As Rare Ltd. has become a fully integrated MGS studio last year, they don't seem to care about their history anymore. Some think this is bad, but when it comes to leaking stuff, this is great. Our old friend transparentjinjo (famous for his Sabreman Stampede, Banjo Pilot Voxel, and Grunty's Revenge beta videos) has decided to put up videos of Diddy Kong Pilot.
The first one ist from a late 2001 build, the second one from an early 2003 build which was later transformed into Banjo Pilot. It looks like they build two entirely different games - the 2001 version looks way more ambitious and unfinished though.
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Single player modes in the 2001 version:
- Racing
- Dog Fights
- Stories
- Battles
- Clock Race
In addition, it should've had the opportunity to play with the D-Pad and a tilt sensor; the latter method was never properly implemented (did not really work).
Characters:
Crappy Kong only appears when the cursor is on him, otherwise he disappears. A few weeks later he was removed entirely. On the right you can see the character screen from Spaceworld 2001.
Games Worlds
Levels:
Dogfight levels:
Stories:
Some random levels/ objectives from the video:
Chicken Chase:
Video: Diddy Kong Pilot Pre-Alpha (2001-09-07 Build)
Comments by Jens (former team member); time relates to the Youtube video above:
Official description by Rare:
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It's kind of weird that the latest Diddy Kong Pilot build dates back to early 2003 as Rare was officially sold in September 2002. This version was originally shelved, a different team then started Banjo-Pilot with a Voxel engine, which was too expensive. Thus it was decided that the team should just reskin the DKP 2003 build.
Single player modes:
- Cups
- Time Trials
- Cranky Challenges (collect 6 coins and win against Cranky)
Characters:
Cups:
- Klap Trap Kup
- Kritter Kup
- Klump Kup
- K. Rool Kup
Races:
Steamy Swoop vs. Spiral Mountain
Plain Pursuit vs. Jinxy's Dunes
Chilly Length vs. Freezeezy Peak
Magma Spurt vs. Hailfire Peaks
Cranky Kong vs. Bottles
Boss Bop vs. Kazooie Klash
Other levels:
Random Screens:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg7SYh1lWqQ&feature=feedu
The first one ist from a late 2001 build, the second one from an early 2003 build which was later transformed into Banjo Pilot. It looks like they build two entirely different games - the 2001 version looks way more ambitious and unfinished though.
_____________________________________________________________
Single player modes in the 2001 version:
- Racing
- Dog Fights
- Stories
- Battles
- Clock Race
In addition, it should've had the opportunity to play with the D-Pad and a tilt sensor; the latter method was never properly implemented (did not really work).
Characters:
Crappy Kong only appears when the cursor is on him, otherwise he disappears. A few weeks later he was removed entirely. On the right you can see the character screen from Spaceworld 2001.
Games Worlds
Levels:
Dogfight levels:
Stories:
Some random levels/ objectives from the video:
Chicken Chase:
Video: Diddy Kong Pilot Pre-Alpha (2001-09-07 Build)
Comments by Jens (former team member); time relates to the Youtube video above:
11:06 or wait, did you need to collect the worms to feed an eagle? So long ago. The ghosts in the trees and on the ground were placeholders, so we could implement and test the mode without waiting for the graphics.
11:06 and I think this was a going to be a variation on the egg collecting MP game from Diddy Kong Racing.
9:57 on this stage you were supposed to collect the small ghosts and bring them to the pond while avoiding the big ghost.
2:50 whoa, bug in the camera spline code. The hut was supposed to be some kind of turret shooting at you.
2:02 debug menu. The first entry is the level select. I have no idea if the "blend" entry was hooked up to anything at that point, but it was probably to debug the distance fog used to hide flickering on the floor.
1:08 yes, it takes ~15 seconds for a round, less on some tracks. We were always told that this is exactly what they want. But one of the first things they asked me once the designer was changed was to change the software to allow bigger tracks.
1:04 the pylons were there to keep you on the track. You could miss three of them before you were disqualified. We were asked to take them out and add the invisible walls.
0:44 the small stars at the bottom are a simple profiler. I think the first bit was the code that drew the perspective floor, then the code that selects the correct sprite frame for each plane depending on viewing angle. The last bit was the music and sound effects, which were the most expensive thing in later versions. The green dots show the end of vblank and the visible frame.
0:30 I always called him Crappy Kong. I don't think he ever had an official name, and I think he was taken out a few weeks after this version.
Official description by Rare:
All sorts of play options are yours for the tinkering, including single-player and multiplayer tournaments, a classic time trial and detailed story modes for each character (ending in climactic one-on-one boss duels). You can even link up with three of your mates, competing for the title of squadron leader or simply blast each other out of the sky in frantic dogfights.
Other features of the game include interactive background scenery, rolling and looping manouevres, upgradable weapons and power-ups, secret features to unlock and of course the rarely-seen Tilt Technology, where, if youre feeling particularly adventurous, you can set aside your D-Pad in favour of controlling the plane by actually tilting the Game Boy Advance.
______________________________________________________
It's kind of weird that the latest Diddy Kong Pilot build dates back to early 2003 as Rare was officially sold in September 2002. This version was originally shelved, a different team then started Banjo-Pilot with a Voxel engine, which was too expensive. Thus it was decided that the team should just reskin the DKP 2003 build.
http://www.dkvine.com/?p=1082The tilt pack idea was dropped, and they showed the game to Nintendo who didnt want it; reasons given included there is no point in flying up and down on flat levels. Some employees thought Nintendo was just being prejudiced against the company, as it was around the time of the Microsoft buyout.
The game was later picked up by another team, who experimented with a voxel engine (and found out the hard way why we didn't use one) and then re-skinned the original version with a Banjo theme.
The voxel engine looked great but was just too expensive.
Ah, this brings back memories...and not good ones!
After we were ordered to shelve the voxel version of Banjo Pilot, team morale was pretty low. Then we were given a build of DKP similar to this one and told to replace the graphics & frontend.
It took almost a month to even get the project building & running again (with much help from the original programmer), and bugfixing was a real challenge. The game still went out onto the shelves with loads of multiplayer bugs.
Single player modes:
- Cups
- Time Trials
- Cranky Challenges (collect 6 coins and win against Cranky)
Characters:
Cups:
- Klap Trap Kup
- Kritter Kup
- Klump Kup
- K. Rool Kup
Races:
Steamy Swoop vs. Spiral Mountain
Plain Pursuit vs. Jinxy's Dunes
Chilly Length vs. Freezeezy Peak
Magma Spurt vs. Hailfire Peaks
Cranky Kong vs. Bottles
Boss Bop vs. Kazooie Klash
Other levels:
Random Screens:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg7SYh1lWqQ&feature=feedu