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i've received a lot of requests to make a video about banjo-kazooie but i had never played any of the games in the series that is, until i found a copy of the original game for a very good price so i picked it up, and i have yet to put it down. banjo-kazooie is a fantastic game the quirky characters, gruntilda's rhymes, and fantastic platforming makes this game one of my favorites. i even have voices for all of the characters why do i talk all the time?
it's really hard to make these rhyme! yippee! you've collected enough notes to break the first note door spell! me mumbo, best shaman in all game. can help banjo and filthy feathered one. ahh, that's good. so without further ado, on this episode of beta64, i'm gonna talk about the beta of banjo-kazooie. banjo-kazooie's origins begin with "dream."
a pirate rpg for the snes that never came into being. "dream" most likely began it's development sometime between 1994 and early 1995, as the game was already in development october 1995. "dream" was meant to be rare's greatest snes title developed by the core team who made donkey kong country. but soon it was determined that the snes couldn't hold "dream." so the team decided to move the game to the nintendo 64 disk drive. originally called the "bulky drive."
the development team wanted to use a new type of terrain that was created by stretching the polygons of the landscape. but the nintendo 64 wasn't powerful enough to handle this which caused the game's framerate to drop dramatically. during this time, "twelve tails: conker 64" started its development and the "dream" team was impressed. giving up on the new terrain, dream's gameplay was shifted to the super mario 64-style used by conker,
but still kept the rpg elements. this is the only screenshot of "dream." it shows edison, the main character from the game's nintendo 64 disk drive development. tim stamper, one of rare's founders wanted to change the game's main character from edison to an animal thus, after much testing they decided on a bear named "banjo,"
who was originally a secondary character in "dream." the idea of having kazooie in banjo's backpack was also added around this time. tim stamper wasn't satisfied though. after seeing how well super mario 64 turned out and because rare's previous games were mostly platformers, dream was completely scratched and the team started over again with a new platforming game called
"banjo-kazooie." there was a demo of "dream" with a full intro and one level but according to grant kirkhope, who composed "dream"'s soundtrack, "if it even still exists, it's most likely locked away in a fireproof safe at rare's headquarters." banjo-kazooie was first shown at e3 1997 along with the legend of zelda: ocarina of time. many changes were made from the e3 demo to the final release. musical notes and eggs had no animations early in develoment.
but were instead, still images. the sound effect when collecting an egg changed as well most likely because the sound gets pretty annoying when collecting large amounts of eggs. *egg fanfare* banjo-kazooie's intro has many small changes between the beta and the final. the environment is a lot more colorful in the final game, but mumbo's scene was probably changed the most. when mumbo and his instruments fall down in the beta,
stars fly out. but the stars were completely removed from the final game. also, when mumbo's violin appears in the final game green smoke surrounds the instrument, but not so in the beta. mumbo himself is also a bit different in the beta. his fingers are completely separated in the model, but in the final game they are a single mesh. this was probably done to reduce the file size of the model.
his eyes are also quite a bit larger in the final game than the beta. lastly, in this closeup, there are three mushrooms in the beta but only one in the final. why they changed this? the world may never know. like tootsie-roll pops. almost all of the stages in banjo-kazooie went through
some sort of change. let's begin with treasure trove cove, which was originally called "hammerhead beach." even though the world's terrain didn't change it's layout of objects did. this is really noticeable at the beginning of the stage. the music track in treasure trove cove was altered late in development. and thanks to grant kirkhope,
we are all able to listen to this track in its full glory. *treasure trove cove beta theme* in the e3 1997 video of hammerhead beach banjo and kazooie can be seen flying. but if you notice, they begin flight without a flightpad. which was required in the final game. this might mean that a player could fly at any point in the level by simply pressing a button on the controller. most likely this feature was removed to keep players
restricted to the ground when levels required it. another thing to note is that feathers don't fall when ascending most likely meaning that there was no limit to how many times you could increase your altitude. gruntilda's lair was originally "giant's lair" in "dream." but when the game changed to banjo-kazooie, the lair was changed as well. the song meant to be played in giant's lair is still in the game's files, under the title "advent."
clanker's cavern has a few differences in the beta too. the major difference is that clanker was originally a real whale, not mechanical like in the final game. many people believe that clanker's cavern was originally part of fungus forest, an unused world planned for banjo-kazooie, but there's no way to confirm this rumor. however, there is evidence that supports this theory. fungus forest was re-used in donkey kong 64 as "fungi forest." and the music that plays in this level
is a variation of the beta music in clanker's cavern. take a listen. *fungi forest theme* *clanker's cavern beta theme* speaking of fugus forest, people think that the entrance was meant to be where click-clock woods' puzzle room is located. this is because the textures used in the puzzle room are used again in donkey kong 64's fungi forest level.
