• Emulator: Snes9x 1.43 with WIP timing
  • ROM: "Star Fox 2 (Beta TD).smc" with patch "sf2-e-final.ips" available here.
This is an unreleased game by Nintendo, the sequel to the original Star Fox. The game was completely finished but never released. Instead, several elements from the game were reused in Star Fox 64, such as all-range mode and the Star Wolf team. It's a pretty fun game; I recommend playing it if you like Star Fox games.
Andross is back with some new tricks up his sleeve. Not only has he hired Star Wolf to combat Fox and friends, but he has also changed his attack strategy. Instead of taking over the Lylat system linearly as in the last game, Andross sends his forces all over the map and launches missiles from several directions at once. This forces Star Fox to fly around and take down the enemy bases strategically. Of course, since this is a TAS, everything is dispatched speedily with no damage taken to Corneria or the Arwings.
I used Miyu in this run because she has the fastest ship and the shortest time to charge shots. Fox is picked as backup, but he and everyone else in Star Fox turns out to be completely useless.

Individual level notes

Titania

  • Outside is not too hard. It's nice that you get vacuumed into the base once you get close, no matter what your speed or direction.
  • It is faster to rapid-fire charge shots when in flying form, because normal twin blasters do 2 damage and charge shots do 10 damage to enemies. The more powerful kind of twin blasters do 4 damage, so it is better to fire uncharged shots when in walking form. This is why I beat Tal Kong with four charged shots, then use normal shots against the core.
  • Game Time: 014 (+1.7)

Battleship 1

  • Changing the angle of approach to a battleship allows saving a few frames because of different lag.
  • The enemies in a room only spawn a second or so after you enter the room. This is annoying because it forces me to slow down to wait for that first wall-crawler. Also, the second wall-crawler was impervious to a second charged shot, which is why I shoot it with normal twin blasters.
  • Game Time: 017 (+1.5)

Macbeth

  • The satellite shot down the other missile shortly after I entered the stage. Pepper tries to tell you, but Fox rudely interrupts him with some useless advice to "Avoid the magma!"
  • If you get close to Knight Nack, he will raise a shield to block your attacks. However, I found that if I fired charged shots from a distance he would not raise his shield and still take damage.
  • These kind of cores are annoying because there is not really an efficient way to hit all four corners quickly. I'm pretty sure the method I chose is the best.
  • Game Time: 024 (+1.5)

Venom

  • It's hard to notice, but one of the little mantis babies killed itself outside after I destroyed its mother. I find this to be quite hilarious.
  • I used a "special weapon" shield to block an enemy shot from hitting me as I landed on a switch. There were other ways to avoid getting hit, e.g. slow down a little, but the shield looks too cool not to use.
  • Game Time: 031 (+2.7)

Battleship 2

  • Those two pop-up enemies caused more than a few desyncs. They also have a ridiculous amount of health (50 each). On the other hand, they were just about perfectly placed; where they appear is random depending on when you enter the room.
  • Game Time: 033 (+1.5)

Meteor

  • Pigma required exactly 176 frames of input to defeat (frames 35072 to 35248).
  • The outside of this world is weird. The Arwing needs to be within a certain distance of the switches for them to activate, which is why I hit the brake for a bit after the first switch. Also, after the base opened the Arwing realigned itself to head towards the door.
  • Game Time: 047 (+1.9)

Fortuna

  • Poor Leon, he never had a chance with those bloodshot eyes. I blame it on video games.
  • The Queen Dioray can only be hit the first time from below the water's surface, and only subsequently from above the surface. This results in a bit of acrobatics.
  • On entering the base, the Arwing fires a shot completely on its own with no input from me.
  • The Kick Gunner refuses to be hit by non-charged shots while in the air. That's why I fire two charged shots at him instead of one.
  • Game Time: 053 (+2.1)

Eladard

  • The cursor is spelling "YbJ", for those who can't tell. I thought spelling "YtterbiJum" might take too long. Earlier in the movie it spelled "SAM".
  • For some reason Andrew stuck around for a while after losing all his health, resulting in a time of 0.6 instead of 0.5 like I got for Pigma and Leon.
  • The inside of the base is supposed to be done by going into another room and stepping on another switch to deactivate the columns of fire. However, I just flew right through them with Miyu's impenetrable shield.
  • Game Time: 061 (+1.6)

Battleship 3

  • Destroying most of the invasion force is cause for thanks?
  • A new kind of core, now with 20 health on each of the four spots and ~60 health on top.
  • Game Time: 065 (+1.8)

Battleship 4

  • Miyu shows us again what kind of maneuvers a superhuman (superlynx?) pilot can perform in the "maze" room.
  • Game Time: 076 (+1.8)

Astropolis

  • The Mirage Dragon and the H Fantron went down no trouble.
  • Wolf, on the other hand, gave me some grief by deflecting a bunch of shots. He barrel rolls more than his teammates, so a few shots were used to force him to roll, after which I would hit him. On another note, he is the only Star Wolf member to not explode; perhaps we will see him again?
  • I picked up some nova bombs from one of the enemies inside. This came in handy for the fight against Andross.
  • During the fight when Andross has a mask with two eyes, it doesn't matter how much damage you do to the eyes, it only matters how many times they are hit (5 times each). During the rest of the fight, he takes damage normally.
  • Game Time: 082 (+3.1)
And that's it! Enjoy the credits with some enemies that we never saw!

