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

 

[Worldblender]

Does, this rom work on Project64? Because that's what I'd like to use when I play it.

It likely will, and other people have done so successfully. Though there may be some graphical glitches/bugs. Forest of Illusion has a notice that the ROM isn't 100% accurately emulated, but at least it will work.

 

[legaiaflame]

I heard parts near the end are unplayable and you need to use codes? In what way is it unplayable near the end and what codes am I supposed to be using to finish the game at that point?

 

[Lumstar]

Fox as a knight deserves more attention.

 

[Jonna]

Fox as a knight deserves more attention.

Sabre as a character deserves more attention

 

[PrinceRikei]

time to inject this rom onto vc

Please show me how to do it after you've successfully done it.

 

[AnimeIsDead]

So apparently it crashes during the cutscene with the stone giant on M64Plus FZ. Anyone know a workaround?

 

[Cyber Akuma]

So apparently it crashes during the cutscene with the stone giant on M64Plus FZ. Anyone know a workaround?

Is that still early in the game where you are still Krystal? Because I was playing it on bizhawk with the mupen core and that part worked fine for me.

 

[AnimeIsDead]

Is that still early in the game where you are still Krystal? Because I was playing it on bizhawk with the mupen core and that part worked fine for me.

Yeah it's like right in the beginning when you use the warp stone. Idk might be a problem with the emulator.

 

[DarkCoffe64]

Fox as a knight deserves more attention.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Yeah it's like right in the beginning when you use the warp stone. Idk might be a problem with the emulator.

Well like I said, I was using Bizhawk with the Mupen core and got past that part fine, though pretty much immediately after that I switched to the latest Mupen64GUI which ran the game even better (Bizhawk had graphical errors, and felt like it ran slower).

 

[Worldblender]

I heard parts near the end are unplayable and you need to use codes? In what way is it unplayable near the end and what codes am I supposed to be using to finish the game at that point?

Just later levels may be unfinished, as this is not the final game.

I've made considerable progress for my save file, where I have found both SwapStones. However, the in-game hints are scarce for me, and it's becoming harder for me to determine what to do next, or how to make anymore progress from the 2% I currently have. I also have collected scarabs with both Fox and Krystal, but cannot see how many I collected. I wish I could get some more guidance on what I should do next, based on my current progress.

 

[MurraySkull]

Yeah it's like right in the beginning when you use the warp stone. Idk might be a problem with the emulator.

SwapStone, not WarpStone. This is Dinosaur Planet, not Star Fox Adventures.

 

[Worldblender]

SwapStone, not WarpStone. This is Dinosaur Planet, not Star Fox Adventures.

I figured with whatever was presented in-game so far. With me having found both SwapStones, I can even enter the shop. However, it is easy for me to get lost with the many subareas. There could be some more stuff that I have yet to figure out, but which was not yet presented in-game.

 

[Hadrian]

Rare games aren't that good. Really.

 

[DodgyJudge]

Rare games aren't that just good they are the best creation on earth ever. Really.

Fixed it for ya

 

[JuanMena]

Yah, not working for me neither.
It crashes after placing the stone on the floor switch right at the beginning.

But whatever, it has my curiosity... and I couldn't help but notice that sounds, cutscenes, gameplay and some graphics were used in Star Fox Adventures.

I'd rather play that instead considering... it's nearly the same game.

 

[Reynardine]

Words can't express how excited I am to play it. Finally I get to hear the old Dark Ice Mines music ingame and explore the places we saw in that 1 hour leaked video some years ago.

That Starfox is already in this build was totally unexpected, I didn't know they started reskinning the game before it moved to Gamecube.

Forest of Illusion has uncovered one of my personal holy grails of lost media. I have a fairly good idea who the Swedish collector is that this disc was bought from.

 

[Ericthegreat]

This is the N64 equivalent of Resident Evil 1.5 getting dumped!

Not surprised that the end of the game isn't beatable without hacking. Usually, the finale is worked on at the end of development.

And rushed do to most players never seeing it anyway.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Screw all the other leaked prototypes, this is the holy grail. Though I would like to see an even earlier build. And a playable version of the OoT prototype with fully working areas (with NPCs and mobs and completeteable dungeons), if that even exists. And an early prototype of Conker. But this is right up there.

There are not many games that go through such major changes between early development/first reveal and final release, and most of the prototypes that get leaked are late-stage so they are rather close to the final build anyway and less interesting as a result.

 

[Deleted User]

Forest of Illusion posted a new link for the Dinosaur Planet build.
They say their server got overloaded.

Spoiler: Control sheet

Andy Robinson uploaded the control sheet for Dinosaur Planet.