but the textures used in click-clock woods' world are not. another reason is that the puzzle room for click-clock wood compared to the rest of the worlds is very far away from its actual world entrance, meaning that the puzzle room may not have initially been planned to be where it is now. there's actually an image of banjo in fungus forest located as a photo on his wall. mount fire-eyes is another world completely removed from the final game a character in banjo-kazooie named "goby" makes a reference to this scrapped world.
after stealing his water a second time, he states that he will "move to the lava world." in banjo-tooie, the sequel to banjo-kazooie, it turns out that goby went to hailfire peaks but it's believed that he was planned to head to mount fire-eyes in the first game instead. in "dream," there was a level known as "prickly pear island." a variation of the theme song used for this island was used as an early theme for banjo-kazooie's ice world. this was long before freezeezy peak,
the final's ice world, was even created. there were roughly 16 worlds originallyplanned for banjo-kazooie, but only nine made it to the final game. many of these scrap worlds became partof banjo-tooie. the pause screen in the beta had oneextra option that didn't make it to the final game. it was called "exit to witch's lair" and as you can probably guess, the purpose of this option was to exit the player to gruntilda's lair.
but in the final game, the only way to accomplish this is by stepping on the entrance and exit pad. what's very strange is that in banjo-kazooie's instruction manual this unused option is not only mentioned but is also shown and given a description. this means that the option was most likely cut very late in development, which is supported by the fact that the menu button can be restored with a simple gameshark code. during development, banjo's house was dramatically changed.
in the beta, the house looked more like a cabin than a modern home in the final game. speaking of banjo's house, the original file select scene has a portrait of donkey kong in place of tootie. some think that this was a last-minute change due to the fact that there's already a photo of tootie on banjo's desk. when trying to play bottles' bonus puzzle at the beginning of the game, bottles will refuse to let banjo and kazooie play it. at this point, kazooie refers to bottles as "barrel boy."
now, kazooie throws out insults almost every time she speaks, but this is strange. why would she refer to bottles as "barrel boy?" all of her insults somehow reflect the character's name or look, but bottles has nothing to do with barrels. but do you know who does? donkey kong. what if the puzzle was meant to be with the scrapped donkey kong portrait? after all, originally, bottles' portrait was actually tootie's in the beta,
meaning that his portrait wasn't even in the house to begin with. banjo-kazooie has some interesting unused objects and music. let's begin by looking at the unused graphics. this first one is a picture most likely intended for the paintings in mad monster mansion. these unused icons and text were intended for a debug menu, but no-one has managed to find a way to bring it back through gameshark. in the winter area of click-clock woods, a beehive tells banjo and kazooie that mumbo is on vacation. but according to this unused graphic,
it appears that this sign would have replaced the beehive. this last image is of a firefly, likely intended for mad monster mansion, being that is the only world set at night. the random-stop honeycomb functionality from banjo-tooie is actually in banjo-kazooie's files. using a gameshark code when a player collects any honeycomb, the honeycomb count of banjo will be set to a random amount. there's a single unused test map in banjo-kazooie. it has 8 slopes in a circle too steep to climb normally.
it is possible that this map was intended to test banjo's ability to climb steep slopes with and without the talon trot. there are 10 unused theme songs and fanfares inside banjo-kazooie the first two are early themes for click-clock wood in the seasons summer and autumn. *house summer theme* *house autumn theme* the next song is called "advent," which as i mentioned before, is the theme for giant's lair. *giant's lair theme*
this next song is called "rain." better known as "mumbo's raindance." *mumbo's raindance theme* banjo-kazooie has separate themes for when banjo goes underwater in a world, but sometimes the theme goes unused due to the world having no swimable water. the first underwater theme is for freezeezy peak, where banjo can't swim underwater due to the water being too cold. banjo can go underwater after being transformed into a walrus but the music doesn't change at this point.
