Grant Kirkhope Interviewed on Stop N Swop & More

[Derek]

#enjoy

This is the closest to Grant anyone has been since Guest Grumps or his Skype call during that BK speedrun. He talks about quite a bit of things including Banjo-Threeie, his past at Rare, his future and most importantly, STOP N SWOP!

Have a listen, it is a great podcast. Surprised it hasn't been posted yet.


The real question here is: Why is this little site getting to interview Grant Kirkhope and not the RWP?

[Andre]

I talked to him about an interview before and he seemed interested. I'll send him a message again soon, the biggest questions is the format. One on one, podcast, text interview, etc.

[Derek]

Podcast!!!!

He probably answered all questions on this podcast, though.

[qwertykins76]

Yeah a podcast with him, Reggie, and Miyamoto.

(There are two sorts of people in the world. Those who thought that was a joke, and those who thought it was a reference.)

[Starblazer]

Grant has been requested by a bunch of people for interviews but has said that it's hard getting to all of them. That has something to do with it. Nonetheless, this interview is really cool and it's always interesting to hear him talk about the ol' days.

[qwertykins76]

Ooo, I skipped to 75% and I can already tell this a great interview.... I've gotta finish it tomorrow....

[qwertykins76]

"...you might get some kids who started to become composers, because they like your music so much."

That's me. Well....I don't compose, I will some day. I've dabbled, and I enjoy it very much, but I'm saving composing for later in life when I'm actually able to do so.

It's because of Grant that I care about music at all. Growing up, I didn't listen to music. I didn't care. I didn't have an Ipod or a computer or anything like that. I was and still am a loner, and I just had no interest in it. No one around me listened to anything I thought was good, and no one cared enough to educate me about it. The one thing I did have, though, was an N64. That.... That made me. I've been playing the Banjo games since before my first living memories, and it took so many years of playing those games before I FINALLY got absorbed and enamored with the music enough that I wanted more. Before I actually chose to listen to music.

I'm nineteen now, and to this day, the best music to me is that which has great melody. I hardly care about anything else -- But it's better than nothing. And nothing is just what I'd be listening to right now if not for Grant Kirkhope. He alone brought the gift of music into my life, and that means so much more to me than I could ever tell you.

So thank you. Thank you Grant, and thank you to all the other old Rareware staff whose games played a pretty huge part in shaping this awesome individual that stands before you today. If not for all that, I wouldn't even be on this website, which likewise shaped my life. Why if I never joined this website, I would never have gotten the the social skills required to even type this little letter. (Trust me I'm not exaggerating.) It's funny to think how that all came full-circle, but -- Well sometimes words still fail me.

But enough of that now, I need to go to bed....

[BanjoPL]

Grant confirmed that very original Stop 'N' Swop was designed as link between Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64. It all worked but Nintendo didn't like idea about shifting cartridges so feature was removed.
I'm not sure but his reply hints that Stop 'N' Swop was already cancelled when Banjo-Kazooie released. Rare used it as tease for upcoming Banjo-Tooie.
So maybe "Tell us Barrel Boy!" is remain of old feature?
Now we can know reason about why DK picture was removed from BK and BK shower was removed from DK64.

This revelation rises more questions about status of Banjo-Tooie. If shifting carts feature was planned between BK and DK64 and it failed then how Rare planned a connection between Banjo games? The text which releates to connection still exists in Banjo-Tooie ROM. 64DD?

[Keegan]

terrible hosts

[project64banjo]

I was always picky about Stop 'N' Swop having a connection with DK64 or not, and apparently it has been proven to be true that it was going to have connection with SNS, just to note I use to think that the DK picture on Banjo's wall was only there cause Banjo was a fan of Donkey Kong, cause I still have my old ripped up Banjo-Kazooie Stragedy guide and if you read about the characters in it, it will say that Banjo is a huge fan of Donkey Kong.

I kinda wished they talked alittle longer about Stop 'N' Swop cause we don't even know what exactly all the eggs were gonna do in the N64 version. SOME of the eggs we already knew what would do. Microsoft's version didn't give me much interest with there SNS. I think its so cool how RareWare were trying to do some awesome old technology with Catridge data swopping, it just would of been cool to see in that old nostalgia time in the far 90s making old technology do that. Sadly it never happened though. Which is half of the reason why Microsoft's SNS version was nothing that interesting, sorry Microsoft but, yours was still crap for many flaws like how you wouldn't allow us to use Bottles Revenge. (Even though most of us have already hacked Bottles Revenge with a Gameshark on the N64)

Seriously I would of loved to here more history about the SNS connection for the N64 version. Including Chris Seavor's canceled Conker Sequel. I mean Rare is dead, and if theres anything left to be interesting about them, it is to know more about there canceled projects. So yes, I probably would been talking with Grant for a whole 50 hours just to get the my full answers I needed.

[BanjoPL]

We'll never know what ice key and 4 (?) eggs could do in DK64...

[krueger14]

Originally Posted by BanjoPL

We'll never know what ice key and 4 (?) eggs could do in DK64...

Am i the only one that has come to the conclusion that the original way to get the "mystery menu items" was the SNS items, not fairy pictures.

hello... there are 7 of them....