Once upon a time, Rare made incredible games for the Nintendo family of systems, including some of the most beloved NES, Super NES, and Nintendo 64 games of all time. You likely know the ones we’re talking about – games like Banjo-Kazooie // Banjo-Tooie, Goldeneye 007, Jet Force Gemini, and the Donkey Kong Country series (which became some of the best-selling games for their subsequent systems) – but sadly Rare split with Nintendo after the release of the Gamecube launch title Star Fox Adventures. While Rare did continue developing games for the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS, most of their efforts went to Microsoft to develop the likes of Viva Pinata and Perfect Dark Zero, among other notable titles.
One game, however, eluded many until today. Dinosaur Planet, which eventually became Star Fox Adventures, is seeing the light of day thanks to the efforts of Forest Of Illusion. The build was purchased from a private game collector in Sweden, and dates back to December 1st, 2000.
It should be noted that the game won’t run 100% accurately on an emulator, as Forest Of Illusion have also mentioned likely graphical hiccups and glitches. Still, this is a monumental task and a win for any fan of video games as an artform.
Today we have released Dinosaur Planet by Rare for Nintendo 64. The development was halted and moved to the GameCube, where it was then released as Star Fox Adventures. Enjoy! (More info in this thread).
Link to the dump:https://t.co/gQGGcU4vJK pic.twitter.com/Orub7RU3fa
— Forest of Illusion (@forestillusion) February 20, 2021
For those interested, you can play the game here, and continue to support their efforts on Patreon here.