*freezeezy underwater theme* this next track is for wozza's cave, which is also in freezeezy peak. once again, the track does not play because the water is too cold. this could mean that banjo would've originally been able to swim in the water, or that the music would change while underwater in walrus form. *wozza's cave underwater theme* the last underwater theme is for rusty bucket bay's engine room, where there is no swimable water in the area. this may mean that the bow of the ship,
which does have water, would've been using the engine room's theme instead of the main world's. *rusty bucket bay engine room underwater theme* three unused jingles are also in banjo-kazooie's files, one of which is called "quit." this is a shorter version of the "game over" tune in the final, perhaps used before the ending cutscene was created. another jingle is called "mystery," which plays when the unused random honeycomb finishes choosing the life count.
the last is "open door," which sounds much like the jingle that plays when mumbo transforms banjo. this was actually used in banjo-tooie, when dingpot replenishes your items. *quit jingle* *mystery jingle* *open door jingle* i hope you're ready for some more unused themes, songs and jingles, because grant kirkhope has a folder of unused songs that were leftover
from composing banjo-kazooie's soundtrack. most of them are quite long, so i'll let you listen to a piece of each. if you want to listen to the entire track, click the link in the description. *atlantis theme* *big foot theme* *giant theme* *boss1 theme* *elvking theme* *babe theme*
"ogres" is the next song, most likely a leftover from "dream." *ogres theme* the next song is an early theme from mumbo's mountain, with the title jungle1. *jungle1 theme* these next two themes are called "lost" and "lost1." "lost" eventually became the theme for dk island in donkey kong 64. and "lost1" is an early theme that turned into "mayahem temple," a world in banjo-tooie.
*lost theme* *lost1 theme* freezeezy peak has two early audio tracks, the first being earlier than the other. *freezeezy peak very early theme* *freezeezy peak early theme* there are two unused jiggy jingles; one shorter than the final, and one longer. *jig short jingle* *extended jiggy jingle*
while we're on the subject of jingles, here's another. this one is called "magic." no-one knows what this audio track would've been used for. *magic jingle* "temple" is another unused banjo-kazooie theme. see if you can guess what this song turned out to be! *temple theme* this song is almost identical to the theme for fungi forest in donkey kong 64. *fungi forest theme* now it's time to talk about what you've all been waiting for:
the stop 'n' swop. for those of you who haven't watched my video on donkey kong 64, the stop 'n' swop is an unused functionality in banjo-kazooie, where players can transfer in-game items to banjo-tooie. players could collect six colored eggs and one ice key to transfer to banjo-kazooie's sequel. in order to accomplish this, users would power down their nintendo 64 console, replace the banjo-kazooie cartridge with banjo-tooie, and turn the console back on within 10 seconds. sadly, revisions to the console caused the 10 seconds
required to switch the cartridge to become a single second. and since no-one can switch a cartridge that fast, the stop 'n' swop was scrapped. rareware didn't do a good job at scrapping the feature, though. mumbo actually makes a specific reference to the stop 'n' swop if banjo collects all 100 jiggies in the game. not only does he say that there are secrets to be collected for the next game, he also calls the sequel by name and shows banjo and kazooie collecting two eggs and an ice key.
when asked how to collect them, mumbo says that banjo will find out in banjo-tooie. well, banjo-tooie came along and gamers were all excited to find out how to collect the eggs and the key. but when they played the game, banjo collected three eggs and the ice key in banjo-tooie. thus making there no need to collect the eggs and key in the first game. players considered this a cop-out, and the rare witch project felt the same way. so they searched for the items by hacking banjo-kazooie, and what they found surprised everyone:
they managed to find seven cheat codes to unlock the stop 'n' swop items. upon enteringthese codes in treasure trove cove, the item associated with it will become accessible. and after you collect one of these items, a new menu will appear in "view totals" called, you guessed it, "stop 'n' swop." which shows the stop 'n' swop items that the player has collected. taking into account that mumbo said that the player would find out how to collect the items in banjo-tooie, it is very likely that the cheats found by the rare witch project were going to be revealed in the sequel
to be entered into banjo-kazooie. after collecting them, the user would switch out the cartridges and receive the items in banjo-tooie to be used to unlock the secrets in that game. sadly though, this didn't work out and the stop 'n' swop never saw the light of day. so that's the beta of banjo-kazooie. even though banjo-kazooie is a fantastic game, i feel that it may have been even better with the stop 'n' swop and the seven scrapped levels. rareware was way ahead of their time
and i can't help but wonder what gaming might have been like today if microsoft hadn't purchased them. if you wish to listen to some of "dream"'s soundtrack, composed by grant kirkhope, click the link in the description. oh, speaking of grant kirkhope, someone wants to say a quick "hello." "this is grant kirkhope, composer of, uh, banjo-kazooie, and 'dream' of course." "i'd like to thank you for watching beta64."
"goodbye!"
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