Rare's Cancelled N64 Project Dinosaur Planet Has Been Leaked Online

Hackers do what Nintendont

The phrase "Link to the dump" sounds like a title for a new, environmentally conscious Zelda game

Strange how this clearly would have been one of the best N64 games, but happens to be a fairly forgettable Gamecube game.

Yeah i remember preview screenshots and being "interested" as i enjoyed several Rare games (Blast corps, Jet force Gemini, Goldeneye and Perfect Dark) in that period. I wasn't too bummed about it being changed to Star fox either as it tried to flesh out that IP in ways Nintendo themselves have never really bothered with. Nintendo simply keep releasing the same Starfox story over and over again, killing the IP like sillies. So i am thankful for SF adventures, Assault and Command even if they aren't "top tier". One day Fox, you'll get the game you deserve.

I've been playing a little bit on an emulator, you really need to be playing on original hardware at the moment but it's cool to see and would have been a fabulous N64 game.

It'd be nice to see Nintendo go back and finish this themselves and stick it on the Switch

At least it wasn't fully cancelled. The star fox IP seems to be really cursed, between this, star fox 2 and star fox zero which pretty much burries the franchise for good.

Why do I feel the leaker works at Rare... Oh well I'm actually going to play this lol

I was thinking about this game recently, I am surprised and happy that finally a rom has been dumped. Apparently the idea of moving the game to the Game Cube was made very late, I did not expect that they would transform the game into Star Fox still on Nintendo 64.

But anyway, it gives me hope that someday we will see an Earthbound 64/Mother 64 beta.

I actually liked Star Fox Adventures. Too bad, like F Zero, the franchise is just seemingly being ignored now. Starlink was okay but it wasn't a real Star Fox game.

@T317 I don’t doubt it would’ve been a great GameCube game. The problem was everything going on behind the scenes. The title was rushed out to be completed before Microsoft’s purchase of Rare. If that doesn’t happen, it would’ve had more time in the oven

Was it really canceled though if it moved from the N64 to the Gamecube? 🤷‍♂️

Awesome! I was really looking forward to this game while it was in development, and ended up really disliking what it became

Wow, this looks pretty nice.
I'm like 5 Minutes into the Game.

ok just a few screenshots l seen and l already want to try it🤩

This is real cool if its actually a full working game, gotta wonder what else all these game collectors have, im so glad theres becoming an explosion of beta leaks there more exciting than nintendo directs

@T317 one of the best gamecube games on the (very big) list to me, its very rare for nintendo to make adventure games nowadays

Wow! If this was in the Nintendo Direct a few days ago (a playable Dinosaur Planet 64), that would have made the Direct for me. It happened with Star Fox 2 on the SNES Classic, so why not Dinosaur Planet? In all seriousness, I am very tempted to download this ASAP because its only a matter of time before this gets taken down by Nintendo or Microsoft. I might wait for it to be playable on emulators, but only time will tell.

@mikegamer This isn't hacking...

Literally had a heart attack when I saw this headline (also, it wasn't cancelled, it was reworked into Star Fox Adventures for the GameCube). OMG

@Menardi This was nowhere on my Saturday Bingo Card.

Excellent! I was excited about this back in the day. Ultimately what it became was fine, but the SF elements felt shoehorned in and didn't really gel with the rest of it, in my opinion. It would've been cool to have another IP out there with a strong female lead as well, to keep poor, lonely Samus company.

I don't understand how things like this get leaked. I mean are the walls of security wherever this has been stored made of Swiss cheese?

I've captured footage here: https://youtu.be/oGXxtlUj41Y

Interesting to note Eveline Fischer (Rare composer and voice of Joanna Dark) voices Krystal in this version. Also a few spelling mistakes in the subtitles!

That's so exciting!
I wonder if Dinosaur Planet is really better than Starfox Adventures or if the latter was actually a faithful port.

@DaftAda heres the first 50 mins by another youtuber https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pG05g0o-TV8

I finally got round to finishing StarFox Adventures on the Cube last month. It’s a great looking game but does feel unfinished and the final boss feels very tacked on. That being said it’s a perfectly good game in and of itself. Bit of a slog at times but I’m glad I finally got around to ticking it of my list.

