Development:Pilotwings

This page details development materials of Pilotwings.

This page or section details content from the July 2020 Nintendo Leak. Check the July 2020 Nintendo Leak category for more pages also sourced from this material.

To do: There is so, so much more.

Almost all the assets, including the sprites and animations, are stored in four major folders:

• other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_04\NEWS_04.tar\home\sugiyama\mori
• other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_04\NEWS_04.tar\home\sugiyama\fly
• other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_04\NEWS_04.tar\home\sugiyama\flyman
• other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_04\NEWS_04.tar\home\sugiyama\etc

Dragonfly sprites

During early development, the game eventually released as Pilotwings was instead titled Dragonfly. According to pre-release coverage, it was an action game where players controlled a futuristic combat helicopter. These sprites appear to be vestiges from the Dragonfly era.

MYSHIP.cgx

As seen in these screenshots, this was the player's attack helicopter during the game's early development; the titular "Dragonfly."

BOSS.cgx

BOSS-1.cgx

BOSS-3.CGX

UFO-0.cgx

CORE-2.CGX

These all appear to be enemy sprites of various kinds.

Title Screen

ROGO.cgx

Early logos for the game. As explained above, Dragonfly was the original title of Pilotwings, when the game was originally slated as something very different. Flight Club appears to have been a working title for the game once it was recast as a flight simulator.

rogo1-OBJ.cgx

Tiles for the title screen's background, which apparently depicted a starry evening over a desert expanse.

Maps

Test Map

A gigantic map consisting of a whopping 64 tilemaps (TEST-1X.scr - TEST-16X.scr) featuring a big isle with landing fields, ships, houses, and... a message from a ticked developer in the middle of the isle. Dated February 28, 1989, according to the metastamp found in the .scr files (NAK1989 S-CG-CADVer1.00 890228).

Filepath: other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_04\home\sugiyama\fly\TEST-1A.SCR - TEST-16D.SCR

Map 1

A map consisting of a big main island, with a smaller one at the top-left. Made up of four .scr files (MAP1-1.SCR - MAP1-4.SCR). The latest "metastamp" among the .scr files is "NAK1989 S-CG-CADVer1.10 891115" (November 15, 1989), while the earliest one is "NAK1989 S-CG-CADVer1.10 891017" (October 17, 1989).

It seems the developers loved this map design, as a modified version is present in the final game as the Lesson 3 map.

Filepath: other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_04\home\sugiyama\flyman\MAP1-1.SCR - MAP1-4.SCR

Map 2

A map which has what seems to be a "harbor" area attached to an island. The original palette is not there, but there are two palettes that seem to be modifications of it. M7-NIGHT.COL.BAK follows the same naming conventions as other Dragonfly palettes, and has the correct light colors. NIGHT2.COL has more accurate pipe and water colors, and has island colors that seem to fit. This combination of the two palettes look to be the most accurate colors when compared to pre-release screenshots of the map. The map is made up of four .scr files (MAP2-1.SCR - MAP2-4.SCR). The internal "metastamp" of the files is "NAK1989 S-CG-CADVer1.10 891115" (November 15, 1989).

Filepath: other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_04\home\sugiyama\flyman\MAP2-1.SCR - MAP2-4.SCR

Map 4

A map which has two main islands that seem to be captured by the enemy; there is a facility on the big island, and a landing pad on the other island. There seemed to be missing assets in the .cgx file (M7-BG-C00.CGX), but copying the ground tiles and pasting them on the bottom-right quadrant of the .cgx file filled the blanks on those particular .scr files.

Made up of 16 .scr files (MAP4-1.SCR - MAP4-16.SCR). The latest "metastamp" among these files is "NAK1989 S-CG-CADVer1.10 891115" (November 15, 1989), while the earliest one is "NAK1989 S-CG-CADVer1.01 890426" (April 26, 1989).

Filepath: other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_04\home\sugiyama\flyman\MAP4-1.SCR - MAP4-16.SCR

Map 7

A map consisting of a huge base that is similar in design to Lesson 4/8 in the final game, which cannot be seen in any pre-release screenshots. Made up of 64 .scr files (MAP7-1.SCR - MAP7-64.SCR). The earliest metastamp among the .scr files is "NAK1989 S-CG-CADVer1.01 890426" (April 26, 1989).

Filepath: other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_04\home\sugiyama\flyman\MAP7-1.SCR - MAP7-64.SCR

Map 8 (Fortress Map)

A flying fortress map that is seen in some Dragonfly pre-release screenshots, it's made up of eight tilemaps (MAP8-1.SCR - MAP8-8.SCR). Dated October 13, 1989 as the file's last modified date, there are no metastamps in any of the .scr files for it.

Filepath: other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_04\home\sugiyama\flyman\MAP8-1.SCR - MAP8-8.SCR

Race

A strange map that uses graphics similar to the "Secret Command" stages seen in the final game, but this is way smaller, with only four .scr files (RACE1-1.SCR - RACE1-4.SCR). Its purpose is unknown, but the metastamp of the files (NAK1989 S-CG-CADVer1.11 900223) show that it was last edited on February 23, 1990.

Filepath: other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_04\home\sugiyama\flyman\RACE1-1.SCR - RACE1-4.SCR

Island

An early map featuring four islands. Dated April 26, 1989, according to the metastamp in the .scr file (NAK1989 S-CG-CADVer1.01 890426).

Filepath: other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_04\home\sugiyama\flyman\ISLAND.SCR