Thanks

There are several people I should thank for various things. In no particular order:
  • Ferret Warlord, for making me rethink the route and showing interest.
  • bkDJ, for encoding my latest WIP before Wolf.
  • TheNewerGuy, for having a full-game run on Youtube to use as a reference.
  • Bisqwit, for having a great site.
  • Everyone in the forum topic, for making me happy.
  • You, for reading this.
adelikat: Approving this hack for publication and accepting this movie for publication. However, due to the nature of the fixes, it will be classified as a hack and will go into the hacks (concept/demos) category.

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2133: YtterbiJum's SNES Star Fox 2 in 22:08.42
Joined: 2/1/2008
Posts: 347
All right, where to start... I think I like watching this run more than the original Star Fox run because you don't constantly boost everywhere, which kinda got annoying to listen to after a while in the SF run. Plus I think this game makes it easier to see where enemies are (though it's still a bit confusing). All in all, it is easier to see what the goals are. Was there much of a story in the original Star Fox? Because this one really seemed to have no story, other than Andross trying to destroy Corneria. Oh well. This run makes the game look so easy, even in expert mode. Of course, the rapid firing during the boss battles and precision landing on the switches is causing this misconception. Unfortunately this misconception makes the run feel a bit boring at some points... Either that or I'm suffering the effect of watching an earlier WIP before the final run. Now, I know that this game was never released. I think it still may deserve a publishing since it was a complete game (with debug display, Japanese font, and some bugs) and it now appears to be the final release with a patch. Whether it should be put into concept demos or not, I'm not sure. Whatever is done, this decision of publishing would be similar to deciding whether to publish an English Mother 1 run (since it was similarly nearly finished, but slightly buggy and never released). Voted 7.5/8 By the way, I noticed that you seemed to play as Fox at Astropolis. You should mention this if that is true. I am just guessing this because your special weapon changed to something other than the shields in that stage. If those were just the nova bombs, then could you clarify what those are?
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
Post subject: I've been *waiting* to use this.
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Posts: 1976
Location: Making an escape
blahmoomoo wrote:
I am just guessing this because your special weapon changed to something other than the shields in that stage. If those were just the nova bombs, then could you clarify what those are?
Different characters start with different special weapons, but you can pick up other ones in various levels to change them. In this case of this movie he picked up bombs quick enough that you barely notice them. If you listen after the weapons change over, you'll hear a voice sample say, "Thpecial weapon!" That being said, there *is* a glitch that can cause your ship to change over to someone else's in the middle of a level, but from what I can gather it's emulation related.
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
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Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
blahmoomoo wrote:
Whatever is done, this decision of publishing would be similar to deciding whether to publish an English Mother 3 run (though that's a completely separate case...).
Wouldn't it be more similar to English Mother 1?
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Joined: 2/1/2008
Posts: 347
Yes, that's right... Mother 1 was all translated, but had a few bugs and also was never released. I'll change that.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
Active player (332)
Joined: 11/25/2004
Posts: 75
Miyu didn't change to Fox, she just picked up nova bombs from that rolling enemy. You can tell who is playing by the shape and color of the Arwing. Fox's has larger wings and a different body than Miyu's. That glitch to change characters is very easy to perform actually, I did it a few times by accident while making this movie. You just need to press select at the right time. In my opinion, if this is published it should be in the normal games section, since this is a full run of a finished, professionally-made game (i.e. not a ROM hack). Probably with an extra tag saying "Unreleased game" or "Uses translation patch". That being said, I have no problem with it being in Concept Demos.
Currently working on: SNES Star Fox, Level 3 (100%, published) SNES Star Fox, Level 2 (33%, after Sector X) SNES Star Fox 2, Expert mode (100%, published)
Joined: 11/2/2007
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Well, it isn't just a translation patch. It removes all the debug crap to make it as if it were complete. Unless you're using a different version.
Active player (277)
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Right, so it's still a ROM hack, but... a ROM hack that attempts to restore the original vision of the finished product...?
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Joined: 11/2/2007
Posts: 103
I think, more or less. It translates it to English, removes the extra menus, and I think there were object and fps counters or something that are also gone.
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
Awesome. Awesome to the max. I didn't actually understand much of the details so tech is n/a, but entertainment I rated 9.5.
Joined: 1/22/2008
Posts: 319
Location: Brasil
i cant see the run who to apply the ips ?
Run..Run...Run.....
Skilled player (1402)
Joined: 10/27/2004