If it this was basically finished then it was just dumb that they didn't release it on N64. Releasing the N64 version wouldn't have excluded them releasing an upgraded GC version too. I mean, Christ, this is common practice for Nintendo these days. So stupid!

Also, this is now two leaked builds from past [potential] versions of Rare games (this and also the GoldenEye 64 remaster). I feel like something is at play here, like maybe Microsoft is thinking about releasing new versions of these or something and it just testing the waters by "leaking" out the old builds to see how people react (God knows how they'd get past the licensing and stuff though). Or, it could be some dude who works/worked for Rare that has a few versions of various games stored on a drive and is slowly leaking them all out just because. Happy to see all these leaks though, especially since Nintendo never saw fit to allow either version both the leaked titles.

@MARl0 this is absolutely hacking. Someone hacked into Rare's / Nintendo's servers and stole this code.
Not that I really disapprove too much, what a find!

Yep could have been great if legally done on Switch. Loved Starfox Adventures on GC and about time Fox and Clan made a return on the Switch. I feel Starlink battle for atlas proved how good a new adventure for the fab 4 plus a token vixen could be

Holy smokes! I didn't think this would ever happen!
Very excited to check it out. :3

Now we just need that Duke Nukem Forever build from 2001

I know this game isn't exactly popular with star fox fans but I loved it! It was cool that it was basically a zelda clone with star fox characters and even though it started out having nothing to do with star fox the end result on gamecube was pretty neat! This is one of the best games on the cube if you ask me!

Shocking. Clearly not 60fps

@N64-ROX This is sourced from a physical CD-ROM containing a QA build of the game purchased from a private game collector. How that collector came into possession of the CD is up for debate, could simply know former staff for all we know.

"I'm Fox McCloud, Royal Knight of the Lylat System."

Last I checked, he was a mercenary. I guess either Fox was trying to sound cool or Rare was willingly rewriting the established story of Star Fox to fit their game's narrative.

Maybe we'll see Twelve Tales: Conker 64 soon?

Very impressive, I was looking forward to it.
Shame it never got released.

Didn't realise they started implementing Fox as the main character on the N64 version the only stuff I had ever seen of the game had Sabre as that character. So obviously that decision to make it a Star Fox game came before it was moved to a Gamecube game. From what I recall back when it was shown for the first time as a Gamecube game it was said to have been a change that was made when it moved systems. Although I guess this build seeing as it was never shown off to the public could have been the start of that transition and Rare were just trying out ideas.

@rjejr they care more for a title that gets them more clicks than honesty 🤷🏼‍♂️

Canceled lol you mean transported to the gamecube and was called star fox adventure

I was so hyped for this game. Rare was the king of the N64. I was such a fan back then that I enjoyed Banjo Kazooie over Mario 64 and I still prefer Diddy Kong Racing over Mario Kart. I thought it would be better than Ocarina of Time and maybe as good as Mojora's Mask (one of my favourite game ever).

How wrong was I, the final game looked amazing but was super boring, and then Microsoft broke my heart when they bought Rare. It could have been fine if they continued making great games on Xbox, but Rare never managed to live up to their N64 era legacy.

Really curious to play and learn more about that N64 build though. It's great to see all these canceled game in the wild.

@N64-ROX Again, this wasn't hacking... Others have already explained why, so just read their comments.

I'm impressed that Fox was in N64 builds of the game at all. I'd assumed that he only came in once development properly started on the GameCube.

@Gamecuber from what I recall from before it was released is the game was supposed to be almost twice as long and be on two discs from what I am remembering and was potentially rushed near the end because of the sale to Microsoft.

This is exciting news! I was fortunate enough to get to play the demo at E3 2000 before they switched to Star Fox characters. It was an incredibly good looking game for the N64.
I was disappointed it was never released on the N64, but at least we get to see how it pushed the hardware now.

