Right after Wednesday’s Nintendo Direct, something that most fans of Banjo-Kazooie dreamed of finally happened–Project Dream had leaked online.

I was already losing my mind that day over Metroid Ravenous’ official announcement but this sudden leak stopped me right in my tracks. So many questions were buzzing in my head.

How? Who? Where? Why? And why now?

This was insane. This is the game that Banjo-Kazooie fans have been speculating about for ages.

I have yet to download, let alone play it, but the few images and video posted online seemed genuine. The uploader, who went by FvckAsha&Phil, a reference to current and former CEOs of Xbox, Phil Spencer and Asha Sharma, explained their reasons for leaking the game. Here’s what they had to say:

Today, I’m releasing the SNES proof-of-concept alpha of Project Dream, the proto-type that would go on to become Banjo-Kazooie.
I’ve held on to this for years, it was fun to have something that only a handful of people had, and as I am several people removed from how it got out of Rare to begin with, I didn’t want to risk that it could somehow get someone else in trouble, (so how I got it is a story I don’t plan to share.) I will just say that I got it from someone who got it from someone, who got it from somewhere.

But with the current state of the industry and Microsoft’s current heartless gutting and mismanagement of Rare and other companies it controls, plus with how long it’s been, I feel it’s more important to make sure this is properly preserved, and the ROM dissected by people with far more knowledge on how to do such things.

I hope by releasing this, that it also inspires other people to release what they have as well. I know the Twelve Tales Conker 64 prototype is out there somewhere, but sadly, this is the only thing that I have.

There is little joy left in the industry, as it relentlessly marches towards AI, layoffs, anti-preservation and ownership tactics, and, in Microsoft’s case, the support and approval of literal genocide in Gaza.

Let’s get the last beautiful things hiding on our hard drives out there for everyone. That’s all we have left.

Please delete Microsoft and Sony from your lives, install Linux, boycott Switch Game Key Cards and buy Nintendo Switch 2 titles that still come with the full game on the cartridge. Your dollar is the only thing that counts in our late stage capitalist hellscape.

The attached zip contains a .bin file of the raw dump, and then the same file renamed to a .sfc to work in emulators, as well as this text file.

If any game journalists choose to report on this prototype release, I would ask they kindly include the full contents of this text file as courtesy to me for finally getting this out to you all.

Be blessed, and love each other.

Signed,

FvckAsha&Phil

In short, this user wanted to preserve the game and encourage fellow collectors to do the same. Regardless of how you feel about this user’s views, it’s only right to respect their wishes and share their full post if we’re going to talk about Project Dream.

With that out of the way, what exactly is Project Dream anyway?

What is Project Dream?

During their golden era in the ’90s and early 2000s, British video game developer Rare was a powerhouse. Known for hit games like Battletoads and Killer Instinct on NES and SNES respectively, Rare’s games were top-class, rivaling even those of Nintendo.

So much so in fact that Nintendo bought a 50% stake in the company and became a “second-party developer” for Nintendo. Second-party developers refer to game studios that are majority owned by one company and make games for that company, but are still free to develop games for competing video game consoles.

One of the most well-known second-party developers is Pokémon’s Game Freak, who have made other non-Pokémon games for PlayStation and Xbox. Suffice to say, that Nintendo valued Rare’s skill for games and wanted them making games for their consoles.

After making great games with Nintendo characters like Donkey Kong for example, Rare wanted to branch out and make hit games that didn’t rely on existing Nintendo characters. And in 1998, Rare released Banjo-Kazooie on Nintendo 64, arguably their most famous video game franchise.

Banjo-Kazooie is a 3D adventure and platforming game starring the blue backpack-wearing bear Banjo and his Breegull sidekick, Kazooie, who resides in his backpack. It’s widely regarded as one of the best 3D platformers of its time, rivaling and even surpassing Nintendo’s own 3D platformer, Super Mario 64.

The bear and bird duo embark on a quest to rescue Banjo’s younger sister Tooty from Grunty the witch, who kidnapped Tooty to steal her good looks for herself. It’s a wacky “save the princess” game with so much charm and British humor, and is one of many reasons I enjoy the series.

