A friend of mine once told me of a dream he had where he played in Zoness with the Blue Marine acting as a sort of speed boat, moving on the surface of the water. I hope to recreate that in the Port some day
After all these years, seeing proper custom levels in SF64 is amazing - as is learning of other potential Blue Marine levels! That torpedo is super cool too... I can't wait to see where modding goes for the future
The torpedo pickup is definitely leftover from before the blue marine had infinite torpedoes. It was probably supposed to work like normal bombs, but they figured the slower controls weren't fun, so they gave you infinite ammo to make up for it. And the torpedo pickup suddenly had no use.
Man. I just knew it back then. When my brother and I first reached Aquas, we struggled with it for a while to get used to the controls, layouts and stuff, so when we finally got to defeat the Bio Weapon, the following cutscene REALLY looked like it was gonna setup a second boss battle, we were really afraid until the Mission Accomplished music kicked in because we had basically no HP left and were really nervous about the battle that we just fought. Somehow it really felt that way to us. And now it turns out it probably was gonna happen.
Gotta say, wasn't expecting to watch the Blue Marine fight the Gorgon when I clicked on this. These videos of what could've been for Star Fox 64 have been fascinating, can't wait for more!
Its a shame that they didnt add in more sub missions, considering they went through the effort of implementing the vehicle and underwater effects. Its such a short game, it really seems like they could have added more stages or released a directors cut later on.
Man, this is so cool. SF64 is one of my favourite games ever made, and it's so neat seeing content otherwise lost to time restored. That bit about recovering textures from a bad asset reference in prerelease footage is absolutely fucking hilarious, as you said. I was surprised to hear Aquas rates as the most unpopular level; I always thought it was awesome. Great music, cool boss fight. Alas.
4:49 Not sure if you've already looked it up, but a Cattelya is a type of orchid. Might be an insight as to what the boss was intended to look like or the image it was to invoke
Z-axis is different movement, that was just lateral movement in the blue marine that was coded. He was speaking in terms of stage design with the actors.
People disliked Aquas?? I like it. It's pretty. Plus: you're on a scifi adventure, and suddenly you find bloody _Atlantis?!_ That's some potential lore. Better than "Anglar Empire goes unnoticed on Venom." Contrast: Raccoon -City- Crater is *still* under _observed_ quarantine as of RE8. If I had to say I disliked a level-- or more accurately, my least favorite, I'd saaaaayyyy..... Sector Z. It's the one that's the most hassle to get the medal on.
I used to hate it until I mastered it. It's one of my favourite levels and to me it feels like a "sit back and enjoy" kinda level (especially because we got infinite bombs)
As a kid when I figured out the hard route after some decent amount of time with the game the aquas level was also cool for me but mostly because it was exciting to use a new vehicle
I don't know why, but sometimes old N64 graphics really freak me out, especially long voids like at @1:37 where it just stretches on to infinity. It's like trypophobia
It also feels like Aquas was kind of half baked, compared to the other stages. The fact that they give you unlimited torpedoes feels like they were making up for a mechanic they couldn't figure out. Also the stage itself just doesnt seem as fleshed out as the other stages, with repetitive enemies and no real tactics aside from lock on to everything and fire torpedoes. So maybe the lack of a second stage is a result of them never really finishing this stage, but were far along enough that they didnt want to get rid of it?
That's interesting that you talk about zoness because it's probably one of, if not, my most favorite level in sf64 so I'm glad it turned out the way it did.
TStamp 08:30 - I can't believe Aquas was hard capped at a lower framerate than the rest of the game. All this time I thought it was more sluggish because it was a more difficult stage for the N64 hardware to render. Is that just not the case? Man, this blows my mind!
@@ThePingasMightier Possibly, Idk. Also, I completely agree. It is very weird. I hope/wish someone would do an investigation into why this was done this way.
It seems the 3DS version still has the framerate cap for Aquas, interestingly enough. I was wondering why the cutscenes felt so choppy when I played it for the first time.
I think they made the right call. When I was a kid and the game wasn't so easy for me, reaching Aquas took me forever. But I knew from one of those Nintendo Power videos they mail you sometimes to promote their games that there was a submarine level I just couldn't reach. Then I finally got to it and it was probably the first time I truly felt disappointed that I was trying so hard to find this mythical submarine level. Then I get to it and it's just not fun to play at all. At least limiting it to one planet gave it this little bit of mystery, as it was sort of hard for a novice player to get to.
Great work on this video! It's very cool to see the background stuff in game that we don't see, and all the discarded stuff they could have added to the game, but still glad of what we got! I look forward to more videos from you!