The only thing I can hope for now is for Playtonic to do a new "Dinasor Planet" and make it how it was first supposed to be

@DaftAda Try recording in 4:3 - the game is not meant to be wide-screen.

@chipia Alot was cut out in transition to GCN to release it before Nintendo finished the sale of Rare. Krystal relegated to a literal crystal in adventures including the general scales boss fight which never happens.

I never knew Fox actually made the N64 build, I thought Fox NcCloud came about on the move to GCN.

Great stuff! Had no idea Fox and co had made it as far as the final N64 build but it's close enough to the true Dinosaur Planet.

@Link-Hero how is it disapointing? The fact we have a much more polished, feature complete rom of Dinosaur Planet means a more complete and less buggy game to play. Star fox looks great in it, much better than fhe generic fox lead character.

Wasn’t this apart of the Nintendo “Dream Team” of projects? Im vaguely remembering a time when Nintendo was hyping up future releases. They were suppose to be revolutionary. One of the games that came out of this was Banjo and Kazookie. Did I dream this?

This looks more interesting than Star Fox Adventures!

Dinosaur Planet was never actually cancelled, it eventually became Star Fox Adventures.

Love seeing N64 pushed to the utmost limits like this

@MARl0 Way to split hairs

@mikegamer You either don't know what splitting hairs means, or you don't know what hacking is.

@Menardi Wow, are you okay? Heart attacks are pretty serious.

I miss starfox. hope a new one or starfox 64 deluxe comes to switch soon.

What are we going to get next? Twelve Tales 64? Project Dream? Any of the cancelled pre-buyout Gamecube sequels? I definitely want to find out.

Is this playable? I’ll have to play it as I was looking forward to this game on 64.

I actually enjoyed SFA. Probably my favorite single player game on GC tbh.

I was very interested in this game during development.

I was somewhat disappointed with what we got. That likely had a lot to do with it not being a true Star Fox game though. I would have judged it differently on its own merits if it wasn't using a license and cramming in afterthought shooter levels lol

I do kind of want to replay SFA at some point though, and judge it on its own merits.

Looks pretty good!

I know most people disagree but I really really liked Star Fox Adventures. Has super strong Christmas feels attached to it.

N64. Rare. Click!

This so should have been released on N64. It would be amazing as a Kickstarter project to have this developed as an NTSC and PAL physical cartridge

@alexybubble The Pre-MS Gamecube games are for the most part very early betas except Grabbed by the Ghoulies. That title if I remember correctly was fairly long in the tooth in development till it was scrapped and simplified for the Xbox. But odds are it won't get leaked...

@Wexter think otherwise I wrote in English I am dyslexic so punish me it, just mean those who write about games that leaked write right and left and ruin it for others who like to have played fast out on the street

@talllennart If you don't want to be spoiled about an experience then don't read the article. Also, this game did eventually come out on the Gamecube as StarFox Adventures and this is really just a cool piece of history as this probably is the most advanced N64 games I've ever seen and would have probably been one of the best on the platform. And honestly leaks like this are fine as the publishers really have no intention to ever release them to the public so I don't mind these.

@Aerona I died of happiness.

Apparently, according to some, the release of this build may have taken the seller by surprise, and strained relationships that existed between certain preservationists and the collectors who own this material, which may harm the preservationists' ability to procure more builds like these for other games in the future. With every push, there is a pull. However, if such an unfortunate breakdown in the pipeline like this one had to occur, this is "the" game to have had that effect. It cannot be overstated how integral Dinosaur Planet is to the histories of Nintendo, the Nintendo 64, Rareware, and Nintendo fans the world over. The fact that this article currently has fewer comments than a 'what are you playing' feature (I'm playing Dinosaur Planet, personally) perhaps speaks to that history and how much Nintendo's audience has shifted in the past twenty-one years.

It is a jewel of a build, you really couldn't ask for a better prototype than this. Fans will be analysing its contents for years, and few games are more deserving of such a loving and considered service.

Boo hoo if someone got butt hurt over this being put out in the public hands.

