Donkey Kong 64/Stop N Swop
This is a sub-page of Donkey Kong 64.
During the development of Banjo-Kazooie, Rare had discovered a method of cold swapping that would allow the data from one cartridge to survive a power cycle and be read by another. Intending to use this transfer method to unlock bonuses across games, Rare planned to have seven items hidden in Banjo-Kazooie, accessible only by connecting to a future title through cartridge swapping.
Donkey Kong 64 was one such title, establishing a considerable link between the two games during its development. However, during the final month of development, Nintendo had ordered the cancellation of the feature, leaving Rare to redact and modify several areas of the final game. The remnants of the Stop 'N' Swop feature in Donkey Kong 64 have been catalogued below.
Contents
Donkey Kong's Treehouse
Banjo-Kazooie Fridge
Starting off in Donkey Kong's Treehouse, players would have spotted a Banjo-Kazooie fridge in the corner of the area. More than just a nod to the previous title, this fridge would have remained closed for much of the adventure, only opening during events involving Stop 'N' Swop to allow players inside.
It is unknown whether passage into the fridge would have allowed access to an unused item, or transported players to another area altogether, but an unused cutscene involving the opening of the fridge can be viewed during the IntroStory Glitch.
The transportation to Crystal Caves following the cutscene seems to infer that the player would have been in Crystal Caves when the game demonstrated the fridge being opened, with further evidence of this connection found in that level...
Crystal Caves
Big Icy Door
The connection to Banjo-Kazooie would have allowed players to return to Freezeezy Peak and collect the Ice Key, where it could then be transferred to Donkey Kong 64 to open a 'Big Icy Door', as discussed in the Stop 'N' Swop Patent
The location of this Big Icy Door was planned to be in Crystal Caves, across from the entrance in Chunky's "Gorilla Gone" Room. Presently, the leftmost side of the room ends in a wall, which the camera whips to reveal as though it's meant to be showing something significant. The Big Icy Door would have been found along this wall, covering a small area that players could unlock to gain access. This extra room was removed from the Donkey Kong 64 Player's Guide in America prior to publication, but was not fixed by Nintendo of Europe or Nintendo of Japan in their respective strategy guides.
In "Hoah Game Special 172, Donkey Kong 64: Operation Golden Banana" by Japanese publisher, Kodansha, the location is also preserved with the text intended for the secret item beyond the door.
Translated, the text reads:
"Mysterious Item!? I can't see the inside, but I feel like there's something here. When will this place open? A mysterious item...?"
While the "Mysterious Item" and the Big Icy Door have been removed entirely from Donkey Kong 64 the Ice Key has remained in the data, intended to appear in the inventory menu upon a successful transfer from Banjo-Kazooie. Rather than removing the Ice Key entry from the internal memory, Rare has set it to be automatically collected by default, simply disabling the reward and functionality attached to it.
Creepy Castle
Golden Donkey Kong Statue
Exploring the Museum in Creepy Castle in the final game will have players passing a peculiar pedestal - this "mystery pillar" can be found in a room of its own, a light above shining on nothing. For decades, the presence of this pillar and its seemingly empty display confused players, but during development it was meant to showcase a Golden Donkey Kong Statue. The graphic of this statue (including its pedestal) was removed from the English Donkey Kong 64 Player's Guide, but was published in the German variant. Speaking with the RetroHour Podcast, Engineer and inventor of Stop 'N' Swop, Paul Machacek spoke on the elements of the game that were modified following Nintendo's order for the features' cancellation (1:01:03):
“The problem was DK64 was going to manufacture and we can’t just re-jig the backgrounds and the stuff that we’d set up that was enabled for Donkey Kong 64. We just disabled the minimum amount of stuff that we needed to change in the game and take out the scanning software. So that's why there's a few places where there's like a pedestal with nothing on it - there was supposed to be something on it and you know a week before we gave the final build to Nintendo, there was something sitting on that pedestal. I don't remember what it was now…” - Paul Machacek
While the Golden Donkey Kong Statue has been positively identified as the object in question, it's unknown what its intended purpose in relation to Stop 'N' Swop would have served. It's speculated that players would be able to view the Golden Statue from afar and find themselves unable to pass through the glass, much in the same way that the sheet of ice had kept them from the Ice Key in Banjo-Kazooie. The collection of the Golden Donkey Kong Statue therefore might have relied on another game in Rare's library to grant the player access proper, where it could potentially be collected and then sent off to that game, or another entirely.