I think an All Range Mode Blue Marine mission would have been interesting to see, but ultimately a pain to play with the dark atmosphere typically found in the Aquas mission. I like the shallower arena that brings more light so the player can see and it does lead me to believe the enemy bio weapon clam was originally an ARM boss since it was pretty jarring you STOPPED to fight the thing when other corridor bosses kept you moving in the skybox. My guess is that the Angler Fish or Whale that accompanied it flicked back the torpedos you'd use to damage the boss but the trigger and animation was too difficult to implement properly. Would have been interesting to see as an alt-route boss.
This looks like the age of the Star Fox 64 hackers. Great channel, been looking for a channel like this for ages. My favourite game as a kid, still love running it here, and there.
I seriously hope with the release of the working PC build that we get a modded version of the game in the future that makes it like Starfox 2 where you move dynamically inside the lylat system responding to threats as the Venomian fleet moves around the system on a sort of turn based basis. Then you could add rogue like and randomiser elements to planets you assist, could be so good.
It hurts on a spiritual level to see these classic games have unused assets. I pray one day that either the fans or Nintendo create a Star Fox 64 remake utilizing every last one. I want to see the full potential of games like these.
2:58 this is the kind of thing that would have scared the loving fuck out of me as a kid and is still unsettling as an adult. add it to the infinite list of atrocities in ecco the dolphin for ps2
Just wonderful, hoping this means we can get more elaborate custom levels down the line and some pretty sick romhacks. Always wanted something like this and I'm super excited to see what the community does with the decomp
1:54 I would like to rename/nickname the "Angry Angler" as "Herbert Walker" from now on, based on this iconic scene from the Simpsons s07e13 "Two Bad Neighbors": *Marge:* President Bush is driving on our lawn. He must be lost.
I'm confused about Aquas... are all 4 of them inside the Blue-Marine? Falco says in the level "This thing will NEVER hold together" but also in this level Slippy asks "How's the Blue-Marine Fox?" can't he tell if he was in it? And at the end of the level Fox says "Thanks Slip. Blue-Marine came through." which he wouldn't have to say if Slippy was in the craft with him.
This still makes perfect sense if Fox is just the one driving it, but I think the implication is the others are in the Great Fox which is floating on the sea behind the camera
Would love to see a dev stream of designing one of these levels. I work on a different game series and this sounds like it'd be really dangerous for me to try, I can see it sucking up a lot of my time... :)
very much seems like you'd blow up some rocks blocking a tunnel leading to an alternate boss inside a crater kind of place with those walls surrounding it on Aquas! As for CL, that level seems like its the most frustrating to explore simply because it completely changed identities over development, going from a Water Stage to a Space Stage. Isn't there also something in the code to suggest that Fortuna may have been a Blue Marine stage as well at one time? I feel like I read that somewhere on account of SF1 and SF2 both showing a lot of Fortuna's oceans. Anyway, looking forward to your next video!
@@ElarixGames Oh okay, I just got an ever drive so I was hoping to get it working lol. The turret mode hack didn't work for me either, it started but none of the levels work is there a workaround I can do?
Aquis always felt awful for me, it and Zonis being my least favorite stages and of course they are right next to each other. Landmaster stages weren't easy but they were not anywhere near as annoying as the Blue Marine. I'm glad they focused on the Arwing as the main vehicle.
I don't know why people have such a problem with Aquas. It's an excellent water mission, beginning in a shallower sea and gradually getting darker and darker as you go deeper, lighting the darkness with torpedos revealing menacing deep sea creatures and sunken cities.
Is it possible for you to make a video of all the sound effects? I’ve only seen people upload a fraction of the sounds. Someone uploaded the sf643d sounds but they have that 3ds compression.
Some names were decided by the Decomp team based on what they did/where they were, others were strings from the 3DS remake, and others were from the leaked code.
I once played Star Fox 64 with my older brother a long time ago, and the other boss we encountered in the water stage appeared the be a female character. Even after all these years, I still can't find footage of the female boss in the water level of the game.
A friend of mine once told me of a dream he had where he played in Zoness with the Blue Marine acting as a sort of speed boat, moving on the surface of the water. I hope to recreate that in the Port some day
I'm fascinated by the fact that I'm not the only one who dreams of Starfox 64 at night! That's an interesting thing to hear :)
1:55 Idk, that Angler Fish seems pretty good at pulling off some 360 movement.
