Talk:Star Fox (SNES)

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    Contents

    [edit] Series information

    Although I don't think there's much harm in mentioning sequels, I think we should remember there's an entire article on the information, found here: Star Fox series. K1Bond007 17:21, Feb 12, 2005 (UTC)

    [edit] Unused picture

    Image:StarFox SNES Screenshot.jpg

    This picture used to be a part of the article when it was reletively short but may be worth readding when more content is added. I'm not sure where to put it or even if it is worth readding. --TheDotGamer | Talk 20:44, Feb 14, 2005 (UTC)

    [edit] Gameplay Section and Story?

    I added a section about the gameplay of Star Fox compared to other scrolling shooters. I was going to also add in the game play section a blurb about your teammates, but I wasn't sure exactly what to write. Also, a story section would be nice in there. It's been a long time since I've played the game so I don't remember much of details of story other than you're fighting Andross in the Lylat System for some reason. I'll leave it to someone else to figure it out. Peace.

    --Shawn "If the Name Don't Rhyme It Ain't Mine" Conn 07:24, Feb 15, 2005 (UTC)

    [edit] Game Paths and Difficulty

    Does anyone know which paths, if any, are considered to be easier or harder than others? I remember playing Star Fox and getting destroyed if I chose one of the paths, I think. In any case, stating which path is the easiest and harders would be beneficial to readers. --pie4all88 22:03, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

    While I'm at it, do we want to list the levels and any characteristics they might have? Would that be overdoing it? --pie4all88 22:04, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
    One more thing, what about the black hole and that other hidden region? I distinctly remember finding it (didn't you go through a certain asteroid?), but it's been so long since I've played the game that I don't remember much about it. Anyways, those secret level(s) and how to access them would be a good addition to the article. Oh, and isn't it possible to cross game paths by traveling through a wormhole or the black hole level? --pie4all88 22:03, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
    The game indicated the difficultly levels of the three lines by naming them 'level 1'(white text), 'level 2'(blue text), and 'level 3'(red text). The middle line, level 1(corneria->asteroid->space armada->meteor->venom) was 'easy', the top line, level 2(corneria->sector x->titania->sector y->venom) was 'medium', and the bottom line, level 3(corneria->asteroid->fortuna->sector z->macbeth->venom) was 'hard'. The 'other hidden region' is the one with the paper airplanes, the slot machine 'boss', and the flying credits with the wierd 'the end' game that seemed to go on forever, right? I actually remember how to find that one, mostly, let me double check it though... Whoohoo! Got it! Level is called 'Out of this dimension'. To access it, you have to choose the 'level 3', bottom, super hard path. On the second level, 'asteroid', the second big, grey asteroid you see, the first one that appears on the the right side, start blasting at the asteroid as soon as you can see it. If you hit it from far enough out, it explodes and drops an egg, which flies far off into the distance and then hatches into some sort of 6-winged, insectile-ish 'bird' thing that flies back and forth a few times, then flies straight down the middle past you. If you fly *through* it when it moves to fly past you, you are immediately teleported to the VERY hidden level. It looks like it was intended to be some kind of bonus level that got dropped and super hidden partway through. Maybe even testing or something. Note that I've never yet found a way to get out of it. Once you hit the 'The End' puzzle, winning it just causes it to come back again, scrambled again. I've 'solved' the puzzle many times in a row without anything different happening. Only way out I've found is to reset -Graptor

    [edit] Needs more content about the Argonaut side of the story.

    Good start for the StarFox article!

    The story about how StarFox came into being is really much more than what we can usually read though.

    Since I'm working on a Level Editor for the original SNES StarFox, I've been doing a lot of research about the roots of StarFox.

    I will try to officially contribute to the main article soon, but in the mean time, here is little snippet of StarFox history, in my own words.

    Argonaut is a company based in England. Their most popular franchise in 1988 was StarGlider 2, one of the earliest 3d filled polygon game that ran on a variety of computers (PC, Mac, Amiga, Atari ST and others). Jez San, founder of the company when he was still a teen, programmed very fast polygon filling routines that enabled the game to display hundreds of polygons even on low-end computers.

    Dylan Cuthbert, who joined Argonaut at 16 in 1988 started to work on 3d engine for the GameBoy around 1990. Miyamoto and Nintendo heard about it, and decided to give a contract to Argonaut so that they used the 3d technology in a GameBoy game in collaboration with them.

