Rare Co-Founder Shows Conker 64, Fans Immediately Beg Him To Dump It

I wonder just how different this one is from the final product.

@TheBigBlue It's so different. Like this is a completely different game different

To my understanding, Twelve Tales is more like Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, a collectathon, while Conker's Bad Fur Day is more of an adventure game where you go around doing missions without a clear collectible beyond money.

I remember this being reported in the magazines in this original guise, then it disappeared for a long time, to reemerge as a game with one of the best multiplayers ever.

I hope the ROM gets released, one way or another. This is in my top 5 most wanted prototypes to play- probably top 3, even.

Ah yes, when Conker was a good squirrel.

Makes me wonder if there's some developer out there who has Earthbound 64, but this definitely needs a rom dump for the fans and historical preservation.

Conker had a better shoryu than Ken. You can tell, because the big wind up makes it more powerful 😄

The amount of whimsy in Twelve Tales is sickening to the general gaming public. I think the game looks fun.

@JayJ I've read there is/was a EB64 (or at least a Japanese Mother 3 N64) proto in the hands of the devs. I do remember reading about one of the GBA devs, I think it was, who was allowed to play the N64 proto, probably under strict secrecy clauses, for inspiration.
What I have heard is that the N64 version was canceled because it was just too buggy to be feasibly fixed up in the remainder of the N64's commercial lifespan.

@Uncle_Franklin Played Total War endlessly with my brother, the multiplayer was on a whole different level.

@Pho

I made a Total War Smash Bros. stage,
hooray for me!

That KX-14 Trinitron monitor he's got is a nice model, it has an RGB scart input (although he'd need to mod his N64 to use it! 😅)

@KingMike Yeah I know the timing seemed to have to lot to do with it's cancellation, Nintendo was gearing up for the Gamecube. Numerous late N64 projects either got shifted over the Gamecube or cancelled. Still, it's always been at the top of my most wanted "lost games" list as it seemed to have a totally different look and feel from the GBA game that was based on it. Hearing that there is someone out there who has it does at least give me some hope I might one day see it, even if it's incredibly slim. Heck I never thought I would see Conker 64 show up, which was easily in my list of top cancelled games, yet here we are.

Unpopular opinion but they should have released this instead of Bad Fur Day. I remember thinking what an edge lordy game it was

@Sciqueen It wasn't edgy though. It was actually a self aware satirical game. I disagree with you there.

There were plenty of collectathons games back then. The biggest Being Mario, Donkey Kong, and Banjo.

If this game came out, it probably have been received less favorably and compared to Banjo. Rares other title.

Either way, you should replay it. It was far from edgy and more just like very immature humor.

@Vexx234 I meant edgy as in turning a child friendly game into one with swearing, alcohol, etc. I can see why Nintendo refused to publish it regardless of whether it was a satire. We don't know how people would have compared it to Banjo

Why does nobody ever talk about Robin beanland? His music of this rare era was just as good as grant kirkup but nobody ever mentions him.

They could have released it as a prequel. And maybe it still can. What's stopping this from finally seeing the light of day as part of Rare Replay and Nintendo Switch Online? If Star Fox 2 can see a release many years after cancelation, why not this? True, it might need some debugging, and some box art will need to be made, but otherwise, why not?

@N-MCMXCIX That would be really cool to see, but how far in development was Conker?
Star Fox 2 was almost finished already, so that's a different matter.

Even if it's not practical to try to finish Twelve Tales, I'd still love to see the ROM released in some form. Rare Replay could include it and some other protos (like Dream!) as unlockable content, and put up a disclaimer stating that it's not a finished product.

@Sciqueen Conker's Bad Fur Day is strange and unforgettable, whereas Twelve Tales seems like a very generic game that could have easily gotten lost in the avalanche of late-'90s 3D platformers.

That said, not all of BFD is nearly as funny as it thinks it is, and the gameplay is oddly clunky for a game from 2001 (about a nimble forest critter, at that!).

I feel like the original vision might have been more fun as a game, but wouldn't have made nearly the same impact.

@smoreon

I'm intrigued: what other protos are you interested in playing?

@-wc- First place was a tie between Dinosaur Planet and Vexx. The latter is a platformer in the style of Super Mario 64, and its tumultuous development mirrored that of DP/Star Fox Adventures: half of the environments, several game mechanics, and most of the story were removed, and what was left was awkwardly pieced together with a whole "bad guy blew apart the planet" backstory.

Of course, DP's ROM was released a couple of years ago, so that leaves Vexx as the remaining Holy Grail of prototypes- in my estimation, anyway!

Conker would probably take third place after those two. It's just so different from what we got, and parts of it look like a bizarro alternate universe version of BFD, where Conker doesn't touch alcohol, and no one swears or throws poo at him.

After that, maybe Kameo for GameCube, followed by Zelda 64? There's probably something I'm missing, but I can kick myself over it later.

Early build of Jet Force Gemini, before the character models were changed, please... Or failing that, how about Perfect Dark with the GB camera functionality intact, as demoed to N64 magazine.

Would be amazing if Twelve Tales gets dumped, even if incomplete.

@BulkSlash They are gorgeous looking, one of the prettiest CRT designs I think. And the 450 line count is the perfect sweet spot - not as sharp as a 600TVL PVM (too sharp & heavily scanlined for me re. 240p content), but cleaner and higher spec than a consumer Trinitron. It just has one feature that lets it down for me & makes it unusable - the black matrix aspect of the screen - a dark filter that lowers the black levels, but also lowers peak brightness. I want my retro game image to be vibrant. The gorgeous B&O MX4000/7000 does something similar, albeit a lower quality set, which also makes it unusable to me. Just a personal preference, though, and respect to anyone using this set, it's a beauty.

@andykara2003 That's cool, sadly I've never had the chance to see one in person. What's your favourite CRT model for retro gaming?

@BulkSlash I went down the OCD rabbit hole a few years back - went through some higher end sets, BVM, Ikegami etc. but didn't like the harsh scanlines and pixellation. It just didn't feel authentic. I like consumer Sony trinitrons & Loewe non-100Hz sets, but only if they havent had much use as they go soft & dull after a normal life. I picked up a new old stock 1992 Sony consumer set a couple of years ago - the plastic packaging had welded itself together with age but the TV was mint. The set should last a long time hopefully. Do you use a CRT?

@andykara2003 For my consoles, I don't sadly. I keep meaning to track down a CRT (and my preference would be a '90s Trinitron too) but normally the ones I see are hundred of miles away and collection only (which is understandable given their weight and delicateness)!

I do have Hantarexs and Nanaos in my arcade machines though. I refuse to compromise and put LCDs in there! 😅 In the case of Time Crisis and House of the Dead you literally can't switch them to LCD as the guns wouldn't work.

I'm on the hunt for a 4:3 52" rear projection CRT at the moment as well for a deluxe cab I'm trying to restore. At some point all the RP TVs seem to have dried up!

@BulkSlash Wow, it looks like you have a serious setup - kudos for not subsituting LCDs, what a treat to have those monitors!

@andykara2003 Thanks! The Hantarexs look particularly good after a re-cap, I think the interlaced image of the Super System 22 boards helps to gives a nice crisp image.

"Despite earning positive reviews, Conker's Bad Fur Day was a commercial disappointment (Nintendo refused to publish it, so THQ took that role instead). It did, however, spawn a 2005 Xbox remake in the form of Conker: Live & Reloaded."

I think Nintendo did launch it in USA (and maybe in Canada) but not in Europe.