Trivia Browser
subdirectory_arrow_right Dinosaur Planet (Game)
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One of the most notable cuts in terms of characters going from Dinosaur Planet to Star Fox Adventures was the character of Randorn the Wizard.Randorn, along with his two children Sabre and Krystal (biological and adopted respectively), all came from a planet named Animus that comprised of two warring tribes: the Wolvens (that Randorn and Sabre belonged to) and the Vixons (which Krystal belonged to). As the leader of the Wolvens, Randorn had another older son (thus Sabre's older brother) that he sent into battle against the Vixons, only for him to end up killed. Overwhelmed with grief and guilt, Randorn abandoned his tribe and Sabre, and proceeded to go on a murderous rampage, destroying any and all Vixon tribes he came across with his magic.
That was, until he came across an orphaned six year Vixon child. Realizing the monster he became, and also feeling guilt about killing her parents, he adopted the child and named her Krystal, raising her as his own daughter. After several years of exploring the woods together, Randorn and Krystal would eventually come across a hidden temple with a technological device known as the "communication chamber", and from there they received an SOS from the King EarthWalker from a world known as Dinosaur Planet, asking for their help against General Scales and the SharpClaw who have begun to take over the planet. Wishing to atone for his past transgressions, Randorn ordered Krystal to find his son Sabre and then jumped into the swirling vortex that teleported him to Dinosaur Planet, where he battled General Scales only to get mortally wounded, now only barely being kept alive by the magical energies of Warlock Mountain. He leaves Sabre and Krystal behind a message, saying that they must come to Dinosaur Planet and rescue Prince Tricky of the EarthWalkers and Princess Kyte of the CloudRunners from the SharpClaw, who plan on making their respective tribes fight and blame each other.
For the rest of the game, he would reside at Warlock Mountain, and the player would visit him every time they had to return with a Krazoa spirit, sometimes giving advice and also magic energy in case the player is running out. According to the leaked condensed story, the player would eventually have to make a choice to save the dying Randorn by planting MoonSeeds in special locations. If they do, he'd be brought back to health and have a "special surprise" for Sabre and Krystal. There doesn't seem to be any sign of this feature in the leaked December 2000 build of Dinosaur Planet, possibly indicating that this was scrapped.
The aformentioned December 2000 Dinosaur Planet build, which already was beginning to incorporate Fox McCloud as a replacement for Sabre into the game, suggests that Rare actually at least experimented with keeping Randorn in the game even with the new focus on Star Fox, down to creating new voice overs and rewriting the dialogue to suggest that Randorn was previously friends with the McClouds, even expressing guilt over not going along with the original Star Fox team to their investigation of Venom that led to James' death at the hands of Andross and Pigma (Randorn even directly mentions the latter, claiming that he suspected he was a traitor all along).
Unfortunately, Randorn would end up being removed entirely in the final Star Fox Adventures game.
RareThief Dinosaur Planet content archive:
https://rarethief.com/dinosaur-planet/
Dinosaur Planet December 2000 build Randorn cutscene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkZOTnTvnI8
Dinosaur Planet - Randorn lines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOjzNOkVOy4?t=7
https://rarethief.com/dinosaur-planet/
Dinosaur Planet December 2000 build Randorn cutscene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkZOTnTvnI8
Dinosaur Planet - Randorn lines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOjzNOkVOy4?t=7
subdirectory_arrow_right Dinosaur Planet (Game)
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Dinosaur Planet was originally meant to have eight collectible Krazoa spirits, four for Sabre and four for Krystal, and each of these spirits would be obtained by each character finding various Krazoa shrines found throughout their respective maps, each containing a challenge or trial testing their abilities or even character. Sabre would partake in the Tests of Strength, Skill, Magic and Sacrifice while Krystal would partake in the Tests of Combat, Character, Fear and Knowledge.In the final Star Fox Adventures game, this was cut down to only six Krazoa spirits and shrines for Fox to find, with only five of them even being proper tests, those being the Tests of Skill (renamed to Observation), Combat, Fear, Strength and Knowledge. The final "test" is a rather anti-climatic "boss fight" with General Scales, which is interrupted by Andross forcing Scales to hand over the last Krazoa spirit. Unused voice clips and also hints found within the 2002 E3 SFA kiosk, as well as comments from SFA developers on Rare's scribes, indicate that the dev team planned on General Scales having a true boss fight: essentially a rematch against his flying galleon like in the game's prologue, though instead of playing as Krystal flying on the CloudRunner, it'd likely would have been Fox in his Arwing.