    The resulting game is called "X", and was only released in Japan, it features mostly wireframe 3d graphics and the game is a little confusing at first, but if you look at the credits you'll see big names like Miyamoto and "Hip" Tanaka.

    While working on "X", Argonaut convinced Nintendo that they could do 3d filled polygons on the SNES if only they could add a small chip. That would eventually become the FX chip. To realise all this, the whole Argonaut team was required to move to Kyoto Japan for a few years, to work on a 3d game with Miyamoto! Talk about a game programmer's dream come true :)

    The first experiments Argonaut did with the FX chip on the SNES were based on StarGlider 2, with a free roaming 3d environment. Miyamoto felt that a forward shooter was a better avenue so that's where the original StarFox started to take the shape we now know.

    There are some references to StarGlider 2 in StarFox like "Space Whales" that appear in both games. I would venture to say that StarGlider 2 is StarFox's direct ancestor. Argonaut did mainly the programming stuff, and the Japanese team the art stuff like music, 3d models, characters and scenario. But I'm sure Argonaut had some influence and added many ideas to the artistic part of the game.

    There are many other things to document about the original StarFox, like all the tricks and cheats, more info about it's programmers and creators and what happened to them.

    [edit] Verify what?

    Why was that notice put in the article? What needs to be verified? Since it was left by a anonymous person, I think they just put it there for no reason. Thunderbrand 15:47, May 26, 2005 (UTC)

    Nevermind...I removed it, since the person who put it there is doing it from the Maine State Library, who has vandalized a large amount of articles. Thunderbrand 15:50, May 26, 2005 (UTC)

    [edit] Hidden message?

    I'm tempted to remove the "Hidden message" section that was just added, because it seems very POV. Does anyone else think so? Thunderbrand 14:25, August 13, 2005 (UTC)

    Well, his statement about "andros" being Greek for "man" checks out, but I think this theory might be a stretch. Unless some other source has it, I'd say delete it. Also, "Andross" being someone's name is not unique; real people have been (and probably currently are) named "Andros". Jaxl | talk 15:10, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

    [edit] GameBoy Version?

    A long long time ago I read in a magazine about a StarFox for Gameboy, never heard anything of it again, it never got released. Does anybody have details about what happened with tha Gameboy version of StarFox and why it was canceled? -- Grumbel 18:48, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

    I've never heard of anything about it. Thunderbrand 00:09, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
    Me neither. What magazine was this? Robert 00:46, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
    I personally doubt there were plans for a GBA version, due to the system limitations; now if you told me there was a rumoured DS version, I'd believe that. -- VederJuda 00:48, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
    I'm pretty sure that a "Starfox-like" game was produced as a technicial demo for the game boy advance to prove the claim it had the equilivent power to two SuperFX 2 Chips. I'll see if I can dig out a magazine from the time. (Possibly UK's N64 mag...)--81.106.203.120 04:43, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
    Its was the german magazine titled "Video Games" if I remember correctly and it wasn't the GBA, but the original Gameboy. -- Grumbel 03:07, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
    People interested in this tech demo should look at http://forums.sonic-cult.org/index.php?showtopic=2727 for more info.

    Gabber Foxx 17:19, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

    [edit] starfox D.S.

    A Star fox D.S. game would be brilliant, I'd love it, I might have to talk to Nintendo about that(if I can work out how). Kiml

    Not that this is the place, but a DS Star Fox/Star Wing game is coming out this month. -Unknownwarrior33 19:41, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

    [edit] Secret level screenshot?

    Could someone give me a screenshot of the secret level with the paper airplanes? - DizzyForPigs

    [edit] ESRB rating

    I was under the impression that Star Fox has no rating, as it came out before the ESRB was established. Or has it been re-rated? Thunderbrand 16:30, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

    Whoops, I'm not sure where I pulled that out of. I must have mistakened the SF64 rating for SF when I was doing some searching on Google. Robert 16:39, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

    [edit] NA release date

    I see on IGN and Gamestats that the North American release date for Star Fox is listed as March 1, 1993. Two things need to be emphasized here: First, IGN and Gamestats use the same dataset for their game release dates, so the two of them constitute only a single data source; and second, this data source is HORRIFICALLY inaccurate for older games (it's noticeably better from the late 90s on, but there are still extensive errors). The date of March 1 for Star Fox is particularly untrustworthy since a large majority of early 1990s game release dates in IGN/Gamestats have "01" for day, and in many, many cases month as well. This is a clear indication that an "01" in their dataset is a placeholder for unknown data. The date of March 1, 1993 cannot possibly be relied upon unless another (*different*) source is obtained.

