Modder discovers stars in ‘Majora’s Mask’ are linked to your file name

It has been discovered that the position of the stars in the night sky of Majora’s Mask are randomly set in relation to your file name.

Retro game modder @zel640 discovered on November 26, that the code in the 20 year old title which decides where the stars are set in the night sky is actually linked to your file name. This means that if players choose a different file name the stars will be aligned differently.

So last night I discovered that the position of the stars in the sky in Majora’s Mask is randomized based off of… the player’s file name?! Huge thanks to Tharo for helping on this function as well. pic.twitter.com/aIqsZv9qPk

— zel. (@zel640) November 27, 2021

Unknown to zel640 the discovery was actually first made back in 2012 by GlitterBerri. GlitterBerri is a website which uncovers deleted scenes, concept art, and translates Japanese interviews. When translating an old interview with developers, they uncovered this hidden gem.

Testing out the theory in 2019, a coder in the Nintendo 64 The Legend of Zelda community, notwa, discovered that the blue stars and the larger red planet remain in the same positions, while the smaller twinkling white stars move based on the player’s file name. They compared the two night skies when entering in the file name as either Link or Zelda, and showed how the stars were places accordingly.

filename Link versus filename Zelda pic.twitter.com/1IBdhyZX7o

— connor (@antiformant) February 16, 2019

Despite their age, Majora’s Mask and other early 3D Zelda titles are still extremely popular in particular within the modding community. Fans recently reverse-engineered the first Nintendo 64 Zelda title, Ocarina of Time, recreating the code completely from scratch. This has huge implications for the community who can now begin modding this version of the game on PC.

In other news, a player of the online multiplayer title Apex Legends have discovered a combination of Legends, who when they combine their special abilities can  fly across the map very quickly.