Revisions of the N64 circuitry killed Stop ‘n’ Swop

Revisions of the N64 circuitry killed Stop ‘n’ Swop

May 28th, 2008, 00:40 Posted By: JKKDARK

via MundoRare

Every Rare fan worth their weight in whatever is valuable these days know what those three words are. For those that don’t, here’s a short history lesson before we get to the overdue reason.

In 1998, at the end of Banjo-Kazooie, Mumbo Jumbo showed pictures of two mystery eggs and an Ice Key in seemingly inaccessible parts of the game. To top it off, Mumbo said that we could only get these items in the sequel, Banjo-Tooie. Then the hype train began. During that time and Tooie’s release, Nintendo and Rare kept mum about what Stop ‘n’ Swop was when it was hacked by fellow site The Rare Witch Project.

The year 2000 came with Banjo-Tooie, and there was no way to get the items as promised at the end of Banjo-Kazooie. Just three B-K cartridges that you had to break open to get them, dead on the floor, and that was that. Even after that, Rare and Nintendo refused to talk about what Stop ‘n’ Swop would’ve done. The closest thing we got to that was a patent that explained that thanks to the 10-second memory of N64 models before 1999, you could’ve changed cartridges to get the desired items. Even with this knowledge and seemingly conclusive evidence, Rare and Nintendo did not officially acknowledge this. After ten years, an official answer has finally been said.

Salvatore Fileccia, lead software engineer at Rare responsible for the upcoming Nuts & Bolts, explains why Stop N’ Swop couldn’t be done. Officially.

According to MTV Multiplayer “the reason Nintendo soured on the idea was because of revisions to the N64 circuitry. Older versions of the system would have given gamers a full 10 seconds to remove the Kazooie cartridge and insert the Tooie one. Newer iterations of the N64 would have given gamers just one second.”

Furthermore, the article added that they originally “had programmed the original Stop ‘n’ Swop functions in Banjo-Tooie before Nintendo nixed them.”

Better late than never? Who knows. In the end, an official answer is an official answer, and Stop ‘n’ Swop’s demise can join Star Fox Adventures, Donkey Kong Racing, Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers, Diddy Kong Pilot, Rare staying exclusive to Nintendo systems after 2002, and Goldeneye 007 XBLA as another reason why Rare fans couldn’t get what they wanted thanks to Nintendo.

Supposedly there’s a bright side in all this, as the end of the article describes Fileccia’s sly grin when asked about Stop ‘n’ Swop returning to Nuts & Bolts. Unlike the first two games, however, let’s hope it doesn’t take them ten years to explain why they failed to implement it this time as teased.

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