As such, looking at internal files for SFA (as well as its E3 2002 kiosk), Rare had also intended on there being one final true test: the Test of Sacrifice, which fittingly enough was Sabre's final test in Dinosaur Planet and its overall final spirit in general. In both versions of the game, it would have involved Sabre or Fox having to "sacrifice" themselves in order to save an apparition of Tricky. Unused hint texts found within the E3 2002 kiosk heavily imply that Fox would have partaken in the Test of Sacrifice right where the General Scales encounter is today, before he freed Krystal from her prison at the top of Krazoa Palace and also before fighting Andross, who he unknowingly resurrected by releasing all of the Krazoa spirits. The music track that was (as revealed by the leak Dinosaur Planet N64 ROM) intended for the Test of Sacrifice even appears as an unused track found within SFA's sound test, and there's also unused voice clips of Tricky begging Fox for help that very likely pertain to this test. Both of these indicates that this was a very late cut.
Internally, the General Scales "boss fight" shrine is referred to as "nwshrine", which adds up considering that the Test of Sacrifice was meant to be found by Sabre at the Northern Wastes (now now as SnowHorn Wastes) in Dinosaur Planet.
Dinosaur Planet - Final Krazoa test:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VphKLeYw4_w&t=12s
Star Fox Adventures unused voice clips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMe05NE8Ock?t=62
Unused Test of Sacrifice theme from SFA's juke box:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCDRrbhbocE
RareThief Dinosaur Planet content archive:
https://rarethief.com/dinosaur-planet/
The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/Proto:Star_Fox_Adventures/E3_2002_Demo#Unused_Text
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VphKLeYw4_w&t=12s
Star Fox Adventures unused voice clips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMe05NE8Ock?t=62
Unused Test of Sacrifice theme from SFA's juke box:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCDRrbhbocE
RareThief Dinosaur Planet content archive:
https://rarethief.com/dinosaur-planet/
The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/Proto:Star_Fox_Adventures/E3_2002_Demo#Unused_Text
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There are unused voice clips in the files of Arthur! Ready to Race for Muffy Crosswire, Binky Barnes, and Arthur's dog Pal, implying that they were intended to be playable racers at some point in the game's development.
subdirectory_arrow_right Sonic Origins (Game)
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Sonic Origins contains leftover data from the then-unreleased Sonic Frontiers. This is how it was first discovered that Big the Cat and his fishing minigame would return in Frontiers.
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In the castle courtyard in Super Mario 64, there is a plaque to a power star with an illegible name written below, often interpreted as either "Eternal Star" or "L is Real 2401" - with the latter being more popular for how it could be seen as a cryptic hint towards unlocking Luigi. In a poetic coincidence, the source code leak that revealed Luigi's scrapped model would be found 24 years and 1 month after Super Mario 64's release.
subdirectory_arrow_right Sonic The Hedgehog (Franchise)
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Dr. Starline the Platypus from the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog comic series is inspired by a glitch character from Knuckles' Chaotix - a silver, red and charcoal Knuckles recolor, known by fans as "Wechnia", but by the game itself as "**********", seemingly based on unused data for Tails. Starline's color scheme is taken directly from Wechnia, his name is a literal take on the name "**********", (or "star-line") the black streak in his fur resembles the red streaks all over Wechnia's fur, and the choice of a platypus seems to be inspired by how certain Wechnia sprites would make the bottom of his muzzle yellow and loosely resemble shading for the underside of a flat bill, alongside platypi being Australian like echidnas.
