Slamfest '99 aka "Super Smash Bros. LIVE" (lost livestream of promotional event for Nintendo 64 crossover fighting game; 1999)

The start of the Slamfest '99 fight - image from the Zelda 64 Planet website.

Status: Lost

Slamfest '99, otherwise known as Super Smash Bros. LIVE, was an official promotional event for the North American release of Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64, held at the MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 24, 1999. Organized by Nintendo of America and public relations firm Golin/Harris, the event featured a real-life, staged wrestling match involving four costumed Super Smash Bros. characters performed in front of a live audience.

The 17-minute long "fight" was live-streamed on the web via RealPlayer G2 by web broadcasting company MediaOnDemand's InternetBroadcast.com service. While a rebroadcast of the match was hosted on the event's official website for several months following its conclusion, no video footage of Slamfest '99 is currently known to exist. The official broadcast as well as any secondhand video recordings remain lost.

Slamfest '99 has languished in obscurity for decades since its broadcast, even among hardcore fans of Super Smash Bros. Nintendo has never publicly referenced the event, and it took until May 2020 for major attention to be drawn to it via social media. Since then, the Lost Media Wiki has been engaged in an ongoing search effort to find a copy of the official broadcast.

Firsthand Accounts

This is a description of how the event unfolded, posted on the same day it was held by Kheang85 on the Zelda 64 Planet website:

"Mario and Donkey would start the match. Donkey Kong, being much larger than our favorite plumber, quickly took Mario out. Yoshi came in and got his revenge on the gorilla. Pikachu would come in for the monkey only to be knocked down by Yoshi's lethal tail. Then, before anyone knew it, Mario went crazy. He wiped out Donkey Kong, Pikachu, and his own teammate, Yoshi. Ultimately, the match would end in a crash which knocked out everyone resulting in a draw. "Everyone's a winner!" the announcer yelled."

Two days after the event, Nintendorks.com posted their own summary:

"Mario and Yoshi were on one team, Donkey Kong and Pikachu were on the other. It was quite funny to see the life-size mascots bouncing around a wrestling ring. Mario went on a crazed rampage hitting everyone in sight, and instead of Yoshi, Donkey Kong accidentally hit himself with his 'mallet of doom.' And in the most heated moment, all four mascot smashed into each other in the center of the ring, and all fell to the mat. That's right, in true Nintendo fashion, it was a draw...and everyone is a winner!"

Later in June 1999, N64 Magazine published this summary along with two photos:

"Even the ref got in on the act, biting Pikachu’s ear and declaring that it tasted ‘like chicken’. Mario shocked us with his low blow antics and Kong knocked himself out with his own magic hammer, but they all wound up best of friends at the end, the match being declared an honourable draw."

In August 2022, SmashBoards forum user "Calderon" was contacted and gave a retrospective of their experience watching Slamfest '99 live (edited for brevity):

"The event was held outside and it was a 4-way match with actors wearing what looked like the original SMB64 commercial costumes. The only thing though is that the stream quality was poor for me, so the costumes didn't look "right". It's possible that the costumes in question was slightly different to allow for the actors to be able to crawl or do a horseshoe stance like a wrestler.

Other things I remember was that there was an announcer who was describing the play-by-play, and a referee on stage making sure it was a clean fight and adding flavor to the match like being intimidated by DK.

The action itself was a bit lackluster honestly. Based on the size of the ring and the location of the camera, it was very crowded and difficult to see spacing for example. Its streaming camera wasn't high enough to see the entire floor like you would see in a high-end production, rather it was kind of like seeing the action from the grandstands that was setup around the ring.

The actors did very telegraphed punches and kicks so as to not directly hit each other. They would "toss" each other against the ropes of the ring, but also the target getting "thrown" might drop to the floor as if they're being down-tossed in SSB. I do recall a large hammer being brought out like in the commercial, I don't recall who was holding it though.

I keep remembering it as a 4-way tie with everyone being knocked out by the end as they all got into the corners and then ran at each other."

History & Early Search

On August 22nd, 2014, NeoGAF user Rösti mentioned the event in a discussion about Super Smash Bros. for 3DS & Wii U DLC leaks and revealed that they had found the original webpage promoting it. The website, hosted by MediaOnDemand, revealed the official name of the event being Slamfest '99, as well as a link to the rebroadcast that turned out to be dead. This is the first time in over 12 years that it had been referenced again. It's believed that the rebroadcasted livestream was taken down sometime in the early 2000s.

