Forest of Illusion is on a roll, when it comes to uncovering gaming history. Their latest find is a copy of Dinosaur Planet for the Nintendo 64–a game that never saw an official release, as the project was moved to the Nintendo GameCube and eventually came to be known as Star Fox Adventures. They’ve dumped the game where it can be now be found online, preserving it forever. This build of Dinosaur Planet is dated December 1, 2000 and is playable, though the ending levels are reportedly unfinished and potentially unable to be completed without the use of cheats. According to Forest of Illusion, emulator compatibility with the game is spotty, leading to multiple instances of slowdown and graphical glitches, however it works fine on official hardware through flashcart use.

As a reminder, sharing links to ROMs is against the rules.

Forest of Illusion official Twitter account

 

[Moon164]

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.

 

[Deleted User]

I agree. Kinda weird to see Fox in this build.
Maybe someone will mod this build to make Fox look like Sabre.

 

[MikaDubbz]

I thought the game had nothing to do with Starfox until it got moved to gamecube

People probably misremembered the history that relayed the development to us. It must have been demanded to make it a Start Fox game prior to moving to the GameCube.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

So did I... The protagonist was a fox called Saber.

I'm extremely surprised to see an N64 build of the game with Fox McCloud. I wonder if it greatly differs from the latest pre-Starfox build of the game?

Really need to check out the ROM asap, I always dreamed of playing the original Dinosaur Planet (and now that it's here I'm a little bummed it might be more of beta of Starfox Adventures).

Something tells me that the Star Fox stuff was added when they switched gears over to the GC.

 

[Gnargle]

This is not the original dinosaur planet. This is the beta of the reworked lylat wars with dinosaur planet clothing before the final transition to star fox/lylat wars.

But it still is an amazing discovery.

No it isn't. This build dates from 3 years after lylat wars was released, and it's clearly Dinosaur Planet - it even shares animations and cutscenes with the final gamecube version. Why post something so obviously wrong?

 

[Deleted member 323844]

Played a bit on ED64P and it looks great, tho performance crawls in some areas.

u64aap doesn't seem to work. I would be great if someone can find some aa cheats.

 

[SG854]

Yeeeeessss! Finally!

This is a great year for betas

 

[MikaDubbz]

Alright, someone really needs to find and dump a build of Twelve Tales: Conker 64

 

[DaniPoo]

Is it illegal to share a rom of something that never was released and never made any money?
It's abandoned software Well I guess it could be illegal since the company is still in business.. And they probably owns the right to this. Or something like that, I'm not a lawyer..

 

[WiiHomebrew+Snes]

No it isn't. This build dates from 3 years after lylat wars was released, and it's clearly Dinosaur Planet - it even shares animations and cutscenes with the final gamecube version. Why post something so obviously wrong?

I think they meant Star Fox Adventures, even though by then they got rid of the lylat wars name

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Holy shit this isn't an E3 slice, this is actually a full beatable (with cheats) beta?

is there a fight with General Scales this time!?

Is it illegal to share a rom of something that never was released and never made any money?
It's abandoned software Well I guess it could be illegal since the company is still in business.. And they probably owns the right to this. Or something like that, I'm not a lawyer..

For the past 6 years (especially after the database hack and the site was completely re-written), GBATEMP has become increasingly corpo to keep the severs running like to rubbing shoulders with more sponsors, official gaming news outlets, and official early access review codes from gaming publishers.

With that said, the emphasis on downloads of "grey area" software had to be abandoned, so they don't support or host anything that could be construed as copyright protected. There's a reason why the frontpage NFO dump "release tracker" was removed with the overhaul of this site; to remove the attention on GBATEMP being a "piracy website."

As much as it is jarring to see the site pivot to be able to appeal to "official" outlets, it's a necessary change for sustainability I'm sure. Sketchy Chinese flashcart ads / sponsors don't pay the bills anymore.

 

[eyeliner]

No it isn't. This build dates from 3 years after lylat wars was released, and it's clearly Dinosaur Planet - it even shares animations and cutscenes with the final gamecube version. Why post something so obviously wrong?

Because the original Dinosaur Planet never existed. It was a project that was its own thing that Nintendo then butchered into what you see there.

I'd wager that this was an early build of the mish mash that came to be the, in my view, great game Starfox Adventures.

Its obvious this is the earliest build of the final game, which is amazing in its own right.

Dinosaur Planet was a different ting, that you can see in a few snapshots in the original post. There was no Lylat System nor any other Starfox related imagery.

That would be a freaking huge discovery, that I'd like to see very much.