He's aiming for the 900
After all these years, seeing proper custom levels in SF64 is amazing - as is learning of other potential Blue Marine levels! That torpedo is super cool too... I can't wait to see where modding goes for the future
Nintendo: *refuses to make new and good star fox*
Fans: “Fine, we’ll do it ourselves”
@@Nephritesword pls just make 1 more and let Zero be the other M fast and fun
The torpedo pickup is definitely leftover from before the blue marine had infinite torpedoes. It was probably supposed to work like normal bombs, but they figured the slower controls weren't fun, so they gave you infinite ammo to make up for it. And the torpedo pickup suddenly had no use.
The song for Aquas was so like mysterious yet spooky.
Like the Titanic theme song!
The fact you could make something resembling a custom level gives me hope for new Star Fox hacks!
Man. I just knew it back then. When my brother and I first reached Aquas, we struggled with it for a while to get used to the controls, layouts and stuff, so when we finally got to defeat the Bio Weapon, the following cutscene REALLY looked like it was gonna setup a second boss battle, we were really afraid until the Mission Accomplished music kicked in because we had basically no HP left and were really nervous about the battle that we just fought. Somehow it really felt that way to us. And now it turns out it probably was gonna happen.
Gotta say, wasn't expecting to watch the Blue Marine fight the Gorgon when I clicked on this.
These videos of what could've been for Star Fox 64 have been fascinating, can't wait for more!
Its a shame that they didnt add in more sub missions, considering they went through the effort of implementing the vehicle and underwater effects. Its such a short game, it really seems like they could have added more stages or released a directors cut later on.
Unlike most people i fucking love aquas. Its so eerie and dark, and you can spam the fuck out of torpedos. And giant freaky fish? God its so good
Man, this is so cool. SF64 is one of my favourite games ever made, and it's so neat seeing content otherwise lost to time restored. That bit about recovering textures from a bad asset reference in prerelease footage is absolutely fucking hilarious, as you said.
I was surprised to hear Aquas rates as the most unpopular level; I always thought it was awesome. Great music, cool boss fight. Alas.
4:49 Not sure if you've already looked it up, but a Cattelya is a type of orchid. Might be an insight as to what the boss was intended to look like or the image it was to invoke
Oh man the future looks bright for this game
The Mario 64 Decomp walked so that the Zelda OOT/MM Decomps could run, so that the Star Fox 64 Decomp could fly.
I think you mean so the zelda decomps could roll. It's slightly more optimal.
@@manjackson2772 The Mario 64 Decomp BLJ'd so that the Zelda OOT/MM Decomps could HESS so that the Star Fox 64 Decomp could... I dunno, boost
@@manjackson2772 So the Zelda decomps could walk backwards in a straight line*
"Weren't programmed for 360 movement" As he shows the spinning fish meme.
Z-axis is different movement, that was just lateral movement in the blue marine that was coded. He was speaking in terms of stage design with the actors.
i can imagine the cut root for aquas would've made you use the blue marine in zoness instead of the arwings
People disliked Aquas?? I like it. It's pretty. Plus: you're on a scifi adventure, and suddenly you find bloody _Atlantis?!_ That's some potential lore. Better than "Anglar Empire goes unnoticed on Venom."
Contrast: Raccoon -City- Crater is *still* under _observed_ quarantine as of RE8.
If I had to say I disliked a level-- or more accurately, my least favorite, I'd saaaaayyyy.....
Sector Z. It's the one that's the most hassle to get the medal on.
I used to hate it until I mastered it. It's one of my favourite levels and to me it feels like a "sit back and enjoy" kinda level (especially because we got infinite bombs)
I don’t hate but I don’t like it. Even back when it came out, the level always made me feel incredibly anxious.
As a kid when I figured out the hard route after some decent amount of time with the game the aquas level was also cool for me but mostly because it was exciting to use a new vehicle
Yep Sector Z hands down was the worst
I had to go to that level through the sector x warp to get the medal.
I don't know why, but sometimes old N64 graphics really freak me out, especially long voids like at @1:37 where it just stretches on to infinity. It's like trypophobia
If I had tried to go through the unused tunnel and hit the invisible wall I would've been sent back to being a kid freaked out playing that level
5:12 With the SF64 assets that show up in LOZ, maybe the fish from Majora's Mask would fit into here?
Gyorg?
It also feels like Aquas was kind of half baked, compared to the other stages. The fact that they give you unlimited torpedoes feels like they were making up for a mechanic they couldn't figure out. Also the stage itself just doesnt seem as fleshed out as the other stages, with repetitive enemies and no real tactics aside from lock on to everything and fire torpedoes. So maybe the lack of a second stage is a result of them never really finishing this stage, but were far along enough that they didnt want to get rid of it?
Aren't you paying attention? Half-baked works fine with submarines! Just ask Skippy and Oceangate!