Along with this, Rösti also found that the website Zelda 64 Planet had a page that had more info about the event. This website confirmed that the event was held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, with a summary of the event included. It hosted many images of the event (see gallery). While this had very useful info about the event, the livestream was still nowhere to be found.

Later, on May 11th, 2020, the Supper Mario Broth Twitter account posted a photo of Yoshi, Pikachu, Mario, and Donkey Kong costumes, along with their actors. These costumes, made by KCL Productions, were used in the famous Super Smash Bros. commercial and the Slamfest '99 event. This Tweet gained much attention from the Super Smash Bros. community and was liked over 19,000 times (as of May 2022).

Andre Segers' tweet, mentioning the Slamfest '99 livestream.

Andrè Segers, founder of YouTube channel GameXplain, quote retweeted the image with a comment mentioning a real-life Super Smash Bros. Battle using the same costumes used in the commercial that was livestreamed:

"Does anyone else remember the real-life Super Smash Bros. battle (using the same costumes) that Nintendo live-streamed to promote the game? (Yep! a live stream in '99!) I've never heard anyone else mention it and I can find zero evidence of it ever existing online."

This Tweet kickstarted the modern search, with many people scouring for an archive of the livestream on databases and video-sharing sites to no avail.

By the time Andrè posted his tweet, the original findings on NeoGAF had been forgotten. People speculated that the event was held around April-May 1999 and that it was being held at the MGM Las Vegas' Grand Adventures Connected Theme Park in a boxing ring specifically built for the event.

YouTuber and contributor to the Lost Media Wiki LSuperSonicQ, along with a small search team on Twitter had looked into other websites mentioning the event and old magazine scans, all with no success. It wasn't until Twitter user Robert Sephason tweeted to Andrè Segers an image of Donkey Kong in a boxing ring. This originates from video game historian Steven Kent's book The Ultimate History of Video Games. The discovery piqued interest for LSuperSonicQ, who proceeded to contact employees who were suspected to have some involvement in Slamfest '99.

"On the Hunt 5" Search

On May 25th, 2021, the Lost Media Wiki would launch an "On The Hunt" search for Slamfest '99, bringing more attention to the effort to find the livestream. Shortly after, Discord user SpartaYoshi researched and documented how MediaOnDemand's livestream technology worked. The "On The Hunt Contact Team" then followed LSuperSonicQ's lead by reaching out to more people in search for a recording. Those who weren't part of the team also researched for press records. It was through these combined efforts that garnered a ton of newly discovered information about the event.

Aside from the following developments, the search started to slow down, with few new leads to build on. It stayed this way until October 9th, 2021 when Ed Espinoza, a Golin/Harris employee working for Nintendo's PR department, privately messaged LSuperSonicQ. Slamfest '99 was one of his first assignments on the job. In addition to posting a picture of himself with Mario and Donkey Kong on Instagram, he also provided info that is mentioned in the section below.

Contact Findings

• Steven Kent, author of The Ultimate History of Video Games, had attended the event. He stated that several video game magazine reporters were there. Demo booths were set up for people to play Super Smash Bros. before and after the fight. He also provided a colorized version of the photo found in The Ultimate History of Video Games and one of Donkey Kong wielding his "mallet of doom."

• A former Director of Sales for MediaOnDemand suggested that Onstream Media may have a recording since they bought out the former company.

• The Director, Chief Operating Officer, and Treasurer of Onstream Media was contacted by LSSQ in January 2022, saying "I will pass this to staff and see if it still exists in our archives. If so they will contact you." Since then, no response was made despite follow-ups from LSSQ. As of 2024, it appears they have left Onstream Media based on LinkedIn information.

• A former MediaOnDemand Project Manager for live and on-demand webcasts confirmed that it was up to Nintendo to tell the company to record Slamfest '99 or not.

• Ed Espinoza, an employee of PR firm Golin/Harris and organizer of Slamfest '99, was interviewed by André Segers of YouTube channel GameXplain in 2022, revealing numerous behind-the-scenes details of Slamfest '99's production. He claimed that a photographer based in the Los Angeles area was hired to take shots for the event and that a satellite truck from Golin/Harris was used to broadcast the video. He suggested that Steve Honig had done truck work for it and that Golin/Harris would have had a recording. Furthermore, he stated that the costume performers and choreographers were from Cirque du Soleil, the ring announcer's "cheesy" script was inspired by the 1989 No Holds Barred movie, kids from the Andre Agassi Foundation were invited to the event, and that the Columbine High School shooting which happened 4 days before Slamfest '99 forced Nintendo to limit the amount of outgoing publicity so they could keep a non-violent image. As a result, Ed claimed that only about 100 video game review platforms knew of it.

