Majora's Mask Crooked Cartridge - 2nd Hero

The glitched opening cutscene. Link possesses only half of his normal equipment.

A Clock Town guard is missing.

The glitch leaves the shooting galleries perpetually closed.

"Do you remember the code?
It's /////! "

Deku guard.

MM[CC]

Compatible Versions ? Original 3DS JPN USA PAL GCN 1.0 1.1

Details Discovered: JaytheHam Verified: Yes

Requirements

• You need an empty save file.

Instructions

1. Start an empty save file, and type in a name.
2. Get ready to to the Crooked Cartridge trick, but don't do it yet. Select "End", and then about 1/10th of a second later (basically straight away), pull the side of the cartridge out. Once the data has finished saving, push the cart back in.
3. Select the new save file (assuming the game didn't freeze while it was saving) and start it.

Success?

There are four possible outcomes at this point:

• The screen will fade to black, and then crash with the red debug line visible. This probably means you pulled the cartridge out a little too early.
• The game starts, and when you see Link, he has neither his sword nor his shield. You must have just pulled the cartridge out way too early -- you've performed the 48 Ocarinas trick.
• The game starts exactly like a normal game. This happens a lot and means that you pulled the cartridge out a little too slow, probably.
• The game starts and when you see Link he has a shield and an empty sword scabbard.

If that last one is what happened, then yell and scream with irrepressible joy! You've done it! Congratulations! Now don't turn off the N64! Because the save file disappears when the N64 is turned off.

Results

A lengthy list of some things that are altered in this game:

• On the Map Subscreen, you can see the whole world map. You also have the maps for all areas, although a lot of the time they are faded or not visible until the game is paused.
• When you get up to the point where Tatl follows you and joins you, most of the time she won't -- she'll just hover near the wooden door. Sometimes, though, she will join you; if she does the game world will be slightly different.
• If Tatl doesn't join you, then as Deku Link, if you don't have Deku Nuts, then when flying, the B button will have scrambled pixels displayed on it.
• If Tatl doesn't join you, all chests in the game will already be open. If Tatl does join you, all the chests in the game may be closed instead.
• All (or some) of the Clock Town guards will be gone if you didn't get Tatl; if you did, they will most probably all be there.
• Talk to the man in either of the shooting galleries, and after you've finished talking, he'll tell you it's closing time and boot you out, regardless of the actual time.
• The Deku Scrub Salesman in the flower near the Clock Tower is the one from the swamp -- all of the Deku Scrub Salesmen in the game are switched around as though you had already done the title deed trading sequence.
• The missing part of the Clock Town Great Fairy won't be anywhere; if you visit the Great Fairy, it may turn out that you actually have the missing part with you. If you do, you'll receive magic power like normal, except that the magic meter is already flashing blue as though you had drunk some Château Romani, and indeed, you do have infinite magic.
• If you talk to any of the Bomber kids, they will remind you that the code is: /////
• If you talk to the Banker, he will inform you that you have deposited a total of: ///// Rupees, by talking to the banker you'll also discover that your name is "00000000". If you try to deposit any Rupees, you won't be able to, because your account is full. If you attempt to withdraw any Rupees, then after choosing how many you want to take, you'll get stuck on a screen with the banker saying something; various parts of his text can be changed from 0 to 9 as though you were still selecting how many Rupees you wanted. You have to reset to fix this, so I don't suggest you try it.
• If you didn't get Tatl, the rock blocking access to Romani Ranch will probably be gone from Day 1. If you did, it might still be there.
• Wait at the ranch until the aliens come, and they'll just sit idly until eventually the sun kills them, an easy win. Wait at the ranch until the night of the second day and the game will freeze showing a picture of you (Deku Link) on Cremia's cart.
• Wait somewhere that isn't the ranch until the night of the second day, and then enter the ranch. The cinema showing you riding on Cremia's cart will start playing straight away. When you get out onto Milk Road, Cremia's cart will disappear; quickly enter the Gorman Bros' Race Track and you'll be back on the cart. Cremia will give you her little spiel about using your bow (Hello? Deku Link here!), and then you'll be protecting the cart from the Gorman Bros as Deku Link. Pressing B makes you shoot an arrow out of your mouth; the really cool thing is that the arrows move incredibly fast. When you reach the end of the Race Track, instead of the screen fading to black and then showing you and Cremia in Termina Field, the game keeps on going. Cremia's cart drives off the edge of the Race Track and starts falling through the space below it, with you in the back. Keep looking up at the Race Track and you'll see the two Gorman Bros fall past you, horseless; keep watching and you'll see them fall past again and again and again, faster and faster each time until you can't even see them anymore. You'll just keep on falling forever, so you'll need to reset.
• On the night of any day, the Postman will be standing by the exit to Termina Field in East Clock Town. Talk to him and he'll give you the Postman's Hat before merrily skipping away.
• All Pieces of Heart have been replaced with life hearts.
• Wait until the moon hits the earth. You start back on the first day and you'll have changed back into normal Link, without the Deku Mask.
• Make your way up to the Mountain Village smithy and you'll find the big guy banging on the Razor Sword. Talk to him, come back the next day, and talk to him again to receive the Gilded Sword.
• With the Gilded Sword you can "activate" Owl Statues. If you save at one, then when you get back to the file select screen, the save game will be gone.
• All of the four "cursed areas" will have been restored, as though the four dungeons had already been completed (e.g. the swamp is not poisonous, the mountain village is thawed, etc.).
• Wait until midnight of the 3rd day as normal Link, and then go to the top of the Clock Tower. The Skull Kid will give you his little speech about "if this is something that can be stopped then stop it" and then sit there shaking in midair. The strange thing is that the moon is already really really close and the four giants are standing around it holding it up, as though you'd only summoned some of them. The moon still hits the earth, though.