Let's face reality, whoever owned this and was hoarding it was two things. A jackass for burying it, but also a crook because they never owned the rights to the game in the first place. It's the property of Rare and/or Nintendo. Whoever had this proto owned nothing but the media it was stored on so they're trafficking in stolen goods.

Proper preservation of this would have been do go the way Frank Cifaldi did with Sim City for NES. You study thoroughly, make a solid multi-tier public and private archive of the data, and get it out into the publics hands as a virtual museum piece for people to digest and learn about.

@VmprHntrD I agree, think there is always the naysayer type on hand to put a damper on what is otherwise a historical moment. I can however understand the just concern that a certain level of backstage drama like that may hamper the public's ability to obtain similar builds in the future, which would be a shame. Sometimes the wheels need to be greased with the right people to obtain items of historical importance like these (Diddy Kong Racing and Conker, for starters). Hopefully reason prevails there, and those who collect and appreciate this material appreciate the bigger picture with time; there is no reason for this sort of material to sit and await bit rot for decades on end, assuming its contents weren't archived and preserved by the seller years ago. It is in the best interest of developers, players, and anyone who appreciates the hobby for items of importance in video game history like this, which are far beyond the scope of any sort of official release, to be publically-available.

This looks quite remarkably advanced for a Nintendo 64 game.

@Freddyfred I'd have to think both og these titles get approximately the same amount of clicks, and all I did was remove 1 word to make it more accurate.

"Rare's Cancelled N64 Project Dinosaur Planet Has Been Leaked Online"

"Rare's N64 Project Dinosaur Planet Has Been Leaked Online"

Then they could have added the subtitle: If You Played Starfox Adventure Then You've Played It

I wasn't really upset that this turned into a Star Fox game, but changing Krystal from a protagonist to a damsel in distress kind of killed the game for me. Well, that and those annoying parts where you have to carry barrels.

Wow. The graphics for this game were incredible for the time judging by the pictures above. And so colorful! I really wish the original vision for this game ended up releasing for the N64 so we had another potential gem to enjoy even today. The model for Star Fox looks incredible though and very detailed. Probably my favorite model yet.

@Menardi Agreed. Been around that community on the edges since I don't peddle in stolen goods or have a wallet that deep to even bother to actively do that, so I'm on the edges of it. The drama is quite real and there are some unmitigated scumbags in these circles who care nothing more than their own personal selfish ends what to get and do with it. I don't recall the name, but there is an active buyer in Japan who snaps up anything he can get off yahoo japan auctions and other sources domestically there. If he gets them, they may at best get backed up, at this location, but the items never release, never get info out, never get any data or even pictures of the item(s) in action. The start and end is the sale, whatever info is given, and it's gone into the mists. I know he can't be alone in these practices and it's sickening to think what has been lost to personal greed. Someone like that is the kind that can enable outright theft, much like stolen museum pieces into the black market. Quietly stuff moves from X to Y and stays hidden for years, decades, longer until someone or a trail of someones dies off and things slip. I hate the thought of scum like that dude and others doing this, but it happens.

Considering they changed this to something else doesn't make me feel like they have found a hidden gem. And now the shady hacking world has got it's mitts on it I will no doubt have more articles on here, great!

It's grinding my gears how many people don't understand that this game was, indeed, cancelled.

MOTHER 3 for N64 wasn't released, it transitioned to the GBA and many, many elements were lost in that transition. It's the exact same situation here. By default, the true vision of the original game was cancelled in that transition and there are many aspects that are preserved here for our eyes for the very first time. It is for all intents and purposes a cancelled game. This is not Star Fox Adventures, this is 100% Dinosaur Planet. It's not a hard distinction to grasp.

@SleeplessKnight

Star Fox Adventures was released. Dinosaur Planet was not.

@bahooney I understand your logic here, obviously there are many differences between the two and I understand there is a certain degree of fan emotion involved in regards to Miyamoto's suggestion to implement Star Fox, but it is a little overly-simplistic to describe Dinosaur Planet as a "cancelled" game.

