Rare co-founder Tim Stamper shares new footage from cancelled N64 RPG Dream
"The... treasure does exist after all".
Rare co-founder Tim Stamper has been digging into his archive again of late, promising to reveal "more secrets" from the studio's vault, and his latest helping of retro treasure comes in the form of new footage from Rare's cancelled N64 game, Dream.
Announced back in 1995, Dream was to be Rare's take on the role-playing genre, with a dash of LucasArts thrown in, following the fairy-tale-inspired adventures of a boy named Edson as he battled the nefarious Captain Blackeye and his band of pirates.
Originally planned for release on the SNES, Dream was later retooled for the N64, switching from isometric visuals to more ambitious full 3D. As time went on, however, technical issues and several rethinks caused some dramatic changes in direction, with Edson eventually being dropped in favour of new protagonist Banjo and the original RPG elements making way for a more straightforward Donkey Kong Country-esque platformer.
Unfortunately, the release of Super Mario 64 proved to be the death knell for Dream - Rare, inspired by Nintendo's seminal title, soon switched focus to begin developing its own 3D platformer, Banjo-Kazooie - but Dream has never quite been forgotten by fans of the studio, despite few details of the project being released during its development. A 2015 mini-documentary would shed a little more light on the title, and it's now re-entered the spotlight thanks to Rare co-founder Tim Stamper's latest Twitter hijinks.
Having teased a development build of Twelve Tales: Conker 64 and some dinosaur-themed art for an unreleased NES title last month, Stamper has now unearthed a development cartridge of Dream 64 from 1996, sharing video footage - "probably for [that year's] Nintendo Shoshinkai show" - in which a pirate exclaims that "the Nintendo 64 treasure does exist after all!".
It might not be a lot, but it's still a fascinating glimpse at a hitherto unseen part of video game history, and another treat for long-time fans of Rare. It's unclear if there's anything more of Dream to be seen - composer Grant Kirkhope suggested the cartridge might also featured some gameplay in a Twitter exchange - but hopefully Stamper still has more tantalising treasures from Rare's golden era to share. Once he's done licking a 25-year-old chocolate BAFTA, that is.