Gone are the days of Nintendo exclusives developed by Rare, but founder Tim Stamper still has pieces of game history from the studio’s early years. In a few short video clips, Stamper revealed development footage from Project Dream, along with other excerpts from N64 classics.
Stamper brought to Twitter to showcase past development cartridges, posting footage from never-before-seen N64 titles – that sort of thing. Clips include canceled projects or games that will survive other iterations, like Dream 64 and Twelve Tales: Conker 64.
In a series of articles, Stamper shared a photo tagged as Dream 64 and Banjo-Kazooie featured Captain Blackeye, a pirate who later appeared in the Banjo games. The image includes an SNES and N64, with the latter holding a development box labeled “Latest Version of Dream 64” dated November 21, 1996.
“So it’s true,” Stamper wrote. “Dream 64 finally exists…!”
The Rare founder also added a 15-second climax at Dream, which he notes is “probably for the Nintendo Shoshinkai show [in] 1996.” It again includes Captain Blackeye, whose line recalls Stamper’s earlier tweet saying “that’s right, the Nintendo 64 treasure finally lives on.”
This version is probably for Nintendo Shoshinkai show 1996#intimsworld #n64 #Nintendo #Dream #Pirates #TREASURE pic.twitter.com/HRm6eOfV4x
– Tim Stamper (@InTimsWorld) April 9, 2023
In 1997, the Dream game was codenamed Rare. officially revealed as Banjo-Kazooie at E3. The studio’s talent has openly talked about their time with Dream, and eventually Banjo-Kazooie, for years. In 2015, the studio even dream record of being refitted on YouTube, which features a boy named Edson on an adventure more like an RPG.
Other Stamper footage includes a trailer for Twelve Stories: Conker 64, which debuted alongside Banjo at the same E3 in Atlanta. Twelve stories will go down as yet another canceled project, and Rare’s fiery squirrel will see its first N64 release as Conker’s Bad Fur Day instead. Stamper’s clip shows another evolving cartridge and 48-second sequence of Conker and the acorn-like enemies.
25 years and still working 🕹️#intimsworld #donkey #twelvetales #n64 pic.twitter.com/yolkcCDIPQ
– Tim Stamper (@InTimsWorld) March 28, 2023
Also get a brief look at the Battletoads character design documentation. Another video from Stamper shows him going through the “character design tutorial” for the beat’em series.
So you want to see more? Here is a glimpse of the character design tutorial ️
Music: Zu-Zu violin concerto No. 6, 2008#intimsworld #battletoads #gamearchive pic.twitter.com/TuNmkw1viN
– Tim Stamper (@InTimsWorld) April 6, 2023
While the Battletoads image and description are a nice little tidbit, the stuff lurking in the background looks just as neat. As Stamper’s video begins, you can see a room filled with file covers, presumably all related to his gaming projects. Tim, along with his brother Chris Stamper, stayed with Rare until 2007so it’s impossible to know what treasures have accumulated in that archive.
Andrea Shearon is a freelance contributor for IGN on games and entertainment. She has taken on many roles during her seven-year career in the games industry, with showcase lines at Fanbyte, USA Today’s FTW, TheGamer, VG247, and RPG Site. Find her on Twitter (@Maajora) or the Materia Owners podcast talking about FFXIV, RPGs, and any series involving giant robots.