I really love that you're digging into Star Fox 64, I'm always happy to learn more about it!
Something comforting about learning more about older 3D games, thx for the video.
The algorithm blessed me today, amazing content, definitely new sub❤
I thoroughly enjoy your videos on this topic! Great stuff.
Can't say I'm surprised, because it was always odd how there was just one Blue Marine level while the Landmaster got...two, I think?
There is i always love the train one was it Macbeth or something?
I just watched your mockup trailer and other star fox videos last night! Guess I couldn't have timed finding you any better
Excellent work. Your SF64 videos are true gems. I love exploring cut content for games!
I'm so excited with what you'll do with the decomp. Great video, a lot of things I didn't know.
finally underwater Great Fox
Great video, fascinating to learn more Blue-Marine stages were planned.
That's interesting that you talk about zoness because it's probably one of, if not, my most favorite level in sf64 so I'm glad it turned out the way it did.
TStamp 08:30 - I can't believe Aquas was hard capped at a lower framerate than the rest of the game. All this time I thought it was more sluggish because it was a more difficult stage for the N64 hardware to render. Is that just not the case? Man, this blows my mind!
It's so weird. Maybe they were having stability issues too?
@@ThePingasMightier Possibly, Idk. Also, I completely agree. It is very weird. I hope/wish someone would do an investigation into why this was done this way.
It seems the 3DS version still has the framerate cap for Aquas, interestingly enough. I was wondering why the cutscenes felt so choppy when I played it for the first time.
I think they made the right call. When I was a kid and the game wasn't so easy for me, reaching Aquas took me forever. But I knew from one of those Nintendo Power videos they mail you sometimes to promote their games that there was a submarine level I just couldn't reach. Then I finally got to it and it was probably the first time I truly felt disappointed that I was trying so hard to find this mythical submarine level. Then I get to it and it's just not fun to play at all. At least limiting it to one planet gave it this little bit of mystery, as it was sort of hard for a novice player to get to.
This is incredibly fun to watch, I love to see the lost development leftovers of SF64 :D
Great work on this video! It's very cool to see the background stuff in game that we don't see, and all the discarded stuff they could have added to the game, but still glad of what we got! I look forward to more videos from you!
Awesome work! I’m definitely subscribing for more!
Wow this is super cool. Didn't realize we got a starfox decomp too
I think an All Range Mode Blue Marine mission would have been interesting to see, but ultimately a pain to play with the dark atmosphere typically found in the Aquas mission. I like the shallower arena that brings more light so the player can see and it does lead me to believe the enemy bio weapon clam was originally an ARM boss since it was pretty jarring you STOPPED to fight the thing when other corridor bosses kept you moving in the skybox. My guess is that the Angler Fish or Whale that accompanied it flicked back the torpedos you'd use to damage the boss but the trigger and animation was too difficult to implement properly. Would have been interesting to see as an alt-route boss.
This looks like the age of the Star Fox 64 hackers. Great channel, been looking for a channel like this for ages. My favourite game as a kid, still love running it here, and there.
So fascinating
SUPER neat stuff!
I seriously hope with the release of the working PC build that we get a modded version of the game in the future that makes it like Starfox 2 where you move dynamically inside the lylat system responding to threats as the Venomian fleet moves around the system on a sort of turn based basis.
Then you could add rogue like and randomiser elements to planets you assist, could be so good.
It hurts on a spiritual level to see these classic games have unused assets. I pray one day that either the fans or Nintendo create a Star Fox 64 remake utilizing every last one. I want to see the full potential of games like these.
I would just want a mod that lets me play all the levels in a row
The Blue Marine level was dope and it shoulda had at least one more
I just realized, surprised to not see you talk much about the PC port. Makes Aquas level play like a charm.
@@HaxHaunter I finished the mod before the PC Port released :/
@@ElarixGames oh its alright. I'm sure you will love doing your mods now that the port is out.
2:58 this is the kind of thing that would have scared the loving fuck out of me as a kid and is still unsettling as an adult. add it to the infinite list of atrocities in ecco the dolphin for ps2
7:18 I'm sorry, but that boss portrait is super creepy
Ashamed to say i didn't even know about a water level 😅
I weirdly like the blue marine, and I love unlimited bombs/torpedos
this was my favorite level when i was a kid
That's some good sleuthing, Elarix.
I’m glad they didn’t. The level design is amazing and the boss challenging, but the lag is so frustrating.
that makes sense cause with beta gameplay footage it showed a cut underwater level.
1 sub level was fine, the sub is a very niche vehicle that makes sense it wouldn’t get used much compared with ARwing and landmaster.
