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Rare was a crucial part of the earlier Nintendo days, developing games such as Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, and Conker’s Bad Fur Day. One of the last projects that Rare worked on before being purchased by Microsoft was Star Fox Adventures for GameCube. Prior to becoming a Star Fox game, Adventures was originally its own IP called Dinosaur Planet, in development for Nintendo 64 at Rare. That’s why the game is different compared to other main line Star Fox titles. Now, decades later, Nintendo archivist platform Forest of Illusion has obtained a Dinosaur Planet early build disc from a private game collector in Sweden, dated to Dec. 1, 2000.
Today we have released Dinosaur Planet by Rare for Nintendo 64. The development was halted and moved to the GameCube, where it was then released as Star Fox Adventures. Enjoy! (More info in this thread).
Link to the dump:https://t.co/gQGGcU4vJK pic.twitter.com/Orub7RU3fa
— Forest of Illusion (@forestillusion) February 20, 2021
We purchased this disc containing the build from a private game collector in Sweden. The file date lists the build as being from December 1st 2000. It seems to be quite a late build of the game which is great, but it will need some hacking to be fully playable to the end. pic.twitter.com/igtDSzeRzG
— Forest of Illusion (@forestillusion) February 20, 2021
Forest of Illusion has made the game available to download via the link included in the tweet above, but the servers are getting overloaded so it is also available at Archive.org. As mentioned by Forest of Illusion, it is worth noting that all emulators will experience various graphical glitches, as it is of course an incomplete build of Dinosaur Planet, so bear that in mind before downloading. The screenshots of the game showcase some Star Fox characters, which probably means this was the point where Rare started to transition it over to becoming another Nintendo property.
What do you think of this discovery?
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