Did you know that Ocarina Of Time originally had you seeking out fairies inside the Deku Tree? Or that the overworld was originally a hub level similar to Super Mario 64? Given the fact that the game then underwent major changes as development went on, does this mean that the "true vision" of Ocarina Of Time was never released? No, simply that aspects of it from a presentation, story, and gameplay perspective changed in ways both small and large prior to completion, as is common in product development. The same principle applies here; regardless of the story changes it underwent to accomodate Star Fox, Star Fox Adventures is the final released version of Dinosaur Planet, it was never "cancelled." Star Fox 2 is an example of a game that was legitimately cancelled; Dinosaur Planet was reworked into a different title. Changed dramatically, certainly, and one can argue both sides regarding how much of the "original vision" is intact, but it was never cancelled by Rareware Ltd. or Nintendo, and was in fact released. It is misleading to younger or uninitiated players to describe it as such.

@Wexter ive didnt read it only on big letters LEAKED

@Menardi I disagree

@bahooney To be fair no game ever comes out true to vision and compromises are always made. But Starfox Adventures carried a lot over from this build, but due to the Microsoft purchase, both Rareware and Nintendo were under pressure to get the game out before then. As we all know Microsoft would have diverted team members and funds away from this title and then it would have truly never seen the light of day. So let's give Starfox Adventures credit for coming out at all and as a rather great Gamecube title despite it! If Microsoft never purchased Rareware or Nintendo did Starfox Adventures would have probably had more time to get closer to a complete vision.

But man Dinasour Planet feels far more complete. There are some not great parts like the aiming needs tweaking and the shadows and textures are not complete... but this has been surprisingly great! This is one of the best N64 games I've played!

@talllennart Okay bro. Based on the story around this game this specific build was in the hands of a private collector and only recently got dumped by the preservation group Forest of Illusions. So while yes the game was "leaked" considering Nintendo and Rare have no reason to ever release this build this was probably the only way we'd ever get to play this game as close as originally intended on the N64 as even Starfox Adventures was compromised due to a hard deadline because of the Microsoft purchase of Rareware. That and it does not have the gunk around it like Pokemon Gold/Silver beta as this seems to have a verified chain of custody.

@Wexter This is a point I think is often lost on many. Given how ambitious this game clearly was for the hardware, it stands to reason that it may very well have been moved to the GameCube anyway regardless of the Star Fox injection.

Given the fact that Rare were already drafting concepts for Donkey Kong Racing on the GameCube, it is clear they already had an eye towards developing for it at that time. I think most would agree that, regardless of how you feel about it, Star Fox Adventures is an incredibly technically-impressive GameCube title; what Dinosaur Planet eventually became certainly benefitted from releasing on more powerful hardware. It is a realistic possibility that the scope of the game could have called for a natural shift towards more powerful hardware without Nintendo's suggestion. Should a non-Star Fox Dinosaur Planet title have been moved to the GameCube, it is entirely possible this game either would have been suspended the moment Microsoft purchased the studio, or, worse, the game would have been reworked for the Xbox, with all the possible changes and alterations such a move may have brought with it (the more likely scenario is that it would have simply been canned; it doesn't bode well for a game to shift target hardware twice in its development cycle, and I imagine they would have generally preferred to develop a product from a clean slate specifically for the Xbox rather than retool an already-retooled Nintendo 64-to-GameCube title).

Either way you cut it, and any former Rare devs who eventually read this comment are free to correct me if this assessment is mistaken, the original Dinosaur Planet was unlikely to have ever been released in as unadulterated a form as this one, even without the inclusion of Star Fox. The timing of the oncoming change in console generations can be argued to have been particularly unkind to both Dinosaur Planet and Rare as a whole. Things may have turned out very differently for Dinosaur Planet had it begun development earlier on.

@Menardi Agreed! Microsoft was not kind to Rareware IPs. For every Grabbed by the Ghoulies or Kameo, there is a Perfect Dark Core, KI3 (the original concept/pitch not the one made by DoubleHelix), a Banjo Kazooie remake. And let's be frank Dinosaur Planet would had not been safe from pre-Phil Spencer Microsoft's hands. And MS has gone decades at this point ignoring IPs like Banjo, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini and many others in the dustbin of "meh"

@Wexter Precisely. Even if Dinosaur Planet did release as an Xbox exclusive, that would be quite literally the last you would have ever seen of it. It would simply be yet another classic IP unaccountably owned by Microsoft and left to gather dust. At the end of the day, the Star Fox inclusion helped to solidify the game's final resting place where it belongs: on a Nintendo console.