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When the PlayStation 2 was revealed in Japan, a demo was shown off of a fountain of spark particles. When this demo was shown to Jon Burton, founder of Traveller's Tales, he coded an identical tech demo for the first PlayStation as a joke. This tech demo would ultimately end up in the files of Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!, unused, by accident.
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The files for PaRappa the Rapper contain an empty "Stage 4" directory, meaning that the actual stage 4 is labeled stage 5 internally - concept art shows that General Potter, Sunny Funny's father who only appears briefly in the final game, was supposed to be the missing teacher. Rodney Greenblat does not remember what Potter's stage would've entailed, though Potter would be a prominent character in PaRappa the Rapper 2, albeit still not having his own rap.
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There are 17 purportedly unused polyominos in the files of Magical Tetris Challenge, all of which have either under or over 4 segments.
subdirectory_arrow_right Poptropica (Game)
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In 2020, due to the discontinuation of Adobe Flash, Poptropica began porting islands that were built in Adobe Flash over to an HTML5 format. However, because Poptropica utilized a variety of different Flash engines, several islands couldn't be ported immediately and were effectively removed from the game. Fortunately, fan archivists later made 35 of the removed islands playable again via the Basilisk browser within the Flashpoint program.
In April 2022, it was announced that some of the old islands would return as part of a bundle released on Steam. Although it was delayed by a day, the Steam version of Poptropica was released on May 26, and included seventeen islands and Poptropica Realms.
In April 2022, it was announced that some of the old islands would return as part of a bundle released on Steam. Although it was delayed by a day, the Steam version of Poptropica was released on May 26, and included seventeen islands and Poptropica Realms.
Poptropica Blog post regarding migration from Flash:
https://www.poptropica.com/blog/2020/02/state-game-converting-flash
Fan archives of 35 Adobe Flash islands:
https://server.idkonpop.com/pop/teleport/oldIslandMap
Poptropica Steam island DLC announcements:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdg0HoMPTTR/
https://poptropi.ca/2022/05/26/old-poptropica-steam/
https://www.poptropica.com/blog/2020/02/state-game-converting-flash
Fan archives of 35 Adobe Flash islands:
https://server.idkonpop.com/pop/teleport/oldIslandMap
Poptropica Steam island DLC announcements:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdg0HoMPTTR/
https://poptropi.ca/2022/05/26/old-poptropica-steam/
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The game was originally designed for a 4 Mbit cartridge, only for it to get cut down to 2 Mbit due to a worldwide chip shortage at the time. As a result, over half of the game's content was cut, leading the developers to make the remaining three levels notoriously mazelike in order to artificially extend the game's length.
The resulting product was a disappointment to both Sega and Osomatsu-kun author Fujio Akatsuka. Hideki Sato, who designed the Mega Drive, stated that Hachamecha Gekijou reflected poorly on the system thanks to it being its first title that wasn't a port of an earlier arcade game, and that it made him wonder if he had poorly designed the system's hardware. Akatsuka, meanwhile, already treated video games with open scorn, but Hachamecha Gekijou outraged him so much that he threw an ashtray at an unnamed developer.
The resulting product was a disappointment to both Sega and Osomatsu-kun author Fujio Akatsuka. Hideki Sato, who designed the Mega Drive, stated that Hachamecha Gekijou reflected poorly on the system thanks to it being its first title that wasn't a port of an earlier arcade game, and that it made him wonder if he had poorly designed the system's hardware. Akatsuka, meanwhile, already treated video games with open scorn, but Hachamecha Gekijou outraged him so much that he threw an ashtray at an unnamed developer.
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Star Fox Adventures began development as Dinosaur Planet, which originally began development as a direct sequel to Diddy Kong Racing, starring Timber the Tiger (who himself was intended as the main character of DKR when it was Pro-Am 64, before Donkey Kong characters were incorporated into it). It was pitched as an adventure/racing hybrid where Timber, equipped with a rucksack, little fingerless gloves, and a baseball cap would go back in time and team up with a younger version of Tricky, a boss from the first DKR. Wizpig, the main antagonist and final boss of the first Diddy Kong Racing, was also involved. It would seem a working title for this iteration of the game was "Dino Island", going by several posts on former Rare employee Ed Bryan's Twitter account.
