Twelve Tales: Conker 64 (lost build of early version of "Conker's Bad Fur Day" Nintendo 64 platformer; late 1990s)

The game's early logo.

Status: Lost

Twelve Tales: Conker 64, also known as Conker's Quest, was the original version of Conker's Bad Fur Day. The game was first announced at E3 1997, Rare was criticized for making a game so similar to Banjo-Kazooie, another kid-friendly 3D platformer. In response to this, they withdrew the game from release schedules, leaving many with the assumption that it had been cancelled.

Later, in 1999, Rare announced a redesign to appeal to a more mature audience. Although it was disregarded as a joke at the time, the game was finally released as Conker's Bad Fur Day. The final game was released towards the end of the Nintendo 64's lifespan and thus didn't sell as expected but received critical acclaim for its adult-oriented appeal.

Not much about the game was found prior to 2012, at which point a 30-minute gameplay video was uploaded to YouTube. It pictured Conker entering a few zones not seen in the final game, including a gladiator arena, and an Indiana Jones-esque desert area. Interestingly, the same song in the gladiator arena was used in another N64 Rare game, Jet Force Gemini.

Towards the end of the footage, Berri appears as a playable character. Berri would have been able to call monsters to her aid, instead of facing monsters directly. Aside from this recording, Rare revealed several other features, including a 4-player multiplayer mode. There are several other recordings available, but a ROM has not yet surfaced. Beta 64 did a video regarding it, which contained 4 minutes of footage.

On March 28th, 2023, Tim Stamper, co-founder of Rare, shared footage of a working development cartridge via Twitter. In addition, the game's title sequence was shown off which depicts Conker interacting with several enemies before a mysterious wizard appears.

While it remains to be seen if the game will ever be released to the public, the video confirms that it is still intact and in a playable state within the Rare archives.

Gallery

Footage

30 minutes of gameplay shown from the beta.

The game's intro.

Videos

Yuriofwind's video on the subject.

Beta 64's video on the beta.

Rare Revealed's video on the subject.

Hard4Games's response to Tim Stamper's tweet on the game.

See Also

• Banjo-Karting/Banjo-Kazoomie (lost prototypes of "Banjo-Kazooie" racing games; mid-2000s)
• Banjo-Threeie (non-existent sequel to platformer game series; early 2000s)
• Cascade (lost build of cancelled Xbox 360 massive multiplayer online game; 2000-2007)
• Diddy Kong Racing Adventure (found build of cancelled Nintendo GameCube sequel to "Diddy Kong Racing"; 2004)
• Dinosaur Planet (found build of cancelled Nintendo 64 action-adventure game; 1999-2000)
• Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (lost build of cancelled Virtual Boy port of Super Nintendo sequel platformer; 1996)
• Donkey Kong: Coconut Crackers (lost build of cancelled Game Boy Advance puzzle game; 2002)
• Donkey Kong Racing (lost build of cancelled Nintendo GameCube racing sequel game; 2002)
• GoldenEye 007 (found build of cancelled Xbox Live Arcade remaster of Nintendo 64 first-person shooter; 2007-2008)
• Jet Force Gemini (lost build of cancelled Game Boy Color port of Nintendo 64 third-person shooter; 2000)
• Project Dream (lost builds of cancelled Super Nintendo/Nintendo 64 precursor to "Banjo-Kazooie" platformer; 1994-1997)
• Sabreman Stampede (lost build of cancelled Xbox 360 adventure platformer; 2002-2005)
• Savannah (lost build of cancelled Xbox 360 Kinect prototype; 2006-2007)