By using Gameshark codes, you can activate cutscenes that were originally going to be in the game. One is an early version of the prologue cutscene which takes place at sunset rather than night and three other cutscenes that take place in the Temple of Time, in which each cutscene focuses on each Spiritual Stone.

The name of Link's horse, Epona, when translated from Gaulish means "Great Mare" and is the name of the Celtic God of horses, donkeys and mules.

If you go into the room with the giant statue inside the Spirit Temple, and aim the Hookshot at where the nipples would be, you will find that you can grapple on to them. It's possible this was a joke by Nintendo.

Throughout the game you may see a symbol that looks like a crescent moon and a star. This symbol can be found on blocks, floor switches, and even the mirror shield. This symbol has caused some controversy, as the moon and star resembles an Islamic symbol. In all re-releases of the game, it has be changed to a new symbol.

According to an interview with Yosiaki Koizumi in the 225th issue of Nintendo Power, the battle against Ganon would revolve around Link having to scale his body, which would've been gigantic at the time (similar to boss battles in Shadow of the Colossus). However, it was later changed due to how players could be confused in the fight (as they would never see Ganon's entire body), and rendering his colossal body at a steady framerate would've heavily strained the N64's hardware. The concept was later recycled for the Megaleg battle in Super Mario Galaxy.

Joelle, Meg, Beth and Amy, the poes in the Forest Temple are named after the main characters from Little Women, Meg, Beth, Amy and Josephine.

The music for the Fire Temple once had chanting as a part of the background music. The chanting was a stock sound effect that showed up in games like "Cruis'n World" for N64 and "Kakuto Chojin" for Xbox. The chanting resembled an Islamic prayer and, seeing the problems it could have caused, Nintendo changed it. The updated version of the Fire Temple replaced the chanting with the wails and moans from the Shadow Temple's music.

There are several signs in Ocarina of Time that you can cut. In the Nintendo 64, Gamecube and Wii versions of the game, you can cut them diagonally. The 3DS Version of the game only allows you to cut them vertically and horizontally.

In the Hyrule Castle courtyard, in one of the windows you can see pictures of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach and Bowser. In Ocarina of Time 3D, the pictures were replaced with a Mario level background with warp pipes and blocks.

The sound of the warp whistle from Super Mario Bros. 3 (which uses the same sound as the recorder from The Legend of Zelda) can be heard in the title theme.

At the bottom of the pool inside the Lakeside Laboratory is a motionless shark behind a set of bars.

The characters Talon and Ingo are loosely based on Mario and Luigi from the Super Mario Bros. series.

At the fishing hole, if you cast your line just right, you can catch the shop owner's hat, revealing a bald patch on his head.

Malon wears a brooch in the shape of Bowser's head.

Although Majora's Mask is a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time, there was an official novel released set shortly after the events in the game. "Link and the Portal of Doom" was written by Tracey West and published by Scholastic in 2006 as part of the Nintendo Heroes series.

In the book, a mysterious portal suddenly appears in Hyrule which absorbs all things around it and threatens to destroy the land. Link and Navi have to travel across Hyrule to learn five parts of a song which will destroy the portal.

Although officially licensed by Nintendo, it's considered to be non-canon.

After acquiring the three Spiritual Stones and obtaining the Ocarina of Time from Zelda, if players head straight to the Back Alley of Hyrule Castle Town, they'll find a fatally wounded Soldier. If players talk to him, he'll tell how Ganondorf betrayed the King and that he was injured trying to fight Ganondorf's men so Zelda and Impa could flee. He tells Link to head to the Temple of Time and dies soon after.

If players try to talk to him again, a message will appear saying "He's not moving anymore...."

The Iron Knuckles enemies are actually Gerudo Thieves in armor. Removing the chest plate reveals a curvy feminine figure, and since the Gerudo are all female it seems that this was intentional, and Nintendo didn't just aimlessly use them as a base.

In the German version, the carpenters are named John, Paul, George & Ringo, after the 60's British pop group The Beatles.

When starting development on Ocarina of Time, Nintendo weren't sure how large of a game they'd be able to make with the Nintendo 64's memory restrictions. Miyamoto even considered structuring the game in a similar fashion to Super Mario 64, with Ganon's castle being the hub. The Forest Temple with Ganon's doppelganger jumping in and out of paintings was an idea carried over from that period of development.

After slashing a sign with your sword in Ocarina of Time, playing Zelda's Lullaby while near the sign will repair it. Once the song is finished, the solving a puzzle jingle plays and the sign magically repairs itself.

This same thing happens in Majora's Mask with playing the Song of Healing.

It's speculated that the forest and water temples in Ocarina of Time were originally wind and ice temples. The symbol on the Water Medallion from the Water Temple appears to have a snowflake on it, and the Forest Medallion design resembles a fan. This connection is further supported by the interior of Ganon's Tower, which is based on different temples. The Forest Temple portion of the tower has a wind puzzle based around fans, and the Water Temple portion of the tower is based on ice.

In the German version of Ocarina of Time, if you speak to Princess Zelda while wearing the Keaton mask, she will say:

"Was bist du denn? Ach, du bist eines dieser goldigen kleinen Taschenmonster, oder?"

Which roughly translates into:

"What are you? Oh, you're one of those golden little pocket monsters, right?"

Referencing the visual similarities between the mask and Pikachu.

Ocarina of Time was originally planned to be played in a first-person perspective, but it was changed to third-person because Miyamoto wanted the change from Young Link to Adult Link to be visible on screen. He also thought players should see Link because "he is so cool looking!

The twins' house in Kokiri Forest actually has two pots, but the game background only shows one. While technically invisible in-game, Link can still roll in between the two pots, which will result in parts of Link disappearing behind where the second pot should be.

During beta testing for Ocarina of Time, developers added an Arwing to the game to test enemy AI and Z-Targeting. While it was never actually used in the game, the code was never removed and can still be accessed via devices like GameShark and Action Replay.