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Location: Making an escape
wicked wrote:
i cant see the run who to apply the ips ?
1. Download it from the site provided. 2. Extract both the .ips and .smc into the same folder. Also extract the .ips file into the folder with save states. 3. Rename the two files so that both share the same filename except for the file extensions; leave those alone. 4. Run the .smc. 5. Profit! If this doesn't work, try a different ROM.
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
Joined: 2/1/2008
Posts: 347
FYI: here is the checksum information of the ROM that I patched. The first version I tried ended up with a corrupt ROM in one case and something that just didn't sync in the second case, so this may help:
CRC32: 1FB1CF76
MD5: DE70567495C962B15574ABF03A0785F4
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
Joined: 12/25/2007
Posts: 86
Location: Muhos, Finland
I have rom called "StarFox 2 (E).smc" what worked without any problems, and this movie sync'd
File: E:\xxx\StarFox 2 (E).smc
Name: STAR FOX 2
Speed: 20/SlowROM
ROM Map: LoROM
Type: 1a
Kart contents: ROM+RAM+SuperFX
Header ROM Size: 8Mbits
Calculated ROM Size: 8 Mbits
SRAM size: 64KB (512Kbit)
Actual Checksum: CE14
Header Checksum: 5F3F
Header Checksum Compliment: A0C0
Output: NTSC 60Hz
CRC32:	A797F974
Licensee: Nintendo
ROM Version: 1.0
Region: Japan
<small>Big signature cleared by admin; read <A>forum rules</a>.</small> <small>-Me:..and big sig. was just small picure(two row's), It dont even lag my 3660's web browser >_></small>
Joined: 3/31/2005
Posts: 192
Location: Argentina
Once again, I find myself wondering why this game was never released (no, I don't think shelving it to make Star Fox 64 look better was a good reason.) ...or why they aren't releasing it now via the Virtual Console or something. Such a waste of a good, finished game, Nintendo. Oh, yeah. Nice run, I liked it. I would vote Yes, but I don't understand this new voting system.
Active player (332)
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Posts: 75
L337 wrote:
I have rom called "StarFox 2 (E).smc" what worked without any problems, and this movie sync'd
...
CRC32:	A797F974
...
This is the same CRC that my ROM has ("Star Fox 2 (Beta TD).smc" + ips patch). Besides, the "(E)" is meaningless without being released in Europe or having a PAL version.
Currently working on: SNES Star Fox, Level 3 (100%, published) SNES Star Fox, Level 2 (33%, after Sector X) SNES Star Fox 2, Expert mode (100%, published)
Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 804
Location: Canada
Having attempted to play the game without this patch, I didn't appreciate just how awesome this game was. I still can't believe that Nintendo never released it. Clearly there are some significant differences between Star Fox 2 and Star Fox 64, such as the transforming (walking) Arwing and different playable characters. Since everyone has heard of this game and many are still dying to play it, Nintendo could clearly release this game for Virtual Console and get a lot of sales, not to mention that it would create a lot of buzz and bring in people who had never considered using Virtual Console before (people like me). Once they've bought one game, they would probably buy others. As for the run, awesome job!
TASing or playing back a DOS game? Make sure your files match the archive at RGB Classic Games.
Joined: 6/26/2007
Posts: 147
This is an excellent addition to the site, but it still should be in the Concept Demos section because of all the work AGTP did polishing and translating it.
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Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
Bag of Magic Food wrote:
Right, so it's still a ROM hack, but... a ROM hack that attempts to restore the original vision of the finished product...?
No, it's a ROM hack that takes an unfinished prototype and attempts to clean up the debug features, while translating it into English. Basically, "Make the game look like it would if it had officially been released." So it would be more like Mother 3 than Mother 1.
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Excellent, great. Absolutely radical. extremely well done, especially with the crappy d-pad controls and all. everything is done fast and without incident and I am left here wondering what the fuck just happened. Everything a good TAS should contain. on a semi-unrelated note: why doesn't the unpatched smc work?
Measure once. Cut twice.
Joined: 2/1/2008
Posts: 347
The unpatched version is in Japanese, some debug features are on, and there are several bugs. The patched version translates it to English, the debug features are turned off, and the bugs are fixed so the game becomes what it could have been if Nintendo hadn't canceled it's production.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
Active player (253)
Joined: 12/3/2008
Posts: 61
I can't tell you how many times I watched this. The game was fun in itself, especially challenging on Expert, but this run does everything I wish I could, and many things I didn't know were possible. Amazing run.
Player (34)
Joined: 12/18/2005
Posts: 250
Great movie! Does this mean you're going to move onto the next Star Fox game? I'm sure many people would be happy to see more work from you. :]
我々を待ち受けなさい。
adelikat
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Joined: 11/3/2004
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I found this game a lot more entertaining than Star Fox 1. I was pleasantly suprised. Good ratings from me and I too think it would be a good addition to the site.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Joined: 12/5/2007
Posts: 716
adelikat wrote:
and I too think it would be a good addition to the site.
Is this a "accepted for publication"?