266
edits
Welcome to the Lylat Wiki, all about the Star Fox series! If you'd like to help out, please take a look at our community portal.
Difference between revisions of "Star Fox (series)"
From Lylat Wiki, your source on Star Fox information. By Fans, for Fans.
Jump to navigationJump to search
→History
m (Text replace - '{{Game Page}}' to '{{Games}}') |
|||
| Line 14: | Line 14: | ||
== History == | == History == | ||
=== Origins (Circa late 1980s - early 1990s) === | |||
The ''Star Fox'' franchise originally began as a mere technical demonstration for the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System]] (SNES) that was never really meant to become a fully fledged game. The story begins when a [[wikipedia:United Kingdom|British]] [[wikipedia:Video game developer|video game developing]] company called [[Argonaut Software]] (at the time) were working on various technical concepts for games with three-dimensional graphics for different video game home consoles. During the late 1980s, [[Nintendo]] had a dominant share in the video game market, and most notably in the [[wikipedia:United States|United States]] with its own developed home consoles such as the [[wikipedia:Nintendo Entertainment System|Nintendo Entertainment System]] (NES) and the original portable video game console [[wikipedia:Game Boy|Game Boy]]. | |||
Argonaut Software had two notable employees behind its 3D game concepts: Giles Goddard and [[Dylan Cuthbert]]. After a successful attempt to simulate actual, real-time three-dimensional wireframe graphics using the NES's own technology alone, the company allowed Cuthbert to program another 3D game for the slightly more technically inferior Game Boy, and he managed to successfully create a video game shooter called ''Eclipse'', the first ever 3D game for a portable console, and one of the extreme few 3D games ever attempted or released on the Game Boy. Although the game was licensed to [[wikipedia:United States|American]] [[wikipedia:Video game publisher|video game publisher]] [[wikipedia:Mindscape|Mindscape]], Argonaut's president and founder Jez San had presented the game before Nintendo of America (NoA) at a [[wikipedia:Consumer Electronics Show|Consumer Electronics Show]]. NoA were so impressed with the game that they flew San and Cuthbert to Nintendo's mother company in [[wikipedia:Kyoto|Kyoto]], [[wikipedia:Japan|Japan]] and meet up with game designer [[Shigeru Miyamoto]], and Nintendo's then-president [[wikipedia:Hiroshi Yamauchi|Hiroshi Yamauchi]]. | |||
After the meeting, Nintendo quickly decided to invest into this new development that they fully bought the rights to ''Eclipse'' from Mindscape, and flew over Goddard with the rest of his team to the mother company as well. Argonaut's team worked on the game closely with Nintendo's own [[wikipedia:Nintendo Research & Development 1|Research & Development 1]] team, and they even renamed the game from ''Eclipse'' to merely [[wikipedia:X (1992 video game)|''X'']]. The game was then released on the Game Boy early 1992, exclusively in Japan, and it had seen a moderate success, and was critically well-received. | |||
After helping Nintendo behind the development of the Super Famicom (Japanese version of the SNES), including attempting to fix the last-minute problems of the early batch of games that supported [[wikipedia:Mode 7|Mode 7]], Argonaut Software was then contracted by Nintendo to work with them exclusively for three gaming projects at least. One of Argonaut's first releases was in 1992 with a new chip called the DSP2, a graphics co-processor which can significantly assist the console's main central processing unit, improving over Nintendo's own original DSP chip, in rendering Mode 7 a bit further than usual. The chip was first commercially introduced embedded within the game cartridges of the racing game [[smw:Super Mario Kart|''Super Mario Kart'']]. The DSP2 allowed the support of a smooth graphical transition of Mode 7 during a split-screen, multiplayer mode, which was not possible before. However, Argonaut had not stopped its hardware enhancement of the SNES right there. | |||
Nintendo and Argonaut Software, working closely with another British company called [[wikipedia:Flare Technology|Flare Technology]], came up with a far greater powerful graphics co-processor. Initially, it was called the MARIO Chip 1, but was later renamed by Nintendo as the [[Super FX]] chip. The chip far exceeded the DSP2's Mode 7 capabilities by rendering actual, real-time three-dimensional polygon graphics using the SNES's power alone. Argonaut then worked on a simple game demo to test out possibilities with the Super FX chip. The demo was a free-roaming, 3D space fighter title dubbed ''Starglider''. Initially, it was thought they could evolve the demo into an actual game, but the idea was later scrapped by Cuthbert due to the very slow frame-rate the game presented, which underestimated the real power of the Super FX. Nintendo's Miyamoto did not like these results either, but he insisted that the game be reworked from the ground up again rather than be totally canceled. | |||
Working as a team, Argonaut used their experience and knowledge in the technical and programming aspects of the Super FX and 3D games respectively alongside with Nintendo's solid reputation in highly acclaimed game design, they developed a much improved version of ''Starglider''. They did this by scrapping the idea of free-roaming and making it a fixed path scrolling game instead. Additionally, Goddard and Cuthbert worked together to create complex machine bosses for each level, and Nintendo's own game composer [[wikipedia:Hajime Hirasawa|Hajime Hirasawa]] had implemented new scores to the gameplay which is later believed to be critically worthy of the game. The game's engine was based during this time, and many level designs were implemented. | |||
After seven months of development, ''Starglider'' was basically close to completion, but unfortunately the team decided that, despite it working a lot better now, the game's concept as a mere arcade shooter was very cliché and unimpressive, as if the game was a total waste of time and money. At this point, Miyamoto began to brainstorm for good plot to back up this visually superior game. At first, many of his concepts about epic wars in distant galaxies was very confusing, but suddenly inspiration had hit him as he wandered the streets of Kyoto. Miyamoto happened to come across the [[wikipedia:Fushimi Inari-taisha|Fushimi Inari]] Sanctuary, the biggest shrine dedicated to the [[wikipedia:Shinto|Shinto]] god of grain [[wikipedia:Inari Okami|Inari]]. Inari happens to take form of a [[wikipedia:Kitsune|''kitsune'']] (a fox), and many of his statues depict him wearing a red bandana around his neck. At this point, Miyamoto then realized how he could develop the game further. He then went back to his office started to flesh out the plot concept further by adding animal characters from different Japanese myths, including [[Fox McCloud|a fox character, inspired by Inari, as the main protagonist of the game]]. Later, Miyamoto's plot concept was fused into ''Starglider'', and Nintendo decided to rename the game as [[Star Fox (game)|''Star Fox'']] instead. | |||
A few months later, in 1993, Nintendo began extensive marketing campaigns in Japan, the United States, and even Europe for a brand new game, advertised to the public for having "ground-breaking, three-dimensional graphics and special effects never seen before." After its initial release, ''Star Fox'' became one of the best sold games that year, and so because of that a brand new Nintendo franchise was born! | |||
== Game Page == | == Game Page == | ||
