Stop N Swop

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Before we get started, here's a brief history of what "Stop N Swop" was all about. "Stop N Swop" would have to be biggest secret in the company's history, or at least one of the most talked about and hyped up secrets. When Rare's Banjo-Kazooie was released in 1998 everyone noticed a mystery ice key in Wozza's cave followed by a couple of mystery question mark eggs in the ending of the game. These were secret items that players could not access until they apparently played Banjo-Tooie, the announced sequel to Banjo-Kazooie. It was later revealed that there were a total of 6 mystery eggs and one ice key which, when collected, could be displayed on a special pause screen titled: "Stop N Swop". Rumors spread madly about a "hot swapping" feature where players could pull out their Banjo-Kazooie cartridge while the power to the N64 was still on and jam in their Banjo-Tooie cartridge. The link allowing players to use the secrets found in Banjo-Kazooie in the sequel Banjo-Tooie. By the time Banjo-Tooie was released, no such link was found and players were left with more questions then answers.

>A further look:

Originally the gameshark was used to discover this "Stop N Swop" pause screen, but thanks to the hackers at Rarewitchproject.com the world discovered a series of cheats which enabled players to unlock all 6 mystery eggs and the ice key in Banjo-Kazooie. Finally when Banjo-Tooie was released, no where was a connection between the two games found. Instead the mysterious Captain Blackeye was found drunk and surrounded by pictures of the secret areas in Banjo-Kazooie. Nothing more then a taunt of the items players so desperately wanted to access.

There were a total of 3 eggs and one ice key in Banjo-Tooie, all found in wandering Banjo-Kazooie carts which, when smashed open, revealed your secret prize. Each prize allowed you to unlock small bonuses. Many players didn't consider these items to be the secrets promised in Banjo-Kazooie and still held hope that there was indeed an active connection existing between both Banjo titles.

Not once did Rare ever comment on the issue despite the millions of emails sent to scribes (the official fan letters page) and even then opening press conference question to Ken Lobb at e3 2000!! This just made fans go even more crazy with rumors and theories on how to solve the Stop N Swop mystery.

Ken Lobb's comments

Ken Lobb always had a close relationship with Rare (to the point of getting a gun named after him in Rare's Goldeneye 007). When IGN spoke to him about Stop N Swop, IGN reported: Nintendo of America's Ken Lobb refused to comment when asked directly about how Banjo-Tooie and Banjo-Kazooie will interact. Hot swapping cartridges seems to be the conventional wisdom but even when confronted with this assumption Mr. Lobb reaffirmed his commitment not to tell us just how the two games will work together.

The Rarenet message board in 2000 was netorious for Stop N Swop rumors and "official ways" on how to get the secrets in Banjo-Kazooie. Veteran Rare fans will remember the famous "Pat" who posted the jellyfish stories which kept fans swimming around Jolly Rogers Lagoon for endless hours hunting down a mysterious jelly fish which led you to a secret cavern.

If you read Rarewitchproject (the guys who found the cheat codes behind Stop N Swop) you will discover yet another taunt Rare left for us with their mysterious Devil Bottles character. In Rarewitch Projects letters, one fan writes:

In the beta section of Banjo-Tooie there's a picture of Devil Bottles (which seems to be missing hint hint ;)) and it's known that he isn't in the game. But I was playing B-T's mini game Tower of Tragedy Quiz lately and noticed that one of the answers had a head of Devil Bottles infront of it, so actually Rareware did leave a little Devil Bottles in it :).

Just wanted to tell you that, I expect to get some sort of reward ofcourse haha.

-Gerrit

Heh, Rare are sneaky beastards, stir up trouble everywhere they go. Seems to us, that this was just another "stirring of the pot", and was just leftover from the hidden mode. Ice Mario saw this mode included at ECTS, so it clearly was supposed to be there, plus the image still exists of Devil Bottles (and not used). They've of course continued this pot stirring with a Devil Bottles cameo in GBTG...

RWP Letters page

The sad truth:

After talking to Rare management on R-E's exclusive tour of Rare, and a follow up phone call from Wozza, webmaster of Rare Extreme, we can confirm that Stop N Swop was never meant to be. Powerboy had a good chat with one employee, and quite simply, Stop N Swop is something Rare wishes to bury. "It's in the past, lets move on". Rare intends to focus on what they are doing in the future rather then loitering around in the past. "It was never officially announced as being part of the game". It was always a rumor and were it not for gameshark hackers, no one may have ever stumbled across the "Stop N Swop" pause screen in the first place. The three eggs and the ice key in Banjo-Tooie were the secrets that players were meant to find and use as first mentioned in the ending of the original Banjo-Kazooie game. Rare is fully aware of the countless interest in the Stop N Swop issue from fans and, if anything, they enjoy reading about it. We were told they refuse to comment on the issue to the point that grave diggers scratching around for a desperate piece of information will still fail to find anything useful. One employee said that he read a post the other day that was particularly close to the true story behind stop n swop. *ahem*

QUESTION: Why was SNS dropped, and why isn't Rare saying anything about it?R>Bolt's Theory (Theory 1):R>We discovered the Stop N Swop menu using a videogame enhancer called a Gameshark. Videogame companies hate game enhancers, because they are used to hack their games. Different versions of games come out partially to foil the effects of enchancers. Companies try at any cost to stop people from using them. For example, Nintendo says that using a gameshark to get Mew in Pokemon can permanetly ruin your game AND the Mew won't be like the real one that they can give you. That statement is a big lie. You'll only ruin your game if you don't know what you're doing, and the Mew is the same as the "official" one. We all know what type of people Rare is made up of- a bunch of jokesters. Nonetheless, they hate game enchancers just the same. If we never used a "hacking device" in the first place, we would have never known about Stop N Swop. Remember, Mumbo said that we would get the items in BT, NOT go back into BK and get them. So we were naughty and hacked our way into something that was really none of our business. Combine that with their personality, and you get why they aren't apeaking: Rare isn't speaking because THEY DON'T HAVE TO. This is what Rare is probably saying: "We've told you time and time again not to use those stupid Gamsharks to cheat in our games. Now only do you still do that, but you hack into the programming to find things that are really none of your beeswax. Were you ever supposed to know about the SNS? No. Did you do what we asked? No. Do we have to say anything about our project that you had no right to know about? NO! Maybe one day you'll learn..." What does this have to do with them being jokesters? Instead of saying the above, they'll just say "Stop N Swop? What is that?" They'll pretend like they don't know what SNS is, so any emails about this mysterious thing must have been sent to the wrong address, and will be deleted. =P

In other words, it was never meant to be in the first place. With everyone making a big deal out of it, its no wonder Rare couldn’t help but stir everyone up with countless references to the uncovered secrets of the original game.

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