Just wonderful, hoping this means we can get more elaborate custom levels down the line and some pretty sick romhacks. Always wanted something like this and I'm super excited to see what the community does with the decomp
I think the anglerfish has a functional all-range mode.
1:54 I would like to rename/nickname the "Angry Angler" as "Herbert Walker" from now on, based on this iconic scene from the Simpsons s07e13 "Two Bad Neighbors":
*Marge:* President Bush is driving on our lawn. He must be lost.
I'm confused about Aquas... are all 4 of them inside the Blue-Marine? Falco says in the level "This thing will NEVER hold together" but also in this level Slippy asks "How's the Blue-Marine Fox?" can't he tell if he was in it? And at the end of the level Fox says "Thanks Slip. Blue-Marine came through." which he wouldn't have to say if Slippy was in the craft with him.
This still makes perfect sense if Fox is just the one driving it, but I think the implication is the others are in the Great Fox which is floating on the sea behind the camera
The rudder is going the wrong direction when turning left and right and its driving me insane
I haven't heard anyone mention punk7890 in so long! He was a friend of mine in the early Zelda OoT hacking days.
The sector 7 space ships make more sense as marine veichles
pure magic
What if the all-range fish boss was like Andross Brain?
Would love to see a dev stream of designing one of these levels. I work on a different game series and this sounds like it'd be really dangerous for me to try, I can see it sucking up a lot of my time... :)
Awesome
very much seems like you'd blow up some rocks blocking a tunnel leading to an alternate boss inside a crater kind of place with those walls surrounding it on Aquas! As for CL, that level seems like its the most frustrating to explore simply because it completely changed identities over development, going from a Water Stage to a Space Stage. Isn't there also something in the code to suggest that Fortuna may have been a Blue Marine stage as well at one time? I feel like I read that somewhere on account of SF1 and SF2 both showing a lot of Fortuna's oceans. Anyway, looking forward to your next video!
Fortuna isn't in SF64, unless you mean it was planned and scrapped at some point
@ yes that’s exactly what I meant. Fichina is still referred to as Fortuna in the code and they both use the reference FO as well
@@CappnRob Oh interesting, that makes a lot of sense then
1:55 Oh Lawd he spinnin
N64 looks soooooo much better on CRT.
The fact you can do that IS fucking hilarious
Cool video! The rom hack doesn't seem to work on real hardware though which is a shame, I'd love to see custom levels.
@PerplexedAnimation Yeah I increased the actor limit so I could shove as much stuff as possible into the level
@@ElarixGames Oh okay, I just got an ever drive so I was hoping to get it working lol. The turret mode hack didn't work for me either, it started but none of the levels work is there a workaround I can do?
@PerplexedAnimation Turret Mode also only works on emulator, but I'm going to rebuild it on PC Port before my next video.
@@ElarixGames Oh, okay no problem. Super cool stuff you're doing!
Im glad theres only one level helps the non arwing levels stand out and they are my least favorite
Aquis always felt awful for me, it and Zonis being my least favorite stages and of course they are right next to each other. Landmaster stages weren't easy but they were not anywhere near as annoying as the Blue Marine. I'm glad they focused on the Arwing as the main vehicle.
I hated this level
So fascinating to see these hidden bits of what might have been. Absolutely love learning more about the very first game I ever played.
that was cool
Seems like such a shame Blue Marine got stuck with the worst level in the game when we could have had an awesome free roaming underwater level.
I don't know why people have such a problem with Aquas. It's an excellent water mission, beginning in a shallower sea and gradually getting darker and darker as you go deeper, lighting the darkness with torpedos revealing menacing deep sea creatures and sunken cities.
@@dibdap2373 Nowadays I'm just kind of numb to it, when I get to it I just shut off my brain and play it, I have the whole thing memorized.
Is it possible for you to make a video of all the sound effects? I’ve only seen people upload a fraction of the sounds. Someone uploaded the sf643d sounds but they have that 3ds compression.
“Not a programmer”
So how exactly did we get these labels and empty functions from decompiling, was the final game compiled in debug mode with optimizations off or what?
Some names were decided by the Decomp team based on what they did/where they were, others were strings from the 3DS remake, and others were from the leaked code.
is it possible to patch the rom and play on starship?
No sorry, that'd take a lot more work
@@ElarixGames I still hope to see an on foot lvl using the assets from multilayer mode
I once played Star Fox 64 with my older brother a long time ago, and the other boss we encountered in the water stage appeared the be a female character. Even after all these years, I still can't find footage of the female boss in the water level of the game.
Aquas is one of my favourite level the tempo is cool lol