Banjo-Kazooie however, didn’t start as Banjo-Kazooie. It started life as you guessed it, Project Dream.

Project Dream was the codename for Rare’s next video game after the success of Donkey Kong Country on SNES in 1994. It would star a sword-wielding boy named Edson, his dog, Dinger, and his parrot, Billy. After running into trouble with the villainous Captain Blackeye and his flying pirate crew, Edson and his girlfriend would do everything they could to get away from them.

The SNES prototype was a fairy tail inspired game but that didn’t seem to last for long.

Project Dream was a graphically demanding game that proved too much for the SNES to handle. Development was moved to the Nintendo 64 but even with the Nintendo 64’s power, the game still felt directionless.

Rare Artist Ed Bryan came up with different characters like a rabbit to replace Dream’s protagonist. One design that stood out was an anthropomorphic bear with a sword. After a few design tweaks here and there, Banjo was born.

Kazooie followed suit. When the team wanted Banjo to do a double jump, they came up with a pair of wings on his back.

Where did the wings come from? Simple. A red bird in Banjo’s backpack.

And just like that, Rare had their bear and bird duo.

Over time, we brought this cast of pirates into the game as bad guys and that’s kind of where Captain Blackeye was the main bad guy. And then Edson over this time, started to lose his relevance. It was like the world was changing around him and we still had this young guy with a wooden sword. [So] we started exploring alternatives to a boy.

–Gregg Mayles, lead Banjo-Kazooie designer

Rare Revealed: A Look at Dream

Why The Project Dream Leak Matters

From the Project Dream prototype to the fabled Stop ‘n Swop feature that went unused in the original Nintendo 64 games, the Banjo-Kazooie series is no stranger to video game mysteries.

I remember watching Stop n’ Swop videos on YouTube back in the day, each one claiming to have solved Banjo-Kazooie’s greatest mystery. And they had proof! The footage was about as grainy as any real video of Bigfoot, but as a very impressionable child back then, I believed it!

In the end, none of them were right.

The real Stop ‘n Swop was in fact, the friends we made along the way.

Joking aside, Stop n’ Swop was a cut feature in Banjo-Kazooie that was meant to transfer save data from one Rare game to another by hot swapping one Nintendo 64 game for another while the power was still on. This would unlock new content in newer games, assuming players found the necessary secret items, like the Eggs and Ice Key in Banjo-Kazooie.

Unfortunately, last minute changes to the Nintendo 64’s hardware meant that the gracious ten-second window to swap games was reduced to one second. That fact, as well as the increased risk of deleting players’ save data by yanking out the game with the power on, ultimately killing Stop n’ Swop.

Stop n’ Swop’s history deserves its own in-depth post in the future, but the mystery behind it and its legacy can’t be overstated. It was one of gaming’s biggest mysteries during Banjo-Kazooie’s heyday, and really, who doesn’t love a good mystery? The Banjo-Kazooie series’ history just oozed mystery, and Project Dream was no exception.

No matter how rough or unpolished it is, Project Dream shows a glimpse of what Banjo-Kazooie could have been. In another timeline, I could be yapping about how Dream is one of my favorite role-playing games on Nintendo 64.

But in this timeline, even the Dream team wasn’t confident in the project. The success of Super Mario 64 won them over and convinced the team to focus on their strengths.

Even though Dream never got to live to its full potential, it’s still exciting to learn that a playable version of what became Banjo-Kazooie is now available to everyone. And if what FvckAsha&Phil claimed is true, someone out there has the Twelve Tales: Conker 64 prototype.

That prototype would later become 2001’s Conker’s Bad Fur Day for Nintendo 64, another 3D platformer that is both raunchy and funny. It parodies the 3D platformers Rare became known for as well as classic movies throughout its story. To go from Conker 64 to that is incredible.

Hopefully other prototype collectors follow suit and share Conker 64, or any other rare (not Rare), early builds of beloved games.

Who knows? If Project Dream can leak in 2026, then anything is possible.

Arr! I had a dream once…

A bear stole me glory once… Looked a lot like you, ‘e did!

–Captain Blackeye

Banjo-Tooie, Nintendo 64