Someone Call A Plumber
Massive file leak exposes Nintendo development secrets
A huge information leak has revealed lots of incredible Nintendo information
The internet has recently seen a number of fascinating revelations about classic Nintendo games dating back over three decades, as source code was leaked for games including the likes of Pilotwings, Super Mario World, Yoshi’s Island, Star Fox 2, Super Mario 64 and The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time. However, the discoveries have been tainted by the fact that all of the data used to make them was obtained illegally.
While source code and prototype games have often leaked to the public contrary to the wishes of their publishers, these incidents have typically involved people who were given legitimate access to them at some point. There have been incidents where source code has been used as padding on a game disc, or prototype games have been found in the possessions of a developer following a home clearance. What makes this incident different is that the files in this leak were obtained via illegally accessing a private server – hacking, essentially.
This isn’t the first time that such an incident has occurred, but it is arguably the most intriguing due to the fact that it involves Nintendo.
The company has always been keen to keep a strong degree of control over the presentation of its products, and it has often been quite secretive over its products in development. Occasional details have been divulged and alluded to in the past, including in Nintendo’s Iwata Asks series and interviews with Retro Gamer, or in prototype builds of games shown to the press and public at events like Space World and E3. But many of the discoveries are brand new,
and give some amazing insights into Nintendo’s creative process.
Source code was found for a number of games, along with unused graphics, uncompressed audio and more. For example, the files found for Pilotwings contained graphics from when it was known as a more combat-focused flight simulator known as Dragonfly. A variety of early designs for Yoshi were found in the Super Mario World graphics data, showing how the character evolved from the long-limbed steed of Shigeru Miyamoto’s original sketch into the cuter, stubbier form we know today. A variety of early sprites were also unearthed for Super Mario Kart, dating back to the earliest prototype efforts. These include a chap in a racing suit and helmet, riding an F-zero style hovercraft and a kart – designs mentioned by Hideki Konno in our feature The Making Of Super Mario Kart, way back in issue 167.
Later SNES games with fascinating lost content include Yoshi’s Island, which lost a minigame in which Yoshi uses his helicopter transformation to bomb huts, and Star Fox 2, which had a human pilot concept at one point in development. N64 fans haven’t been left out, either. Fans of Super Mario 64 were fascinated to see remnants of the game’s earliest showings, including stages that were seen in press previews. However, the biggest deal was the discovery of a 3D model for Luigi – some comfort for players who had fallen for internet rumours back in the day. Icons for unused Mario Kart 64 items such as the feather and Yoshi egg have been found too, and fans have already reconstructed a prototype dungeon seen in early screenshots of The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, as well as various scrapped enemies.
Possibly the most interesting things concern the projects that never came to be. In the past, Nintendo developers have spoken of an attempt to remake Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link in 3D, and Argonaut’s developers confirmed that they were working on a 3D Yoshi platformer. 3D models of Link and Yoshi have been found that would have been used for the
SNES Super FX chip, representing the only remnants we have of those projects. Another project identified as ‘super_donkey’ is a platform game featuring a multi-sprite character similar in style to Rayman, and seemingly has ties to Yoshi’s Island.
As well as data for games, plenty of other things were made public as a result of the hack. Development tools that had been dormant for decades were suddenly thrust into the public spotlight, with the appearance of a Star Fox CAD tool prompting its author Dylan Cuthbert to post on Twitter, wondering, “Where the hell have hackers got all this obscure data from?” The leak also contains internal communications from Argonaut involving named individuals, which is a testing issue for those who draw an ethical distinction between issues of corporate and personal privacy.
The long-term repercussions of this leak are unclear. This material is in the wild now, and any attempt to suppress it would undoubtedly fail. But while it’s unlikely that Nintendo will become any more secretive than it already is, the company is notoriously litigious. If it can trace the people involved in the leak, they could expect to face some major legal difficulties. Regardless of whether or not that happens, it’s now possible to get a much deeper understanding of some of the best videogames ever made.