Eventually it was decided to rework the concept into an entirely new original IP with no story connections to DKR and two new main characters, named Sabre and Krystal, and also make it a full-on action-adventure game directly inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. DP/SFA's various racing segments are said to be remnants of the original DKR successor concept, and while he retained the name of the DKR boss (something Rare seems to regret), Tricky would wind up becoming his own distinct character. Several files within DP/SFA's data also mention Timber, obviously a remnant from when he was the star.
Sabre and Krystal were in turn eventually replaced by Fox McCloud as the main playable character when the game was rebranded into what we know today as Star Fox Adventures, though Tricky would remain as his sidekick and Krystal would remain as a main character.
Eventually it was decided to rework the concept into an entirely new original IP with no story connections to DKR and two new main characters, named Sabre and Krystal, and also make it a full-on action-adventure game directly inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. DP/SFA's various racing segments are said to be remnants of the original DKR successor concept, and while he retained the name of the DKR boss (something Rare seems to regret), Tricky would wind up becoming his own distinct character. Several files within DP/SFA's data also mention Timber, obviously a remnant from when he was the star.
Sabre and Krystal were in turn eventually replaced by Fox McCloud as the main playable character when the game was rebranded into what we know today as Star Fox Adventures, though Tricky would remain as his sidekick and Krystal would remain as a main character.
Retro Gamer Issue #122:
https://issuu.com/roylazarovich/docs/retro_gamer_122
Rare Scribes - June 5, 2000:
https://www.raregamer.co.uk/scribes-june-5th-2000/
Rare Scribes - November 5, 2008:
https://www.raregamer.co.uk/scribes-november-5th-2008/
Article by Kev Bayliss about a leaked Dinosaur Planet build:
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/features/opinion/dinosaur-planet-leak/
E3 1998 internal notes saved by Ed Bryan:
https://twitter.com/ItsMingyJongo/status/1716047318506451191
The Cutting Room Floor article on SFA's E3 2002 demo:
https://tcrf.net/Proto:Star_Fox_Adventures/E3_2002_Demo
https://issuu.com/roylazarovich/docs/retro_gamer_122
Rare Scribes - June 5, 2000:
https://www.raregamer.co.uk/scribes-june-5th-2000/
Rare Scribes - November 5, 2008:
https://www.raregamer.co.uk/scribes-november-5th-2008/
Article by Kev Bayliss about a leaked Dinosaur Planet build:
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/features/opinion/dinosaur-planet-leak/
E3 1998 internal notes saved by Ed Bryan:
https://twitter.com/ItsMingyJongo/status/1716047318506451191
The Cutting Room Floor article on SFA's E3 2002 demo:
https://tcrf.net/Proto:Star_Fox_Adventures/E3_2002_Demo
subdirectory_arrow_right Banjo-Tooie (Game)
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A few of Banjo-Tooie's worlds were originally planned for its predecessor, Banjo-Kazooie, such as the fire side of Hailfire Peaks and Glitter Gulch Mine. Many of these were cut primarily because of time constraints.Gobi mentions leaving for the "Lava World" in Click Clock Woods, which adds up as Gregg Mayles' concept art for the cut lava world shows that Gobi would have been present. Gobi would eventually live up to his promise by appearing in the fire side of Hailfire Peaks in Banjo-Tooie, after being freed in Witchyworld.
Glitter Gulch Mine concept art:
https://twitter.com/Ghoulyboy/status/616347385392988160
Lava World/Hailfire Peaks concept art:
https://twitter.com/Ghoulyboy/status/644798707196538880
https://twitter.com/Ghoulyboy/status/616347385392988160
Lava World/Hailfire Peaks concept art:
https://twitter.com/Ghoulyboy/status/644798707196538880
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Early in development, the layout at the top section of Brink Terminal where the secret entrance to the tower is was different compared to the final build of the game. The tower itself was absent and a pond with rails was originally placed at the plaza where the dance pad is set in the final build of the game.