There are a lot more things that are different that I haven't mentioned here, but I think I've covered all the major ones.

Although the game doesn't seem to be saved, you can in fact load a 2nd Hero file after having reset the N64 off. Simply perform the 48 Ocarinas glitch over the file that was a 2nd Hero file, load the file, and it'll be the 2nd Hero one.

This trick can be very hard to do.

Explanation

I have two theories about how this glitch works, and while I'm not sure which one's correct, the second one seems more likely (and can actually be tested, I think).

Theory A

This glitch seems to incompletely write a new game. The game manages to set some values are set to their proper defaults, but, thanks to our interrupting or corrupting a large portion of the data it tried to write, most are set either to the wrong value (zero/false, generally) or some other odd value such as /////. The game is evidently interrupted halfway through the writing of these values (unlike the 48 Ocarinas trick, which interrupts the game before most, if any, data manages to get written at all). The best example of this is the opening cinema: some of Link's equipment is present (he has his Hylian Shield), but some of it is not (most notably, his sword).

This partial data write is likely the cause of most of the game's erratic behavior. Some of the treasure chests are set to their proper states (closed), whereas others are not. Some in-game obstacles (like the boulder blocking access to Romani Ranch) are set to their proper states (existent, in the case of the boulder), whereas others are not. Some of the Clock Town guards are set to their proper states (present), whereas others are not. And so on it goes.

Theory B

On the other hand, the ability to restore an apparently lost 2nd Hero file using the 48 Ocarinas trick implies that the 48 Ocarinas trick is the result of using the Crooked Cartridge to prevent the game from writing the default values (and, consequently, deleting the data that used to be on that file, leaving that non-deleted data intact). If the 48 Ocarinas trick, whose only difference from this glitch is in timing and results, leaves most of the file's previous data intact, then we can conclude that this glitch leaves some of the file's previous data intact. This would also explain most of the permutations (like some treasure chests being open, or some in-game obstacles being cleared): the "completed" stuff is just leftover data from the file that was overwritten. Unfortunately, this theory can't be proven, but it can be disproven: if you do this glitch on a normally-created file that has no treasure chests open (if that's possible), and some treasure chests end up being open, then this theory is completely incorrect. (And if someone does disprove this theory in that manner, I would greatly appreciate it if they would note its being disproved in this article.)

'Curse, now that I think about it, Theory B includes Theory A -- that is, Theory A is part of Theory B. I guess the difference between the two, then, is the importance placed on the role that the old data (the data that used to be on the glitched save file) plays in the glitch's end results; Theory A places very little importance on the old data, stating that most of the "completed" events are the result of corruption, while Theory B places all of the "blame" for the "completed" events on the old data.

jimbo1qaz proposes a different explanation.

Theory C

This is related to A and mutually exclusive with B. I believe that when a file is erased,its data is zeroed out and somehow marked as deleted. When the file is recreated, it's reinitialized. But when the 48 ocarinas glitch is done, the file is marked as saved? but still filled with placeholder zeroes. When this glitch is done, it loads some of the proper information and then at some point stops writing, which accounts for the variety of effects. But when it's saved, the game somehow check sums or finds that the file is invalid, so shows it as a new game when it actually still has some half-valud data. When the 48 ocarinas glitch is done on the same file, the file is somehow remarked as saved, when it still has the 2nd hero data in there. The theory makes sense and accounts for all the observations. The only problem is how the game knows if a slot is full or not, which cannot be determined w/o further investigation.

Djking233 has another explanation

Theory D

This is rooted in theory C. When the game save file is written, everything is done while the game isn't loaded and you aren't playing. The CC glitch forces the writing to halt, rather than stop. When this happens, the game tries to write the file while you are playing. This makes the game write the data too quickly, and thus important values (Such as item values, the amount of rupees you have, and the bombers code: all very important to being able to complete the game) will be altered or simply dropped entirely. This is a provable theory. If anyone could try this, it would really help. Do this trick, then scroll through the opening cutscene lightning fast. If tatl joins you, this theory is false.

/////

///// is likely one of several semi-numeric values found in many programming languages; specifically, it is probably equal to either null (nothing), NaN (a "number" called "Not a Number"), or Infinity. A case could be made for Infinity: this glitch gives you ///// Rupees, and leaves you unable to deposit any more (because the game thinks that you have the maximum).

Loading a 2nd Hero file using the 48 Ocarinas trick

As I stated earlier, the glitch here seems to be that the game is interrupted and prevented from completely writing all of the proper values to the new file. The 48 Ocarinas trick, on the other hand, seems to prevent nearly all of the default values from being written. This means that the 48 Ocarinas trick effectively allows you to create and play a new file without overwriting the data it used to contain.