• Kheang85, webmaster of Zelda 64 Planet and author of the only known webpage from the time to contain images of Slamfest '99, was contacted by proxy in February 2024 via "Hairball", a friend of Kheang since the Zelda 64 Planet days. Kheang85 had been notoriously elusive to contact prior, but now he was confirmed to have nothing related to Slamfest '99 beyond what remained on the Zelda 64 Planet website, thus resolving one of the biggest loose ends in the search.

Research Findings

The following Lost Media Wiki members found articles and images which also advanced the search for Slamfest '99 in some way.

On June 26th, 2020, LSuperSonicQ found 2 items pertaining to Slamfest '99. The first was an IGN article dated April 21st, 1999. This one confirmed that the MGM Grand area dedicated to the event would be open from 11 AM to 1 PM. The exact address used is 3779 Las Vegas Blvd. South. It was on "Salem Avenue" or the "Salem Waterfront." The second was an article from Nintendorks dated April 22nd, 1999. It confirmed that the fight started at 11:30 AM Pacific Standard time.

On October 1st, 2020, user Foxlet found a NintendoWorldReport article dated April 26th, 1999. This confirmed that the fight itself lasted for 17 minutes.

When the "On The Hunt" first started, former user Binzy Boi found 2 new photos in the 29th issue of N64 Magazine. They do not feature any compression artifacts typical for livestreams in 1999, which fuels a rumor that they came from a VHS copy.

Also on the same day, Tornadic found another Nintendorks article that was dated April 26th, 1999. This provided another brief overview of events during the fight.

On June 8th, 2021 user Rno found a Nintendojo article dated April 22nd, 1999. This stated that the fight will be split up into 2 matches; the first being Pikachu vs. Yoshi, and the second one being Mario vs. Donkey Kong. This description contradicts that on the Zelda 64 Planet site, as Mario went up against Donkey Kong first.

On October 15th, 2021, SixtyFours and Rno found a new photo in the April 25th, 1999 issue of The Sacramento Bee newspaper. This confirms Ed Espinoza's claims of an Associated Press photographer being at the event.

On February 14th, 2023, more of Ed Espinoza's scanned photos released online. These revealed alternate viewpoints of the fight, the Super Smash Bros. demo booths, and shots of the crowd.

Broadcast

Informational Webpage

MediaOnDemand was responsible for creating and hosting an informational webpage for Slamfest '99 on their media.internetbroadcast.com domain, in addition to hosting the files required for the broadcast. This website featured an overview of the event, character profiles of the combatants, and a direct link to download the .RAM file in order to watch the rebroadcast of the event.

A link to the informational webpage was featured in the footer of Nintendo's American website for a limited time, billing it as Super Smash Bros. LIVE. This would have been the primary way for users to access the broadcast of Slamfest '99.

RealPlayer G2

The sixth major revision of RealPlayer, released in 1999. This was the recommended version of RealPlayer to download by the informational webpage for Slamfest '99. RealPlayer was primarily designed for viewing RealMedia files, such as those with the .RM file extension.

RealPlayer was capable of streaming video data via the rtsp:// protocol, which is how Slamfest '99 was distributed.

While it had an option to record clips of content being played, this feature was only available in the premium paid version, RealPlayer G2 Plus. The option for users to record could also be disabled on a per-RealMedia file basis at the distributor's discretion. Creators could enable or disable the option upon RealMedia file creation in the RealProducer video production software.

.RAM File

Otherwise known as a Real Audio Metadata file, the .RAM file contained metadata that would instruct RealPlayer to stream video data from the URL it contained. The .RAM file was NOT the actual video file, rather one that merely contained a reference to the video file.

The .RAM file for Slamfest '99 was not archived in the Wayback Machine, as the lone snapshot for it was taken after it had been removed from the media.internetbroadcast.com domain. However, based on investigation of other .RAM files hosted on the domain from 1999, it is likely, but not confirmed, that the contents of the Slamfest '99 rebroadcast.ram file would have appeared as such:

rtsp://rm09.internetbroadcast.com/nintendo/19990424/product_announcement/rebroadcast_vid.rm

Even if the .RAM file had been properly archived in the Wayback Machine, it wouldn't be particularly useful for the search effort since the .RM file it was referencing was not archived either. A simple analogy would be like having an address to a house (the .RAM file) - even though you might know the location of the house, it wouldn't matter much if the house in question (the .RM file) was torn down decades ago.