    My estimation of March 29, which I believe to be accurate within +/- 1 day, unfortunately comes totally from my own personal memory of lining up for the game on release day. It's a reliable, clear memory, and I never forget a date, but it violates WP:NOR, so I'm not sure whether it'd be best to include my figure of March 29, or simply omit the release day and give the date as March, 1993. But the date of March 1 has to go! Suggestions? --Ecksemmess 23:02, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

    Alright then, I think it's best if we keep the exact day off the article altogether. And yes, listing the release date solely from memory is unfortunately violating WP:NOR, so there's nothing we can really do about that. I'll try to find a release date from somewhere that doesn't use the same dataset. Robert 23:13, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
    Sounds good. I'll look too. --Ecksemmess 23:19, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
    I've noticed that too. That is the thing with older games, though. Thunderbrand 01:30, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
    Yeah, release dates for older games can be fairly prone to error. There are, however, reliable sources. GameFAQs is largely accurate, and when their dates are off it's rarely by much. There's very little "01 filler" there. There are other good sources as well. --Ecksemmess 05:47, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

    [edit] Silpheed was its competition

    Should be a small mention that Silpheed was the competing game at that time when polygons first hit the scene between Nintendo and Sega. Thanks, CarpD 4/23/07

    This is pure speculation. --Lashiec 12:31, 14 May 2007 (UTC)
    Okay, I just remembered them coming out the same time and EGM states a comparism. Thanks, CarpD 5/18/07

    [edit] Name of the game

    The name on the box and the title of the article is clearly "StarFox" (one word). However, throughout the article it is spelled "Star Fox" (two words). I was going to edit the article to use StarFox as one word consistently through the article, but wanted to reach consensus first. Thoughts? ++Arx Fortis (talk) 17:54, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

    The box art would be the last thing I would look at to determine the official spacing of the name of the game. As for the title of the article, it was at Star Fox (video game) until User:FightingStreet moved it about 2 weeks ago; I'm not sure whether the change in spacing was intentional or accidental. Looking at some search results and a copy of the game's manual,[1] I'd go with "Star Fox". Also, I might consider moving this article back to Star Fox (video game) per WP:DISAMBIG#Primary topic. Anomie⚔ 19:17, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
    [2] It's Star Fox according to Nintendo, I should think that's enough. Takuthehedgehog (talk) 17:19, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
    Hi! Actually, it's StarFox according to more sources, for instance (I didn't research exhaustively but here are three examples):
    • the Star( )Fox Command official site[3]
    • Argonaut Games (who developed the original SNES game)[4]
    • Q-Games (who developed the most recent game, Star( )Fox Command)[5]
    Megata Sanshiro (talk) 17:58, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
    In the game it's spelled as Star Fox.[6] Nintendo's in game spelling, aside from logos, has always been Star Fox. The logo is just styalized. Takuthehedgehog (talk) 18:43, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
    Hi, have you checked the links I posted? They show the title written in sentences, not as logos. As for the ingame spelling, it seems to refer to the ingame squadron rather than the title of the game or the series. Megata Sanshiro (talk) 19:08, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
    In the credits when they say the game's title, its spelled Star Fox. [7][8] Takuthehedgehog (talk) 07:57, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
    According to your first link the GameCube title should be spelt Star Fox : Assault though (with a space between Fox and the colon), contrary to standard English grammar. This being said, in the introduction it's written STARFOX (not sure if it's meant to be StarFox or Starfox)[9]. Perhaps we should try to find all the games' intro and endings and see which spelling is the most used, because it's not just logo vs. "normal" spelling at this point. Both spellings seem to be notable. Megata Sanshiro (talk) 08:48, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

    [edit] Article ambuguity

    >It was the first three-dimensional Nintendo game

    That's quite a vague statement. Faceball 2000, which is arguably 3D, predated StarFox. Was Starfox the first to use polygons, or what exactly was meant by the statement? 204.108.8.5 (talk) 20:11, 7 April 2008 (UTC)