 

[FAST6191]

Is it illegal to share a rom of something that never was released and never made any money?
It's abandoned software Well I guess it could be illegal since the company is still in business.. And they probably owns the right to this. Or something like that, I'm not a lawyer..

Abandoned software (or the contraction somewhat commonly seen of abandonware) is not a legal term of art, defence or anything like that.
We have seen beta software released and used for driving sales (how many wiiware/vc/similar service things have we seen with games that never made it to a region back in the day finally there, or that star fox 2 beta for the snes mini?).
Equally you (or the company in the case of work for hire) still retains rights to things made even if not released to the wider world, depending upon what was done, published, registered and the like then timelines for copyright length (not that anybody reading this is likely to live to see the end of it) can get a bit fuzzy but copyright will still be there.
Company being in business or not matters little -- how many times have we seen auctions for various bits of IP or the like when a company goes pop? Many of those deals will see all IP not otherwise sold taken on by someone else, even if they weren't sold of (some indy games are likely this) then they probably still revert to someone (likely the owner/founder) as a personal asset like you might keep a works computer when you shutter a personal business.

Damages might be hard to calculate but it still happily falls under the umbrella of copyright infringement. Sharing for free might limit damages in some cases but it would still fall under unfair competition -- that you can play it today means it is less of a draw if Nintendo decided to include it as a hidden extra in the N64 mini.

Or if you prefer. You write a script for a film, show it around a bit. Does not get picked up and you go on to do other things. Someone 10 years later can't just grab your script from the pile of old ones and make the film leaving you high and dry.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Because the original Dinosaur Planet never existed. It was a project that was its own thing that Nintendo then butchered into what you see there.

So if it never existed, how come we have footage and screen shots of it? More like, it hasn't existed outside of Rare's circle.

 

[eyeliner]

So if it never existed, how come we have footage and screen shots of it? More like, it hasn't existed outside of Rare's circle.

Existed in the way of produced betas or alphas in cart form. I am unaware of such. Of course, there was a prototype but I am unwise if it was in a cart or a pc build.

I mean, a vertical slice of the game HAD to exist, in order for Nintendo to pick it up.

 

[Jonna]

Existed in the way of produced betas or alphas in cart form. I am unaware of such. Of course, there was a prototype but I am unwise if it was in a cart or a pc build.

I mean, a vertical slice of the game HAD to exist, in order for Nintendo to pick it up.

I think you're mixing it the other way around. For a development team to have to make everything all those screenshots showed during the Sabre era, then scrap it all to produce this Star Fox game you're describing and we are able to play now, then to move all the assets and improve their visuals and performance for the Gamecube final version, couldn't be done in the amount of time they had. This is a build between the time Miyamoto recommended they use the Star Fox IP, and when they moved it to the Gamecube. It's Dinosaur Planet with the clothes of Star Fox, not the other way around.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Something tells me that the Star Fox stuff was added when they switched gears over to the GC.

What? This build has Star Fox stuff added and it's for the N64.

 

[Deleted User]

I would like to see the Eternal Darkness N64 build getting dumped next.
If there is a collector out there who has the build, please contact Forest of Illusion.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

I think you're mixing it the other way around. For a development team to have to make everything all those screenshots showed during the Sabre era, then scrap it all to produce this Star Fox game you're describing and we are able to play now, then to move all the assets and improve their visuals and performance for the Gamecube final version, couldn't be done in the amount of time they had. This is a build between the time Miyamoto recommended they use the Star Fox IP, and when they moved it to the Gamecube. It's Dinosaur Planet with the clothes of Star Fox, not the other way around.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


What? This build has Star Fox stuff added and it's for the N64.

Let me be more precise in elaborating that I wouldn't be surprised if this build doesn't have the Arwing sections at the end like the final game on GC did. I haven't checked into the deets on this build of the game in particular, but the fact that it's still using the original model, but they're calling him Fox makes me think that this is in the middle of the "making the originally not a Star Fox game into a Star Fox game" transitional phase of the game's development, if that makes sense.

 

[Deleted member 323844]

I have played more and it is quite unstable, it tends to crash here and there. Probably GPU related crashes, like this.

https://i.imgur.com/gV0Js6K.gif

It's pretty much Star Fox Adventures with much less content. RARE did a pretty good job in the final game after playing this proto.

 

[MikaDubbz]

Is it illegal to share a rom of something that never was released and never made any money?
It's abandoned software Well I guess it could be illegal since the company is still in business.. And they probably owns the right to this. Or something like that, I'm not a lawyer..

I feel like the argument you're giving would hold more weight if the game never came out in any form whatsoever. But at the end of the day, a version of this game did still come out all the same, even if it was by a different name for a different system.