DKC Atlas Forum

[Qyzbud]

BREAKING NEWS OF PROJECT DREAM!

A "Rare Revealed" video entitled "A Rare Look at Dream" has been published on Rare Ltd's YouTube channel:



The video features gameplay footage and concept art of various Dream (and early Banjo-Kazooie) builds and interview footage with Dream and Banjo-Kazooie team members. Speculation/discussion begins here.

—

This is a topic about abandoned Rareware projects. You can talk about nifty tidbits you've found (audio, video, sprites, character designs, etc) or what games you would have really liked to have seen. My main thing (for right now, at least), is Dinosaur Planet, but I didn't want to create a topic specific to that, because, well, it was abandoned, and I don't think there can be all that much to be said about it enough for its own topic.

I've been obsessing over Dinosaur Planet, as of late. While, yes, it *technically* wasn't abandoned and it was reworked to make Starfox Adventures, I think that if Rare would have kept it Dinosaur Planet and released it on N64, that it could have been the best game Rare released for the 64. I know that they did get to keep a lot of what was in Dinosaur Planet, but I'm sure they had to drop a lot. It would have also been nicer to leave it for the Starfox fans. I really didn't care for the Starfox games, because flying games just aren't my thing, but I know that Starfox has a pretty big fan base and I'm sure a lot of them felt ripped off because it didn't follow with the other games. I think that Starfox Adventures was a fantastic game; in fact, it's probably one of my favorite Gamecube games (which, honestly, isn't saying much... I only have like 5 Gamecube games). I wonder if Dinosaur Planet was released if that would have saved the Rare that we knew... before it got traded and died....

If anybody is interested, or hasn't seen much about Dinosaur Planet, this website has a ton of stuff including character designs, game footage, and the storyline. They also have some other abandoned, and not abandoned, Rare projects.

So, what do you think? What abandoned projects look interesting to you? What ones do you wish were released?

[Qyzbud]

Good topic idea!

(I hope you don't mind - I edited your post to replace the word 'thread' with 'topic' in three places)

Being such a passionate DKC (and DKR) fan, I was really excited about Donkey Kong Racing; the video got me hooked:



Diddy Kong Racing was great, and I enjoyed the new characters and franchises it spawned, but if it wasn't for Diddy (and I guess Krunch, the bananas/balloons, etc.), it wouldn't have been a DK game at all - let alone a DKC game... but Donkey Kong Racing was packed to the brim with characters, concepts and settings straight out of Donkey Kong Country. I died a little inside when I found out it had been cancelled.

Like you, I was also really looking forward to Dinosaur Planet... but I think I kind of had (ahem, have) DKC tunnel vision, so anytime Rare announced a non-DKC game I was a bit disappointed/indifferent... so I never got my hopes up too high for DP. Just as well, I guess.

As for Twelve Tales: Conker 64, I was looking forward to it, but at the same time I was thinking Rare was making a mistake by pumping out cutesy platformers time and time again... so I guess I was glad (mainly for their sake, haha) that they came out with Bad Fur Day instead.

[Gaz]

Diddy Kong Pilot. Man... I wish that wasn't CANCELLED.

[Phyreburnz]

Rare didn't really have anything more than a concept with Donkey Kong racing... which is unfortunate, but it feels like less of a loss to me than the other abandoned projects. At least we didn't lose any awesome levels, music, or anything like that, really.

One thing I'm really hoping for is some day, somebody, somewhere will release beta roms of various unfinished games... especially Dinosaur Planet. An even further-fetched dream would be somebody (or a group of people) to go further and attempt to finish various aspects of the game... once/if the rom is released.

*Oh, Qyz, about saying "topic" rather than "thread," I do that a lot... like every time I refer to another section of the forum... I just always refer to it as another thread... I'll try not to, but I've done it a lot already....

[Gaz]

Our best hope for that is Torrentstorm of RareWare Central. Heck, I paraglide off Mt. Everest at a dangerously high speed and miraculously only break my legs when reaching the surface to the ground for the Diddy Kong Pilot (2001 and 2002) prototypes (or the ROMs for them which Torrentstorm has). I'm currently focusing on the Supercard DSTwo, but I still want the prototypes real bad. Though, do NOT harrass Torrentstorm for the ROMs, because when I did it a few months ago I got nothing and the chances of the release was more slim for the Diddy Kong Pilot prototypes. Now, he's waiting for a time he feels is right to release the ROMs (I apparently believe it would be Christmas for some reason).

By the way, Phyreburnz are you like the only girl on Earth who understands Rareware betas? If so, then you should be a millionaire. Girls like that are extremely rare (boys are more common, but extremely rare too). I think maybe only like six girls on Earth know about Donkey Kong Racing, but I want Diddy Kong Pilot (2001) more. They have released the 2003 version, but the 2001 version looks more promising if you saw the footage (before Transparentjinjo shut down his YouTube account!) The fanbase mainly wants Twelve Tails and Dinosaur Planet for some reason.

Hope I helped.

[Phyreburnz]

Hmm... I dunno... I sort of do this with things I enjoy (one of my other obsessions is The Lion King, and I do the same thing with that... When I got the DVD for the first time, I had to look at EVERYTHING, all the deleted scenes, unused music, character designs, and all that good stuff). I like to look at the progress and what could have been. I get especially carried away with Rareware stuff, since they're my all-time favorite gaming company. I did have a lot of help, though. One of my sister's ex-boyfriends showed me a lot of video game stuff that I'd never previously heard of (betas and games that made it), including Dinosaur Planet and Super Mario RPG. There are still a large number of games, and unreleased betas that I've never heard of. I just always am looking for thing that didn't get released or didn't make it into a final version.

[Phyreburnz]

While it technically wasn't totally abandoned, Project Dream (which turned into Banjo-Kazooie) is something that Tim Stamper keeps teasing his followers with.

Here is his twitter: https://twitter.com/InTimsWorld

I'm really hoping that the teasing ends soon... but I am not expecting it. You know how those Rareware guys are!

He has the game plugged into the SNES but I'm sure it will take him a while to show anything other than the "Dream" title card!

[MatiZ]

Finally they revealed the project Dream. I like most the SNES version. Graphics is the same as in DKC's games. I could easily imagine Donkey and Diddy walking in this game.

[Qyzbud]

Yeah, I quite like the atmosphere of the SNES version, and I get a strong DKC2/DKC3 vibe from the environments. Heck, some of those graphics look like they were pulled right out of DKC3!

The blue pillars, bristly looking ferns/bushes, stone path tiles, vines/cables across the path, wooden logs and general colour schemes seem very similar to me.

[spaceman2028]

Yeah, it almost looks like an official 3D DKC remake!

That odd tunnel Edison walks out of in Phyre's pic is also interesting to note, as it reminds me of the Bamboozled level in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex.

[Stone]

You're right folks, it really looks like they used their previous built 3D objects from DKC3 to quickly create prototype levels. They probably just changed some details like color, lighting and the direction the object is facing for many parts.

But it looks amazing nonetheless! Nice touch they considered showing us that much of their unreleased games lately!