Early trailer footage showing the pond and the tower being absent at the location:
https://youtu.be/1mptdlfRJkw?si=CAo8PLZy72mkGOAs&t=62
Final build of the game at the same location:
https://youtu.be/6Io2JIUrWPg?si=sWJudc2Omtk5mcnz&t=24
https://youtu.be/1mptdlfRJkw?si=CAo8PLZy72mkGOAs&t=62
Final build of the game at the same location:
https://youtu.be/6Io2JIUrWPg?si=sWJudc2Omtk5mcnz&t=24
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Plok! was originally envisioned as a coin-operated arcade game titled Fleapit, running off of Rare Ltd's Razz board, which was never used in a released game. Chris Sievey, the actor behind the popular 80s UK comedy character Frank Sidebottom, had agreed to voice Plok in the game before its cancellation. The SNES game would not have any voice acting whatsoever outside of digitally-made grunts and laughter.
Fleapit title screen:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200411065859/http://www.zee-3.com/pickfordbros/archive/view.php?post=183
Ste Pickford tweet about Chris Sievey casting:
https://twitter.com/stepickford/status/1059364905374138368
https://web.archive.org/web/20200411065859/http://www.zee-3.com/pickfordbros/archive/view.php?post=183
Ste Pickford tweet about Chris Sievey casting:
https://twitter.com/stepickford/status/1059364905374138368
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Plok! was at one point going to feature an items shop, which would've been run by an anime-styled character named Suki. While the character wasn't used, Plok creators John and Ste Pickford kept her in mind for future installments that never came to be, but Ste was ultimately happy Suki never appeared in a Plok game as he felt that Western attempts to replicate the stylings of anime rarely turned out well.
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There are four unused cheat codes in Plok! that were disabled, each of which spells a word with the inputs of the SNES controller, and displays a message on screen. These were disabled, and therefore cannot be used under normal means:
• Right - Up - B - B - A - Down - Up - X (Rubber Ducks) - Displays "NINTENDO POWER" and warps the player to the Test Level
• Y - A - B - A - Down - A - B - A (Yaba Daba) - Displays "JOHN'S CHEAT" and gives the player 16 Buddy Hornets
• B - Right - Up - X - Y - A - Left - Left (Brux Y'all) - Displays "LYNDON'S CHEAT" and gives the player 160 shells
• Up - Right - B - A - Down - Left - A - Down (You're Bad, Lad) - Displays "BAD INFLUENCE!" and makes the player invincible for 13 seconds
Nintendo Power and Bad Influence are both the names of 90s-era gaming publications, meaning that there may have been an intent to share the codes through those platforms.
"John" is likely referring to Plok! co-creator John Pickford, while "Lyndon" and his code "Brux Y'all" refers to game designer and sprite artist Lyndon Brooke.
Plok! did not feature any rubber ducks, however, a later Pickford Bros. game, Wetrix, would, and the eventual Plok! the Exploding Man comic would feature the rubber duck from Wetrix as a main protagonist.
• Right - Up - B - B - A - Down - Up - X (Rubber Ducks) - Displays "NINTENDO POWER" and warps the player to the Test Level
• Y - A - B - A - Down - A - B - A (Yaba Daba) - Displays "JOHN'S CHEAT" and gives the player 16 Buddy Hornets
• B - Right - Up - X - Y - A - Left - Left (Brux Y'all) - Displays "LYNDON'S CHEAT" and gives the player 160 shells
• Up - Right - B - A - Down - Left - A - Down (You're Bad, Lad) - Displays "BAD INFLUENCE!" and makes the player invincible for 13 seconds
Nintendo Power and Bad Influence are both the names of 90s-era gaming publications, meaning that there may have been an intent to share the codes through those platforms.
"John" is likely referring to Plok! co-creator John Pickford, while "Lyndon" and his code "Brux Y'all" refers to game designer and sprite artist Lyndon Brooke.
