December2021
News Yes, This Is Stunt Race FX Running On The Game Boy
Seriously impressive stuff
Stunt Race FX (known in Japan as Wild Trax) was quite an impressive feat when it launched. Sure, it looks hopelessly crude by modern standards, but back in the early '90s when 3D visuals were still in their infancy, it really turned heads – lest we forget, consoles like the SNES simply were not designed for this kind of...
September2019
Poll Box Art Brawl #7 - Star Fox
Barrel roll with the punches
Oh, hello there! We were so involved with the freshly released Super NES games on Switch we almost forgot about the big bout. Of course it's time for Box Art Brawl, the weekly showdown where three regional retro boxes battle to find out which was the fairest of them all. Last week Mega Man 3 gave itself a sound...
July2018
Video How Ingenious British Teens Helped Nintendo Fly With Star Fox
The dawn of the Lylat Wars
The story of how a group of ambitious young British programmers gave Nintendo the courage to enter the 3D arena is hardly new; we've covered it on this very site, for example. However, the tale behind the development of Star Fox is one that bears repeating, making this new video from People Make Games well worth a...
June2017
News Star Fox 2 Release Has Nothing To Do With Super FX Patent Expiring, Says Argonaut Founder
"Nintendo owns that patent anyway"
The news that Star Fox 2 is finally getting an official release on the Super NES Classic Edition sent shockwaves through the gaming world, and even caught programmer Dylan Cuthbert by surprise. The game -
November2016
Video The History Of Croc, The 3D Platformer Which Partly Influenced Super Mario 64
Green with envy
The link between defunct studio Argonaut Software and Nintendo is well known - the UK firm helped the Japanese giant enter the world of 3D gaming with the SNES blaster Star Fox. However, what's less well documented is the fact that Argonaut had a very early role to play in the development of Super Mario 64, a game which is considered...
September2016
Video Remembering Trevor McFur, Atari's Not Entirely Convincing Answer To Star Fox
Out-foxed
1993 was a bumper year for gamers, and Nintendo's groundbreaking Star Fox was possibly the cream of the crop. Powered by the Super FX chip and offering intense 3D graphics, it set a new standard for visuals on home consoles and gave its host platform a new lease of life. Also released in 1993 was the Atari Jaguar, the veteran company's...
November2015
News No, SNES Super FX Title Vortex Was Never A Transformers Game
Despite the rumours of the past few decades
1994's Vortex might not have been a smash-hit, but it was arguably one of the most technically impressive uses of Argonaut's Super FX chip - the hardware which made games like Star Fox and Stunt Race FX possible. Featuring a transforming craft known as the Battle Morphing System which could shift between...
April2015
News Say Hello To Star Fox's NES-Based Forerunner, NesGlider
The prototype which started a profitable friendship
Star Fox is one of the most technically impressive games on the SNES, and was a collaboration between Nintendo and UK-based Argonaut Software. We've covered the making of the game in the past, but Unseen64 has an excelle
March2010
Feature The Making of Star Fox
We go behind the scenes to discover how a small UK code-house helped Nintendo enter the realm of 3D – and make millions in the process
In these days of ultra-realistic graphical plenty it’s all too easy to forget that for console gamers, 3D visuals didn’t really become par for the course until the advent of the 32-bit technology in the...
