Europe) debugging VHS tape from Nintendo, which includes an early debug build of Majora’s Mask dated September 21st, 2000. This tape and others like it were meant to simply capture debuggers’ gameplay sessions and the inevitable crashes / glitches they would encounter, all so the development team would have more to work with as they adjusted the game for general audiences. Today, however, we can view this footage as well thanks to Hard4Games’ efforts to convert the original recording for a wider viewership. Their video showcases the tape almost in its entirety, with the exception of long periods of inactivity and one particular portion in which a debugger seems to be testing a certain attractive NPC in the Treasure Chest Shop “very thoroughly.”

The over hour-long video shows portions of Majora’s Mask playtested in either French or German. While some portions of the tape appear fairly uneventful, there’s something deeply unnerving about the ominous shift in the Clock Town theme as the third day approaches — the player pausing in front of empty walls and encountering glitching screens — when the sound effects cut out entirely, leaving a static-laced silence. And the crash screen at the end? While there’s nothing inherently sinister about it, when you’re not expecting it, it’s nearly nightmarish.

Hard4Games prides itself on game and media preservation, and on their YouTube channel, they explore rare systems and retro technology like the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive. They’ve also released another recent video on Nintendo debugging tapes which includes early footage of Super Smash Bros. Melee, Pikmin, GoldenEye, Mario Kart Super Circuit, and more. You can also find Hard4Games on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and if you’d like, you can support them on Patreon and through their merch store on Teespring.

What do you think of this leaked Majora’s Mask debugging tape? See anything you didn’t expect? Let us know down below in the comments!

Source: Hard4Games

Kora Burton

Location: Athens, Georgia, USA

Favorite Zeldas: Breath of the Wild, Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time

Date Joined: 2022

“Tell me… Do you ever feel a strange sadness as dusk falls?”