Plok! did not feature any rubber ducks, however, a later Pickford Bros. game, Wetrix, would, and the eventual Plok! the Exploding Man comic would feature the rubber duck from Wetrix as a main protagonist.
subdirectory_arrow_right Dinosaur Planet (Game)
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Dragon Rock, Star Fox Adventures' final SpellStone area, was considerably larger and more complex in earlier versions of the game than in the final release. Both the leaked December 2000 build of Dinosaur Planet and also the E3 2002 kiosk version of Star Fox Adventures show that Dragon Rock featured a slew of additional areas that didn't make the final cut, such as an underground quarry area where Sabre/Fox would have to save the imprisoned EarthWalker from being eaten by a group of creatures known as Skeetlas, and also a large underground mining facility Sabre/Fox could only access by flying the imprisoned CloudRunner to the top of the titular Dragon Rock (a giant tower in SFA) at the center of the map. In SFA's case, Fox would have to solve a puzzle that would involve powering the portal at the back end of the room that would grant him access to Drakor, Dragon Rock's boss. In the final release, both the underground quarry and the mining facility were removed: Fox simply frees the EarthWalker from a corral on the surface by hitting a switch located nearby the imprisoned HighTop from across the map, and Fox immediately skips to fighting Drakor after being dropped off by the CloudRunner at the top of the center tower. Funny enough, when Fox lands on the platform in Drakor's arena, it bizarrely shows electricity spewing around him, which was a remnant of the portal he was supposed to activate in the cut mining facility segment in order to access the boss.
The SFA dev team admitted on a 2003 Rare Scribes that Dragon Rock was massively scaled back from its intended design due to "approaching deadlines", presumably referring to the impending Microsoft buyout in 2002. It's worth pointing out that the mining facility area can actually be found in the files of the final retail release of SFA and surprisingly in a much more complete state than the kiosk's version, which indicates that the dev team continued working on this area in the final months of development but ran out of time to polish it to their liking.
Dragon Rock in Dinosaur Planet:
https://youtu.be/I-pJrjq6QSM?t=18
Dragon Rock in Star Fox Adventures, circa E3 2002:
https://youtu.be/4yMRuFkG8vc?t=1750
Dragon Rock's cut bottom mining area found in the retail version of Adventures:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHQYmpHWYEE
Rare scribes circa 2003 explaining why Dragon Rock was cut down:
https://www.raregamer.co.uk/scribes-april-3rd-2003/
https://youtu.be/I-pJrjq6QSM?t=18
Dragon Rock in Star Fox Adventures, circa E3 2002:
https://youtu.be/4yMRuFkG8vc?t=1750
Dragon Rock's cut bottom mining area found in the retail version of Adventures:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHQYmpHWYEE
Rare scribes circa 2003 explaining why Dragon Rock was cut down:
https://www.raregamer.co.uk/scribes-april-3rd-2003/
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Much like the original Star Fox on Super Nintendo, Star Fox 64's stages are split into three difficulty routes: Easy, Normal and Hard. However, unlike the original, SF64 only features two versions of Venom, one for the Easy Route and one for the Hard Route, the latter of which is where the Star Fox team has a final rematch with their rivals, Star Wolf.It turns out the development team had planned on including another variation of Venom for the Normal route, where Fox McCloud would jump out of his Arwing and battle Andross on-foot with a bazooka. According to the staff, this was scrapped due to time constraints. The pilot mode option seen in Star Fox 64's battle mode is actually the repurposed remnants of this idea.
User's English translation of a developer interview from an official Japanese guidebook for Star Fox 64:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/x938ib/behold_an_attempt_at_translating_an_interview/
Details of scrapped third route:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/10gmwe9/fox_was_going_to_fight_andross_with_a_bazooka_a/
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/x938ib/behold_an_attempt_at_translating_an_interview/
Details of scrapped third route:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/10gmwe9/fox_was_going_to_fight_andross_with_a_bazooka_a/
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