@Menardi It breaks my heart what could have been if Microsoft invested in growing Rare's IPs... just imagine a world where Banjo is as recognizable as Mario, or big ambitious titles coming from the Golden R was commonplace! Instead Microsoft really just left ideas of gold in a studio that was bleeding talent due to publisher mismanagement.

This ad breaks my heart every time I see it of what could have been: https://youtu.be/nscxD4wJ70Y

@Wexter It really is a shame. I can't help but wish that the damages could be mitigated today, be that in the form of an IP sale of the Rare hits to Nintendo, or a similar solution. Maybe that's a naïve fan want, but it is a reasonable one considering Microsoft clearly have few intentions of ever undertaking a serious follow-up to any of the major Rare IPs; they would surely be more valuable to them sold than they currently are. Not that Nintendo would be able to produce or would even see any value in the production of a worthwhile follow-up, either; they admittedly do just fine the way things are, but a dead IP in Nintendo's hands is far more alive than a dead IP in Microsoft's hands.

@Zenszulu yeah, that’s my understanding of it too. Pity, it could have been an epic title if they hadn’t been rushed by the Microsoft buy out. The fact that we got it at all is a blessing, as Microsoft have done nothing really worthwhile with Rare in 20 years and even if you count the excellent Rare Replay, nothing that compares to their heights on N64.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/features/opinion/dinosaur-planet-leak/

A fascinating interview with Kev Bayliss of DK Creations Ltd. regarding this leak. Wouldn't mind seeing Timber finally get his own game some day. Perhaps fans will produce an unlockable Timber skin for Sabre in the inevitable fan re-work of this prototype?

@Gamecuber I think the problem was they not only had to convert the entire game to a new system and much more advanced engine but they had only a fraction of the time to do it compared to how long they had been working on it for the N64. Considering it was a really early N64 game it really was overall one of the best graphical games. Sadly though even by that point most of Rare's key staff had gone and by the time they began releasing Xbox 360 games their quality had dropped. Although Viva Piniata was incredibly original and fun for what it was.

@Zenszulu I agree. I even remember reading about it as an upcoming game in the Official Nintendo magazine back in 99/2000.

@Gamecuber remember a lot of the previews back then. There was even a magazine here in the UK that had a huge interview with someone at Rare about it. Much like a lot of games that were released late on the system it really did show what the hardware was capable of it's just a shame because developers needed to find publishers that would invest in expensive cartridge production we didn't get to see too many games like it or ones that were really designed for the PSone. Still holding out that one day the N64 version of Eternal Darkness and Resident Evil Zero surface or one of the many cancelled games that we probably never knew about.

@Zenszulu as interesting as that would be, the graphical leap from the N64 to GameCube means they wouldn’t be more than a curio. Don’t get me wrong, I was a N64 fan back then (still have it set up now) but the leap from gen 5 to 6 is astounding, especially with games like Resident Evil. I’d love to see a play through of these games but I wouldn’t bother playing them. The GameCube versions are classics.

@Gamecuber oh no doubt I remember seeing the remake of Resident Evil and being blown away and I agree for curiosity sake is why I would want to see what changed. Although I don't know how far along Zero was despite being announced in 99 but from what I understand Eternal Darkness much like Dinosaur Planet was in a near finished state before development switched systems.

@Zenszulu I saw some footage of the N64 build of Eternal Darkness (there’s a screenshot in the GameCube anthology book too). Even though it’s obviously a N64 game at heart even on the cube, the graphical difference is still really impressive today. Going back to something like Resident Evil 2 on the N64 shows just what a leap the generation was. I remember really wanting Resident Evil Zero on the N64 at the time.

@MARl0 Are you still talking?