Banjo-Pilot

Banjo-Pilot
Developer: Rare Publisher: THQ Platform: Game Boy Advance Released in US: January 10, 2005 Released in EU: February 18, 2005 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Banjo-Pilot is a game that is best known for its ridiculously lengthy development, most of which it spent as Diddy Kong Pilot, a handheld successor to Diddy Kong Racing. The final product is a weird mix of a Banjo-Kazooie skin slapped onto a Donkey Kong racer with little changes to the soundtrack. It ended up being both the worst-selling Banjo-Kazooie game, only selling about 100,000 copies worldwide and the last time that Banjo and Kazooie would appear on a Nintendo console... at least until their welcomed return in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, 14½ years later. We shed tears for both.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Diddy Kong Pilot Leftovers

As Banjo-Pilot was initially developed as Diddy Kong Pilot, most of the music is based on the Donkey Kong Country soundtrack, as Rare was unable to implement new music in time for the game's release.

Some music tracks were left unused when Diddy Kong Pilot became Banjo-Pilot, likely because the team didn't know where the tracks would go.

Early Title Theme

Early Menu Theme

Cranky Kong Theme

Error Messages

As with Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, there is dev text for all sorts of sound engine errors. The text begins at 2F04 and ends at 39BB in the U.S. version.

 AUDIO ERROR, freq of sample unusually high. (>3 times normal)
 AUDIO ERROR, pitch frequency too low
 AUDIO ERROR, pitch frequency too high
 AUDIO ERROR, adsr_acts table exceeded
 AUDIO ERROR, midi_command table exceeded
 AUDIO ERROR, midi delta time too big
 AUDIO ERROR, midi delta time of 4 bytes unsupported
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 0.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 1.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 3.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 4.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 5.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 6.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 7.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 8.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 9.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 10.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 11.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 12.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 13.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 14.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, too many notes on channel 15.increase polyphony RAM
          or modify tune (perhaps reduce envelope release times)
 AUDIO ERROR, not enough space to put audio RAM code
 AUDIO ERROR, more than 16 tracks in song 
 AUDIO ERROR, tune num > max tunes available
 AUDIO ERROR, MIDI note on command before MIDI prog chng command
 AUDIO ERROR, requested playback freq exceeds max freq
 AUDIO ERROR, incorrect note mapping for rhythm_set
 AUDIO ERROR, incorrect note mapping for keysplit
 AUDIO ERROR, invalid fx number
 AUDIO ERROR, invalid tune number

Unused Text

REVERSE CONTROLS

Unused option text.

NOT USED 1
NOT USED 2
NOT USED 3
NOT USED 4

More unused text.

Oddities

Expresso the Ostrich

Even though Diddy Kong Pilot went through an extensive rework to become Banjo-Pilot, Expresso the Ostrich (one of the Animal Buddies from Donkey Kong Country) still appears in Jinxy's Dunes. This was likely an oversight, as all the Donkey Kong characters that Rare created during the 1990s are property of Nintendo.

(Source: DK Vine)