.RM File

Not to be confused with the .RAM file, the .RM file was the actual RealMedia video file of the Slamfest '99 broadcast. This is the video that would have been streamed into RealPlayer from the rtsp:// address in the .RAM file once the .RAM was opened in RealPlayer.

Depending on the options selected by the creator of the .RM file in RealProducer, the .RM file would have had a flag encoded in the video data to allow or disallow recording clips in RealPlayer G2 Plus. It is unknown whether the Slamfest '99 .RM file allowed for recording, and there are no archived .RM files from the media.internetbroadcast.com domain to compare against.

It is speculated that a local copy of the .RM file would have been highly unlikely for most viewers of Slamfest '99 to have obtained during its short window of availability. Users would have required a technical understanding of how RealMedia and Real Audio Metadata files operated in order to have acquired this file directly from the server it was hosted on.

No Wayback Machine snapshots exist for the hypothesized URL of the .RM file, and no .RM file archived on any MediaOnDemand-owned domain was that of Slamfest '99.

Broadcast File Migration

In 2022, it was discovered that after MediaOnDemand had been acquired by the (now defunct) Visual Data Corporation in 2002, they had kept some of the .RM files originally from InternetBroadcast.com, with the corresponding .RAM files having their metadata updated to point to .RM files with URLs on the Akamai content delivery network. However, there was no evidence that the Slamfest '99 .RAM or .RM was part of this migration.

The findings showed that the companies involved had been keeping archives of some content originally from InternetBroadcast.com at least until the mid-2000's.

Availability

While many people made many efforts to find the livestream, such as contacting people possibly involved and finding a possible archive of the stream, neither the livestream nor any possible amateur footage from Slamfest '99 has been found as of the writing of this article.

Although the stream is not found, several photos taken at the event were found on websites of interest and through various leads, shown in the gallery below.

Gallery

On the Hunt

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  Lost Media Wiki "On the Hunt" search flyer for the video.

Images on Zelda 64 Planet

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  Title card for Slamfest '99 created for the Zelda 64 Planet website.

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  "The Location"

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  "The matchup". Composite image created for the Zelda 64 Planet website.

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  "Mario"

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  "Yoshi"

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  "Pikachu"

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  "Donkey Kong"

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  "Donkey Kong's Tie"

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  "Mario stirs up the crowd"

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  "Start of match"

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  "Mario & Donkey Kong"

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  "Mario bites the dust"

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  "Yoshi seeks revenge"

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  "Yoshi & Pikachu"

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  "Pikachu goes down"

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  "Crash, N64 style"

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  "It's over!"

Ed Espinoza's Photos

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N64 Magazine: Issue 29 Page 13

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  An excerpt mentioning Slamfest '99 on page 13 of issue 29 of N64 Magazine.

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Steven Kent

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  Full-color image of Donkey Kong, shown in the book The Ultimate History of Video Games.

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  Donkey Kong wielding his "mallet of doom."

April 25th, 1999 Issue of The Sacramento Bee

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  An excerpt mentioning Slamfest '99 on page 30 of the April 25th, 1999 issue of The Sacramento Bee.

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Other Images

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  An image of a "ticket" from the event that came with plushies advertising the game.

Videos

Super Smash Bros. Commercial

The North American commercial for Super Smash Bros., using the costumes used for Slamfest '99.

The Mexico/Latin American version of the commercial.

The French version of the commercial.

The Swedish version of the commercial.

Slamfest '99

blameitonjorge's video which mentions the Slamfest '99 search (8:32-12:43).

LSuperSonicQ's video on the subject.

LSuperSonicQ's follow-up video on the subject.

ObscureMediaTV's video on the subject.

GameXplain's interview with Ed Espinoza on the subject.

LSuperSonicQ's second follow-up video on the subject.

LSuperSonicQ's third follow-up video on the subject.

GameXplain's announcement about more of Ed Espinoza's photos releasing.

GabLab's video on the subject.

External Links

• SmashWiki article on Slamfest 99.
• Wikipedia article on Slamfest '99.